Crim unit 2

Legal definition of crime

• Any behaviour that is forbidden by criminal law.

• Actus reus and men’s rea

• Strict Liability: The men’s rea is not required because the actus reus is enough to convict someone.

• Self defence: If done in self defence it is not a crime as long as the force is reasonable.

Deviance defined

• Any behaviour that differs from normal.

• Behaviour that in unusual but good: Risking one’s life to save another.

• Behaviour that is unusual and eccentric: Talking to trees.

• Behaviour that is unusual or bad: Physically attacking someone for no reason.

Criminal Acts

• Summary offences: less serious offences, magistrates, speeding

• Indictable offences: More serious offences, crown court, rape or murder.

• Sexual offences: rape, sex trafficking

• Criminal damage: Arson

• Offences against property: Burglary, theft and robbery.

Acts that are criminal and deviant

• Murder is both of criminal and deviant.

• Cannabis is criminal but not deviant

• Some people view homosexuality as morally wrong and deviant even though it is legal.

Formal sanctions against criminals

• Custodial sentences: Serious offences, imprisonment, sentence can vary from days to a life sentence.

• Community sentences: Served in community rather than jail, probation orders, curfews, drug tests, community service and fines

• Police sanctions: Cautions ( warnings given by police for minor crimes), conditional cautions ( you have to stick to certain rules and restrictions), penalty notices

Social construction

• Something that has been made or defined by society rather than occurring naturally.

Law according to culture

• Polygamy: legal in most countries where muslims are the majority like India and Malaysia but the law permits it for muslims only. Illegal in the Uk (bigamy).

• Homosexuality: Illegal in 72 countries normally because of religion. Legal in Uk, Europe, north american and most of south America.

Law according to time

• Gun control: 1996 Dunblane massacre introduced an act banning all handguns.

• Homosexuality: Made a crime in 1885 with a life sentence. Legalised in 1967 for those over 21

Laws according to circumstance

Homicide: Diminished responsibility, loss of control and automatism are defences to murder.

Sheldon’s Somatotypes theory

• Somatotypes are linked to criminal behaviour

• Endomorphs: rounded, soft and tend to be fat, lack muscles, sociable, relaxed and outgoing.

• Ectomorphs: thin and fragile, lack fat and muscles, self-conscious, introverted, emotionally restrained.

• Mesomorphs: muscular and hard bodied, little fat and strong limbs, sensation-seeking, enjoy physical activity, assertive

• Mesomorphs are more likely to commit crime because of the risk and their body type is an important assist for crime.

Jacob’s XYY study

• Abnormality of the sex chromosomes is a possible genetic cause of criminality.

• Chromosomes contain genetic info we inherit from our parents.

• Some men get an extra Y chromosome, this is know was XYY syndrome or Super male syndrome

• Men with this are more aggressive and violent

• Higher average of inmates were found to have XYY syndrome and had a history of aggression and violent assault.

Social Learning Theory (Bandura)

• Learn behaviour by imitating other people.

• Models: we model our behaviour on how we see others behaving, more likely to imitate behaviour of those of a higher status than us, we are more likely to imitate the models behaviour if we see them being rewarded for it.

• Divided children aged 4-5 into three groups and showed them a film of a adult being verbally and physically aggressive towards a doll.

• Group 1: saw the adult being rewarded with praise, Group 2: saw the adult being punished and Group 3: saw the behaviour ignored.

• Later, group 1 imitated the aggressive behaviour, group 3 also imitated the behaviour but less so and group 2 were less likely to imitate.

Operate learning theory ( Skinner)

• If a behaviour results in a reward, it is more likely to be repeated and behaviour that results in a undesirable outcome is likely not to be repeated.

• Behaviourism: Cause of behaviour lies in the reinforcements and punishments that shape it.

• Differential reinforcement theory: If crime has a more rewarding consequence than punish for an individual, they will be more likely to engage in criminal behaviour.

• If we want to explain offending, we need to look at the balance of rewards and punishments for the individual.

Merton’s strain theory

• the root of the cause of crime lies in the unequal structure of society.

• American society values ‘money success’ as the goal people should pursue and they should achieve it through legitimate means.

• Blocked opportunities: Opportunities for working-class are often blocked by poverty and inadequate schools. This creates a ‘strain’ between the goal and the legitimate means of achieving it.

• This causes crime and deviance. There are 4 ways of adapting to this strain.

• Innovation: Accept the goal but find illegal ways of achieving it but committing utilitarian crimes.

• Ritualism: Give up striving for success and plod along in a dead-end job.

