Understanding Crime and Victimization - Key Terms

Criminologists

Social scientists who use the scientific method to study the nature, extent, cause, and control of criminal behavior

Deterrent Effect

The assumed ability of the threat of criminal sanctions to discourage crime before it occurs

General Deterrence

A crime control policy that depends on the fear of criminal penalties. General deterrence measures, such as long prison sentences for violent crimes, are aimed at convincing the potential law violator that the pains associated with the crime outweigh the benefits

Specific Deterrence

A crime control policy suggesting that punishment should be severe enough to convince convicted offenders never to repeat their criminal activity

Neurotransmitters

Chemical substances that carry impulses from one nerve cell to another. Neurotransmitters are found in the space (synapse) that separates the transmitting neuron’s terminal (axon) from the receiving neuron’s terminal (dendrite)

Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)

A psychological condition whose symptoms include rebellious and aggressive behavior toward authority figures that seriously interferes with proper life functioning

Antisocial Personality

A personality characterized by a lack of warmth and feeling, inappropriate behavioral responses, and an inability to learn from experience (also called sociopath or psychopathology)

Anomie

The absence or weakness of rules, norms, or guidelines on what is socially or morally acceptable

Social Structure

The stratifications, classes, institutions, and groups that characterize a society

Culture of Poverty

The view that people in the lower class of society form a separate culture with its own values and norms that are in conflict with its own values and norms that are in conflict with those of conventional society

Collective Efficacy

A condition of mutual trust and cooperation that develops in neighborhoods that have a high level of formal and informal social control

Strain

The emotional turmoil and conflict caused when people believe that they cannot achieve their desires and goals through legitimate means

Parental Efficacy

Parents who are able to be supportive and who can therefore effectively control their children in a nonthreatening fashion

Social Learning Theory

The view that human behavior is learned through observation of human social interactions, either directly from those in close proximity or indirectly from the media

Differential Association Theory

The view that criminal acts are related to a person’s exposure to antisocial attitudes and values

Social Control Theory

The view that most people do not violate the law because of their social bonds to family, peer group, school, and other institutions. If these bonds are weakened or absent, individuals are much more likely to commit crime

Social Reaction (Labeling) Theory

The view that society produces criminals by stigmatizing certain individuals as deviants, a label that they come to accept as a personal identity

Critical Criminology

The view that crime results because the rich and powerful impose their own moral standards and economic interests on the rest of society

State-Organized Crime

Criminal acts committed by state officials in pursuit of their jobs as government representatives

Developmental theories

A view of crime holding that as people travel through the life course, their experiences along the way influence their behavior patterns. Behavior changes at each stage of the human experience

Early Onse

The beginning of antisocial behavior during early adolescence, after which criminal behavior is more likely to persist throughout the life span

Latent Trait Theories

The view that human behavior is controlled by a master trait, present at birth or soon after, that influences and directs behavior

Criminal Propensity

A natural inclination toward criminality, present at birth or soon after

Life Course Theories

The view that criminality is a dynamic process influenced by people’s perceptions and experiences throughout their lives, which may change their behavior for the better or the worse

State Dependence

A process in which criminal behavior becomes embedded because antisocial behavior erodes social ties that encourage conformity and creates incentives to commit crime

Social Capital

Positive relations with individuals and institutions that foster self-worth and inhibit crime

Adolescent-Limited Offenders

Kids who get into minor scrapes as youths but whose misbehavior ends when they enter adulthood

Life-Course Persisters

Delinquents who begin their offending career at a very early age and continue to offend well into adulthood

Victim Precipitation

The role of the victim in provoking or encouraging criminal behavior

Routine Activities Theory

The view that crime is a product of three everyday factors: motivated offenders, suitable targets, and a lack of capable guardians