Criminology Notes

Criminology and the Sociological Perspective

  • Criminologists study:
    • The making and breaking of laws.
    • Society's reaction to law-breaking.
    • Scientific study of the creation of criminal law.
    • Causes and dynamics of criminal behavior.
    • Society's attempts to punish, control, and prevent crime through the criminal justice system (CJS) and other efforts.
  • Crime as a Social Problem:
    • Investigates social structures, inequalities, and norms.
    • Examines how these factors affect criminal behavior and society's reaction.
  • Critical Thinking About Crime (Barkan):
    • The definition of crime is not straightforward.
    • Crime derives from the larger study of deviant behavior, which is relative through space and time.
    • Punitive action does not solve the root problem of crime.
  • Factors Criminologists Consider:
    • Inequalities.
    • Social structures.
    • Cultural norms.
  • Criminogenic Conditions:
    • Crime-causing conditions in neighborhoods include poverty, residential instability, and certain social and physical conditions.
  • Structural Criminology:
    • How social structures contribute to crime.
  • Importance of Studying Social Control of Crime:
    • Helps understand why crime happens.
    • Helps understand how society handles crime.

The Social Construction of Drug Scares

  • Social Construction:
    • Realities socially created through human interaction.
  • Social Construction Relation to Crime:
    • [The transcript does not elaborate on this].
  • Social Construction of Drug Scares:
    • [The transcript does not elaborate on this].
  • Source of Drug Scares:
    • Drug scares are not primarily based on the drug itself.

Understanding the Study of Crime

  • Agenda:
    • Curing social issues like poverty won't completely stop crime.
  • Drug Scares (Reinarman):
    • [The transcript does not elaborate on Renairman's findings regarding social control and drugs].
  • Ten Fallacies About Crime (Felson):
    • Dramatic Fallacy: Overstating the amount and impact of crime committed.
    • Cops and Courts Fallacy: Overstating the effectiveness and role of the criminal justice system; only a small percentage of cases go to trial, and police are primarily reactive.
    • "Not Me" Fallacy: Thinking that one is not or cannot be a criminal.
    • Innocent Youth Fallacy: Assuming youth are innocent; crime is often committed by young people.
    • Ingenuity Fallacy: Overestimating the skills needed to commit crime; most crime is spontaneous.
    • Organized Crime Fallacy: Thinking crime is highly organized when it is mainly individual acts.
    • Juvenile Gang Fallacy: Overstating the organization and purpose of juvenile gangs; their crime is often petty and uncoordinated.
    • Welfare State Fallacy: Underestimating the connection between social issues (e.g., poverty, unemployment) and crime.
    • Whatever You Think Fallacy: Believing opinions about crime are valid without prior knowledge.
  • Importance of Understanding the Fallacies:
    • To resist them when confronted.
    • To make informed decisions.
    • To prevent biased reactions.
  • Why Correct the Fallacies?
    • They mislead individuals.
    • They create stereotypes.
    • They lead to an ineffective criminal justice system.
  • Reasons for Believing the Fallacies:
    • Media influence.
    • Environment.
    • Personal biases.
    • Lack of critical thinking.
  • Truth vs. Fallacy:
    • Young people are not all innocent.
    • Individuals may be criminals without realizing it.
    • Victims may be in denial about being outsmarted.
    • Distorted images of organized crime are common.
  • Risk of Crime Victimization:
    • Americans are not good at estimating their risk of crime victimization and often overestimate it.
  • Importance of Overestimation:
    • Overestimation affects ideas about policies to implement.

Crime Trends and Perceptions

  • Media Influence:
    • The media we consume leads us to believe serious crime is more common.
  • Overall Crime Trend:
    • Both violent and property crime are decreasing, but violent crime is significantly lower.
  • Why Americans Overestimate Crime:
    • Data collection challenges make it hard to assess crime rates.
    • Not all crimes are reported.
    • News focuses on serious crimes.
    • Influence of media, word of mouth, and biases.
  • Difficulty in Correcting Perceptions:
    • Complex data is hard to understand.
    • Personal biases interfere.

