CRIM 101 MIDTERM.docx

Introduction to criminal justice: Chapter 1 

 

What is Criminology?

  •  “Scientific study of crime”, 
  • Scientific study of criminal behavior - (Siegal & McCormick, 2024)
  • Study of crime and criminality relatively recent development 
  • Crime is the event and criminality is a personality trait

Founder of SFU Criminology

  • Also, the founder of victimization 
  • Influenced Canada to abolish death penalty after coming here from Egypt  
  • 4 traditional crimes 
  • Murder isn't self defense, right to defense of others (family, friends, and property) 
  • Force used against you has to be met with the same amount of force for it to be considered self defense ex: punch can’t be met with pulling out a gun. 
  • Not helping someone while they’re drowning isn’t a crime, contributing to their drowning is a crime. Interjurisdictional crime in Quebec it would be considered a crime.

 

Criminology in Canada 

  • Study of crime in universities began in 1950 
  • First criminology program in Canada appeared at UBC in 1951 (terminated in 1959)

 

Multidisciplinary Science 

  • Draws from sociology, psychology, biology, history, geography, economics
  • Includes the study and history of law
  • Integrated approach to studying criminal behavior 
  • Combines elements from other fields to understand the study of crime

 

Criminology and Criminal Justice

  • Criminologists explain origin, extent, and nature of crime
  • Criminal Justice scholars describe and analyze the work of the police, courts, and correctional facilities,

 

Crime and Deviance 

  • Deviance = behavior that departs from social norms but not always subject to formal sanction ex: sunbathing in the nude
  • Not all crimes are deviant ex: speeding isn’t a crime but motor vehicle violation it is done by everyone; not all deviant acts are illegal or criminal  ex: cross-dressing man dressing as a woman 
  • Many criminal acts fall under the concept of deviance  
  • Some deviant acts, but not all, considered crimes 

 

Criminalization 

  • Has been the subject of considerable scrutiny
  • Criminalization process = to define an act as a crime thereby subjecting that act to formal punishment 
  • Decriminalization = reducing the penalty for a criminal act and its legality
  • Who is defining a person and/or behavior as criminal? People in our society who are in a position of power 
  • Ex: Marijuana is considered a gateway drug, Abortion is legal in Canada, banned in other countries, and some countries only consider it if the woman was raped.  
  • Being homeless is not illegal but the behaviors they participate in are criminal actions 

 

Crime and Media

  • Crime is widely reported by all news media 
  • Public fascination with crime ex: serial killers 
  • Little relationship between crime news and the amount of crime (fault of the media)
  • Media focuses on violent crime which is relatively rare
  • Ignores relationship between crime and broader social conditions ex: poverty, homelessness, racism would be the broader social conditions media tends to ignore 

Crime and Criminology

 

History:

  • During Middle Ages, people who violated social norms/religious practices believed to be witches or demonically possession
  • Prescribed method of dealing with them was to burn them at the stake
  • Most common method way of putting to death those accused of witchcraft or heresy
  • An estimated 100,000 people prosecuted for witchcraft throughout Europe during 16th & 17th centuries
  • Roughly 80% of those prosecuted were women

 

Classical Criminology

  • By mid 18th century, social philosophers began to call on lawmakers to rethink concepts of law and justice
  • Argued for a more rational approach to punishment
  • Relationship between crime and punishment should be balanced and fair
  • Emphasized behavior is purposeful, not motivated by supernatural forces
  • Views based on the concept of Utilitarianism: Producing the greatest good for the greatest number
  • Key contributors: Cesare Beccaria, Jeremy Bentham
  • Beccaria's writings described both a motive for crime and methods for its control
  • He believed that people wanted to achieve pleasure and avoid pain

Several basic ideas:

  • People freely choose criminal or lawful solutions
  • Criminal choices may be more attractive
  • Criminal solutions controlled by fear or punishment
  • Punishments should be severe, certain, and swift

 

Positivist Criminology

  • During late 19th century, new movement presented innovative way of looking at causes of crime
  • Scientific method known as positivism could be used to study human behavior
  • Scientific methods applied to understand criminality
  • Positivism has two main elements:
  1. Human behavior functional of external forces beyond individual control (social, psychological, biology)
  2. Use of scientific method to solve problems

