Download Sutherland & Cressy (1960)

Introduction to Criminology
Defining Criminology
The Criminal Law
Development of Academic Criminology
Theories of Crime
Politics/Ideology
Defining Criminology

Edwin Sutherland’s definition
 The
scientific study of lawmaking,
lawbreaking, and the response to
lawbreaking
 Lawmaking
= how laws are created/changed
 Lawbreaking = nature/extent of crime
 Reaction = police, courts, corrections
 Science
vs. other ways of knowing stuff
Criminology vs. Criminal Justice

Criminal Justice
 The

study of agencies related to the control of crime
Criminology
 The
study of crime trends, nature of crime, theories of
crime

Reality? Two sides of the same coin
Criminology vs. Deviance

Criminology focuses on crimes
 Crime

Deviance focuses on violations of societal norms
 These


= violation of criminal law
may or may not also be law violations
Can you think of a norm violation that is not a law?
How about a law violation that does not violate a
norm?
A Very Brief History of Law

2000 BC Earliest Surviving Legal Codes
 1750
BC Code of Hammurabi: lex talionis
 Roman “Twelve Tables”: 451 BC

“Dark Ages” (500-1000 AD)
 Written
codes were lost and superstitions and fear of
magic dominated thinking.
Development of Common Law
6

Norman Conquest (1066 AD)
William the Conqueror establishes “royal court”
 “Stare decisis” became the dominant standard


English common law born during the reign of Henry
II (1154-1189)
“Circuit Judges”
 Development of Jury System

Current Types of Law
7

Criminal Law
 Procedural
vs. Substantive
 Statutory vs. Common

Civil Law
 Tort
law
Substantive vs. Procedural Law
8

Substantive Law
 Written

code that defines crimes and punishments
Procedural Law
 Rules
of the court, trials...
Common Law v. Statutory Law
9
Common Law is judge-made
law. The law is found in
previously decided cases.
Statutory Laws are derived from
legislative acts that decide the
definition of the behavior that is
codified into law.
Criminal and






Tort Law
A public offense
Enforcement is state
business
Punishment is often
loss of liberties or
sometimes death
Fines go to the state
State doesn’t ordinarily
appeal
Proof beyond a
reasonable doubt






A civil or private wrong
Individuals bring action
Sanction is normally
monetary damages
Both parties can appeal
Individuals receives the
compensation for harm
done
“Preponderance of the
evidence” is required for
a10decision.
Seriousness of Crimes I
Mala in se


Wrong or evil in
themselves
Core of legal code
Mala prohibita
 Homicide
Wrong because they
are prohibited
Change over time and
across society
 Robbery
 Prostitution


 Gambling
Seriousness of Crimes II
12
FELONY
MISDEMEANOR
More serious offenses
Less serious offenses
Punishable by death
or imprisonment for
more than a year in a
state prison.
Punishable by incarceration for less than a
year in a local jail or
house of correction.
A criminal law must indicate a type of
intent and a specific behavior
13

Actus Reas
Physical act must be voluntary
 If crime is“Failure to act,” there must be legal obligation.



Statutory Obligation, Relationship between parties, Contract
Mens Rea

General or specific intent

Transferred Intent
Negligence
 Strict Liability Offenses

Specific Criminal Defenses
14

Deny the Actus Reas (I didn’t do it)

Deny the Mens Rea
 Ignorance
/ Mistake
 Intoxication?
 Insanity Defense
Who does the law serve?
Consensus view
Law results from societal agreement on what
behaviors are most harmful
 Laws apply to all citizens equally

Conflict view
Law results from conflict over what behavior should
be criminalized
 Those with the most power define what is criminal
and often use the law to protect their interests

Which is correct?
Criminology as a Discipline

Until the 1970s, there was no “criminology” or “criminal
justice” degree

Sociology became the dominant disciple


Still contributions from biology, psychology, political science
1980-Present

Criminology emerging as separate entity


PhD in Criminology/Criminal Justice now the norm
Still debate about whether Criminology is a distinct
discipline
Organized around a class of behaviors rather than a distinct way
of looking at the world
 Sociologists still see criminology as a “sub-discipline” of sociology

Sociological Criminology—Good & Bad


Good: Focus on social structure and inequality;
healthy skepticism (debunking)
Bad: Ignore/ridicule “outside” disciplines and their
focus on individual differences
 The
Irony? Psychologists and biologists believe that
social forces are as (or more) important than individual
differences

