Criminology Exam 2

Labeling theory can be considered part of which two paradigms?

Interactionism and Critical

What is the focus of labeling theory?

Is on what happens after the action, not what preceded or caused the action.

What is secondary deviance?

crime/deviant behavior after being labeled

Ex. When you steal a car and get caught, you're labeled as a felon so you keep stealing

What is Becker's typology of deviant behavior?

Conforming behavior:

Perceived as Deviant: Falsely accused

Not perceived as deviant: Conformist

Norm-violating:

Perceived as Deviant: Pure deviant

Not perceived as deviant: Secret deviant

What are moral entrepreneurs?

An individual or group who seeks to influence society to adopt or preserve their goals.

Rule creators

someone who expresses a firm belief that a threatening social evil must be combatted.

Ex. (anti-pornography groups)

Rule enforcers

someone who implements and imposes rules.

Ex. (police/judges)

What did Schur's theory of radical nonintervention contribute to labeling theory?

Retrospective interpretation: the process by which people re-interpret an individual's behavior in light of new information concerning that individual

What are examples of policies related to labeling theory?

Diversion programs: programs intended to reduce labeling and stigmatization, avoid lost opportunities, and reduce the overall caseload for the system. Ex. (family therapy)

Person-first language: shift from crime-first language to person-first language.

According to Link's Modified Labeling Theory, what are the three strategies used by labeled individuals?

1) Secrecy: the strategy of hiding psychiatric treatment from friends, family, and co-workers

2) Withdrawal: the individual stops socializing with friends, family, and others who they expect will reject them (is the most harmful)

3) Education: the individual discloses their label and actively tries to change the attitudes of those around them

According to Defiance Theory, what four conditions must be met for a defiant response?

1. The offender perceives the punishment as unfair

2. The offender feels stigmatized by the punishment

3. The offender does not feel shame

4. The offender is not well bonded to society

What is net widening?

Process by which attempts to prevent crime and develop community-based programs expands the criminal legal system.

What is stigma?

it's the primary mechanism through which people experience the collateral consequences of a criminal record

What is Ban the Box?

Policies that restrict employers from inquiring about criminal histories on initial job applications

-Typically by eliminating the checkbox inquiring about prior convictions and/or arrests

Do Ban the Box policies work?

Yes, it worked in Hawaii, the implementation of the BTB law lowered the odds of repeat offending by 57%. It worked similarly for Black and non-Black repondants.

What are reasons why formerly incarcerated people might self-select out of employment?

- Anticipatory stigma: the anticipation of being devalued by others if a person's identity becomes known

- Application burnout

- Perceptions of unfriendly occupations or industries

What was the main finding from D'Alessio and colleagues (2015) study?

found that felony offending among people with a prior criminal conviction was reduced in Honolulu following the implementation of BTB law

- the implementation of the BTB law lowered the odds of repeat offending by 57%.

How does the consensus model differ from the conflict model of criminology?

Consensus model is the law reflects the moral interests of society's members at large. While conflict model is when the state uses law to serve the interests of some at the expense of others.

Consensus

Society is stable, where most people share common values.

Conflict

Society has competing groups with different levels of power and conflicting interests.

What are the two important forms of alienation?

1. Worker lacks control over the products of labor

2. Worker lacks control over the process of labor

instrumental Marxism

Economic relations shape all social life

Base determines superstructure

Law and the State are tools of the powerful (i.e. capitalists)

Structural/symbolic Marxism?

Economic relations matter, but cannot explain everything. Superstructure is autonomous

Law can be a tool of organizing consent

What types of crimes are best explained by Vold's group conflict theory?

1. Political protests

2. Labor disputes

3. Union disputes

4. Racial/ethnic clashes

In Turk's theory, the probability of criminalization is highest when what is one important condition is met?

-Enforcers and resisters have high congruence between cultural and social norms

What are the one important principle of the Social Reality of Crime theory?

5. Construction of Criminal Conceptions: constructed and spread throughout society by various means of communication

Bureaucracies are characterized by what five features?

Law enforcement agencies are bureaucratic organizations.

Characteristics:

- Rigid hierarchies

- Rules and standardized procedures

- Self-preservation and expansion

- Impersonal decision-making

- Selective enforcement

What is goal substitution?

When an organization replaces its official mission with self-serving policies that make operations easier, increase power, or secure resources.

What is the gap in the law? Consider examples

Law-on-the-books: written-down laws, regulations and legal customs

Ex: Downloading music

Law-in-action: how law is actually applied and practiced in society

Examples: U.S. Copyright Laws, tax evasion, labor laws

What are examples of selective (non)enforcement?

Laws are neutral, but not applied disparately

Ex. Stop and frisk

Loitering laws

- Gang injunctions targeting people, not crimes

Traffic stop laws

- Whren v. United States (1996)

Bail laws

- NYC judges release about 80% of violent offenders without bail

What does Left Realism focus on, that other critical perspectives do not?

Focuses on crimes of the elite and crimes of the poor

1. Street crime is a serious problem for the working class

2. Crime is an intraclass phenomenon

3. Relative poverty breeds discontent, and without a political solution, this discontent creates crime

4. Crime can be reduced through practical, socialist policies

Radical feminists focuses on....