Key Contributors: Auguste Comte, Cesare Lombroso

 

Comparison of Key Concepts

Classical School

Positivist School

    • Free will
    • Hedonism
    • Emphasis on offender
    • Punishment
    • Determinism
    • Multiple causes
    • Emphasis on offense
    • Rehabilitation

 

Cesare Lombroso: Father of modern criminology

 

Positivist Criminology

  • By mid-19th century, scientific methods were being applied to understand criminality; earliest being biological
  • Early attempts looked at facial features of criminals and distances between them were associated with antisocial behavior
  • Phrenologists studied the shape of the skull and bumps on head to determine if these physical attributes were linked to criminal behavior
  • Primitive techniques, quasi-scientific methods have been discredited
  • These efforts were an early attempt to apply a scientific approach to studying crime s

 

Lombroso: The Born Criminal

  • In Italy, Lombroso studied cadavers of executed criminals to scientifically determine whether law violators were physically different from non-law violators
  • Studied physical characteristics or features of criminals
  • Key ideas of Lombroso's theory:
    • Offenders are born criminal because they have inherited criminal traits that impel them into a life of crime
    • Born criminals suffer from atavistic anomalies (or traits); evolutionary "throwbacks" ex: enormous jaws, strong canine teeth
  • Atavism: criminals are less developed, more primitive, more violent

 

Atavistic Man

Criminal Characteristics:

  • A twisted nose
  • Excessive cheekbones
  • Long arms
  • Excessive wrinkles
  • Large jaw
  • Large chin

 

Lombroso cont'd

  • Criminogenic traits acquired through:

Indirect heredity (primary cause of crime)

  • Degenerate family with frequent cases of insanity, deafness, syphilis, epilepsy, alcoholism

Direct heredity (second primary cause of crime)

  • Such theories accepted at the time but had no scientific backing

 

Sociological Criminology

  • Developed to scientifically study major social changes in the 19th century
    • Population explosion (people flocking to cities in rising numbers)
    • Rise of factory system (working hard for low wages)
    • Spread of agriculture machines (increased food supply while reducing need for rural workforce)
  • Key contributor: Emile Durkheim

 

Emile Durkheim

  • One of the founders of sociology and significant contributor of criminology
  • Argued crime is normal; existed at every stage in both poverty and prosperity
  • Inevitability of crime linked to human differences
  • Described consequences of the shift from a small, rural society (mechanical), to more modern organic society
  • Shift in society accompanied by chaos, disarray & loss of traditional values

ANOMIE: state of normlessness

 

The Chicago School

  • Sociological positivism secured by research conducted in early 20th century by Park, Burgess and colleagues
  • These sociologists pioneered research on social ecology of the city and study of urban crime
  • Concluded social forces operation in urban areas create criminal interactions making some neighbourhoods natural areas for crime
  • Urban neighbourhoods maintain such a high level of poverty that critical social institutions breakdown
  • Results in social disorganization reducing ability of social institutions to control behavior: outcome is high crime rate
  • These sociologists focused on functions of social institutions and how their breakdown influences behavior
  • By mid-20th century, most criminologists embraced ecological or socialization view of crime

 

Conflict Criminology

  • In Europe, writings of Karl Marx pushed understanding of social interaction in another direction
  • Oppressive labour conditions prevalent during rise of industrial capitalism led Marx to conclude character of society determined by the way people develop and produce material goods
  • Crime is a function of competition of resources and power
  • Most important relationship was based on economic system:
    • Owners of the means of production = bourgeoisie
    • People who do actual labour = proletariat
  • Exploitation of working class led to class conflict
  • Marx did not develop a theory of crime; writings applied to legal studies by other scholars
  • Writings laid the foundation of Marxist criminology
  • Sociologists became interested in applying Marxist principles to the study of crime
  • Began to analyze social conditions that were felt to promote class conflict and crime
  • Conflict-oriented radical criminology emerged in the 1970s that indicated economic system produced conditions that support high crime rate

 

Three views of Crime

Consensus Model:

  • Criminal law reflects values, beliefs opinions of society
  • The law defines crime
  • General agreement exists among a majority of people on what behaviors should be outlawed and what behaviors viewed as crimes ex: homicide
  • Approach implies law is applied uniformly to everyone

