4.2: Defining Crime

Types of Crime

  • Index crime: street crime
    • Defined by the FBI as the most serious
    • Violent offenses or crimes against a person
    • Eg. homicide, assault, rape, robbery
    • Classic rape: rape committed by a stranger, with the use of a weapon, resulting in serious bodily injury to the victim
    • Acquaintance rape: rape committed by someone known to the victim
    • Crimes against property
    • Eg. larceny, motor vehicle theft, burglary, arson
    • Larceny: simple theft which does not entail force or the use of force, or breaking and entering
  • Vice crime/victimless crime: illegal activities that have no complaining participant(s) and are often thought of as crimes against morality
    • Eg. illegal drugs, engaging in or soliciting prostitution, illegal gambling, pornography
  • Organized crime: activity conducted by members of an organization arranged in a hierarchal structure devoted primarily to making money through illegal means
  • White collar crime: fraud committed by business and government professionals
    • Characterized by deceit, concealment, or violation of trust
    • Motivated by financial gain and do not use physical threat or violence
    • Reasons for lack of punishment in white collar crime:
    • Organizations dismiss parties involved
    • Crimes go undetected within the complex bureaucracies of organizations
    • Prosecution is difficult due to the burden of time and resources
      • Deferred Prosecution Agreements (DPAs) do not require a guilty plea and are used as alternatives to adjudication and usually only require large fine by offending entity
  • Occupational crime: motivated by financial individual gain and include employee theft, embezzlement, and insurance fraud
  • Corporate crime: benefits a business entity
    • Eg. price fixing, antitrust violations (unfair practices to shut out other competing corporations), security fraud (illegal investment behaviors)
    • Corporate violence: the production of unsafe products and failure to provide a safe working environment for employees
  • Political crime: against the government or serves the interests of government officials
  • Cybercrime/computer crime: electronic devices are the targets or means of criminal activity
    • Eg. hacking, identity theft, internet fraud, ransomware, online child pornography, child sexual exploitation
    • Ransomware: a form of malware intrusion in which a criminal holds an individual’s or company’s computer “hostage”
    • Identity theft was the second common consumer complaint in 2019.
    • Individuals with low levels of self-control, risk avoidance, and self-awareness, along with high levels of trust, are more susceptible to internet fraud.
    • Online gaming is a common target for child sexual exploitation.
  • Juvenile delinquency and gangs
    • Status offense: a violation that can only be committed by a minor
    • Eg. running away from home, truancy, underage drinking
    • Delinquent offense: a violation that can also be committed by adults
    • Excluding traffic violations, minors were 7% of all arrests in 2019
    • Like adults, juveniles commit a higher number of property than violent crimes, and males are more likely to be arrested than females.
    • Mara Salvatrucha (MS13)
    • One of the largest gangs in the United States
    • Originated in the 1970s in Los Angeles by El Salvadorian refugees
    • Primarily a social organization and secondarily a criminal organization

Demographic Patterns of Crime

Gender
  • Women are less likely to commit crime than men.
  • 2015–2019 arrest rates for women increased but gender gap remains
  • Feminist criminology: focuses on gender inequality crime and victimhood
    • Arrest rates for runaway juvenile females are higher than males due to sexual abuse in homes and paternalistic attitudes by police toward girls.
  • Differential involvement: the idea that certain groups of people are more likely to be involved in crime
    • Eg. men are statistically more likely to commit crime than women
Age
  • Criminal activity is more common among younger than older people.
    • Protected from many of the legal penalties.
    • More likely to be unemployed or employed in low-wage jobs.
    • Peer influence is stronger.
Race and Social Class
  • Black people are 13% of population but account for 36.4% of all arrests for violent offenses and 29.8% of all arrests for property offenses.
    • Difference in police practices in Black and White neighborhoods
    • In cities with Black mayors or a civilian police review boards, the percentage of Black residents in a neighborhood do not predict violent crime.
  • Racial profiling: the practice of targeting suspects based on race
  • People of color are overrepresented in the lower classes.
Region
  • Violent crime rates increase as population size increases.
    • Social control is higher in small groups that socialize their members to engage in law-abiding behavior.
    • Large concentrations of poor and unemployed people often correlate with higher crime rates.
  • Violent and property crimes are highest in southern states.
    • High rates of poverty
    • High rates of gun ownership
    • Warmer climate that facilitates victimization by increasing the frequency of social interaction
    • Can be explained by subculture of violence theory
Victimization Experiences
  • Women have a higher rate than men.
  • People of color have a higher rate than white people.
  • People between the ages of 18-24 have a higher rate than the general population.

Societal Costs of Crime and Social Control

  • Physical injury and loss of life
    • Eg. Environmental pollutants produced by multinational corporations.
    • U.S. Public Health Service cited violence as one of the top health concerns facing Americans.
  • High price of crime
    • Direct losses and illicit transfer of property due to crimes
    • Medical spending and economic losses of criminal violence
    • Spending on illicit activities
    • Consumer spending on prevention and protection
    • Government spending to control crime
  • Social and psychological costs
    • Public fear shapes individual and social actions.
    • Americans believe crime is a serious problem.
    • Safety gender gap: women express significantly lower rates of feeling safe than men
  • Cost to children and families
    • 50% of adults have experienced having a family member in jail or prison.
    • Financial toll including bail, court costs, restitution, loss of income, etc.
    • Physical and mental health consequences
    • Family stability suffers

Strategies for Action

  • Local crime-fighting initiatives
    • Technology
    • Hard technology: drones, metal detectors, biometric surveillance, etc.
      • Biometric surveillance: surveillance used to identify a specific person through the imaging of their distinct physical characteristics
    • Soft technology: Amber Alert, social media, facial recognition, etc.
    • Youth and community programs
  • Rethinking law enforcement practices
    • Overt differential law enforcement: police officer biases
    • Covert differential law enforcement: cultural and structural factors
    • Differential involvement: frequency with law based on behaviors
    • Breeding ground hypothesis: argues that incarceration serves to increase criminal behavior through the transmission of criminal skills, techniques, and motivations
  • Criminal justice policy
    • U.S. criminal justice system is based on deterrence or the threat of harm.
    • Rehabilitation versus incapacitation and impact on recidivism (reoffending)
    • Breeding ground hypothesis: argues that incarceration increases because people learn criminal skills in prisons
    • Lowering prison sentences and capital punishment reform could be an option in lowering recidivism rates
    • Qualified immunity: a legal principle that protects police officers from lawsuits if, at the time of their alleged misconduct, they did not know their behavior was unlawful
    • Probation vs. incapacitation
    • Probation: the conditional release of an offender who, for a specific time period and subject to certain conditions, remains under court supervision in the community
    • Incapacitation: criminal justice philosophy that argues that recidivism can be reduced by placing offenders in prison so that they are unable to commit further crimes against the general public
      • Parole: release from prison, for a specific time period and subject to certain conditions, before an inmate’s sentence is finished
  • Federal and state laws
    • Gun control and other policies
  • International efforts
    • Interpol: the largest international police organization in the world