CRMJ 1010 Exam Notes

What is Crime?

Crime is conduct that violates criminal laws, lacking justification or excuse.
Two models for understanding crime:
- Consensus Model:
  - Assumes shared values and beliefs (public morality).
  - Public pressure can expedite government action.
  - Deviations from norms are seen as threats requiring punishment.
- Conflict Model:
  - Criminal law is shaped by groups holding economic, political, and social power.
  - Powerful segments (class, race, income, age) exert the most influence on criminal laws.
Integrated Definition of Crime:
- Considers both conflict and consensus models.
- Crime is defined as:
  - Punishable under criminal law, determined by the majority or a powerful minority.
  - An offense against society, prosecuted by public officials.
  - Punishable by statutory sanctions involving loss of freedom or life.
Differences Between Crime and Deviance:
- Deviance: Behavior not conforming to community/society norms.
- Deviance is subjective; it becomes a crime when society deems it punishable.

Types of Crime

Crimes are classified by seriousness.
Six general categories:
- Violent Crimes:
  - Murder: Unlawful killing of a human being.
  - Sexual Assault: Forced or coerced sexual acts.
  - Assault and Battery: Threat or attempt of violence; physical contact with intent to harm.
  - Robbery: Taking property through force or threat.
- Property Crimes:
  - Larceny: Taking property without force, intending to keep it.
  - Burglary: Unlawful entry into a structure to commit a crime.
  - Motor Vehicle Theft: Stealing a car or other vehicle.
  - Arson: Intentionally setting fire to property.
- Public Order Crimes:
  - Contrary to shared values, customs, and norms.
  - Examples: Public drunkenness, prostitution, gambling, illicit drug use.
  - Sometimes considered victimless crimes, harming mainly the offender.

Types of Crime Continued

White-Collar Crime:
- Non-violent crimes for personal or business advantage.
- Includes fraud, embezzlement, etc.
Organized Crime:
- Illegal acts by organizations dealing in illegal goods/services.
- Uses violence, corruption, and intimidation for profit.
- Preferred markets: gambling, prostitution, loan sharking, narcotics.
High-Tech Crime:
- Crimes using technology.
- Examples: Selling pornography, soliciting minors, defrauding consumers online.

What is the Criminal Justice System?

The Criminal Justice System is an interlocking network of law enforcement agencies, courts, and corrections institutions designed to enforce criminal laws.
Purpose of the Criminal Justice System:
- To control crime by arresting, prosecuting, and punishing wrongdoers.
- To prevent crime through deterrent punishments.
- To maintain justice and ensure equality and freedom from arbitrary actions.

Criminal Justice System Structure

Federalism: Division of powers between central and regional governments (U.S.).
Law Enforcement:
- Local/County:
  - Sheriff (elected) is chief law enforcement officer in most counties.
  - Municipal police, headed by the chief of police.
  - Investigate crimes, deter activities, apprehend criminals, participate in trials.
  - Focus on keeping the peace and providing social services.
- State:
  - State police (fire marshals, wardens).
  - Highway patrols (traffic infractions).
- Federal:
  - Combats national crimes and terrorism.
  - Supports local/state agencies.
  - Examples: FBI, DEA, Secret Service, ATF, Department of Homeland Security.
Courts:
- Dual court system (federal and state).
- Federal: District courts, circuit courts of appeal, U.S. Supreme Court.
- State: Trial courts, intermediate courts of appeal, state supreme court.
- Tasked with determining guilt or innocence.
Corrections:
- Administers punishment post-conviction.
- Options:
  - Probation: Supervised community release.
  - Jails: Short sentences for minor crimes or pre-trial detention.
  - Prisons: Longer sentences for serious crimes.
  - Community-based corrections: Halfway houses, work release centers.
  - Parole: Supervised release after serving part of a prison term.
Criminal Justice Process:
- Professor Herbert Packer compared the idealized criminal justice process to an assembly line, “down which moves an endless stream of cases, never stopping, carrying the cases to workers who stand at fixed stations and who perform on each case as it comes by the same small but essential operation that brings it one stop closer to being a finished product, or, to exchange the metaphor for the reality, a closed file” -Formal Criminal Justice Process: routinized operations to pass cases along to a successful conclusion -Informal Criminal Justice Process: Decisions made based on personal judgment rather than formal rules -Discretionary Basics: law enforcement has limited funding and time, as well as overcrowded prisons and courts. The criminal justice system uses discretion to alleviate the pressures. - Discretionary Value: sometimes discretion is based on policy considerations and ethics

Wedding Cake Model of Criminal Justice

Explains differential case treatment.
Four tiers:
- Celebrated cases.
- Serious felonies.
- Ordinary felonies.
- Misdemeanors.
Top tier cases closely resemble the idealized model; lower tiers are more informal.

