Download CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER THREE
CRIME, CRIMINALS AND
VICTIMS
TYPES OF CRIME
• Visible crime—street crime
• Ranges from shoplifting to
homicide
• Violent crime
• Property crime
• Public order crimes
HISTORICAL CRIME
TYPES
• Crime against the state-treason
• Crime against person-murder
• Crime against property and
persons-robbery
• Crimes against habitationburglary
• Crimes against propertystealing
• Crimes against public order and
morality—disorderly conduct
• Most serious to less serious
• OTHERS ADDED TO BRING IT
UP TO DATE
• OCCUPATIONAL CRIMES—
EMPLOYMENT, BUSINESS OR
PROFESSION
• Internet crimes
• Crimes against vulnerable
adults
CRIMES OF BIAS
• POLICE MUST
REPORT
CRIMES OF
BIAS
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
RACE
RELIGION
NATIONAL ORIGIN
SEX
AGE
DISABILITY
SEXUAL
ORIENTATION
• IF CONVICTED OF A BIAS CRIME
THERE ARE NO PLEA BARGAINS
STATUTES HAVE ENHANCED
PENALTIES:
− ASSAULTS MOTIVATED BY BIAS (2-4)
− DAMAGE TO PROPERTY
− HARASSMENT STALKING
VICTIMLESS CRIMES
MEASURING CRIME
• Two sources
• Police reports
• Victim surveys
• 1930—FBI first Uniform Crime
Reports (UCR)
• Numbers and kinds of crimes
• Numbers and people arrested and
crimes they were arrested for
• Published every year—Crime in the
United States
• CRIME INDEX—THE NUMBER FOR
EVERY 100,000 PEOPLE
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Murder
Burglary
Motor vehicle theft
Aggravated assault
Rape
Arson (added in 1979)
Theft
Robbery
PROBLEMS WITH UCR
• All crimes are not reported to
police
• Over represents serious crime—
includes attempts
• People tend to report the more
serious crimes
• White collar crimes are not
represented
NATIONAL CRIME
VICTIMIZATION
SURVEY
• Began in 1972
• Every 6 months U.S. Census
workers take a telephone poll of
more than 40,000 households.
Gathered by the Bureau of
Justice Statistics. Published in
the Criminal Victimization
• Ask about
• Victimization—victim of a crime
• Victims—age, race, sex,
educational level, income
• Crime—location, personal injury,
economic loss from crime
• Perpetrator—gender, age, race,
and relationship to victim
• Reporting—reported to PD, if not
why?
FINDINGS
• Victims report less than
40% of all offenses
• Victims report violent
crimes more often than
property crimes
• Victims report completed
crimes more than attempts
UNREPORTED CRIMES
• DARK FIGURE OF CRIME
• More crime occurs than is reported
to police
PROBLEMS WITH NCVS
• MURDER IS NOT INCLUDED
• HAVE TO HAVE A PHONE
• UNDERREPORTING DUE TO
FORGETTING
• MISINTERPRETATION—STOLEN
WALLET VS LOST
• COMMUNICATION/LANGUAGE
BARRIERS
SELF-REPORTS
• ASK THE PEOPLE WHO COMMIT
THEM
• PROBLEMS WITH THIS:
• Convicted criminals do not
represent all criminals
• Exaggeration
• Play games
• Paint a good picture of themselves
CRIMINALS
•
•
•
•
•
•
Only 1 out of 100 are violent
Men=74%
Under 25=50%
Over 50=very few
White=over two thirds
Know their victim=over 50%
FEMALE CRIMINALS
•
•
•
•
Women commit 10% of crimes
Commit crimes earlier
Stop committing crimes earlier
Do not return back to a life of
crime
• FEMALE CRIME IS INCREASING
• Almost all women who kill kill
those they are intimately
involved with
CRIMINALS AND THEIR
VICTIMS
• Relationships: intimates,
relatives, acquaintances and
strangers
• Men kill women in relationships
• 70% of female homicide victims
were killed by a husband or
boyfriend
CRIME VICTIMS
• Young people are majority of
violent crime victims
• Young males more than females
are victims of violent crimes
• More minority violent crime
victims
• Lower income families are
victims
HOW TO BECOME A
VICTIM
• Lifestyle-exposure theory
• “hot spots”
VICTIM’S RIGHTS
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Personal advocacy
Referral
Restitution assistance
Court orientation
Transportation
Escort services
Emotional support
WHY DO PEOPLE
COMMIT CRIMES???
