CRJ 101 – Chapter 2
Class Notes - 21 January 2014
. . . continued from 16 January
Crime Patterns
...
Social Class Patterns (socioeconomic) – “Justice isn’t black or white . . . it is green.”
Age Patterns – largest age group of offenders is 18-24 years old (senior citizen crime rate on the rise; the
“graying of America”)
Career Patterns: The Chronic Offender – career criminals; usually start young with petty crime
(however, juveniles usually do not carry over criminal patterns into adulthood, called the “Aging Out
Phenomenon”); most career criminals do petty crime
Victim Pattern
Victims have historically been mistreated and forgotten
The majority of crime occurs between people who know each other
Approximately 21M people victimized every year
Men: usually victims of robbery, aggravated assault
Females: usually victims of sexual assault

Age: young people under the age of 25 are largest group of victims;

Income: lower income persons usually are the victims of crime

Marital Status: mostly single people are victims

Race: for the most part, crimes usually race-on-race (white on white, black on black, etc.)

Ecological Factors: usually a person alone and unarmed in the evening, in the city

Victim-Offender Relationships: about 50% of victims know the perpetrator

Repeat Victimization: prior victims have a greater chance of becoming a victim again than
someone who has never been victimized
Cause of Crime and Victimization
Choice Theory (Rational Choice Theory) – individuals use free will to choose between conventional or
criminal behaviors; people commit crimes because they want to

Most people have the potential to violate the law

Motivated offenders balance the risks and rewards

Factors considered are personal, situational, and legal

Most will avoid crime if: punishment outweighs the pain; substantial likelihood of getting
caught; how swift the punishment (“pain and pleasure principal” or “hedonistic
calculus”)
Biosocial Theory – behavior a function of the interactions of biochemical, neurological, and genetic
factors with environmental stimulus (“The Twinkie Defense” – Milk)
Biochemical Factors:
Abnormality may lead to antisocial behavior (mental disorders, hormones, etc.)
Neurological Factors:
Impairment may reduce impulse control and self-control (brain damage, etc.)
Genetic Factors:
Violent behavior is possible inherited
Psychological Theory – a person’s brain chemistry is responsible for their criminal activities
Psychoanalytic View:
Criminals are driven by unconscious thought patterns that control behavior
Behavioral Theory (“Social Learning Theory”):
Behavior patterns are modeled and learned in interactions; actions are taught (i.e.: “Cycle
of Violence” in domestic violence)
Cognitive Theory:
Criminals may lack the ability to perform cognitive functions normally
Personality Theory:
May involve hyperactivity and/or impulsiveness, and a lack of control thereof
(psychopath, sociopath, etc.)
Social Structure Theory - a person’s position in the social structure affects behavior. The culture of
poverty is marked by apathy, cynicism, helplessness, and a mistrust of social interactions (i.e.: poor
persons commit crime because they are poor)
Strain Theory – crime occurs due to poor and rich living in close quarters; the poor want the things that
the rich have, and believe that the only way to have them is to commit crime; conflict between goals and
the means to obtain those goals
Cultural Deviance Theory – a lower-class culture develops in disorganized, poverty-ridden
neighborhoods; the idea that poor classes develop their own social norms (deviant behavior is accepted
behavior)
Social Process Theory – an individual’s behavior is shaped by their interactions with key social
institutions (family, school, peer group, military service, job)
Conflict Theory – human behavior is shaped by interpersonal conflict, and those who maintain social
power use it to further their own interests (dog-eat-dog type situation; blames economic and political
forces for criminal activity)
Developmental Theory – social interactions that are developed over a life course shape behavior;
disruptions in life’s major transitions can be destructive and promote criminality; as people mature the
factors that influence their behavior change
Current laws and punishments reflect the “free will theory” or “choice theory”.