Criminology First Units

Criminology

The scientific study of the nature, extent, cause, and control of criminal behavior

Sutherland and Cressey’s Definition

Criminology is a body of knowledge regarding crime as a social phenomenon. It includes within its scope the processes of making laws of breaking laws and of reacting to the breaking of laws. The objective of criminology is the development of a body of general and verified principles and of other types of knowledge regarding this process of law, crime and treatment.

…..body of knowledge

accepted set of concepts, terms and activities pertaining to a domain

anything in the boundaries will fit in this body of knowledge

…crime as a social phenomenon (making and breaking laws)

interaction between people, groups, institutions in our environment

cultural conditions, inequalities etc that could lead to criminal actvity

making laws, things deemed wrong are punsihable

…..reacting to the breaking of laws

release people from jail and maybe monitor them

rehabilitation

name and shame them

these are our reactions to breaking the law

……the development of a body of general and verified principles and of other types of knowledge

criminology is a social science

we use the scientific approach to crime using the scientific method and following trends

Scientific Method

make an observation

ask a question

develop a hypothesis or prediction

test the prediction

analyze results

record the results against hypothesis

make a conclusion

deviant

against a societal standard of behaviour

Crime Legal Definition

violation of societal rules of behavior as interpreted and expressed by a criminal legal code created by people holding social and political power.

Individuals who violate these rules are subject to sanctions by state authority to social stigma and to loss of status

Consensus perspective on law and crime

general agreement among a majority of people on what behaviors should and shouldn’t be considered criminal

Conflict Perspective of Law and Crime

Laws reflect the interest of the powerful

Interaction isn’t perspective of Law and Crime

crime has no meaning unless people react to it

Squeegee kid panic

Children were washing windshields in Ontario which was then criminalized to reduce it (people thought it was public begging)

Was this to hide homelessness? Was this law an exercise of power?

White collar crime

Can cause great finial harm or pollute ecosystem

Eg insider trading

The LAW

constantly evolving

governs almost all human interaction

moral beliefs, social values and historical traditions

defines the behaviors that society deems criminal

True Crimes

behaviors that are inherently wrong

eg murder

regulatory offences

laws meant to permit certain acts from occurs

eg max amount of fish per day you can catch

Code of Hammurabi

black statue composed in 1755-1750 BCE in Babylon

early of lex talionis (reciprocal justice)

one of the first presumptions of innocence

Magna Carta

Composed in 1215 CE in England in order to protect barons and nobility’s private property and land. Made it so the king is not above the law and created fair and swift justice.

Civil Law

Property Law and contract law

personal wrongs(tort law) and the harm is considered private

“more likely than not”

Criminal Law

state-initiated

harm is considered public and goes against social order

“victim is less involved” as the harm is considered public now

the standard of proof is higher “beyond a reasonable doubt”

Oj Simpson and Civil vs Criminal

Found not guilty in criminal court of murder as it was “beyond reasonable doubt” but still successfully sued in civil court as the standard of guilty is less extreme “more likely than not”

Functions of Criminal Law

• providing social control

• discouraging personal revenge

• expressing public opinion on morality

• deterring criminal behavior

• maintain social order

Legislation (statutory law)

written law approved by parliament and lays out prohibition as well as penalties for violations

outline substantive law and criminal procedure

Substantive Law

what exactly offences are

Criminal Procedure

The steps taken by police or judges etc for sentencing people

Summary Offenses

less serious with max fines of 5k

provincial or territorial court

jail time less than 2 years

eg loitering

Indictable

more serious and fines vary

jail time max life imprisonment

heard in provincial and federal courts

eg murder

R. v. Gladue

indigenous women who stabbed her boyfriend after he provoked her

3 years in prison

there were changes to the criminal code of Canada to address the over representation of indigenous people in Canadian prisons but judge ruled this didn’t matter as the murder didn’t occur on a reserve, supreme court overruled this

sentence was still fair

Precedent/Common Law

Judge-made law

stare deices

State decisis

courts are bound by law to follow the law established in pervious cases unless overulled by a higher power

law as written can be incomplete or vague

eg murder in England evolved from a only being planned killings to negligence and murder in the heat of passion

Charter

guarantees right to life, liberty, security, privacy, mobility, freedom of expression, religion and more

while there is many sources of law in Canada the charter is supreme

R. v Morgentaler

abortion doctor who was criminalized but this violated the charter and eventually the removal of the code that criminalized abortion

R. v. Oakes

Narcotics control act determined that anyone in the possession of drugs was assumed to be selling them but this was overturned due to the right to be presumed innocent

Repeal of s. 159 of Crimnal Code

Anal intercourse was only allowed for 18+ individuals or married couple which discriminated against homosexual individuals as the age of consent is 16+

Actus Reus

the guilty act

comprised of : conduct, circumstance and consequences

Mens Rea

guilty mind

comprised of subjective understanding, intention or willful blindness

objective expectation of outcome

actus rea + mens rea =

a criminal offense

when does actus rea not matter

aiding or abetting

attempting a crime

inchoate crime

when does mens rea doesn’t matter

liability offences

eg speeding

Criminal Defenses and Mens Rea

-ignorance

not criminally responsible

intoxication

duress

necessity

provocation

self- defense

entrapment

Duress

may have done the act but not planned, may have been threated to do it

Entrapment

police officers forcing you to commit a crime by tricking you

Distorted Public Understanding of Crime

overrepresentation of violent crime in the media in proportion to other crime especially using emotional language that strips away valuable information

criminal portrayals in the media can influence policies

4 keys of Measuring Crime accurately

quality, coverage, reliability, and validity

Reliability

consistency

Validity

accuracy

Crime Funnel

reliability increases and validity decreases as you go down the funnel. Many break and enters occur but only some are reported and even smaller numbers are convicted.

