• Crime
• Crime Statistics
• Crime Demographics
• Theoretical Perspectives

• Criminology:
• The scientific study of crime, deviance, and social policies that the criminal justice system applies
• Crime:
• A violation of norms written into law
• Two basic types of street crime
• Violent crime:
• An illegal act committed against another person
• Nonviolent crime:
• An illegal act committed against property

• Uniform Crime Reports (UCR):
• UCR data comes from official police statistics of reported crimes and is collected by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
• The UCR crime index uses eight major offenses to measure crime
• Four are violent crimes: homicide, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault
• The other four are property crimes: burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson

• The National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
•
• NCVS data is useful as a source for information on the characteristics of criminal victimization and the details behind unreported crimes
One of the nation’s largest ongoing household surveys
• Calculates how many violent and nonviolent crimes U.S. residents aged 12 and older experience each year
• The survey reaches nearly 70,000 households in the U.S. and reports higher rates of crime than the UCR
• Supports the rule of thumb that about half of the crimes committed in the United States go unreported

• Age
• Gender
• Race
• Socioeconomic Status

• Age
• The majority of criminal behavior occurs between the ages of 15 and 25
• This demographic factor is the most important aspect in predicting the rise and fall of crime rates in the U.S.

• Gender
• Historically, crime is a male-dominated activity
• 77% of people arrested are men, as are 90% of the inmates in
U.S. state and federal prisons

• Race
• African Americans represent approximately 12% of the population, yet account for 27% of arrests in the United States
• What accounts for this difference?
• Minorities hold more negative views of police and the criminal justice system than whites
• More likely to be victims of police brutality
•
More likely to perceive police actions as racially motivated
• Minorities tend to be poorer and may live in neighborhoods where crime more frequent
•
Such areas also attract more police surveillance
• Criminologists suggest that this statistic may be skewed due to the practice of racial profiling (see next slide)
•
The act of using race to determine whether a person is likely to have committed a crime

• No Equal Justice: Race and Class in the American Criminal Justice
System (David Cole)
• Although 95% of residents in Florida County were white, 70% of drivers stopped by the police were African American and Latino
•
The findings give support to the claim that
“driving while black”
is considered a criminal offense in some areas

• There is a direct correlation between those caught and lower social class
• How can this correlation be explained?
• More crimes are reported in deprived areas due to the fact that poor people are easier to catch and convict and lack access to same resources that the affluent have (Jeffrey Reiman)
• In every step of the criminal justice system, the wealthy are weeded out by a system of bail, public defenders, and plea bargains that all work in their favor

• Age
• Gender
• Race
• Socioeconomic Status

• Psychological Perspectives
• Sociological Perspectives

• Stanton Samenow
• Criminals think differently than noncriminals
•
•
Tend to engage in chronic lying (even to themselves)
View others’ property as their own
• Have an inflated self-image
• American Psychiatric Association
• Criminals are antisocial and unable to conform to the norms of society
• Criminals are impulsive, aggressive, and irritable; they deceive often and feel no remorse for their actions

• Emile Durkheim
• Crime is always present in society and must serve some function
• Crime provides a clear moral contrast between what is right and what is wrong
• Helps unify society
• Crime unites people in the fight against it
• Crime can also bring about social revolution

• Theory of anomie (Robert K. Merton)
• Argues that criminal activity results from an offender’s inability to achieve certain goals
• There is a structural problem in America – poor people are blocked from achieving goals they believe they should be able to reach
• Social disorganization theory
• Poor neighborhoods with weak social institutions have higher rates of crime

• Differential association theory (Edwin Sutherland)
• Criminal activity is a learned behavior that stems from the people with whom we interact
• The more a person associates with delinquents, the more likely it is that the person will learn criminal behavior

• Social learning theory (Ronald Akers)
• Learning is the key component of criminality
• People learn all kinds of things, from aggression and violence to kindness and peace
•
•
Social learning comes about in the same way as other types of learning – from being enforced
Potential “learning experiences” can come from those closest to us, and from other interpersonal interactions as well, such as media

• Social control theories
• People are self-interested, and these natural traits can prompt criminal activity
• Containment theory (Walter Reckless)
• Criminality is influenced by both internal and external forces
• Internal forces include sense of morality and knowledge of right and wrong
• External forces are factors such as police presence
• Criminals cannot resist the temptations that surround them

• Travis Hirschi
• There are four social bonds that affect personal restraint
•
• Attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief
•
Attachment refers to our relationship with others
• Commitment refers to our dedication to live a socially acceptable life
•
Involvement refers to participating in conventional activities
• Belief refers to a person’s dedication and conviction
People who lack these social bonds often become involved in criminal behavior

• Social conflict theories
• Focus on how issues of social class, power, and capitalism relate to crime
• Willem Bonger
• Capitalism causes crime because it encourages people to be egoistic and selfish
• Creates a conflict in society that the poor cannot win
• They turn to crime as a way to combat social injustice

• Jeffrey Reiman
• Capitalism creates a system in which actions of the rich are not considered criminal, yet actions of the poor are
• Your boss and/or your doctor are more likely to kill you than a stranger, and yet whom do you fear?
• Capitalism creates egoism, whereby people do not care about others, and the ends (obtaining wealth) justify the means

• General strain theory (Robert Agnew)
• Strains from society lead people to perform criminal activity
• Individual goals or needs cannot be met through legitimate means
• Strain can result from unpleasant life events
• A person might suffer strain from negative experiences such as abuse and pain

• Self-control theory (Michael Gottfredson and Travis Hirschi)
• Most crimes involve spur-of-the-moment decisions
• Criminals simply lack self-control
• Criminals are not able to delay gratification, so they seek short-term rewards at the expense of long-term consequences
• Most people learn this form of self-control from their parents
• Criminals are raised by people who fail to teach the importance of rejecting short-term, brief rewards in favor of more pleasurable longterm ones

• Psychological Perspectives
• Sociological Perspectives

• Crime
• Crime Statistics
• Crime Demographics
• Theoretical Perspectives