• INDIVIDUAL RESPONSBILITY
EXPLANATIONS
• BIOLOGICAL EXPLANATION
• SOCIAL EXPLANATIONS
INDIVIDUAL
RESPONSIBILITY
• Middle ages—criminals
possessed by Satan or other
demons
• Eighteenth century—free will
and capacity to choose
between right and wrong
• Utilitarian theory
• We seek pleasure and avoid pain
• We are free to choose
• Therefore, if the pleasure from
committing a crime outweighs
the pain of getting caught,
criminal behavior will occur
• Determinist theory-1800’s
• “criminals are born not made”
• Lead to Biological explanation
• Nineteenth century—
Psychoanalytic Explanation
• Sigmund Freud—1920’s
• “It’s not my fault, blame my cruel
father and my domineering mother.”
SOCIOLOGICAL
EXPLANATIONS
• Link criminal behavior to social
conditions
• Emile Dirkheim—Anomie Theory
1951
• A society in transition weakens
the bonds that ordinarily control
behavior; crime follows
• France was changing from
agricultural to an industrialized
nation
• Two forms of theory were
developed to describe
conditions in U.S.
• STRAIN THEORY-1938 Great
Depression
• People commit crimes when they
work hard but fail to attain the
American dream
• OPPORTUNITY THEORY-1960
• When you can’t get $$, power and
prestige legally, you break the law to
SOCIAL PROCESS
THEORIES
• Interactions among members
• Social learning theories
• We are born like blank slates and can
learn values and behaviors
• Social control theory
• Everybody is born with the desire to
break the rules
• Labeling theory
• CJ system creates criminals
SOCIAL LEARNING
THEORIES
• Differential association
• Any behavior depends on our
associations with other people.
Who you identify with.
• The more intense the relationship
the more we learn from them and
the longer we will retain that
information
SOCIAL CONTROL
THEORY
• CONTROL THEORY
• We obey rules because we have ties to
established institutions and they place
boundaries on us
• Social bond elements
•
•
•
•
Attachment
Commitment
Involvement in legal activities
Belief in conventional order
LABELING THEORY
• WE ARE TURNED INTO
CRIMINALS BY THE CJ SYSTEM
• Once the “system” says we are
criminals we act as such
• Emphasis is taken from
lawbreakers to lawmakers and
law enforcers
• Responsible for the shift into
diversion in the 1960s and
1970s
RATIONAL CHOICE
• LATE 1960’S—RETURNED THE
INDIVIDUAL TO MAIN FOCUS IN
EXPLAINING CRIME
• THREE ELEMENTS
• A REASONING CRIMINAL
• A CRIME-SPECIFIC FOCUS
• SEPARATE AYALYSES OF
CRIMINAL INVOLVEMENT AND
CRIMINAL ELEMENTS
• REASONING CRIMINAL
ELEMENT
• Offenders commit crimes to
benefit themselves
• Criminals have specific goals
• Rational decision making
• CRIME SPECIFIC
ELEMENT
• Decision making
is different for
each crime
• Motivation
• Method
• CRIMINAL INVOLVEMENT
• Three stages
• Deciding to get into a crime
• Continuing to be involved
• Deciding to get out of involvement
• Rational choice does not apply
to all crimes—crimes of passion
do happen
SEDUCTION OF CRIME
• The “thrill” of the crime
• Transition from choice to
commit a crime to a compulsion
to do so
• The criminal controls the
transition from choice to
compulsion
SITUATION THEORIES
• Looks at time, place,
opportunity and temptation
• Modus operandi
• ROUTINE ACTIVITIES THEORY
• MOTIVATED OFFENDER
• SUITABLE TARGET
• NO CAPABLE GUARDIAN