Criminology Midterm

  1. Crime
    an act that violates the criminal law and is punishable by the state.
  2. deviance
    Violation of norms is called deviance, which occurs when people break the rules.
  3. What defines crime?
    Societal reaction
  4. common reasons popularly claimed by society to explain criminal activities
    • Poor parenting,
    • low moral standards,
    • and poverty
  5. play an important role in increasing fear of crime:
    • politicians
    • media
  6. contributes to increased fear of crime:
    Sensational and oversimplified portrayals of crime by the media
  7. Best's theory
    media reports only extra-ordinary crime
  8. Glassner's theory
    pseudodanger plays an important role in society because it takes away the attention of people from bigger issues to smaller crimes.
  9. classical school
    humans have free will and their behavior is guided by pain-and-pleasure theory. Classical theorists also claimed that criminals can calculate the risks and rewards in any action; therefore, punishment should be suited to the offense, not to the characteristics of a criminal. punishment should be suited to the seriousness of the offense and not to the nature of the offender
  10. positivists
    the choice to commit crimes is made by an individual whose personality, character, and violent tendencies had been formed through many negative interactions with the environment, although they may be predisposed to crime by their biology. Therefore, providing a positive environment to criminals can help them in reformation. multiple factors. empiracle/scientific
  11. Shaw and McKay
    juvenile delinquency could be understood only by considering the social context in which youths lived.
  12. Criminal behavior is learned in...
    interaction with other persons in a process of communication. The principal part of the learning of criminal behavior occurs within intimate personal groups.
  13. Urban ecological variables such as neighborhood and structural density influence crime by...
    their impact on formal and informal processes of social control.
  14. descriptive model
    In 1925, Burgess presented a descriptive model, which divided cities in a set of six concentric zones. According to this model, neighborhood organization is instrumental in preventing or permitting delinquent careers
  15. Emile Durkheim
    In 1893, Emile Durkheim, introduced the concept of anomie to describe an emerging state of social deregulation, which explained how the moral values of people could erode, to they no longer knew what to expect from each other.
  16. Merton's strain theory
    • societal factors such as unemployment, teenage pregnancy, drug abuse, etc. cause strain and lead to crime. According to this theory, crime can only be explained by examining the structure of society, not the nature of the individual.
    • mostly concerned with the difficulties people have in gaining money
  17. important extensions of Merton's strain and deviance approach were presented by:
    • Albert Cohen,
    • Richard Cloward,
    • and Lloyd Ohlin
  18. Cohen's explanation of delinquency
    as a product of conflict between working and lower-class culture and middle-class values and expectations.
  19. Labeling theory
    focuses on the relationship between societal reaction and criminal behavior. According to the theorists, criminal behavior is determined or influenced by the terms used to describe or classify the behavior.



    state intervention is dangerously criminogenic and state punishment may have the unanticipated consequence of increasing, if not stabilizing, the criminality of individuals.
  20. Lombroso's Criminal Classifications (QUIZ 1)
    • born atavistic
    • insane
    • occassional- opportunity
    • passion- irresistable force
  21. Uniform Crime Reports (QUIZ 1)
    Published each year by the FBI and lists the numbers of various crimes that have become known to the nation’s police departments.
  22. The text reports that _______ shape the ways in which people come to think about crime. (QUIZ 1)
    Social Experiences
  23. Where did early theories of criminality locate the cause of crime? (QUIZ 1)
    In the individual's soul, will or body
  24. During the era of spiritualism, methods constructed for dealing with those accused of committing a crime include: (QUIZ 1) X
    • Trial by Battle
    • Trial by Ordeal
    • Compurgation (another swore the person was innocent)
  25. Cesare Lombroso (QUIZ 1)
    Father of Modern criminology; what sort of creatures are humans?; theology to biology (evolution); categories of criminals;
  26. theory
    a set of inter related statements that attempt to explain a phenomenon
  27. Lemert's sequence of interation:
    random causes > primary deviance > societal reactions > self identity OR material consequence > secondary deviance
  28. Ferri and 5 classes
    • social, economic, political factors contribute:
    • atavistic
    • insane
    • post mental/emotional
    • social/family conditions
    • habitual from social environment
  29. Garofalo and the doctrine of natural crimes
    violation of pity and probity
  30. Freud
    • contributed criminality to feeble-mindedness
    • super ego (conscience) v. ego (anti-social acts > crime)
  31. Bentham's 3 principles of punishment
    • certainty
    • celerity
    • severity
  32. Progressive Movement early 1900s (QUIZ 2)
    • The movement was troubled by the plight of the urban poor, and argued
    • that the poor were pushed by the environment into lives of crime.
