Chapter 1: The Study of Crime

Deviance

The fact or state of diverging from usual or accepted standards, especially in social or sexual behaviour.

Criminology

A social science that studies crime and crime-related phenomena, such as law-making, criminal behaviour, victimization, and punishment.

Anti-social behaviour

A complete disregard for the rights of others combined with impulsive, aggressive, or irresponsible actions and activities.

Moral Panics

A term first used by Stanley Cohen in 1972 to suggest panic or overreaction to forms of deviance or wrongdoing perceived to threaten moral order. Moral panics are usually created or fanned by the media and led by community groups or leaders whose goals are to change laws or practices.

• Featured extensively in Canada over young offenders, youth violence and youth gangs.

• Media can contribute to making this worse (through influencing laws).

Theory

A set of concepts and the nominal relationship between these concepts, assumptions, and knowledge claims.

Vocational / Professional Approach

Role of criminology is tied to improving the immediate practices of the criminal justice system.

Critical / Analytical Approach

Suggests that one must stand back from policy decisions and ask bigger questions related to philosophy.

• Does not suggest improvements to the existing penal system, but questions whether it is valid, or viable. However, strong parallels can exist between both approaches.

Three Areas of Focus in Criminology

• Sociology of law, which examines social aspects and the institutions of law

• Theories of crime causation, which is sometimes referred to as criminogenesis

• Study of social responses to crime, which examine in more depth the formal institutions of criminal justice, such as the police, courts, and corrections

Crime

Always socially defined. Defined under particular material circumstances and in relation to specific social processes. Legal definitions of crime change over time, making law socially produced and not static.

Crime Possible Definitions (Hagan 1987)

1. Formal Legal

2. Social Harm

3. Cross-cultural universal norm

4. Labelling approach

5. Human rights approach

6. Human diversity approach

The “Other” Identity

Created by Chantel Faucher (2007), who brought forward the effect of oversimplifying youth involved in crime and creating the identity of the “other” through the use of attributes such as race, class, and offence history.

• This process occurs when language is used that strips the youth of an identity, such as replacing identifiers like “son,” “daughter,” or “student,” with “offender,” “thief,” “murderer,” or “assailant.”

• This is created and reinforced through the media, which distances the reader from humanizing the individual in the news story.

Victimization

The exploitation or unfair treatment of an individual or group.

Media in Crime

Important not only in shaping our definitions of crime and crime control, but in producing legal changes and reinforcing particular types of policing strategies.

• Can impact, shape and skew the perceptions there are of how likely things are to occur, stereotypes and perpetuate harmful messages.

Crime Wave

A sudden increase in the number of crimes committed in a community, an area, or a country. A crime wave does not have to be legitimate, it just means more coverage on a specific crime. The media can portray crimes in this way depending on what fits their agenda.

Uniform Crime Reporting Survey (UCR)

A system created by Statistics Canada and the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police and implemented in 1961 to provide a measure of reliability to crime statistics.

• The survey provides police services with a standardized set of procedures for the collection and reporting of crime information.

• Can be used to guide  governmental program development, resource planning, legislative changes, and police staffing, to education and research in academia.

Dark Figure of Crime

Difference between the actual crime rate and that which is reported to and by police. The amount of crime that is unreported or unknown. Police reported crime statistics do not always accurately reflect actual crime rates.

Three Broad Strands within Criminology that Deal with Measurement

1. Realist approach

2. Institutionalist approach

3. Critical realist approach

Measurement

Realist Approach

• Crime really exists in society, even if it is not reported.

• Official crime statistics miss a lot of crime (the “dark figure of crime”).

• The job of criminologists is to find the truth by uncovering crimes that go unreported.

• The main problem is omission — crimes that happen but are not counted.

➡ Crime is real and out there; we just aren’t measuring all of it properly.

Measurement

Institutionalist Approach

• Crime is not just “out there” — it is created through social processes.

• What counts as crime depends on how institutions (police, courts, etc.) act.

• The justice system labels certain people and behaviors as criminal, while ignoring others.

• The main problem is bias in how crime is defined and enforced.

Crime is shaped by institutions, and the system treats people unequally.

Measurement

Critical Realist Approach

• Crime is both real and socially shaped.

• Some crimes — especially against vulnerable or marginalized groups — are ignored or underreported.

• Focuses on victimization, especially of those with less power.

• Criticizes crime control agencies for failing to protect vulnerable populations.

Crime is real, but the system ignores the suffering of vulnerable people.

Paradigm

A framework used in thinking about and organizing an understanding of natural or social phenomenon. Thomas Kuhn (1970) argued that a paradigm was a set of assumptions about the kinds of questions to ask in science and how to go about looking for answers.

Criminology Perspective

Building Theory

Criminological theory can be presented in abstract fashion as being made up of a series of separate perspectives or approaches.

Each approach, or paradigm, attempts to understand a particular phenomenon by asking certain types of questions, using certain concepts, and constructing a particular framework of analysis and explanation.

Criminology

Ideal Types

An abstract model of a pure form of a social phenomenon. It is a model concept and does not necessarily exist in exact form in reality. This includes different theoretical strands within criminology.