Conflict model:

  • Diverse group of people in society who are embedded in conflict
  • Definition of crime controlled by wealth, power, position
  • Crime is a political concept designed to protect power & position of upper classes
    • Ex. Contrast harsh penalties exacted on poor for street crimes with minor penalties the wealthy receive for white-collar crimes
  • The law is a tool of the ruling class and used to control underclass

Interactionist Model:

  • Based in symbolic interaction school of sociology
  • Definition of crime reflects preferences and opinions of people who impose their definitions of right and wrong on society
  • Crimes are illegal because society defines them that way not because they are inherently evil
  • See criminal law as conforming to the belief of moral entrepreneurs who use their influence to shape legal process
    • Ex. Laws against pornography, prostitution, and drugs motivated by moral crusaders
  • Criminal labels are life-transforming events

The Criminal Law and Its Process

 

Introduction:

  • Criminal law controls formal definition and content of crime
  • Criminal law is living concept, constantly evolving
  • Governs form and direction of almost all human interaction set out by the legal code, ex: Business practices, family life, education, property transfer, inheritance
  • The law defines the behaviors that society labels as criminal
  • Derived from common law inherited from England but now embody statues passes into legislation by parliament, governed by Charter

 

The Origins of Law

  • Crimes were recognized in many early societies
  • In preliterate societies, customs and tradition were equivalent of laws
  • Early Legal Codes
    • Code of Hammurabi:
      • First written criminal code developed in Babylonia about 2000 BCE
      • Punishment was based on physical retaliation; "an eye for an eye"
      • Severity of punishment depended on class standing
    • Mosaic Code
      • Covenant between God and the tribes of Israel
      • Agreed to obey God's law in return for his special care and protection
      • Code is foundation of Judeo-Christian moral teachings

 

Common Law

  • Ancient legal codes had been lost; law and crime guided by superstition and local customs during Middle ages
  • In England, common law developed and standardize law & justice
  • Became the foundation for Canada's legal system
  • Meant to apply to people without regard to social differences
  • Common law is a "judge-made" law
  • Case law derived from precedent

 

Statutory Law

  • Statutory law passed by Parliament through popular acclamation
  • Replaced common law in Canada generally after 1892
  • Reflects existing social conditions that deal with morality
    • Ex. Gambling, sexual activity, drug-related offences
  • Heroin, opium, cocaine were legal to use in Canada
  • Concern over use of narcotics led to criminalization of opium

 

Definitions

  • Common Law- Early English law developed by judges
  • Common Law became standardized formed basis of criminal law in Canada
  • Common law offences were eliminated but common law defenses still exist
  • Statuary law – A written law passed by a legislative body

 

Classification of Law

  • Three most important classifications
  1. Crimes and torts
  2. Indictable or summary offences
  3. Mala in se and mala prohibitum
  • Law can be divided into two broad, exclusive categories:
    • Criminal Law
    • Civil law

 

Civil Law

  • Includes property law, contract law, tort law
  • Tort is a civil action whereby an individual seeks to be compensated for personal harm caused by actions of another
  • Harm could be physical or mental
    • Trespass, assault and battery, invasion of privacy, slander
  • Tort can also occur when a behavior is an indirect cause of injury
  • A person can be held both criminally and civilly liable for one action

 

Criminal Law

Can be further classified as:

  1. Indictable offence = serious crime such as murder
  2. Summary offence = minor petty crime such as loitering or vagrancy

Main difference involve procedure and penalty

  • Summary offences
    • Six-month limitation period on prosecution
    • Case heard in provincial or territorial court
    • Maximum fine of $2000 or six-month jail term or both
  • Indictable offences
    • No limitation period on prosecution
    • Can result in more serious penalties
    • Choice of trial by judge or jury
    • Preliminary inquiry to determine if enough admissible evidence exists to result in conviction

 

Criminal Justice Process

  • Incident must be reported to the police
  • Police decide whether incident is founded in fact
  • Charges may or may not be laid
  • If charges are laid, prosecution decides how case will proceed
  • If case makes it to court, defendant can be found guilty or acquitted
  • A distinction between criminal guilt and legal innocence
  • If defendant is found guilty, various options are available to pursue

 

Mala in Se and Mala Prohibitum

Criminologists classify crimes into two categories:

  • Mala in se = crimes are wrong itself;
  • Inflicting physical harm: assault, rape, murder
  • Taking possessions that belong to another: larceny, burglary, robbery
  • Harming another's property: damage, trespass
  • Mala prohibitum = crimes involve violations of laws (not morally wrong)
  • Examples: drug use, possession of unlicensed handguns

 

Case study example: Gay pornography was confiscated at the border whereas heterosexual pornography was not? Can you think of reasons why?

