Critical Theory
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What critical theories have in common
Gist of radical vs. pluralistic conflict theory
What radical/Marist theories have difficulty accounting (what facts appear to dispute
theory?)
Gender and crime (gender ratio, generalizability issues and their implications)
Feminist explanations of rape, concept of patriarchy
Jeffrey Reiman
Sellin’s primary culture conflict
Developmental Theory
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The idea of “cumulative continuity”
Evidence regarding the “stability” of offending, and also “change”
Gottfredson and Hirschi as stability only
Sampson and Laub as stability AND change
o Don’t need whole theory (especially early stuff)…know adult social bonds
Moffitt as stability OR change
o What causes AL offending
o What causes LCP offending
Little, if anything, regarding the first part of the Text book chapter (career criminals and so
forth) is on the exam
Violence
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Define forms of violence (rape, robbery, homicide, assault/aggravated assault)—basic
facts (e.g., committed by strangers or not, use of firearms or not)
Know basic trends/data
o Has violence been increasing or decreasing?
Homicide
o Homicide rate in U.S. (and trend), number of homicides in a typical year
o U.S. vs. other countries
o Role of firearms, gun control
o How the typical homicide unfolds
Rape
o Reporting issues (underreported)
o Legal issues (marital rape, initial consent rape, etc)
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o Levels of rape (lifetime prevalence, college campus study)
o Motivations for rape
Robbery
o Trends
o Robbery victims (most vulnerable)
o Robber characteristics (how different from other crimes)
Assault/aggravated assault (difference between them)
o Trends
o Prevalence (compared to other violent offenses)
Property Crime
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Define all type of property crime
Burglary vs. robbery
Fence
Most common types of property crime
NCVS vs. UCR measures of burglary
Clearance rates for most property offenses
Public Order offenses
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Define
Types and examples
How policing is related to public order offenses
Drug Crimes
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Types of drug crimes (e.g., drug related and so forth)…don’t worry about “Goldstein
Models”
Legalization debate (basic parameters)
History of drug use
o How far back does drug use go
o Drug panics
American use/trends
o Sources of drug data
o What drugs to Americans use regularly and what percent (generally) regularly use
soft and hard illicit drugs (see slide)
White collar and organized crime
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Organized Crime
o Types (e.g., mafia vs. other forms)
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o Activities of organized crime families
o Alien conspiracy vs. ethnic group/family models
o Attempts to control (federal legislation, strategies)
Define WCC and types
o Organizational, Corporate, Occupational
o Examples of famous cases/scandals
WCC vs. street crime (which causes more harm?)
Law Enforcement
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History
o First police departments (where formed, why, what were first departments like)
Organization
o State, Federal, County, Municipal
Activities (effectiveness where appropriate)
o Patrol, investigation
o Reactive/proactive
o “Bullshit work” or “handling the situation”
Policing models (e.g., COP, POP, Broken windows) and how implemented
Procedural laws (e.g., Miranda, exclusionary rule, etc.)
Courts
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Structure/organization
o U.S. supreme court appointments/justices
o Types of courts
Players in court and the jobs/roles of each
Courtroom Workgroup, Wedding cake model, administrative justice
Sentencing guidelines
Sentencing disparity
Corrections
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History
o Nature of Colonial punishment, why build first prisons, PN vs AB models
Determinate vs. Indeterminate
Organization / types
o Jails vs. Prison (differences, how used)
o Federal vs. State
Levels and trends
o # inmates in prison and jail
o % on probation vs. prison
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Intermediate sanctions
o Types, effectiveness