The intention behind the construction of an ideal type is to abstract the key elements or components of a particular theory or social institution from concrete situations and to exaggerate these elements, if need be, to highlight the general tendency or themes of the particular perspective.

These can be split up into three broad theories in criminology (individualist, situational and structural), which can be used to construct ideal types. These are all related to criminology theory.

Three Broad Levels of Criminology Explanation

Different theories in criminology all tend to connect to one of these broad theories. Sometimes a theory may attempt to combine all three.

• Situational

• Individualist

• Structural

Broad Level of Criminology Explanation

Individualist

• Crime is explained by the individual person.

• Focuses on personal traits or choices of offenders or victims.

• Looks at psychological or biological factors.

• Sometimes relies on how people look or present themselves (e.g., tattoos, clothing, image) as signals of criminality.

• Asks: “What is it about this person that led to crime?”

➡ Crime happens because of individual traits or choices.

Broad Level of Criminology Explanation

Situational

• Crime is shaped by specific situations and interactions.

• Focuses on what happens in the moment.

• Looks at how police, youth, groups, or others interact.

• Crime can be defined through interactions, labeling, and opportunities.

• Considers environment, group behavior, and immediate circumstances.

➡ Crime depends on the situation and how people interact.

Broad Level of Criminology Explanation

Structural

• Crime is linked to larger social structures.

• Focuses on things like poverty, inequality, class, race, gender, and employment.

• Examines how institutions (school, family, work, legal system) shape crime and responses to it.

• Asks how society itself creates conditions where crime occurs.

Crime is caused by social inequality and institutions.

Political Orientations

4

Broad level of analysis can be linked to differences in the political framework. This can include the following representations in society:

1. Geometric circle

2. Triangle views

   1. Meritocratic view in triangle

   2. Critical view in triangle

3. Rectangle or square

4. Nongeometric forms

Political Orientations

Geometric Circle

• Society is mostly harmonious and shares common values.

• Crime happens when someone falls outside the shared values.

• Criminals are seen as deviant outsiders.

• The solution is to rehabilitate them (bring them back in) or exclude them.

In short:
➡ Crime = people who don’t fit shared values.

Political Orientations

Triangle Views (Hierarchy)

• Society is unequal, with power and wealth at the top.

• Crime happens within struggles over power and control.

• Two main ways of seeing this:

Meritocratic Triangle

• Anyone can succeed if they work hard and follow the rules.

• Laws exist to maintain order and fairness.

• Crime is a result of poor choices, not the system.

➡ Crime = individuals failing to play by the rules.

Critical Triangle

• Inequality is seen as unjust, not fair.

• Laws are applied unequally.

• People at the bottom are over-policed and over-criminalized.

• Questions whether the system itself is unfair.

In short:
➡ Crime = a result of injustice and unequal power.

Political Orientation

Rectangle / Square (Institutions)

• Society is made up of interconnected institutions (family, school, work, law).

• Crime is linked to how well these institutions function together.

• Focus is on efficiency, management, and fixing systems.

• Less about morals, more about what works.

In short:
➡ Crime = a problem of how institutions function.

Political Orientations

Non-Geometric Forms (Individuals & Interaction)

• Focuses on individuals, not society as a whole.

• Reality is socially constructed through interaction.

• Crime depends on labels, meanings, and how people see themselves and others.

• How people are treated influences how they behave.

In short:
➡ Crime = shaped by interaction, labels, and identity.

Three Major Paradigms

(Conceptual Frameworks for Understanding Social Phenomena)

These paradigms inevitably incorporate specific kinds of value judgment. The motivation, conceptual development, theoretical understandings, methodological tools, and social values associated with a specific approach are usually intertwined with one of three broad political perspectives: conservative, liberal, or radical.

1. Conservative

2. Liberal

3. Radical

Paradigm

Conservative Perspective

• Believes society is basically working fine as it is.

• Supports traditions, existing institutions, and social order.

• Thinks people who break the rules should conform to shared values.

• Believes there is a core set of values everyone should follow.

• Focuses on punishment, control, and tough penalties to maintain order.

• Laws and institutions should apply equally to everyone, regardless of background.

In short:
➡ Protect the system, punish rule-breakers, maintain order.

Paradigm

Liberal Perspective

• Accepts the system but believes it needs improvement.

• Supports small, gradual changes, not major restructuring.

• Focuses on specific social problems (racism, sexism, poverty).

• Believes problems can be fixed within the current system.

• Emphasizes rehabilitation, restorative justice, and social programs.

• Focuses on how problems affect specific groups or individuals.

In short:
➡ Fix problems without changing the whole system.

Paradigm

Radical Perspective

• Believes the system is fundamentally unfair.

• Focuses on social conflict and inequality.

• Society is divided by class, gender, race (socially constructed), and power.

• Asks who benefits and who is harmed by the current system.

• Supports major structural change to address inequality.

• Sees problems like poverty as caused by power imbalances, not individual failure.

In short:
➡ Change the system because it creates inequality.