Social Control and Inequality in Policing

  • Racial Profiling and Contraband:
    • [The transcript does not provide the authors central argument or evidence used].
  • Racial Profiling and Contraband:
    • [The transcript does not elaborate on the realtionship between racial profiling and the carrying of contraband].
  • Racial Disparities in Police Stops:
    • [The transcript does not provide what the studies show about how often different races are stopped by the police and how often they have contraband].
  • DWB (Driving While Black):
    • [The transcript does not elaborate on why DWB matters].
  • Self-Fulfilling Prophecy:
    • Discrimination in policing creates a "self-fulfilling prophecy that denies the presence of drugs in white suburbia."
  • Effect on Prison Rates:
    • [The transcript does not elaborate on how this discrimination affect prison rates among people of color].
  • DWB and Movement:
    • [The transcript does not elaborate on how DWB restrict the movement of Black People].
  • Invisible Punishments:
    • [The transcript does not elaborate on the invisible punishments that occur after a prison term].
  • Disparities in the CJS:
    • [The transcript does not elaborate at which stage of the CJS decision-making process disparities can happen].
  • DWB Studies:
    • [The transcript does not elaborate on what the DWB studies show].
  • Pretextual Stops:
    • [The transcript does not elaborate on the problem with pretextual stops].
  • Prosecutorial Conduct:
    • [The transcript does not elaborate on how prosecutorial conduct might result in racial bias].
  • Race in Jury Trials:
    • [The transcript does not elaborate on how race plays out in jury trials].

Qualified Immunity

  • Qualified Immunity:
    • [The transcript does not provide the author's studying and what their conclusion is].
  • Qualified Immunity:
    • [The transcript does not elaborate on what qualified immunity is].
  • History and Evolution:
    • [The transcript does not elaborate on the history and evolution of qualified immunity].
  • Qualified Immunity and Police Shootings:
    • [The transcript does not elaborate on what the authors argue about qualified immunity and recent cases of police shootings].
  • Prevention of Unnecessary Harm:
    • [The transcript does not elaborate on what they argue about the prevention of unnecessary harm].
  • Life-Threatening Restraint Techniques:
    • [The transcript does not elaborate on what we know about life-threatening restraint techniques].
  • Contagious Shootings:
    • [The transcript does not elaborate on what we know about contagious shootings].

Social Control and Inequality in Prosecution

  • Factors in Charging Decisions:
    • [The transcript does not elaborate on the factors prosecutors use to decide to charge or not].
  • Guilty Plea Bargains:
    • [The transcript does not provide the percent of cases that are settled with a guilty plea bargain].
  • Proportionality Assessments:
    • [The transcript does not elaborate on proportianlity assesments].
  • Policy Arguments:
    • [The transcript does not elaborate on what policies the authors argue].
  • Prosecutorial Power:
    • Prosecutors have the most power in the Criminal Justice System and the greatest impact.
    • Their biases can lead to racial disparities in charging, plea bargains, and sentencing.
  • Power in the CJS:
    • Prosecutors frequently predetermine the outcome of criminal cases.
    • They decide whether to charge, offer plea bargains, and determine the terms.
  • Bias in Charging:
    • Decisions result in blacks being treated worse than white counterparts.
    • Prosecutors drive the entire system.
  • Bias in Plea-Bargaining:
    • Black defendants are offered harsher deals compared to white counterparts.
    • They often accept unfair deals to avoid longer sentences.
  • Past Experiences with Racial Profiling (Davis):
    • The police and procedures are racially biased.
  • Impact on Black Men as Defendants:
    • Can lead to disproportionate, unfair, and harsh charges/sentences.
  • Impact on Black Men as Victims:
    • Can lead to under-charging and under-representation of Black victims.
    • Defendants should be charged the same regardless of the victim's race.
  • Jena 6 Case:
    • Six kids charged with murder after a school fight.
  • Law Supporting Discrimination:
    • Prosecutors have discretion in charging, plea bargaining, and sentencing.
  • Black Prosecutors and Racial Bias:
    • Diversity helps but won't fix the problem.
    • Solution lies in electing prosecutors who prioritize racial fairness.