• Retreatism: Dropouts who reject both the goal and means.

• Rebellion: reject the existing goals and means, replacing them with new ones with the aim of changing society.

Right Realism

• Right winged conservative political outlook.

• See crime as a growing problem.

• Mainly concerned with practical solutions to reduce crime and the best way to do this is through control and punishment.

• Argue that crime is the product of 3 factors: biological differences between individuals, inadequate socialisation and offending is a rational choice.

Right Realism: Inadequate socialisation

• Right realist see the nuclear family as the best agency of socialisation.

• The nuclear family is being undermined by generous welfare benefit. This leads to a steady rise in the number of welfare-dependent lone parent families.

• The underclass: welfare dependency is creating an ‘underclass’ who fail to socialise their children properly.

• Absent fathers means the boys lack discipline and a appropriate male role model. As a result, boys turn into a delinquent role models in street gangs.

Right Realism: Offending is a Rational choice

• We are rational beings with free will, deciding to commit a crime is a choice based on a rational calculation of the consequences.

• If the rewards of crime appear to outweigh the risk, people will be more likely to offend.

• Crime rate is high because the perceived cost of crime is low. Criminals see the risk of being caught is low.

Biological Theories: Sheldon - Strengths

• Other studies have replicated Sheldon’s findings

• The most serious delinquents in Sheldon’s sample were the ones with the most extremely mesomorphic body shapes.

Biological Theories: Sheldon - Limitations

• Criminals may develop a mesomorphic build as a result of needing to be physically tough to succeed, so criminality causes somatotype.

• Social class may be the true cause both of offending. Convicted offenders are mainly working-class males, who are likely to be in manual jobs where they acquire athletic builds.

• Sheldon doesn’t account for those endomorphs and ectomorphs who do commit crimes.

Biological Theories: Jacob’s XYY Study - Strengths

• Jacob et Al found an association between XYY syndrome and offenders imprisoned for violent behaviour.

• Price and Whatmore found some links between syndrome and property crime.

Biological Theories: Jacob’s XYY Study - Limitations

• Even if violent offenders have the syndrome, it doesn’t prove it is the cause of their violence.

• The syndrome is very rare so it cannot explain more crime.

• XYY males are well built, so they fit the stereotype of ‘violent offenders’ and get labelled as such by courts. As a result, XYY males may be over-represented in samples drawn from prisoners and this overstates the importance of the syndrome as a possible cause of crime.

Learning Theories: Operant learning - strength

• Skinner’s studies of learning in animals show that they learn from experience through reinforcement.

• This can be applied to offending, Jefferey states that if crime leads to more rewarding than punishing outcomes for an individual, they are more likely to offend.

Learning Theories: Operant learning - Limitations

• Based on studies of learning in animals. This is not an adequate model of how humans learn criminal behaviour.

• Ignores mental processes such as thinking, personal values and attitudes. It explains criminal behaviour solely in terms of external rewards and punishments.

• Humans have free will and can choose their course of action.

Learning Theories: Social learning theory - Strengths

• Takes account of the fact that we are social beings. We learn from experiences of others.

• Shows that children who observed aggressive behaviour being rewarded, imitated that behaviour. Shows importance of role models in learning deviant behaviour.

Learning Theories: Social learning theory - Limitations

• Based on laboratory studies. Its artificial so findings may not be valid for real life situations.

• Assumes people’s behaviour is completely determined by their learning experiences and ignores freedom of choice.

• Not all observed behaviour is easily imitated.

Sociological: Merton - Strengths

• Shows how both normal and deviant behaviour arises from the same goals. Both pursue money success but by different means.

• Explains the patterns shown in official statistics: Working class crime rates are higher because they have less opportunity to obtain wealth legitimately

Sociological: Merton - Limitations

• Ignores the crime of the wealthy and over- predicts the amount of working- class crime

• Sees deviance solely as an individual response, ignoring subcultures.

• Focused on utilitarian crimes, ignoring crimes with no economic motive.

Right Realism: Strengths

• Studies support RCT.

• Feldman found that people made rational decisions.

• Right Realism may explain some opportunistic crimes such as theft.

Right Realism: Limitations

• Rettig and Feldman’s studies were experiments, the results may not apply to real offenders.

• Bennett and Wright studied unsuccessful burglars. We don’t know if successful burglars think this way.

• Not all crimes are the result of rational choice. Violent crimes are often impulsive.

Values

• General principles, beliefs or guidelines about how we should live our lives.

• What is right and wrong

Norms

• Specific rules about how we should behave in specific situations

• Formal or informal

Mores

• Society’s most important moral rules