Criminology and Criminal Justice Lecture Series Review

Comprehensive flashcards covering the definition of crime, methods of measurement, victimology, criminological theory, criminal responsibility, and the juvenile justice system based on the lecture series.

Legal Definition of Crime (Tappan 1947)

An intentional act in violation of the criminal law, committed without defence or excuse, and penalised by the state as a felony or misdemeanour.

Dark Figure of Crime

A term referring to the large number of unrecorded or unreported crimes that do not appear in official statistics.

Essential Characteristic of Crime (Sutherland 1949)

Behaviour prohibited by the state as an injury to the state, requiring a legal description of the act as socially harmful and a legal provision of a penalty.

Moral Definition of Crime

The perspective that crime is anything defined as immoral, where morality is framed as 'good' vs 'bad'.

Social Constructionist Definition of Crime

The view that crime does not exist as an inherent entity; rather, only acts exist which are given meaning as 'crimes' within specific social frameworks ($Christie 2004$).

Human Rights Definition of Crime

Definitions focusing on 'social harm' on an international scope, often directed at state and corporate crime to protect citizens.

Legal Definition of an Offender

A person aged $10$ years or over who is processed against and recorded by police for one or more criminal offences.

Legal Definition of a Victim (UN Declaration)

Persons who, individually or collectively, have suffered harm (physical, mental, economic, etc.) through acts or omissions that violate criminal laws or laws protecting against the abuse of power.

Crime Statistics

The systematic collection and management of quantitative data used to measure and analyse the rate, distribution patterns, and trends in crime and victimisation.

Official Statistics

Data derived from police records and various court levels (Supreme, Intermediate, Magistrates, and Children’s courts) that measure recorded crime.

The 3 R’s of Official Statistics

The stages required for a crime to appear in official stats: Recognised (identified as crime), Reported (to police), and Recorded (by police).

Victim Surveys

Data collection methods that provide information directly from the public which may be more reliable and unaffected by legislative changes.

Offender Self-Report Surveys

Surveys that collect information directly from offenders to understand why people commit crime and reveal the prevalence of undetected crime.

Snowball Sampling

A research process used to improve access to representative samples by having current participants recruit future participants from among their acquaintances.

Triangulation

The research approach of using as many data sources as possible in conjunction to process validity and reliability.

Moral Panic

A condition, episode, or group of people that becomes defined as a threat to societal values and interests ($Cohen 1972$).

CSI Effect

Portrayals or depictions of the criminal justice system in media that distort reality and skew the public’s understanding of the system.

Primary Victims

Individuals who are subject to the direct physical, financial, emotional, or social impacts of a crime.

Secondary Victimisation

Further burdens or damage inflicted on a victim by the way communities, individuals, or the state respond to the initial victimisation.

Ideal Victim (Nils Christie)

A person or category of persons given the complete and legitimate status of being a victim because they play no part in their own victimisation.

Age/Crime Curve

The criminological observation that offending peaks during middle-to-late adolescence and then declines dramatically.

Victim Impact Statement (VIS)

A statutory informational device submitted to the court after conviction and before sentencing that details the harm caused by an offence.

Individual Level of Analysis

A focus on psychological or biological factors that determine why certain individuals engage in criminal behaviour.

Situational Level of Analysis

A focus on the immediate circumstances, group behaviors, and specific factors that contribute to a criminal event occurring.

Social Structural Level of Analysis

A focus on crime in terms of broad social relationships, institutions, and interactions between different classes, sexes, or ethnic groups.

Classical Theory

An $18$th-century theory based on the premise that all persons are equal, possess free will, and are motivated by pleasure to commit crimes and avoid pain.

Hedonistic Calculus

Jeremy Bentham's concept that rational behaviour combines hedonism and logic, where the pleasure of crime must be outweighed by the pain of punishment.

Neo-classicism

An approach that treats actors as rational while making allowances for mitigating factors such as age or mental state.

Civil Law

A legal system developed in Europe characterized by codified law (Statutes) and an inquisitorial system where judges ask the questions.

Common Law

A legal system evolved in England based on judicial precedents and an adversarial system where lawyers present cases.

Substantive Criminal Law

The branch of law that prescribes the types of conduct that are criminal and the penalties for that conduct.

Procedural Criminal Law

The rules designed to implement substantive law, focusing on the legal steps and process through which an accused offender passes.

Actus Reus

The physical element of an offence, involving a prohibited voluntary act or an omission where there was a duty to act.

Mens Rea

The mental element or 'guilty mind' of an offence, classified into intention, knowledge, recklessness, and negligence.

Contemporaneity

The legal requirement that the actus reus and mens rea must occur at the same time to constitute a crime.

Doli Incapax

The legal presumption that a child (typically under $10$ years old) is incapable of forming the intent to commit a crime because they do not understand the action is seriously wrong.

Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC)

A multi-jurisdictional agency focused on providing intelligence to combat serious and organised crime in Australia.

Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC)

A NSW agency created to investigate alleged corrupt conduct through investigations and public hearings.

Utilitarian Aims of Punishment

Forward-looking goals of punishment concerned with preventing future crimes, such as deterrence, rehabilitation, and incapacitation.

Retributive Aims of Punishment

Backward-looking goals of punishment focused on 'just deserts' and proportionality to the past crime.

Parens Patriae

The doctrine that the state or society has a responsibility for the welfare of children, serving as the basis for the Children’s Court.

Reformatories

Late $19$th-century institutions for young offenders that focused on training but often utilized harsh penalties like solitary confinement and whipping.

Probation

A technique developed in the $20$th century where punishment is diluted through supervision, often described as 'governing through families'.