Criminology exam 2

According to Ron Akers, what is the most important criteria for evaluating a theory? The least important

•Empirical Validity – has the theory been supported or refuted with carefully gathered scientific evidence

Personal Beliefs – the weakest reason for accepting or rejecting a theory is how well it conforms to one’s own beliefs and ideologies

What is the basic assumption of choice theories?

criminal behavior is seen as being the result of an individual choice

Identify the assumptions of the deterrence doctrine.

•Humans are rational creatures who posses free-will

•Human behavior is based on hedonism - tendency of humans to pursue pleasure and avoid pain

•A painful punishment prevents crime

What are the criteria for an effective punishment according to the deterrence doctrine.

•a punishment must meet three criteria: severity; certainty; and swiftness

Discuss the major critiques of deterrence.

•Rationality – deterrence assumes offenders are rational, this is clearly not the case

•System effectiveness – deterrence is essentially a “threat system”, yet our system is not effective in carrying them out

Who is credited with being the founder of rational choice theory.  What academic discipline is it based on?

Gary Becker. Based on economics model

Be familiar with the exact components of the decision making process according to rational choice theory.

Rewards

Instrumental rewards

Expressive rewards

Costs

Direct costs

Indirect costs

What did Jack Katz say was the cause of crime?

•that some people are attracted to the immediate emotional rewards of crime

•Crime can be fun, produce sneaky thrills, and even a “natural high”

Discuss the idea of and rationale behind situational crime prevention.

crime may be prevented by increasing the risks of crime and decreasing the rewards of crime

•Seeks to eliminate or reduce specific crimes in specific settings

•Prevent crimes not criminals

•Target sites and situations that are conducive to crime

What are the three ways displacement occurs?

•One target to another

•One area to another

•One offense to another

Discuss deterrence and capital punishment

•not an effective general deterrent to murder

•Offenders do not reflect on the future consequences of their actions

•Offense often occurs in emotionally charged intimate relationship

•Application of death penalty lacks both certainty and swiftness

Discuss the impact of social variables on deterrence as well as deterrence an offender type.

•White females are the most easily deterred

•Black men are the least likely to be deterred

Discuss the problems associated with most “studies” on biological conditions and crime

•Most of the research has been conducted on small, non-representative samples such as correctional or clinical populations and it is impossible to know if these findings apply to all criminals

•Causal links are problematic – criminals have poor diets, so what? Where is the cause and effect

Regarding genetic conditions and crime, please discuss: A) research on twins and crime; B) adoption studies and C) what is the “take way” about the association between genetics and crime?

•Twin Studies - Most twin studies find that identical twins have concordance rates that are two to three times higher than fraternal twins

•These rates do not approach 100%

•Differences may be due to environmental factors

•Adoption studies – A very slight tendency for adopted children to have criminal behavior that is more similar to that of biological parents

Takeaway – genetics appear to play a limited role in crime

What is sociobiology?  Discuss its ideas on how traits result in criminal behavior.

•Biological and genetic conditions affect how social behaviors are learned and perceived.

•Argues that human behavior is motivated by inborn biological urges to survive and preserve the species

How common are mental disorders among youth involved with the juvenile justice system?

•Approximately 70% of youth involved in the juvenile justice system have symptoms of one or more mental disorders

Discuss the relationship between self-control and criminal behavior.  Where does low-self control stem from? 

–Low-self control is the result of ineffective child rearing practices and persists over the life course

–Characterizes all offenders, including white-collar criminals

•Six characteristics of low-self control

•Impulsivity, Preference for Simple Tasks, Risk Seeking, Physical Activities,   Self-Centered, Quick to Anger

Discuss the relationship between IQ and crime and methodical criticisms of those studies

•A plethora of studies have found that criminals and delinquents have lower IQ scores than members of the general population

•Since they sample institutionalized offenders, maybe low intelligence explains why they were caught

•This reasoning cannot account for the fact that white-collar criminals probably have higher IQ scores than members of the population

Discuss the psychopathic personality and crime, and be familiar with controversies surrounding that work

•A person who is anti-social, aggressive, highly impulsive, unable to form lasting bonds, and feels little or no guilt for their activities

•They are not easily influenced by societal demands

•Experts claim that 10%-25% of criminals are psychopaths

•Crimes often seem senseless to others

•Frequently the use of this argument is based on circular reasoning

•Clinicians do not agree on the precise definition of this phenomenon

What are the basic assumptions of theoretical perspectives that examine the socioeconomic sources of crime?

Poverty creates crime

What the basic assumptions made by Merton regarding the social structure and anomie?  Identify, explain, and be able to recognize examples of the five adaptations to anomie.

American society defines goals for all of its members, as well as the means to attain these goals

•Conformity - Involves the acceptance of both the goals and means

•Innovation - Acceptance of the goals but rejection of the means

•Ritualism - Accept society’s means but rejects the goals

•Retreatism - Cultural goals are abandoned and institutional means are also rejected

•Rebellion - Person seeks to reject both the goals and means to replace them with new ones

According to Agnew what are the three possible sources of stain?  How exactly does strain result in delinquency according to general strain theory?

•Strain caused by the failure to achieve positively valued goals

•Strain as the removal of a positively valued stimuli (e.g., loss of a loved one)

•Strain as the presentation of negative stimuli (e.g, abuse)

•Delinquency is the result of negative affective states

Discuss the work of Shaw & McKay.  Where did they gather data?  What patterns did they find in delinquency? 

They gathered data in the city of Chicago, the more disorganization in a community the more delinquency would be present

Bounded rationality

- means we should take into account the social, psychological, physical, and situational context in which criminal decisions are actually made, as well as offenders’ perceptions of the world around them.

Displacement effect

•a change in the pattern of crime without a reduction in the total amount of crime that results for criminals’ efforts to avoid punishment

General deterrence

fear of potential penalties convinces potential law violators not to break the law

Parsimony

•how concise and straight forward is the theory?

Situational crime prevention

•by crime may be prevented by increasing the risks of crime and decreasing the rewards of crime

Specific deterrence

criminal sanctions should be so powerful and individual never repeat their criminal acts

Anomie

a sense of moral confusion

Cognitive distortions

•These are inaccurate thoughts that “convince” an individual of something that isn’t true. 

Concentric zone model  

A model of metropolitan areas that identifies circular rings that have distinctive characteristics

Errors in criminal thinking

•(Yochelson  and  Samenow) argued that flawed thought patterns that are a trait of many criminals. (Trait theory)

Natural areas    

•Places of extreme poverty were crucial social control mechanisms have broken down

•Including family and schools

•People and businesses seek to migrate out of these areas

Self-medication hypothesis

•the individuals' choice of a particular drug is a result of the individuals' psychological condition, as the drug of choice provides relief to the user specific to his or her condition.

Trait theory

•the view that criminal behavior is a product of abnormal biological or psychological traits

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

attention deficit/hyperactivity

Comorbidity

Majority of substance abusers have symptoms of one or more mental disorders

Conduct Disorder

•a repetitive pattern of behavior in youth in which the rights of others or social norms are violated

Gradient hypothesis

All rates of crime and delinquency are highest in the inner city and decrease systematically as you move outward

Negative affective states 

•Anger, depression, disappointment, fear and other adverse emotions that derive from strain  

Shattered childhood hypothesis 

horrific childhood maltreatment results in trauma that leads to self-destructive behavior