 

Functions of the Criminal Law

  • From the consensus point of view, criminal codes functions are:
    • Providing social control
    • Discouraging revenge
    • Expressing public opinion and morality
    • Deterring criminal behavior
    • Maintaining social order

 

Legal Definitions of a Crime

  • Two elements must be present before one is convicted of a crime:
    • Actus reus: criminal act itself; must be voluntary
  • EX: taking money or shooting someone
    • Mens rea: intent to commit criminal act; "guilty mind"
  • Intend is defined as carrying out an act intentionally, knowingly, or willingly;
  • Transferred intent = situation in which a person intends to commit a crime against another but injures another party instead
  • Constructive intent: Harm resulted from a person acting negligently or recklessly
    • Ex: drunk driver hits a pedestrian; criminal negligence exists
  • Strict-Liability = illegal acts with no need for intent; acts endanger public
    • Ex: illegal dumping of toxic wastes or speeding

 

Criminal Defenses

  • Ignorance or mistake
  • Not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder (NCRMD)
  • Intoxication
  • Duress
  • Necessity
  • Self-defense
  • Entrapment

The Nature and Extent of Crime

 

Official Sources of Crime

 

The Uniform Crime Report (UCR)

• CCJS collects information on crime reported by police since 1962

• Aggregate count based on 1,200 police detachments comprising 215 different police forces across Canada

• Represents crimes substantiated through police investigation

• Primary source about crime patterns

• 1984 – UCR revised to include more detailed information including offender/victim characteristics (ex. age, sex, victim-offender relationship) and incident characteristics (ex. location, time)

• UCR2 uses incident-based data of how and why offences occur

Crime Severity Index (CSI) created to reflect different rates in volume and seriousness of different crimes

• Assigns a weight to different crimes (ex. murder will have higher weight than mischief)

• By weighting crimes, CSI allows more-serious but lower-volume offences to have a greater impact on crime rate rather than high-volume less serious offences

 

Collecting the UCR

Each month, police agencies report to the CCJS the incidence or number of crimes known to them

• This crime database only represents what police know about crime

• Crimes determined to be unfounded or false eliminated from count

• Founded crimes reported even if no one is arrested, if stolen property never recovered, or if prosecution never undertaken

• An important way of expressing crime data is the crime rate per 100,000

• Crime rate = dividing the total crimes/population x 100,000

 

UCR Data

  • Crimes actually committed
  • Crimes reported to police
  • Crimes recorded
  • UCR reflects crimes recorded
  • Dark figure of crime - crimes that occur that are never reported to police

 

Accuracy of the UCR

5 main limitations of UCR:

  • Reporting practices
  • Law enforcement practices
  • Legal definitions
  • Media practices
  • Methodological problems

 

Reporting Practices

  • Many serious crimes not reported to police and do not become part of UCR
  • Many crimes are report-sensitive (willingness to report crime)
  • Reasons for not reporting crime vary
  • Given difficulties posed with under-reporting, victimization surveys are used to measure crimes not reported to police
  • Used in many countries to complement UCR data
  • GSS shows more crimes reported by victims in survey than reported to police

 

Law Enforcement Practices

  • Ways police departments enforce and record criminal/ delinquent activity affect validity of UCR statistics
    Some crimes are police-sensitive (ex. Drug crime)
  • Differences in charge rates as a result of police discretion
  • Law enforcement interpret definitions of crimes differently
  • Crimes rates affected by the way law enforcement process UCR data
  • Ways in which police enforce the law affects crimes rates (ex prostitution)

 

