Criminology Unit 1 Key Terms

• Criminology

the science or discipline that studies crime and criminal behavior. Specifically, the field of criminology concentrates on forms of criminal behavior, the causes of crime, the definition of criminality, and the societal reaction to criminal activity; related areas of inquiry may include juvenile delinquency and victimology. (ex. crime analyst)

• Criminal Justice

focuses on practical, applied, and technical concerns (ex. lawyer, prosecutor)

• Criminalistics

the scientific evaluation of physical evidence (ex. blood spatter analyst)

• Victimology

the study of victims

• Progression of Knowledge consists of three stages

• Theological explanations

using supernatural elements and religion to explain why crimes occur and what they are

• Metaphysical (Philosophical) explanations

more critical thinking, but no concrete evidence or reason or logic (more than theological)

• Scientific explanations

combination of reason and scientific evidence

• Deviance or Deviant Behavior

refers to a broad range of activities that the majority in society may view as eccentric, dangerous, annoying bizarre, outlandish, gross, abhorrent, and similar topics that refer to behavior outside of societal norms, but not illegal. Can depend on the societal norms on the time for what constitutes a deviant behavior.

• Summer’s Three Norms

• Folkways

least serious norms. Refer to usages, traditions, customs, or niceties that are preferred but are not subject to serious sanctions. Includes manners, etiquette, and dress styles.

• Mores

refer to more serious customs that involve moral judgements as well as sanctions (rewards or punishments). The mores cover prohibitions against behaviors that are felt to be seriously threatening to a group’s way of life. Includes lying, cheating, stealing, and killing.

• Laws

represent formal modes of control, the codified rules of behavior. If one accepts the consensus model of law, laws represent an institutionalization of the mores.

• Informal Social Control (Folkways and Mores)

refers to the social behaviors interactions that encourage conformity to societal norms and values without the use of formal laws or institutions.

• Formal Social Control (Laws)

the mechanisms used by governments and other official bodies to regulate behavior though laws, polices, and sanctions.

• Mala Prohibita

refer to acts that are bad because they have been prohibited. Such acts are not viewed as bad in themselves but are violations because the law defines them as such. Traffic violations, gambling, and infractions or various municipal ordinances might serve as examples. Such laws are viewed as assisting people in making life more ordered, and disobedience carries little stigma other than fines.

• Mala In Se

refer to acts that are bad in themselves, forbidden behaviors for which there is widescale consensus on the mores for prohibition. The universality of laws against murder, rape, assault and similar acts bear witness to the lack of societal conflict in institutionalizing such laws.

• Undercriminalization

refers to the fact that the criminal law fails to prohibit acts that many feel are mala in se. Examples include elements of corporate violence, racism, white collar crime, structured inequality, and systematic wrongdoings.

• Overcriminalization

involves the overextension of criminal law to cover acts that are inappropriately or not responsibly enforced by such measures. Examples include

• Gemeinschaft societies

social control ensured through informal modes. simple communal, relatively homogenous societies that lack and extensive division of labor and are also characterized by normative consensus. Social control is ensured by family, kinship groups, and the community through folkways and mores. Do not need formal laws because tradition, lack of change, and cultural similarity ensure a degree of understanding and control.

• Gesellschaft societies

social control ensured through formal means. complex, associational, more individualistic and heterogenous societies. Characterized by secularity, extensive divisions of labor, variety of moral views and political pressure groups. Formal laws are common.

• Manifest functions

intended, planned, or anticipated consequences of introduced changes or of exiting social arrangements. (ex. 18th amendment)

• Latent functions

unintended or unanticipated consequences of trying to pass a law, ones that may have either positive or negative outcomes. (ex. increased corruption, criminal groups, mafia groups, etc.)

• Functional necessity of crime

proposes that wrongdoing or crime serves to force societal members to react, condemn, and thus establish the borders of society and reconfirm its values.

• Consensus model of origin of criminal law

envisions crime as arising from agreement among the members of a society as to what constitutes wrongdoing. Social contract theory. Crystallization of mores.

• Conflict model of origin of criminal law

sees the criminal law as originating in the conflict of interests of different groups. In this view, the definition of crime is assumed to reflect the wishes of the most powerful interest groups, who gain the assistance of the state in opposing rivals’ groups. The criminal law is used primarily to control the behavior of the defective, dependent., and delinquent classes. Wants to preserve status quo.

• Interactionalist model of origin of criminal law

views humans as responding to abstract meanings and symbols as well as to concrete meanings. Criminality is views as a bale or stigma attached by a societal reaction that is subject to shifting standards. Laws are viewed as reflecting moral entrepreneurship on the part of labelers.

• Criminal Law

an intentional act or omission in violation of criminal law, committed without defense or justification, and sanctioned by state as felony or misdemeanor”

• Felony

offenses punishable by a year or more in federal or state prisons

• Misdemeanors

less serious offenses with less than a year in jail