Punishment vs. Rights

Crime Control Model:
- Emphasizes society's right to protection.
- Stresses speed and efficiency.
- Assumes police competence in determining guilt.
- Favors minimal restrictions on police actions.
- Relies on Informality in the criminal justice system
Due Process Model:
- Emphasizes individual rights, civil rights, and protections.
- Focuses on fairness and making guilt harder to prove.
- Heavily relies on Formality in court procedures to uphold legal processes.

Which Model Prevails?

Both models have existed with shifting dominance throughout history.
1950s/60s: Due process revolution (limits on police evidence gathering).
1970s/80s: Crime control emphasis (tougher laws).
Post-9/11: Crime control focus on terrorism and homeland security.

Criminology Overview

Criminology: The scientific study of crime and its causes.

What is a Theory?

Criminologist: Specialist in the field of crime and the causes of criminal behavior
Criminologists develop theories (explanations based on observation, experimentation, and reasoning) to explain crime.
Correlation vs. Causation:
- Correlation means variables vary together.
- Causation means one variable causes change in another.
- Hypotheses are tested through Scientific Method

Choice Theories of Crime

Also called crime and free will.
Wrongdoers weigh benefits against apprehension costs.
- Classical Criminology:
  - Emphasizes free will in choosing criminal behavior.
  - Believed that crime was an expression of a person’s rational decision-making process
  - Choice is an expression of rational decision-making.
  - Individuals weigh crime benefits against apprehension costs.
  - Jeremy Bentham followed the principles of utilitarianism
  - Utilitarianism: Ethical reasoning where the “correct” decision maximizes good for the greatest number.
- Positivism and Modern Rational Theory:
  - Positivism: Crime results from biological, psychological, and social forces.
  - Wrongdoers should be treated, not punished.
  - Cesare Lombroso argued that criminals were evolutionary throwbacks and that criminality was predetermined at birth.
  - Rational choice theory replaced positivism in the 1970s.

Biological and Psychological Theories of Crime

Biology: The science of living organisms, growth, function, and origin.
Psychology: The study of the mind and its processes.
Genetics and Crime:
- Genetics: The study of traits passed from parents.
- Twin Studies are used to see the relationship between genetics and criminal behavior.
  - If genetics influence tendencies twins should do similar antisocial actions.
  - Problem: Twins share environments, making it tough to identify genetics vs surroundings.
  - Some twin studies show MZ twins have more similar criminal tendencies than DZ pairs, while others discredit this.
Adoption Studies: * Family members sharing the same environment is not a problem adoption studies. * The adoption studies have shown that there has been correlation between rates of criminality between adopted children and their biological parents.
Hormones and Aggression:
- Hormones: Chemical substances controlling body functions.
- Testosterone: Hormone responsible for sperm production and male characteristics.
  - Inmates incarcerated for violent crimes have high testosterone.
  - Females may also have issues with hormones and post partum depression
The Brain and Crime:
- Neurotransmitters: Chemicals transmitting nerve impulses.
  - Serotonin (moods, appetite, memory)
  - Norepinephrine (sleep-wake cycles, anxiety, stress)
  - Dopamine (pleasure, reward)
  - Low serotonin, high norepinephrine correlate with aggression.
  - Dopamine relates to drug addiction.
- Brain:
  - Frontal lobe damage linked to impulsivity, violence.
Psychology and Crime:
- Freud’s psychoanalytic theory: attributes thoughts and actions to unconscious motives.
- Social psychology and evil behavior: the influence of crows and criminal behavior

Sociological Theories of Crime

Examine social and physical environmental factors in the study of criminal behavior
- Chicago School: Researched slums and linked poverty to high crime rates.
- Social Disorganization Theory: deviant behavior more likely where social institutions fail to exert control.
  - Shaw and McKay discover disorganized zones which exhibit high rates of crime
  - Stronger role models lead to less activity
- Strain theory explains that crime is the result of frustration felt by individuals who cannot reach their financial and personal goals through legitimate means.
  - Anomie, in which the individual suffers from the breakdown or absence of social norms, is also part of Strain Theory.
- Cultural Deviance Theory: members of certain subcultures reject the values of the dominant culture through deviant behavior patterns.