Three dominant ways of counting crime

Official statistics

victimization surveys

self-report studies

Uniform Crime Report

the Canadian justice system produces an enormous amount of raw data and the Canadian Centre for Justice statistics administer the Uniform Crime Report

• police are the primary source of data

• primary source of info on crime in Canada

• police report in monthly

• collected since 1962

UCR Strengths

standardized reporting practices

one location for raw data(centralized reporting)

revised UCR captures more info

breaks down distinctions between different types of crime

UCR Weakness

sensitive to changes in reporting practices

founded crime introduced

more likely to capture police activity

changing legal definitions

media sensitive

dark figures

founded crime

reported instance did occur

dark figure of crime

unreported and unrecorded crimes that do not find their way into any of the official recording systems

Crime Severity Index

Based on criminal sentences given in court

offences often assigned weight based on seriousness

pnly based on reported crimes

Victimization Surveys

respondents are asked to:

• describe nature and consequence of victimization

• describe criminal justice response

• share whether victim or others brought incident to official attention

• share perceptions and attitudes towards crime and criminal justice

Victimization Survey Strengths

can access some of the dark figures of crime

useful in identifying categories of people most at risk of victimization

dispel misconceptions

Victimization Survey Weaknesses

Not all crimes are captured

consensual crimes are generally not captured

not captured when victim is unaware of victimization

depend on peoples memory

can be skewed

consensual crimes

eg drug else or illegal gambling

not present on victimization surveys generally

Self Report Survey Strengths

can capture dark figures

captures trends

able to learn about criminal motivation and technique

Self Report Survey Weaknesses

some groups are more apt to underreport criminal behavior

respondents tend to report minor infractions and downplay more serious infractions

memory fade/telescoping/sampling challenges(difficult to survey serious offenders)

Fort Mac and Crime

originally didn’t look like a high proportion of crime but they had the wrong denominator and didn’t take into consideration the 40k temporary workers. This can lead to overestimating your crime proportions

single men who are bored with a lot of money

Swarming Death of Ken Li

8 teenage girls swarmed a man and stabbed him resulting in his death which brings into question the high rate of youth crime.

Youth Crime Representation

Adolescents and young adults are overrepresented in crime statistics

most crimes by youth are non violent but theft under 5 k is the most common offence

youth criminal justice act was established to keep youth out of jail

Maturation Reform

“aging out of crime”

youth are not tied down to society yet as they are not married or have goods so may not act in the benefit of society

Gender and Crime

men are heavily overrepresented in the criminal justice system especially in violent and serious offences

women typically would commit theft and fraud and typically overall have shorter prison sentences

Chivalry Hypothesis

judges will try and take care of female offenders and offer lighter sentences to allow them to potentially raise kids

Role Convergence Hypothesis

as work roles of women become similar to men so will their involvement in crime

Gender Gap in Crime due to structural positions and cultural processes

Boys may be disciplined more aggressively and may cause them to be more aggressive when they are older “boys will be boys”

girls parented to be more docile

Race and Crime

not as strongly correlated to crime as age and gender

some minority groups may be overrepresented in the criminal justice system

eg Toronto and ova scotia have an overrepresentation of African Canadians

Differential Offending Hypothesis

Difference between racial groups in terms of the incidence, level of seriousness, and persistence of offending patterns. Trends are a reflection of reality

Differential Treatment Hypothesis

structural inequality in the administration of justice is responsible for overrepresentations

eg police paying more attention to lower racial groups in comparison

Black Crime Statistics

1 in 3 stopped by police in two years (28% white, 22% Chinese)

1 in 4 black males stopped by police more than 3 times in two years(8% white and 6% Chinese)

12% black males being searched by police in the past 2 years(3% white and chinese)

Overrepresentation of Indigenous People in Criminal Justice System

Indigenous Adults make up 3% of the population but 28% of provincial custodys and 28% of federal custodys

• more likely to be denied bail

• not see their lawyer as often

• plead guilty through intimidation

due to cultural(indigenous peoples culture not agree with the CJS, not true likely) and structural theories(colonization leading to rough social conditions)

Drug and Alcohol Use with Crime

Use of illicit drugs strongly correlates with street crime

75% of inmates enter custody with substance abuse issues

Socioeconomic Status and Crime

historically lower class is seen as responsible for crime

different opportunities for crime in regards to socioeconomic status

Collective Efficacy

People in a neighborhood feel connection and will protect each other

lower results in more crime due to unconnection

neighborhoods with high immigration, mobility, unemployment, poverty have low collective efficacy

criminals moving back home to lower neighborhoods are more likely to commit crimes again