Introduction to Criminology and Criminal Justice

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards detailing the core concepts, theories, historical roots, and methodological ethics of criminology and criminal justice.

Criminology

The scientific approach to studying criminal behavior.

Deviant Behavior

Behavior that departs from social norms, values, and beliefs.

Crime

An act deemed as socially harmful or dangerous that is specifically defined, prohibited, and punished under criminal law.

Agencies of Social Control

The structural components of the criminal justice system charged with managing crime: police, courts, and corrections.

The Emergence of Criminology

The historical development of criminology as an interdisciplinary sub-discipline of sociology, beginning in Europe in the late 1700s with major later contributions from the United States.

Crime Statistics and Measurement

The subarea of criminology dedicated to devising accurate data collection methods, calculating crime rates and trends, identifying offender demographics, and evaluating crime prevention programs.

Socio-Legal Studies

The criminological focus on the role social forces play in shaping criminal law, including the history of legal thought, social control, and the effects of criminalization and legalization.

Theory

A systematic set of interrelated statements or principles that explain some aspect of social life using verifiable social facts, evaluated by constructing and empirically testing hypotheses.

Crime Typology

Research focused on identifying the links among different types of crime and criminals, categorized into patterns such as violent, theft, public order, and organized crime.

Penology

The study and practice of punishment, social control, effective crime policy development, and the correction and control of known criminal offenders.

Consensus View

The perspective of crime based on the premise that society shares collective values and agreements ('we all believe the same thing').

Conflict View

The perspective that society consists of diverse groups locked in constant conflict, shaping definitions of crime based on power dynamics.

Interactionist View

The perspective asserting that behaviors are not inherently criminal, but are labeled as good or evil according to the subjective judgment of the evaluator.

Code of Hammurabi

An early written legal code established around 2000 B.C. founded upon the principle of an 'eye for an eye.'

Common Law

The system of law developed in England during the 1100s that formed the foundation for classifications such as mala in se and mala prohibitum.

Mala in se

Crimes under common law that are considered inherently evil or immoral in their nature.

Mala prohibitum

Acts that are designated as crimes because they are specifically defined and prohibited by parliament rather than being inherently evil.

Substantive Criminal Law

The body of contemporary law that enforces social control, discourages revenge, expresses public morality, deters criminal acts, punishes wrongdoing, and provides restoration.

Ethical Subject Selection

The research principle requiring criminologists to use unbiased, random sampling without over-focusing on one element of the community, while protecting individuals in experimental and control groups.