Legal definitions

  • Changes in law can affect crimes rates
    • Ex. Amendments to criminal code broadened definition of arson to include mischief or suspicious fires
  • Example of definition-sensitive crime = sexual assault
    • Before 1983, a man could not be charged with sexually assaulting his wife
  • Other legislative changes affected criminal justice statistics:
    • YCJA- divert youth who have committed non-violent offences from CJS
    • Breathalyzer legislation introduced which criminalized impaired driving

 

Media Practices

  • Distorted media coverages sensitizes public to fear crime
    • This results in police enforcement or legislative changes
  • Public concern over youth crime
    • Overexposure to relatively infrequent type of crime
    • Violent youth crime over-represented; property crime under-represented
  • Discrepancy between reality and perception = media coverage
  • Media sensitivity
    • Instead of sensitizing us to the idea certain people commit crimes (ex. Youth)
    • Media can make people see themselves as a victimized group

 

Methodological Problems

  • Definition of crime can change
  • Non-violent crimes are under-reported
  • Cases screened as founded and unfounded
  • "cleared by charge" may not happen same time offence occurred
  • Reports vary in accuracy and completeness
  • If an offender commits multiple crimes, only most serious is recorded
  • Each act listed as a single offence for some crimes but not others

 

Self-Reported Data

  • Limitations of official data, led to alternative sources
  • Criminologists use self-report surveys to supplement police data
  • Self-report studies ask participants to reveal their law violations
    • Interviews with people who have been arrested or imprisoned
    • Subjected can be telephoned at home or mailed a survey
  • Most often anonymous self-report questionnaires administered to large groups
  • Another way to address dark figure of crime

 

Self Reports

  • Most self-reported data focus on young offenders & youth crime
  • School setting makes it convenient to test thousands of subjects
  • Also used to examine offence histories of offenders, drug users
  • Particularly useful for assessing substance abuse
  • Measuring subject attitudes, values, personal characteristics, and behaviors
  • Can be used to measure association between crime and family relations, educational attainment, and income
  • Provides better distribution of criminality than official data
  • Allows for evolution of distribution of criminal behavior across race, class, and gender to see if official data are truly representative
  • Official data may reflect, bias, discrimination or selective enforcement
  • Provide significant information about offenders, not used often

 

Accuracy of Self-Reports

  • Some limitations
    • Individuals will not openly admit illegal acts
    • Some people may exaggerate their criminal acts
    • May forget acts
    • Confused about question(s)
  • Most survey questions are trivial but lumped together with serious crimes making it hard to compare groups
  • Validity hard to ascertain because nothing reliable to measure against
  • Techniques used to verify self-reported data
    • "Known group" method
    • Compares incarcerated youths to "normal group"

 

"Missing Cases" Issue

  • School surveys fail to account for incarcerated youth and dropouts
  • Research suggests that "missing cases" in self-reports may be more crime prone than general population
  • Self-report surveys weakest in measuring drug abuse
  • This group may significantly under-report their substance abuse
  • Accuracy limited in determining behavior or chronic offenders/ drug abusers

 

Victim Surveys

  • Ask people if they have been victims of crime
  • Victims do not always report victimization to police; another method used to ascertain "dark figure of crime"
  • In Canada, telephone surveys conducted asking residents whether they have experienced crime
  • Examine victim's experience of crime, reasons for not reporting to police, overall perceptions of crime
  • Surveys on criminal victimization have been conducted as part of GSS every five years 1998

 

Limitations of Victim Surveys

  • Over-reporting based on victims misinterpretation of events
  • "Telescoping" - Recalling events more recently than actually occurred
  • Under-reporting due to embarrassment, fear, forgetting incident
  • Sampling errors produce a non-representative sample
  • Inadequate question format invalidates responses
    • Ex: youth may be susceptible to error

 

Explaining Crime Trends

  • Numerous critical factors used to explain crime rate trends:
    • Age
    • Race
    • Indigenous people
    • The economy
    • Social malaise
    • Culture
    • Guns
    • Justice policy

 

Crime Patterns

  • The Ecology of Crime
    • Ecological patterns show some areas of the country more crime-prone
      • Ex: urban vs rural
    • Certain seasons and times more conducive to crime
      • (ex. Summer months)
    • Population density
      • Low per capita crime rates tend to occur in rural areas
      • Large urban areas have highest violence rates
    • Regional crime
      • Crime rising from East to West
      • Ex: increase in crime in Saskatchewan during 1990s, decline in most jurisdictions