Factors Driving Incarceration Rates

  • Policy Changes and Incarceration Rates: 3 policy changes drove the increase in incarceration- mandatory minimums for less serious offences, adoption of very long sentences, and three strikes laws
  • Increase in Incarceration Rates:
    • Drug Arrests: Black were 2x more likely to be arrested for a drug arrest than a white.
  • Prosecution and Racial Justice Program (PRJ):
    • Works to improve justice systems.
    • Enhances prosecutorial accountability and performance through partnerships with prosecutors' offices.
    • Evidence of effectiveness shown through statistical studies revealing changes.

Social Control and Inequality in Corrections

  • Central Argument:
    • Mass incarceration is traced to rapid social and economic change.
    • Conservative backlash to civil rights politics in the 1960s.
    • Transformation of criminal justice policy in the 1970s.
  • Effect of Prison as a Response:
    • Punitive punishment alone doesn't rehabilitate individuals.
    • Linked to poverty and disproportionately affects Black communities.
  • Conditions Tied to Mass Incarceration:
    • Rapid social and economic change.
    • Conservative backlash to civil rights politics in the 1960s.
    • Transformation of criminal justice policy, intensifying prosecution and punishment of drug offenses.
    • Required prison time for minor offenses and implemented very long sentences, particularly for violence.
  • Effect on Black Communities:
    • Blacks were targeted more often, leading to residential and employment segregation.
    • Blacks were often scapegoated during political movements like the drug wars, even though they were using drugs less.
  • Unemployment and Incarceration:
    • Unemployment leads to impoverishment and homelessness.
    • Forces individuals onto the streets and into selling drugs.
    • Lack of rehabilitation and difficulty getting hired creates a cycle.
  • Inner-City Employment Problems:
    • Lack of stable employment leads to economic desperation.
    • Companies moving from the city to the country or overseas leaves a group of people without jobs, causing them to turn to the streets.
  • Public/Private Space and Police Attention:
    • Police heavily survey inner-city areas.
    • Crimes happen everywhere, but suburban individuals have resources to hide their crimes, while impoverished individuals engage in crime in public spaces.
  • War on Drugs Connection:
  • Sentencing Policy and Racial Disparity:
    • Puts blacks at a disadvantage in employment, financial stability, voting rights, etc.
  • Incarceration Rates and Offending Rates:
    • Incarceration rates don't reflect actual rates of offending, especially for drug use/sales.
    • White people use drugs more but go to jail less.
    • Higher incarceration rate does not lower crime.
  • Conditions of Confinement:
    • Overcrowding, solitary confinement.
    • Black inmates are less likely to get rehabilitation.
    • Causes or worsens mental illness.
  • Consequences of Incarceration:
    • Crime is not affected.
    • Disrupts family structures, employment, and finances for individuals, leading to stigmatization.
  • Needed Actions:
    • Socially reintegrate people instead of resulting in punishment.
    • Give job skills to those in prison.
    • Basic fairness and a system that treats everyone equally.
    • More trust in our communities.

Racial Disparities in Death Penalty

  • 2019 Analysis:
    • Racial disparity disproportionately focused on white victims and targeting Black defendants with white victims.
  • Disparity in Death Penalty Cases:
    • Found at every stage of capital punishment process.
    • Examples: policing and charging practices, jury selection and jury verdicts (sentencing and punishments).
  • "Race of the Victim" Effect:
    • White victims are more likely to get someone sentenced than Black victims.
    • Belief that the value of a victim has to do with race, leading to an unequal death penalty.
  • Trend in Racial Disparity on Death Row:
    • White defendants have decreased, while Black and Latinx have increased.
  • Death Penalty Statistics:
    • [The transcript does not mention if the death penalty is more or less expensive].
    • [The transcript does not mention if the deterence of the death penalty is supported by data].
    • [The transcript does not mention is the fairness of the death penalty is supported by data].
    • [The transcript does not mention the public support of the death penalty].
    • [The transcript does not mention if people wrongfully sentenced].
  • Cost of Death Penalty:
    • More expensive than life imprisonment.
  • Deterrence:
    • Doesn't deter crime more than other punishments.
  • Public Opinion:
    • Public support has declined.
  • Wrongful Convictions:
    • 185 people have been wrongfully convicted.