Criminology Notes

Criminology

Crime is a violation of society's formally enacted criminal law.
It involves two components:
- The act itself.
- The intent (e.g., murder in the first degree, second degree, manslaughter).
Only about 10% of crimes are violent.
Americans' perception of crime is often shaped by local news coverage.

Crimes and victims are not randomly distributed. Patterns exist.
The most common victims of violent crimes (excluding rape) are young, poor African American men in urban areas.
Men are more likely to be victims than women.
Young people are more likely to be victims than older people.

The majority of the prison population consists of individuals aged 18 to 44.
Youth may be more prone to crime due to:
- Free time.
- Hormones and brain development.
- Peer pressure.
- Flexible schedules.

Moral panics involve media coverage exaggerating youth crime as a sign of societal moral breakdown.
Cohen's research in 1970s England explored this phenomenon.
Moral panics involve media framing incidents, institutional involvement (police), and identification of a "folk devil" to blame.
Examples include reactions to Columbine, such as increased security measures in schools.
Moral panics often revolve around youth, race, immigration, drugs, sex, and media.

Most societies have stronger controls on women than men.
Female runaways are more easily caught due to heightened scrutiny.
Crimes women commit tend to be small scale (petty theft, public drunkenness, prostitution).
When women commit violence, it's often seen as a psychological issue, while violence in young men is sometimes excused ("boys will be boys").
Women make up a smaller percentage of the prison population.

The chivalry thesis suggests male police officers may be more lenient towards women, but this doesn't hold up when considering race, age, and class.
Women play important roles in drug dealing, gangs, and white supremacist organizations (e.g., KKK) by creating fronts and maintaining normalcy.
In the Black Panthers, women had prominent leadership roles due to male leaders' arrests or deaths.

Women are overwhelmingly victims in cases of rape and domestic violence, though men can also be victims.
A small proportion of these crimes are reported, and many are committed by people the victims know.

People of color are overly criminalized at every stage of the criminal justice system.
This includes initial contact with law enforcement, police response, and bail.
Marijuana use rates are similar between whites and blacks, but arrest rates differ significantly.
Harry Levine's research on marijuana arrests in NYC showed:
- Many young black men arrested for marijuana possession had it as their first arrest.
- Loopholes in the law allowed arrests for public display of marijuana, even in small amounts.
People of Asian descent have low arrest rates relative to their population size.

Hate crimes are criminal acts motivated by bias against race, religion, ethnicity, ancestry, sexual orientation, or disability.
The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Prevention Act of 2010 is named after two hate crime victims.
FBI data from 2022 shows 11,288 single bias incidents involving 13,278 victims:
- Approximately 59% motivated by race, ethnicity, or ancestry.
- Approximately 17% by sexual orientation.
- Approximately 17% by religion.
- Approximately 1.5% by disability.
- Approximately 4% by gender identity.
- Approximately 1% by gender.
- Approximately 346 multiple bias hate crimes involving 433 victims.

Crimes of wealthy people are often funneled into civil court rather than criminal court.
Examples include settlements and NDAs in cases involving Bill Cosby and Jeffrey Epstein.
Civil court involves paying for damages without criminal charges or public awareness.

White collar crime is committed by people in high positions during their occupations to benefit themselves.
Examples include embezzlement and fraud.
Even when convicted, offenders may not go to jail but pay fines.

Corporate crimes are illegal actions taken on behalf of a corporation, not to benefit specific individuals.
In 2021, 5,190 workers were killed on the job, disproportionately affecting Black, Latino/Hispanic, and undocumented individuals.
Companies may prioritize profits over safety, leading to unsafe working conditions and worker deaths.
The Ford Pinto case demonstrated companies using mathematical equations to assess the value of human life when deciding whether to implement safety measures.
The Firestone Tires case involved knowingly selling faulty tires, resulting in 200 deaths without anyone facing prison time.
Corporations may be considered "people" with certain rights, but not held accountable to the same extent as individuals.

Jails are local, short-term facilities for those awaiting trial or serving misdemeanor sentences.
Prisons are state and federal facilities for long-term incarceration of convicted felons.

Despite drops in crime, the number of incarcerated individuals has grown.
The USA makes up roughly 5% of the world's population and 25% of the world's prisoners.
Annual prison spending is approximately 52,000,000,000, and increasingly privatized.
Privatization involves private companies taking over aspects of prison systems, potentially cutting costs at the expense of safety and quality.
Colleges have faced scrutiny for investments in private prisons.
In many states, more is spent on prisons than education, highlighting a potential misallocation of resources.
New York spends about under 20,000 per student, but spends about 57,000 per inmate.

Recidivism is the likelihood of returning to prison after release.
Overall probability is around 50%, varying based on crime committed.
Higher rates for robbery, burglary, motor vehicle theft, and drug-related offenses.
Lower rates for rape and homicide.
Recidivism is most likely among young minority men from poor backgrounds with drug or alcohol addiction.
Prison can be a place to learn to commit crime and become brutalized, leading to the formation of gangs and terrorist organizations.
Stigma, broken ties with the outside world, and harsh conditions (e.g., solitary confinement) contribute to challenges upon release.

CMUs are prisons designed to hold suspected quote unquote terrorists and severely restrict communication (e.g., limited phone time, no human contact).

Future discussions will cover labeling theory, crime statistics, purposes of prisons, and alternatives like restorative and transformative justice.