  33. Shaw and McKay (QUIZ 2)
    they concluded that neighborhood organization was instrumental in preventing or permitting delinquent careers.
  34. Sutherland (QUIZ 2)
    • substituted for social disorganization the concept of differential social organization.
    • crime is learned
    • criminal v. conventional
    • 9 propositions
  35. control or social bond theory (QUIZ 2)
    weakening controls make a possible to anticipate a delinquent career
  36. social disorganization (QUIZ 2)
    • when urban in the zone of transition families and institutions were strained, if not broken, by rapid and concentrated urban growth, movement mixed ethnic/ racial groups and poverty
    • describes neighborhoods in which controls had weakened and criminal traditions rivaled conventional institutions
  37. differential social association (QUIZ 2)
    social groups are arranged differently - some in support of criminal activity and others against it. Sutherland proposed that lawlessness would be more prevalant in those areas where criminal organization had taken hold and where people's actions and values were shaped on a daily basis.
  38. collective efficiency (QUIZ 2)
    social cohesion among neighbors combines with their willingness to intervene on behalf of the common good
  39. American Dream
    • Merton believed it was the key ingredient to crime rather than neighborhood disorganization.
    • DEFINED- goal of material success, pursued by all under conditions of open and individual competition
  40. Anomie
    normless, deregulation
  41. Cohen
    According to _____, delinquent gangs and the subcultural values they embrace are concentrated in urban slums.
  42. Currie
    argued that it is in an extreme form of capitalism, the market economy, in which the pursuit of personal economic gain becomes increasingly the dominant organizing principle of social life.
  43. Which of the following strategies would a strain theorist say would best reduce crime?
    social change; expand economic opportunity; expand legitimate opportunities
  44. Burgess Concentric Zone Theory
    • city grows in concentric rings
    • 5 zones
    • nature of neighborhoods not individuals regulate crimes
  45. cultural deviance theory
    • low class culture
    • delinquent subculture
    • subculture of nonviolence
  46. Social learning theory
    • Akers:
    • definition
    • imitation
    • social reinforcement
  47. community types
    • private- count on neighbors
    • parochial- intervene to prevent delinquence
    • public- leader struggle for funds
  48. Merton's sources of crime/deviance
    anomie and strain
  49. 4 deviant modes of adaption
    • innovation
    • ritualists
    • retreatist
    • rebelious
  50. opportunity theory
    access to illegitimate means determines types of crimes
  51. reasons for crime
    • legitimate
    • illigitemate
    • fail
  52. Agnew's general strain theory
    • expanded types of strain:
    • blocking desired goal
    • remove positive stimuli
    • present negative stimuli
    • THEREFORE greater strain= greater adaption
  53. Agnew's 4 factors strain become criminal activity
    • strain is unjust
    • high in magnitude
    • cause by and associate will low social control
    • pressure/incentive created to engage in crime
  54. Emily Durkheim strain and criminology
    • humans=egotistical
    • shared values/norms
    • regular activity - functional
    • society is an organism
  55. Cloward and Ohlin model
    • emphasis on cultural goals
    • lack legitimate opportunity
    • opportunity for illigitimate activity
    • illegal activity
  56. Delinquent subcultures
    • criminal
    • conflict
    • retreatist
Author
lauren
ID
26787
Card Set
Criminology Midterm
Description
Criminology CH 1-4 and 7
Updated