CH.2 - Crime and Crime Causation

Crime Causation

Factors explaining why individuals commit crimes, including theories such as classical, biological, psychological, sociological, life course, and integrated theories.

Visible Crime

Also known as 'street crime' or 'ordinary crime', categorized into violent crime, property crimes, and public-order crimes.

Occupational Crime

Offenses committed through opportunities created in legal or business occupation, often resulting in significant costs to society.

Organized Crime

A framework for perpetrating criminal acts, usually in fields such as gambling, drugs, and prostitution, providing illegal services in high demand.

Transnational Crime

Crimes involving planning or execution across country borders, with enforcement depending on cross-country cooperation, amounting to more than $870 billion annually.

Victimless Crime

Involves willing and private exchange of goods or services, such as prostitution, gambling, and drug sales and use, often considered offenses against morality and society as a whole.

Political Crime

Criminal acts by or against the government for ideological purposes, examples include murder of abortion doctors, bombing of federal buildings, and release of classified documents.

Cyber Crime

Use of computers and the internet to commit crimes, with the Internet Crime Complaint Center receiving 269,422 complaints about cybercrime losses in 2014.

Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

Statistical summary of crimes reported to the police under standard definitions, covering 94.6 percent of the United States, but suffers from underreporting and is incomplete.

National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)

Reporting system where police describe each offense in a crime incident, addressing shortcomings of the UCR, but not all states participate.

National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)

Interviews Americans twice a year for three years to track victimization, intending to explore unreported crimes, with 5.4 million victimizations in 2014, but suffers from self-reporting bias.

Crime Rate

The number of recorded crimes per 100,000 population, with various measures including violent victimizations, crimes recorded by police, UCR crime rate, and arrests for violent crimes.

Fear of Crime

Fear that limits freedom, incurring economic, psychological, and emotional costs, as well as costs of operating the criminal justice system.

Classical School

Views behavior as stemming from free will, emphasizing the need for severe punishment to deter others.

Positivist School

Views behavior as stemming from social, biological, and psychological factors, suggesting punishment tailored to individual needs of the offender.

Biological Explanations

Emphasizes physiological and neurological factors predisposing individuals to commit crimes, with early work by Cesare Lombroso and later work by James Q. Wilson.

Psychological Explanations

Emphasizes mental processes and behavior, linking criminal behavior to innate impulses, psychic conflict, and repression of personality.

Social Structure Theories

Theorizes that criminal behavior is related to social class, including Anomie Theory and Strain Theory.

Social Process Theories

Assumes that any person has the potential to become a criminal, including learning theories, control theories, and labeling theories.

Critical Criminology

Assumes that criminal law and the justice system are designed to oppress those who are not in power, with social conflict theories and feminist theories.

Life Course Theories

Seeks to identify factors that explain when, why, and to what extent offenders begin to commit crime, emphasizing turning points in life that move people from criminal behavior.

Summer Night Lights Program

A social program aimed at decreasing gang violence by keeping city parks open until midnight, providing meals, sporting events, and activities for local teens.