 

Age, Gender, and Crime

  • Men usually commit more crimes than women
  • Youth commit more crimes than seniors
  • As people age, tend to commit less crimes "aging out"
  • Age inversely related to criminality
  • Class-crime controversy
    • Unclear if true differences exist or function of discriminatory police practices

Victims and Victimization

 

Victimology in Canada

  • Crime victims not considered important topic for research
  • Victims viewed as passive receptors of a criminal's actions
  • Considered to be in wrong place at wrong time
  • Focus on offenders reduced role of the victim as a passive one
  • Also neglected victim's role in criminal transaction itself
  • Discussing victim's role does not mean blaming the victim but realizing vitim play's important role in crime process
  • Prompted scientific study of victimology

 

Victim's Role

  • 1960s: pioneering studies found victim's function important in crime process
  • Victims can play an active role in the criminal incident
    • Ex: when assault victim insults or provokes eventual attacker
  • Victims can play an indirect role in criminal incident
    • Choose line of work or lifestyle that takes them to crime-prone areas
    • Unintentional target of a hate crime, where they have characteristics of certain groups the offender dislikes
  • Hate crime one of few crime categories that increased during pandemic (37%)

 

Victimization Trends in Canada

  • GSS finds about 1/4 Canadians annually victims of at least one crime
  • Of 6.4 million victimization incidents reported to GSS in 2014:
    • 35% violent crimes (sexual assault, robbery, physical assault)
    • 65% non-violent crimes
    • 35% household crimes (break and enter, motor vehicle theft, vandalism)
    • 34% thefts of personal property
  • Using GSS to measure victimization enables us to count crimes not reported to police
  • In 2019; out of 8 million incidents, only 30% were violent

 

Reasons for Not Reporting Crime

  • In 2019, 56% of victims did NOT report the incident to police because:
    • Felt it was too minor
    • About half felt it was too personal
    • Judged no one had been harmed
    • Didn't want the hassle
    • 15-20% surmised that police couldn't do anything or had unsatisfactory experiences in the past with police

 

Who is a Victim?

  • According to 2014 GSS:
    • Victims most likely to be single parent
    • Most likely to be living rented large-family, semi-detached house
    • Weak sense of community; neighbors unlikely to call police
    • High perceived level of disorder

 

Crime Victims: Loss and Suffering

  • Being a victim of a crime can have considerable consequences
  • Property losses small part of the toll crime takes on victims
    • Productivity losses due to injury
    • Medical costs
    • Psychological pain
    • Emotional trauma
  • Some losses cannot be easily measured (intangible costs)
    • Crime makes people feel unsafe
    • Decreases their quality of life
    • Psychological distress
  • Victim's likely suffer serious physical injury, requiring medical help
  • Victim's may suffer further victimization from CJS
  • May lose wages from testifying in court
  • Time wasted appearing in court if case is postponed/ dismissed
  • Find authorities indifferent to their fear of retaliation
  • Pain and suffering experienced by victims does not end after incident

 

Perceptions of Risk

  • Fear of victimization don't align with likelihood of experiencing crime
  • Raises questions about public perception of risk
  • Toronto study looked at how perceptions of neighbourhood disorder, routine activities, and neighbourhood satisfaction can predict women's perceptions of personal safety
  • Found disorder and neighbourhood satisfaction have impact perceptions of insecurity
  • Concluded improving services may reduce fear as much reducing crime
    • Ex: removing garbage, graffiti, etc.

 

Variation in Victimization by Social Characteristics

  • Women are seven times are more likely to be victims of sexual assault than men
  • Men are twice as likely to be victims of robbery
  • Physical assault is highest among two youngest age cohorts:
    • 15 to 24 and 25 to 30 (also high among LGBTQ groups)
  • Victimization across all categories is highest among:
    • Single or separated
    • Indigenous
    • History of mental illness
  • Least likely to be reported by people in these groups

 

Cycle of Violence

  • Association between early victimization and later criminality
  • Victims of certain crimes more likely to commit crime themselves
  • Childhood maltreatment significant predictor of future criminality
  • Findings show adult arrests 39% greater for maltreated youth than non-abused youth
  • Cycle of violence hypothesis: young males are more likely to engage in violent behavior if they were (1) the target of physical abuse (2) exposed to inter-adult violence
  • Females exposed to family violence may be more likely than male counterparts to manifest behavioural and adjustment problems (addiction)

