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CCJ1010 CRIMINOLOGY
CHAPTER TWO
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Scared Straight Program
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Popular program in the late ‘70s
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3 years after start of the program, Jim Finckenauer conducted a simple experiment to test how
successful it was
Randomized controlled trial
The program was not deterring at-risk youth
Arrest rates were actually higher in the treatment group than in the controls
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More recent studies show Scared Straight programs are actually more harmful to juveniles than
doing nothing at all
Programs are often initiated by public pressure for get tough on crime programs
Experimental Criminology
Systematic, empirically rigorous tests of CJ programs
It is important that researchers, theorists, and practitioners implement programs that
are evidence-based
Counting Crime and Measuring Criminal Behavior
Seven Basic Requirements
for an Act to be a Crime
1. The act requirement
2. The legality requirement
3. The harm requirement
4. The causation requirement
5. The mens rea requirement
6. The concurrence requirement
7. The punishment requirement
Actus Reus
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An act in violation of the law
 Thinking is not doing
 Being is not doing
Includes failure to act
 Failure of a sex offender to register
 Parents obligation to protect their children
Mens Rea
When a person acts purposefully and knowingly
Supreme Court Justice
Oliver Wendell Holmes
“Even a dog distinguishes between being stumbled over and being kicked.”
Strict Liability and Mens Rea
Does not require mens rea
 Traffic
 Statutory rape
Concurrence
The simultaneous coexistence of
 (1) an act in violation of the law and

(2) a culpable mental state.
Concurrence requires that the act and the mental state occur together in order for a crime to
take place.
The Concept of Crime
Corpus delicti
Causation
Resulting identifiable harm
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Legality
Attendant circumstances
Ex post facto laws
Corpus Delicti
Facts that show that a crime has occurred. Literally, the “body of crime.”
Corpus Delicti
Two components of the corpus delicti of a crime:
(1) that a certain result has been produced, and
(2) that a person is criminally responsible for it.
“Corpus delicti consists of a showing of:
(1) the occurrence of the specific kind of injury and
(2) someone’s criminal act as the cause of the injury.”
Example: Victim reports she has been battered by her boyfriend. At time of arrest,
boyfriend admits he hit Victim during an argument. At trial, they have reconciled and
she refuses to testify against him. Boyfriend’s statements cannot be used against him
unless State can independently establish battery.
Causation
Requires that the actor achieve the result (the harm) through his or her own effort
Causation in fact
 An actual link between an actor’s conduct and a result
Proximate cause
 The primary or moving cause that plays a substantial part in bringing about injury or
damage.
 It may be a first cause that sets in motion a string of events whose ultimate outcome is
reasonably foreseeable
Causation
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Sine qua non (An indispensable and essential action, condition, or ingredient.)
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QUERY: If a person is driving while his license is suspended as a habitual traffic offender and causes an
accident where the driver of another car dies, is this person guilty of murder?
Resulting Harm
Loss, disadvantage, or injury or anything so regarded by the person affected, including loss,
disadvantage, or injury to any other person in whose welfare he or she is interested
Victimless Crimes
This term is used to designate crimes that do not directly inflict harm to a person or
property
Would not include harm murder, robbery, rape, and theft, etc.
The term is controversial when applied to crimes such as drug violations because the deadly
drug trade in the U.S. results in many victims.
Do you agree that drug use is harmless?
What about prostitution?
Examples of Victimless Crimes
Possession or use of a small amount of a drug such as marijuana
Public drunkenness (decriminalized by many states)
Prostitution
Gambling (many forms of gambling are now legal)
Possession of sexually explicit materials by an adult
Fortune-telling
Examples of Victimless Crimes That Have Been Abolished by Many States
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Fornication
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Adultery
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Cohabitation by unmarried couples
Examples of Victimless Crimes That Have Been Declared Unconstitutional
Use of contraceptives
Drug addiction as a crime in and of itself
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Possession of, or reading obscene material in privacy of one’s home – Stanley v. Georgia,
394 U.S. 557 (1969)
Homosexual relations between consenting adults in privacy of one’s home – Lawrence v.
Texas, 123 S. Ct. 2472 (2003)
Legality
Behavior cannot be criminal if no law exists that defines it as such.
Legality
Nullen crimen, nulla poena, sine lege
“There is no crime, there is no punishment, without law.”
Nullum crimen sine poena
“No crime without punishment.”
Typologies of Crime
Violent crimes
Crimes against property
White-collar and corporate crime
Drug, alcohol, and sex-related crimes
Reasons for Measuring Crime
1. Researchers need to collect and analyze information in order to test theories about why people
commit crime.
2. Researchers and criminal justice agencies need to enhance their knowledge of the
characteristics of various types of offenses.
3. Criminal justice agencies depend on certain kinds of information to facilitate daily operations
and to anticipate future needs.
Methods of Collecting Crime Data
1. Survey Research
2. Experiments
3. Observation
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4. Participant Observation
5. Case Studies
Primary Data
 Facts and observations researchers gather for the purpose of a particular study.
Secondary Data
 Information obtained from government sources, or data previously collected for a
different investigation.
Surveys
The systematic collection of respondents’ answers to questions asked in questionnaires or
interviews; interviews may be conducted face-to-face or by telephone.
Population
Sample
Random Sample
Panel Studies—repeatedly survey the same sample at various points in time
Experiments
An investigator introduces a change into a process and makes measurements or observations in
order to evaluate the effects of the change.