Examine social conflicts, social structures and how they influence crime.

Social Processes of Crime

A school of criminology that considers criminal behavior to be the predictable result of a person’s interaction with his or her environment.
Learning Theory discusses how delinquents and criminals must be taught both the practical and emotional skills necessary to participate in illegal activity.
Control Theory discusses how all individuals have the potential for criminal behavior, but are restrained by the damage that such actions would do to their relationships with family, friends, and members of the community.
Labeling Theory hypothesizes that society creates crime and criminals by labeling certain behavior and certain people as deviant. • Issues of Race and Gender • African Americans as have-nots • Women and African Americans hitting the glass ceiling • Historical Injustices • Disproportionate arrests and arrests for criminalized behavior like prostitution

Conflict Theory

Criminal behavior results from class conflict.
- Marxist theory proposes capitalism drives inequality, leading to crime.
- Social reality of crime is the theory that criminal laws are designed by those in power (the rich) to help them keep power at the expense of those who do not have power (the poor)

Connection Between Drug Use and Crime

Drugs modifiy biological, psychological, or social behavior as well as changing emotions, perceptions, and behavior. Theories of Drug Use include Social Disorganization Theory, Subculture theory, and Control theory.
- Learning Process
  - Learn the techniques of drug use
  - Learn to perceive the pleasurable effects of drug use
  - Learn to enjoy the social experience of drug use
- Drug Abuse is the use of drugs that has psychological problems for the users *Drug-Crime Relationship
Models of Explanation
- Psychopharmacological model: direct result of drugs ingested
- Economically impulsive model: crimes to get drugs
- Systemic model: violence is a by-product of the interpersonal relationships within

*Models of Addiction

Medical Model of Addiction: addiction as a mental illness, treat vs. punish
Criminal Model of Addiction: illegal drug use as a criminal act, punish to protect

Criminology and Crime Prevention

Chronic offenders: A delinquent or criminal who commits multiple offenses
Chronic offenders commit majority of crime.
Law enforcement focuses on repeat offenders.
Habitual offender laws impose harsher sentences for repeat offenses.
Criminology and the criminal justice system are criticized by not making our country a safer place
Practitioners argue that researchers are inaccessible to them. Medical Model of Addiction: addiction as a mental illness, treat vs. punish Criminal Model of Addiction: illegal drug use as a criminal act, punish to protect

Categories of Crime: Civil Law

Deals with private/public rights.
Criminal Law

A crime is an act so reprehensible that it is considered a wrong against society as a whole, as well as against the individual victim. Therefore, the state prosecutes a person who commits a criminal act. *Plaintiff
1. The person or institution that initiates a lawsuit in civil court proceedings by filing a complaint. In criminal law this is the state.

*Defendant 1. In a civil court, the person or institution against whom an action is brought. In a criminal court, the person or entity who has been formally accused of violating a criminal law.

Guilt/Responsibility
- Criminal court: Determines defendant guilt.
- Civil law: Concerned with responsibility.
Burden of Proof
- Civil Cases: Preponderance of evidence (more likely than not).
- Criminal Cases: Beyond a reasonable doubt.
- Civil suits can follow unsuccessful criminal trials.
- Criminal Court is convened to determine whether the defendant is guilty- whether the have in fact committed the offense charged
  - A civil court is for responsibility, a much bigger subject

Categories of Crime: Felonies and Misdemeanors

Misdemeanors: Punishable by fine or up to one year confinement.
That is, the law punishes those who plan and intend to do harm more harshly than it does those who act wrongfully because of strong emotions or other extreme circumstances
Felony: Serious crime, punishable by death or one year or longer imprisonment.

The Model Penal Code has four degrees of felony: Capital: Max penalty is death First degree felonies: Max penalty is life imprisonment Second degree felonies; Max penalty of 10 years imprisionment Third degree felonies; Max 5 years’ imprisonment

Murder: Is Murder in the First Degree premeditaed second degree murder; fifteen years to life Voluntary Manslaughter Homocide that intent to kill was perent Involuntary manslaughter; homocide that wasn negligent and no intent to kill
Misdemeanors: Gross demeanors/30 days to a year Petty misdemanors/less that thirty days in jail Infractions
Rarely jury tails Don’t appear on criminal record

