Criminal Delinquent Bahavior Test #1

Folkways defintion

usages, traditions, customs, niceties that are preferred but not subject to serious sanctions

Folkways example

manners, etiquette, dress codes

Mores defintion

customs that involve moral judgements as well as sanctions

Mores example

Lying, cheating, stealing and killing

Laws defintion

Insitutionalization of mores; codified rules of behavior

Types of social control

Gemeinschaft and Gesellschaft

Gemeinschaft

Simple, communal societies that lack an extensive division of labor. Social control is informal: family, kinship groups, and community through folkways and mores

Gesellschaft

Comples, associational characterized by secularity. Social control is formal: codified laws administered by bureaucratic agencies of the state

Deviance defintion

broad range of activites that society views as eccentric, dangerous, annoying, gross, abhorrent like behavior outside of the range of normal societal toleration

crime defintion

behaviors and/or activites that violate the legal statutes of the criminal justice system

delinquency

antisocial and criminal behavior committed by individuals under the age of 18

Mala prohibita

acts that are bad because they have been prohibited- not bad themselves but are violations of the law

Mala in se

acts that are bad in themselves and have wide-scale consensus for prohibition

what are the correlates of crime?

age, socioeconomic status, and location

Age and crime

inversely related to crime youer people are dispropotionately involved in crime compared to older adults

Socioeconomic status and crime

criminality for traditional crimes is higher for lower class indivduals

location and crime

crime tends to be higher in the south and west and lower in the northeast

How is crime measured?

through official statistics and surveys. More accurate in society and the least prison

Uses for official statistics

Statistics derived from a formal instittuion or crimin justice agency. Covers crimes known to the police.

Characteristics of UCR

crimes known to the police but has the hierarchy rule. Split into two parts 1 being more serious then 2.

Characteristics of NIBRS

UCR but more in depth with no hierarchy rule. Less police stations report becuase it takes longer. able to see variety of offender, vicitm and relationships

uses for vicitmization surveys

record an estimate of claimed victimization by a sample, helps the dark figure of crime

uses for self-report surveys

alternatice to official statistics, created to capture delinquency, has significantly contributed to theoritical insight

Biological theories main assumptions

there is a biological elemnent to criminality and largely influenced by Darwinism

early criticisms of early biological theories

genetically inhert trait to violate socially constructed criminal laws, devalues sociological factors and aligns with authoriaroan and simplistic solutions to crime problem

Psychological theories main assumptions

suggests that criminal behavior is predominatly caused by abnormal personality types/traits or emotional malajustment

detterence theories main assumptions

suggests that indivduals are rational actors and will, thus, be discouraged from committing crime through the threat of punishment

rational choice theories

individuals are rational actors who weigh the costs and benefits of crime, therefore, if the crime is thought to accrue more costs, the individual is unlikely to engage

situational crime prevention

based on rational choice and routine activites and says strategies emphasize the importance of structural constraints that may limit potential choices of wouldbe offenders

Anomie theories main assumptions

believe that criminal behavior is a product of blocked opportunites, lack of resources, and negative emotions

Merton’s strain theory

individuals recieve satisifcation either becuase they have successfully obtained goals or because they have used culturally accepted means

Sutherland’s differential association

trying to understand the transmission of criminal attitudes and behaviors. Learned through communication with others

four modalities of differential association

frequency, duration, intensity, priority

techniques of neutralization

denial of responsilbity, denial of harm, denial of harm to victim, condemming condemmers, appeal to higher authority

Aker’s social learning

An extensions of differential association and incorporated principles of operant conditioning

Becker’s labeling theory

suggests that deviance is not inherent in the act, rather a reaction to the act and the label attached to indivdual

Critical criminology

crime is a label attached to behavior, more powerful groups in society control labeling process to protect interests, conflict model of law explains criminalization process, and crime is often a rational response to inequitable conditions in capitalistic societies

conflict theory

rooted in the conflict model of crime which explains how the dominant group controls the legal machinery of the state to protect their interest

control theories

Suggests that indidvuals are asocial by nature, so in the absence of some form of resitraint, their inclinations is to break rules in pursuit of the satsifiaction of their desires

Self-control theory

those with low self-control pursue crime to satisy self-interests

essentialism

View crime and criminal behavior as intrinsic and due to unchanging moral essence, rather than a product of social and/or cultural contexts

Social constructionism

Believe that society and its instituions do not have a real, independent, and objective existence, rather are the product of a series of social processes through which humans interactively create their meaning and existence

Manifest functions

intended, planned, or anticipated consequences of introduced changes to existing social arrangement

latent functions

are unintended or unanticipated consequences, either positive or negative

principles of deterrence

Celerity, severity, certainty