Chapter 2

Crime and Crime Causation

Types of Crime

Visible Crime

“Street crime”

Least profitable and not easy to hide

Three Categories:

• Violent Crimes

  • Acts against people in which death or physical injury results

  • The most serious offenses

  • Most often committed by people known to the victim, not strangers

• Property Crimes

  • acts that threaten property held by individuals or by the state.

• Public-order crimes

  • Acts that threaten the general well-being of society and challenge accepted moral principles

  • Often treated as minor offenses but scholars argue that heavier enforcement of these type of crimes can lessen the amount of other crimes

Occupational Crime

• Offenses committed through opportunities created in legal or business occupation

• Result in huge crimes to society

• Never discovered if “done right”

Organized Crime

• A framework for the perpetration of criminal acts, providing illegal services that are in great demand

• Highly organized

• Transnational and borderless

Transnational Crime

distinguishes profit-seeking transnational crimes—theft, fraud, counter-feiting, smuggling, and other violations of individual countries’ criminal laws—from “international crimes”—acts of terrorism, genocide, human rights abuses, or other violations of international law.

Three Categories:

Provision of Illicit Goods- drug trafficking and moving stolen property.

Provision of Illegal Services- human trafficking, child pornography

Infiltration of Business or Government- bribery, extortion, money laundering

Transnational crime is largely organized. Responding to transnational crime can be difficult because American police need permission to act in other countries, coordinating effort with different laws and priorities, and some countries tolerate or protect criminal organizations b/c of bribery and corruption.

Victimless Crime

“Victimless” because those involved don’t feel they’re being harmed.

Prosecution for these offenses is justified on the grounds that society as a whole is harmed because the moral fabric of the community is threatened.

• Willing and private exchange of goods or services

• Offenses against morality, society as a “whole”

  • Prostitution, gambling, drug sales and use

Political Crime

Crimes by or against the government done for ideological purposes. Political criminals believe their morality is above the law.

• Murder of abortion doctors, bombing of abortion clinics, release of classified documents

Cybercrime

“New ways to do old tricks”

Phishing, fraudulent financing, stealing data, hacking. Sharing sexual content without permission

• Use of computers to commit crimes

Measuring Crime

How Much Crime is There?

In criminal justice the amount of crimes committed isn’t perfectly clear. There remains many crimes, such as rape, that don’t get reported to the police.

The Uniform Crime Reports

• Statistical summary of crimes reported to the police

• Utilizes reports from local police agencies, who can falsify reports

• Reporting is voluntary

• Uses standard definition to ensure uniform data

National Incident-Based Reporting System

• police agencies are to report all crimes committed during an incident, not just the most serious one, as well as all available data on offenders, victims, and the places where they interact.

The National Crime Victimization Surveys

• “Self-reported” measure of crime from surveys of whether people have been victims of crime

• estimate how many crimes have occurred, learn more about the offenders, and note demographic patterns.

• Also measures serial (repeat) victimizations

• Relies on people’s perceptions of events and can be inaccurate in regards to whether a crime happened and when

The two main sources of crime data are the UCR and NCVS. There have been consistent declines since the 1990s in the number of crimes as well as crime rates for both violent and property crimes.

Crime Victimization

Victimology: field that focuses on who is victimized, the impact of crime, what happens to victims in the criminal justice system, the role victims play in causing the crimes they suffer

• Likelihood is increased for african americans and those with high levels socioeconomic disadvantages

• New practices and policies are focusing on sexual assault on college campuses and domestic violence cases

Who is Victimized

Lifestyle Exposure Theory: age, life, and income affect lifestyle, which in turn affects exposure to dangerous people and places.

Social media also plays a part in exposure to danger - strangers

Routine Activities Theory:  in order for a crime to occur, there must be people interested in committing crime, potential victims, and the lack of anyone “guarding” the victims

cybercrime , people using credit cards without antivirus protection and people looking to    steal that info

• A lot of crimes are intraracial (same race).

• economic factors largely determine where people live, work, and seek recreation. Exposure to crime and victimization is largely determined by lifestyle

Most robberies are committed by strangers, but sexual assault victims are more likely to be victimized by someone they know.

Consider context: robbers get away without being identified in large open areas or dark alleys, sexual assault happens in an isolated area generally by a trusted person, alone.

Some crimes committed by relatives will happen continuously because most people don’t want to put their family member in jail.

The Impact of Crime

Fear

• Fear limits crime

Costs of Crime

• Economic costs

  • Lost property, lower productivity, medical expenses

• Psychological and emotional costs

  • Pain, trauma, diminished quality of life

• Costs of operating the criminal justice system

  • Court services, law enforcement

Costs

• economic, psychological and emotional, cost of operating criminal justice system

Fear

Restricted freedom from anxiety of being victimized

The criminal justice system often treats victims hostiley. And they feel victimized twice: by the criminal and the criminal justice system

Many victims behave in ways that facilitate crimes committed against them (it’s not victims’ fault, they just have certain behaviors that don’t help them)

• Lacking common sense

• Provoking or enticing others to commit a crime

• Reluctance to seek prosecution and punishment

Causes of Crime

The Classical School

Criminal behavior is rational, and the fear of punishment keeps people from committing crimes.

Positivist Criminology

A school of criminology that views behavior as stemming from social, biological, and psychological factors. It argues that punishment should be tailored to the individual needs of the lawbreaker.

Social Structure Theories

Crime is created by the structure of society

General theory of strain

Negative emotions lead to negative behaviors (crime). Those who can’t cope with negative experiences may be predisposed to criminal activity.

Social Process Theories

Anybody has the potential to break the law, but some people are more likely to because of the circumstances of their lifestyle.

Learning Theories

People imitate and learn from each other, criminal behavior is learned

Theory of Differential Association

Criminal behavior is learned when a person encounters others who are favorably disposed toward crime rather than opposed to it.

Control Theories

Everyone has the potential to commit crime but is held back by social norms / others’ opinions

Labeling Theories

The labeling of certain acts as criminal or deviant and identifying people with such behaviors and labels makes them act as they are labeled.

Critical Criminology

Criminal law and the justice system are designed by those in power to oppress those not in power.

Social Conflict Theories

Crime is the result of conflict in societies. The criminal law is aimed at certain classes or groups because they’re labeled as deviant.

Feminist Theories

seek to incorporate an understanding of differences between the experiences and treatment of men and women while also integrating consideration of other factors, such as race and social class.

Life Course Theories

Identify factors that lead to criminal behavior, explain when and why people begin committing crimes, what causes people to stop committing crimes. Turning points in life can lead to or away from criminal behavior i.e. military service, employment, and marriage

gender differences in crime.

• The lawbreaking behavior of women has only recently been studied. Some argue that as society increas-ingly treats women and men as equals, the number of crimes committed by women will increase.

●Theories of criminality are criticized for focusing too exclusively on males who live in poor neighborhoods without enough attention to women and to white-collar crimes and other lawbreaking by wealthier Americans.

Integrated theories