Patriarchy

Marxist feminists focuses on...

Capitalism

Socialist feminists focus on...

Patriarchy + capitalism are interconnected

What are early examples of integrated theories?

Shaw and McKay integrated social disorganization theory and social learning

Cloward and Ohlin's Opportunity Theory integrated strain theory and social learning

Anderson's Code of the Street integrated social disorganization theory, strain theory, and labeling theory

What are the three conditions for establishing causality?

1. X and Y must be correlated

2. X must precede Y (time-order)

3. Alternative hypotheses must be ruled out

In a causal model, what are the dependent variable and the independent variables?

X= independent variable

Y = dependent variable

Example:

X (predicts a change in the DV) = the outcome of LSU college football games

Y = the length of juvenile sentences

What did Glueck and Glueck find in their study of juvenile delinquency?

Their studies established a positive relationship between past and future deviant behavior.

What are examples of turning points?

Examples: Divorce, joining the military

Think of both positive and negative example

In what four ways do turning points contribute to desistance from crime?

1. "Knife off" the past from the present - create a clear break between an individual's past behavior and their present circumstances

2. Supervision, monitoring, and social support - Institutions like work, family, or the military provide structure/discipline

3. Change in routine activities - fewer opportunities to commit crimes from having a 9-5

4. Opportunity for identity transformation - new roles allow individuals to redefine who they are

Absolute stability

stability of behavior within individuals

Relative stability

stability of behavior between individuals

Stability

the consistency of behavior over time

Ex. Devin committed the same amount of crimes in two different periods

What is cumulative continuity?

antisocial behavior produces negative consequences. In turn, these consequences promote the stability of antisocial behavior.

Ex. school failure ---> criminal peer association ---> more crime

What is interactional continuity?

1) traits cause people to interact with their environment in certain ways.

2) Individuals tend to create the same social situations repeatedly.

3) The stability in their interactions creates stability in individuals' behavior.

Ex. defiant teen ---> police scrutiny ---> more delinquency

How do the state dependence and population heterogeneity perspectives differ?

SD: early antisocial behavior indirectly increases the likelihood of later antisocial behavior Possibility for change

v.s.

PH: early antisocial behavior is linked to later antisocial behavior through underlying traits or propensities for antisocial behavior. No possibility for change

What is Sampson and Laub's age-graded theory of informal social control?

Positive social bonds (e.g. family, school, employment, marriage)can promote desistance from deviant behavior- Weak social bonds can lead to continued delinquency and criminal activity

Aligned with the cumulative continuity hypothesis

Their theory accounts for social disorganization

What are validity and reliability?

Validity is the accuracy of a measurement, while Reliability is the consistency of a measurement

Longitudinal data

Repeated observations over time. Same group is observed multiple times. Can be used to establish causal relationships

- Easier to determine correct temporal ordering

Cross-sectional

Observations at a single point in time. Different groups in the population. Cannot be used to establish causal relationships

Examples: public opinion poll, U.S. Census

What is the Hierarchy Rule?

When multiple offenses are committed during the same incident, only the most serious offense is reported

Someone is stabbed - aggravated assault

Someone is stabbed/robbed -

How is a crime rate typically measured?

The number of reported crimes is divided by the total pop. Then, multiplied by 100,000

What are advantages of UCR data?

Coverage: Most law enforcement agencies submit data

Uniformity: comparisons can be made across state and local jurisdictions

History: data are reported monthly

What are complications with the definition of assault?

Current definitions of "aggravated assault" do not:

- Clarify the role or presence of firearms and other weapons

- Explain whether and how any weapons were used

- Describe the extent of injuries threatened or inflicted

What is the "dark figure" of crime?

Addresses crimes that we can't see

What are reasons for the underreporting of crime?

Interviewer effects: the presence of an interviewer can influence what people report

Series offenses: some offenses have no exact beginning or end, so they are difficult to count

Recall error and telescoping: interviewees have trouble remembering detail of victimizations

What are some correlates of crime reporting?

1. Severity of the Crime

2. Offender characteristics

3. Victim characteristics

4. Ecological factor

What was the main finding from Gutierrez and Kirk's (2015) study?

As immigration pop increases, crime levels don't change, but as immigrant pop increases in size, crime reporting decreases

Negative relationship

What is legal cynicism?

A cultural orientation in which the law and the agents of its enforcement are views as unresponsive and illlequipped to ensure public safety.

Ex. someone prefers resolving their issue about a stolen phone rather than reporting it to the police

What are differences between UCR data and NCVS data?

NCVS

- collects data on victims

- Data compiled from interviews

- includes crime reported and not reported to police

- crime rates calculated per household

- covers fewer crimes with greater detail

UCR

- data reported on crimes

- includes crimes reported to police

- data compiled from law enforcement agencies

- crime rates calculated per capita

- covers lots of crimes with little detail

What are disadvantages of self-reported crime data?

- Sampling

- Selective loss

- Memory decay

- Falsification

- Interviewer measurement error