Categories of Crime: Mala in se and Prohibita

Acts that are inherently wrong, regardless of whether they are prohibited by law Examples are murder or rape mala prohibita acts that are made illegal by criminal statute and are not necessarily wrong in and of themselves Bagonmy How Does Government Measure Crime

Government Measuring Crime: The UCR

Uniform Crime Report (UCR):

An annual report compiled by the FBI to give an indication of criminal activity in the United States 3 Measurments

Number of persons arrested. Number of crimes reported by victims, witnesses, or the police themselves. Number of officers and support law enforcement specialists. Facts from Agency presents CR in 3 ways: Rate per 100000 Percentage change or total Publication offers exhasutive array of CR information By city, county and demographic, gender, race. Age of who have arrests for CR Part l/more serious Recorded FBI for UCR Criminal homicide- murder Forcible rape Robbery Aggravated assault arson Burglary Larceny theft Motor Vehicle heft MOST like to be reported by median Reflects Known offices PART ll- Less serious crimes recorded. FBI for UCR reflect’s less common arrests and is 5x more commone than a PART 1 oftness includes drug abuse, DWI, conduct assult’s that don’t resort in injury Is other ways we can mesaure crime There are both: National crime and the self-reported -Victim surevys A method of gathering crime data that directly surveys participants to determine their experiences as victims of crime results indicated a much higher victimaztions rate NCVC

Government Measuring Crime: Surveys

*Superior to the UCR in: -measure both reported and not reoperted crime -Not affected by bias and distorsions Don’t directly report a method of gathering crime data that directly surveys participants to reveal and detail their own criminal or delinquent behavior Much larger then UCR, OR NCVC would suggest What is the State of CR in The United State -on The rise Crimes that lasted thoru 70’s Youth popularity Economy Smaller than the 1999 impact of crack led to lots of issues with low income/handgund for the safety of themselves led top increase in homicides

Trends in Crime Rates

1960s/70s: Long-term, gradual increase in crime driven by imprisonment, youth populations, economy.
The methamphetamine scourge
1991: Shorter, dramatic peak.
The Great Decline (1990s/2000s): largest crime dealine ever Good Economy Skyrocketing incarceration rates Zero tolerance policies in policing Race and the economy Strong coralation with minoriy status and crimes Poverty and homocide and association with police.

Looking Good: Crime in the 1990s and 2000s The great decline Largest crime decline ever – good economy, skyrocketing incarceration rates, and zero-tolerance policies in policing Leveling *This decrease leveled off in the 2000s, however, it appears to be decreasing again in 2009

Racial Issues in Crime

*Race and crime *Strong correlation minority status and crime. African American males haven’t benefited from crime Decreases A black man is almost twelve times more likely than a white man to be sent to prison for a drug-related conviction, while black women are about five times more likely than white women to be incarcerated of a drug offense Ethnic and the crime National and cultural background until recently Latinos as a prisons and account for immigrants to federal prisons Poverty and schools lead to higher risks of violence.

Class and crime: Poverty and homicide is linked to it and there is a lack of education, willingness of police and poor judgements in our courts.

Crime, Race and Poverty cont. Ethnicity, The numbers of Latinos are on rise, Women and crime. Crime us still dominaltly male. Womans are dramicatlly changing by this

Criminal Law Overview

Constitutional law based. The. US coast and state coasts, The US Sup Court will decide if law can be enforced or declared. State coast is supreme to. U. S coast or federal law-Federal Statue- enact by the U.S Cong, Statue law passed by Cities and County. Can be forced by signiture *Administrative law: federal, state, , carry out duties and responsibilities. *Case law: Rules of law announced in court decison. the interpret constitution, statute, law These rules of law include interpretations of constitutional provisions, of statutes enacted by legislatures, and of regulations created by administrative agencies

Sources of American Criminal Law

Maintain and peach Protect and punish- social order *-legal function from criminal harm Protect- harms to physicial safe and property society interest colllectives -Teach- societal boundarys Expressing publicaally

Why Societies Need Laws

*To maintain order protect citizens Teach socital bounda sThe criminal jus punishe s peopel and a lesson is taaught0- What is elments of crime

-The proof there commiting act. consist - -Acts reus/ guilty act -Mens rea/guityy actment- coming together criminal act/guity
A link betwwent Act and crime de -Attended circunmsances Harm done, or results of the crimes Act Act Re us/ guityy and prohibited act most c.r require an act or comision a. Person mist do to be accused of acr,ie Legal duity To performed. Omission Act: To aid satutudes Plan attemps is taking. A creie e while having ability and intend to commit the crue