Variables: Independent Variable A causes Dependent Variable B
Control Groups
Randomized Controlled Trials
1. Program participants and nonparticipants can be randomly assigned to two or more groups
large enough to comprise a statistically valid sample
2. Each group can be administered a distinct intervention (or nonintervention, which would be the
control condition)
3. For each group, the program can measure the outcomes that the intervention is designed to
improve
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Participant and Nonparticipant Observation
In participant observation the researcher may join and participate in the activities of the group
being studied.
In observational research the researcher observes the group being studied but is not a
participant in the activities.
This process may be used to study criminals, prisoners, prosecutors, or police officers.
Case Studies
A case study is an analysis of all pertinent aspects of one unit of study, such as an individual, an
institution, a group, or a community.
Sources of information may be life histories, biographies, diaries, journals, letters, and other
records.
Ethics and Research in Criminology
Should the results of the interviews be published?
If the research does not disclose names, could the participant be obstructing justice?
Is there confidentiality for a criminal suspect?
Does a researcher have to turn over his or her files if requested by the police or court?
Should criminologists be immune from prosecution?
Major Sources of Crime Information
Uniform Crime Report published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Weakness of These Measures
Do not provide an annual per capita measure of crime frequency.
Not all law enforcement agencies report crime to the FBI, and those that do may fail to
report crime uniformly.
UCR only reports arrests, not the actual amount of crime; only the most serious offenses
are often reported.
Counts total number of arrests.
 Chronic offenders arrested multiple times.
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Arrest activity in the UCR may be attributable to fluctuations in police activity rather
than actual fluctuations in criminal activity.
Although they only make up a fraction of national criminal activity, federal crimes
are not reported in the UCR.
National Crime Victimization Survey
Overemphasize street crimes and underemphasize corporate crimes.
Self-Report Studies
FBI Index Offenses
Crimes against the person
Murder
Rape
Assault
Robbery
Crimes against property
Burglary
Larceny
Motor Vehicle Theft
Arson
Crime Rates
CRIME RATES
Crime rate =
# 𝑜𝑓 𝑟𝑒𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑐𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑒𝑠
𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑝𝑜𝑝𝑢𝑙𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
X 100,000
If the homicide rate is 10.2, then there are 1.2 homicide for every 100,000 persons
Victimization Surveys
National Crime Victimization Survey
 Rape, robbery, assault, larceny, burglary, personal theft, and motor vehicle theft.
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Measures the extent of crime by interviewing individuals about their experiences as victims
Published by the Bureau of Justice Statistics
43,000 households, 80,000 people
Covers time, place, offenders, weapons, personal information, etc.
Weaknesses
Excludes some offenses (criminal homicide and arson, all Part II crimes).
Individual variations in interviewing and recoding style.
Personal Reporting
 Memories may fade
 Exaggerate
 May try to please the interviewer by fabricating crimes
 Tendency to telescope events (move an event from earlier time period to fit the time
frame of the study
Self-report Surveys
A self-report study asks people to report their own criminal acts in a confidential interview or,
more commonly, on an anonymous questionnaire.
These reports have demonstrated very high rates of law-violating behavior by seemingly lawabiding people.
Locations and Times
More crime occurs in urban areas, at nighttime, and during summer months
The safest place to be is at home
 ¼ of violent crime took place at or near victim’s home
 Nearly 3/4s of violent crimes occurred within 5 miles of the home
2/3s of sexual assaults occur at night
70% of household larcenies & 75% of motor vehicle thefts occur at night
Over 50% of violent crimes occur between 6:00 a.m. & 6:00 p.m.
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Characteristics of Criminals
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What’s worse?
Kidnapping a child
Raping a young woman
Stealing a car (with a child in the back)
Robbing a bank with a loaded gun
Why are some people more likely than others to commit crimes or particular types of crimes?
Age and Crime
Individuals under 25 account for half of all arrests.
Juveniles account for 15 percent of arrests of all index crimes in 2006.
Arrest rates decline after age 30.
Crime decreases with age
Aging-out phenomenon: too old for crime.
Life-Course Perspective
Argues that the decrease in crime rates after adolescence does not imply that the
number of crimes committed by all individual offenders declines.
The frequency of offending may go down for most offenders, but some chronic
active offenders may continue to commit the same amount of crime over time.
Social factors
Economic situation
Peer pressure
lifestyle
Delinquency Trends
16% -- Part I violent crime arrests
26% – Property crime arrests
15% -- Total crimes
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Gender and Crime
Males commit more crimes than females at all ages.
Arrest ratio: 3 males for every 1 female.
In 1960 females accounted for 11% of total arrests; today they account for 23%.
The new female criminal.
Race and Crime
Blacks constitute 12% of the population and 31.3% of all arrests for index crimes.
50% of black urban males are arrested for an index offense once in their lifetime compared
to 14% of white males.
18% of blacks serve some time in prison while only 3% of whites serve some time.
The leading cause of death for young black men is murder.
Social Class
Serious crime is more prevalent in socially disorganized lower-class areas
Middle-class generally commit less serious nuisance crimes
Lower-class generally commit more serious crimes
Typical person in prison is primarily not educated, low income, blue-collar worker
Race
African Americans disproportionately represented in arrest statistics
 Four European American youths (5 to 17) to to one African American in population
Reasons
 Discrimination?
 More likely to be formally arrested?
Self-report surveys show serious offenses that African American youths do in fact admit more
offending than white youths
Crime Trends
What’s the Connection?
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Deteriorated neighborhoods
Lack of informal social control
Income inequality
Presence of youth gangs
Resource deprivation