 

Victim Characteristics

  • Gender
    • Overall rate of victimization by gender relatively steady over time
    • When men are victims of violent crime, offender is usually a stranger
    • Women more likely to be attacked by a male relative
    • Women account for majority of victims in stalking cases
    • Risk is gendered and affects how women go about their daily activities
    • Homosexuals/bisexuals report higher victimization rates than heterosexuals
  • Age
    • Focus tends to be youth committing greater proportion of certain crimes
    • Youth can be perpetrators and victims as well
    • 2009: rate of violent victimization for 15-24 age group was 284 per 1,000
    • GSS shows youth face greater victimization than older groups
    • Much of these crimes are intra-age (within the same age group)
    • Children/ youth disproportionately targeted for sexual and physical assault
  • Social Status
    • Poorest Canadians are more likely to be victims of crime
    • More likely to live in crime-prone areas
    • Have lifestyles that put them more at risk for victimization
  • Indirect measure of social status is social cohesion
    • In areas where people don't help or watch out for each other, resulting in higher crime
  • Ethnicity
    • 2009 GSS reported that Indigenous people had a higher rate of victimization than non-Indigenous people for sexual assault, physical assault, theft and overall violent victimization
    • By 2014, victimization was down overall; it was still 50% higher for Indigenous people
    • By the end of 2017, Indigenous girls and young women were overrepresented among homicide victims (MMIWG)
    • Indigenous victims more likely to be victimized overall and to have experienced child abuse, mental illness, using drugs, and history of homelessness
  • Relationship
    • Crimes vary by relationship between victim and offender
    • Increasing number of violent crimes committed by strangers
    • Surprising number of victims are related to or acquainted with attacker
    • Homicide more likely to be committed by family member or acquaintance than stranger
    • Same pattern exists for sexual assault, harassment, abduction
    • Women in relationships more likely to experience violence than men
    • In 2012, stranger homicides represented 16% of all solved homicides

 

Repeat Victimization

  • Prior victimization is a strong predictor of future victimization
  • Offences more likely to be stranger-related not likely to be repeated
  • Three factors increase potential for victimization:
    • Target vulnerability: physical weakness makes individuals easy targets
    • Target gradability: have quality/ possession attractive to offender
    • Target antagonism: arouse emotions like anger/ jealousy in offender (ex. Dressing differently)
  • Repeat victimization most likely to occur in crime-prone areas
  • Personal characteristics are also important:
    • Children who are shy, weak, or isolated more likely to be bullied

 

Theories of Victimization

  • Victim Precipitation Theory
    • People may initiate the confrontation that leads to their injury or death
  • Active precipitation: occurs when victims act provocatively, use threats/ fighting words or attack first
  • Victim-precipitated homicide: death of aggressor in barroom brawl or wife who kills her husband after he attacks or threatens to kill her
  • Passive precipitation: occurs when victim exhibits that unknowingly threatens attacker
    • Ex. Two people are in competition for a job. Promotion, or love interest

 

Lifestyle Theories

  • Some argue people may become crime victims due to their lifestyle which increases exposure to criminal offenders
  • Crime is not random occurrence; a function of behavior of its targets
  • Criminality and victimization bound in an association; probability of crime depends on activities of potential victim
  • Victimization is greatest among groups with high-risk lifestyles
    • Ex: youth, homeless, street prostitutes

 

Routine Activities Theory

  • Cohen &Felson argue motivation to commit crime is constant
  • Theory identifies three variables for predatory crime occur:
    • Suitable target (ex. Homes)
    • Absence of capable guardians (ex. Police, homeowners, neighbors)
    • Motivated offender (ex. Unemployed teenagers)
  • Presence of these components increases likelihood of crime

 

Self-Protection

  • While public generally satisfied with police services, some victims prefer to deal with crime themselves
  • Target hardening: making a home/ business crime-proof through installation of locks, bars, alarms
  • When such measures are effective in deterring crime, can result in crime displacement where crime moves to weaker targets
  • Victims have armed themselves and fought against their attacker