Elements of A Crime, continued

Mental Stae: Mens Rea/ mental state, intent Categories to it Purpose Lnowledge Negience-fainle to Excercise or standard of cave would excercise Recklessnes- The state or aware Risk is or will exist the consicuoiu Role or interit is clearly seen in to the classification homicide defient genea willful Killing of one person Different categories or homic Striaght Liablity/ guity regardless Proecting Pub By eliminating this possiblty claim Ingorace Statutory Rape Engages in. A relationshsip minoor Beincage makes rational decsoins in the Matter Accomplice Liabiltu Under certina. Circumnstances Help another crime with a creime and commit him or her. Se Psh Must helps actor In ppsh MIND WITH OUT and Intent Criminal taw also causes a harm Gereater or mor seriopus to. Charge 01 what Defence availabailty under crimnal law

*Criminal responsibility Infancy: Removed needs for juivenule Systme in 198 to Insaity :Defnse for c-li Mesureing saintuy Not. Able to disntish between Wrong annd rught. Substiantilaity test of act and Conuct irrisitibaluy test : if the person was aware of wrong ness competences for traiyaly Intoxicaiton: volntuaey vs invoalutary, Is viabile to a derece is subtance that leaves

Affirmative Criminal Defense

*Mistake: Mistake of Law mistake of fact Justifiacion in Criminal Dece/ accept Repsonosbilyt that act was jystifed: Durez- *The threat must be of serious bodily harm or death -That such aid would lead to the commission of the crime -Use of the Forc: Self defend the legally Recoginice for to PRorects own the seld Necessity/ illegallity act/harm. Entrapment- Under. Public officials Comitted under cr. Under the crime

Affirmative Criminal Defense - cont

Substance Criminal Law- rights duties Procedural Crimjinal; the righs and deis *Biiof Rights const 5 and 111 Due Process Clause To guarantee life liberty Procedrial Due Process carry out all lawful manner Substative. Must be far

Law Enforcement Overview

What do the Police Do? *-Enforce laws, provide Services, Prevent Crime, perserve and protext
What kind of enforcement -of the Law: Municiple Aginces have broadest authoity. Seriff/ coutty law: Enforcement and responsibilt Most Sherff Dpeartmsnts are assignes to all duties by state law to all sudoen. Enpaxin and unnarurak or suspcious of death. The coroner beromes the leatind law enforce. Of co state police highway patrols assist local agencies which didnt have resources investigate cr,inal activies thet cross judiscitaoinaly bodaries to perofram The Department of Broudeder/The Deprtment to prperotect US Bounrdes and across the Boun daires Immigration . Custom enforce law TS scret serve for police to take

Departments of Justice, The Tresaruy, FBI cont.

The branch of the Department of Justice responsible for investigating violations of federal law Burlua Tobacco Firearms illegal. Sale of possess of firearms. And the use controled and an Taves alchollics -US Marchall Servuce Provide fecurity and federal Deparatments of Tresuary/Finical matter Pays FED g and taxe fr Priviate sector / police dont have Abiliy of crIme. The deters is there Private security trnsds still u nregulateed . Low standards, low pay, Lack standards

What can lav wnorcemnet do with discreation Mandaditory arreaat porcuy police office make. Offence to Punish-Use discrets Trusted Honest able to determine a theart May. Face- The factors Nature to. A crime attitdues -and department polcy Discretion and haugh spreed Aree tooo danger -high way

Law Enforcement

How DO Someone Became Police officer Recluiment Basuc Reg -usctiensihp , DR LIC, Age 21 Medicacl and weighthreq Educaitonal and and training period 1 Most depend HighSchool, a high. Dregree , a two year

Basic Training for Police Officers

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dedterence. Off crime. In mainntig -Commuinity cooncerns

40 to 6o percent of call in the rep
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Preventing Crime cont

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Police Work Ethics

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Policing: Ethics, Authority, and the 4th Amendment cont*Police. May force and force minmum

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How The 4th Amendment Limits Police

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The Right to Stop and Frisk

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How do The elements arreest the intended to arreeste The sezuier to Datation The understanding persons Was. Arereested

tes without A warrent commiting offence. in officers they has has for misminseor the crime

The Law of Search and Seizure

-A search - the process: examine or Eviodne That wiill use to provide giot to A trial: privacy in searc Privcy Expection establihe USC -People Can that