This class will explore crime from a multidisciplinary
lens
A Crude History of Criminology

Demonic Perspective pre-1750s
 Crime
as god’s will, result of demonic
possession
 Classical School (1750s-1900; 1970s to now)
 Utilitarian philosophy (Becarria, Bentham)
A
response to an unjust/arbitrary legal system
 Free will, humans use a “hedonistic calculus”
 Rational legal code  less crime
 Basis of deterrence theory
Crude History—Part II

Positive School (1900-present)
 Crime
is “caused” by outside forces (determinism)
 Solution is to fix these causes (medical model, rehab)
 Scientific research on offenders, crime (not law)

Different types of positivism
 Bio/psych
determinism (1900-1920s)
 Sociological theory (1920s-Present)
 Critical theories (1960s-early 1970s)
 Developmental Theory (1990s-present)
Crime Theory


Backbone of criminology
Scientific Theory
 Must
be able to test theory
 A GOOD theory survives empirical testing
 Empirical
 Some
= real world observations
theories are sexier than others
 Parsimony
 Scope
 Usefulness
of policy implications
Flow Chart for Evaluation
NO = Useless,
stop here
Falsifiable?
Logical?
YES
Yes
Empirical
Evidence?
Evaluate the
Following:
•Scope
•Parsimony
•Policy Implications
NO: Modify/Discard
Empirical Evidence is the KEY


Theories attempt to demonstrate cause-effect
Criteria for causation in social science using a
poverty  crime example
 Time
ordering: poverty happens before crime
 Correlation: X is related to Y
 Relationship is not spurious (e.g., low self-control causes
both poverty and crime)
Methods for generating evidence

Experiment
 Key
is randomly assigned groups
 Only factor that effects outcome is group difference at
start of experiment
 Limit = artificial nature
Experimental Design (2 of 2)
Methods for generating evidence II

Non-experimental
 Survey
research
 Cross
sectional
 Longitudinal
 Limit
= how to rule out spuriousness
 Upside = ask whatever you want
Ideology in Criminology

Walter Miller



Ideology is the “permanent hidden agenda of Criminal
Justice”
What is “Ideology?”
American Political Ideology
Liberal/Progressive Ideology
 Conservative Ideology
 Radical Ideology

Dominant Ideologies in U.S.
CONSERVATIES



Value order/stability,
respect for authority
People get what they
deserve
Crime caused by poor
choice (Free will)
LIBERALS



Value equal opportunities
and individual rights
Success/failure depends
on outside forces and
where you start
Crime is caused by
outside influences
Implications of Ideology for Crime and
Justice

Conservatives tend to fit with “Classical School”
 “Neo-Classical”
 James

= deterrence, incapacitation
Q. Wilson’s “policy analysis”
Liberal/Progressive fit with positive school
 Favor
decriminalizing some acts
 “Root causes” of crime only fixed by social change
 Rehabilitation may be possible
 Elliott
Currie = ample evidence that government can address
social ills and prevent crime

Radical = Marxist/conflict theory
Ideology as “hidden agenda”

Many policies and programs are driven more by
ideology than empirical evidence
 Intensive
supervision probation (conservatives)
 Restorative justice (liberals)
The “Martinson Report” (MR)

The “Martinson Report” was review of studies on
rehabilitation published in the early 1970s
Concluded that not much is working
 Used by politicians as the reason for abandoning rehab


Social Context of the 1960s
Hippies, Watergate, Attica, Viet Nam, Kent State…
 Conservatives? SKY IS FALLING
 Liberals? Cannot trust the government


Reality = liberals and conservatives were both
“ready” to pull the plug on rehabilitation
The Limits of Empirical Evidence

Criminologists tend to be cautions with conclusions
 All

studies are flawed in some way
Politicians and public tend to “over generalize” from
a single study
 This
can lead to bad policy
 RAND
Felony Probation study
 Domestic Violence Experiments
Good theory makes good policy…


In a perfect world, programs and policies would
flow from empirically supported theories of crime
Unfortunately, people often “shoot from hip”
 Policy
without Theory
 The “panacea” problem: scared straight, intensive
probation, boot camps, warm and fuzzy circle…

Some hope in “evidence-based” movement
 Multisystemic
 Targets
Therapy (MST)
for change = parental supervision, delinquent
friends, reducing rewards for deviance…