chapter 1

1. CRIMINOLOGY
TODAY
AN INTEGRATIVE INTRODUCTION
sixth edition
By FRANK SCHMALLEGER
Pearson Education, Inc.

2. CRIMINOLOGY
TODAY
AN INTEGRATIVE INTRODUCTION
sixth edition
By FRANK SCHMALLEGER
Chapter 1
What is Criminology?
Pearson Education, Inc.

3. What is Crime?
• Four definitional perspectives
– Legalistic
– Political
– Sociological
– Psychological
• Perspective is important because it determines the
assumptions we make and the questions we ask
• This book uses the legalistic perspective
Criminology
Today: An
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4. Legalistic Perspective
• Crime is defined as:
Human conduct in violation of the criminal laws
of a state, the federal government, or a local
jurisdiction that has the power to make such
laws
Criminology
Today: An
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5. Shortcomings of the Legalistic
Perspective
• Yields moral high ground to powerful individuals
who can influence lawmaking
• Insists that the nature of crime and the nature of
law cannot be separated – not all immoral acts
are contravened by statute
Criminology
• An
Today: Fails to recognize that formal law did not always
exist
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6. Political Perspective
• Crime - the result of criteria that have been built into
the law by powerful groups and are then used to label
selected undesirable forms of behavior as illegal
• Laws serve the interests of the politically powerful
• Crimes are behaviors those in power perceive as
threats to their interests
Criminology
Today: An
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7. Sociological (Sociolegal) Perspective
• Crime – an antisocial act of such a nature
that its repression is necessary or is
supposed to be necessary to the
preservation of the existing system of
society
• Crime is an offense against human
Criminology
relationships first, a violation of law second
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8. Psychological (Maladaptive)
Perspective
• Crime - problem behavior, especially human
activity that contravenes the criminal law and
results in difficulties in living within a
framework of generally acceptable social
arrangements
Criminology
• Includes any
Today: An harmful or potentially harmful
behaviors
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9. Crime and Deviance
• Deviant behavior –
any activity that
violates social norms
• Deviance and crime
overlap – not identical
Criminology
Today: An
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10. What Should be Criminal?
• Lack agreement about appropriate legal
status of many behaviors
• Question answered differently by two
contrasting perspectives
– Consensus
– Pluralist
Criminology
Today: An
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11. What Should be Criminal?
Consensus Pluralist
• Laws are enacted to • Behaviors typically
criminalize given forms of criminalized through a
behavior when agreed political process, after
upon by members of debate over appropriate
society course of action
• Most applicable to • Legislation, appellate court
homogeneous societies action
Criminology
Today: An • Most applicable to diverse
Integrative societies
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12. What Do Criminologists Do?
• Criminologist – studies crime, criminals and
criminal behavior
• Criminalist – a specialist in the collection and
examination of the physical evidence of crime
• Criminal Justice Professionals – do the day-to-
day work of the criminal justice system
Criminology
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13. What Do Criminologists Do?
Characteristics of academic and research criminologists:
• Ph.D. in criminology, criminal justice, or related field
• Teach in colleges and universities
• Most conduct research designed to advance
criminological knowledge
Criminology write for publication in journals
• Most
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14. What is Criminology?
• Many difficulties in defining subject
• Text’s definition of criminology:
An interdisciplinary profession built around the
scientific study of crime and criminal behavior,
including their manifestations, causes, legal
aspects, and control
• Focus on causes of criminality
Criminology
Today: An
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15. What is Criminology?
Social scientific discipline Interdisciplinary
Criminology
Today: An
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16. What is Criminology?
• Criminal justice:
– Application of the criminal law and study of the
components of the justice system
– Police, courts, corrections
• Focus on control of lawbreaking
Criminology
Today: An
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17. Theoretical Criminology
• Subfield of general criminology
• Primarily found in colleges and universities
• Posits explanations for criminal behavior
Criminology
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18. Theoretical Criminology
• Theory
Made up of clearly stated propositions that posit
relationships, often of a causal sort, between
events and things under study
• Criminologists have developed many
theories to explain and understand crime
Criminology
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19. Theoretical Criminology
• General theory – tries to explain all/most forms of crime
through a single overarching approach
• Unicausal – approaches that posit a single identifiable
source for all serious deviant and criminal behavior
• Integrated theory – tries to explain crime by merging
concepts from different sources
• Experimental criminology – uses social scientific
Criminology
techniques to test the accuracy of theories about crime
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20. Formulation of Social Policy
• Social policies based on research findings are of
potentially broader importance than theory
testing
• Social policy includes government initiatives,
programs, plans to address problems in society
• Should be linked to objective findings of well-
conducted criminological research
Criminology
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21. Social Policy and Public Crime
Concerns
• Concern about crime not always related to
actual incidence of crime
• Concern about crime an important factor in
determining public policy – political
agendas focusing on reducing crime well-
received
Criminology
Today: An
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22. The Theme of This Book
Social Problems Social Responsibility
• Crime a manifestation of • People responsible for
social problems own behavior, choose
crime over other
• Public health model to legitimate options
deal with crime
– Large-scale government
expenditures • Personalized crime
– Social programs reduction strategies
addressing roots of crime
Criminology
• Micro approach
Today:Macro approach
• An
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23. The Social Context of Crime
• Crime does not occur in a vacuum – every crime
has a unique set of
– Causes
– Consequences
– Participants
• Crime provokes reactions from many sources
• Reactions to crime may affect future criminal
Criminology
events
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24. Causes and Consequences of Crime
• Crime is a social event, not an isolated individual
activity
• Crime has many different kinds of meanings
• Crime is socially relative:
Social events are interpreted differently according to the
cultural experiences and personal interests of the
initiator, observer, or recipient of the behavior
Criminology
Today: An
• Crime
Integrative means different things to different people
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25. Causes and Consequences of Crime
Criminology
Today: An
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Schmalleger 25 Copyright © 2012, 2009, 2006, 2004, 2002, 1999, 1996 by Pearson Education, Inc.
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26. Causes and Consequences of Crime
• Crime results from the coming together of
inputs provided by the offender, the victim,
the criminal justice system, and society
• Foreground – features that immediately
determine the nature of the crime
• Background
Criminology causes – generic contributions
Today: An
to the crime
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27. Crime and the Offender
• Background features • Foreground
– Life experiences contributions
– Biology and personality – Motivation
– Values/beliefs – Specific Intent
– Skills/knowledge – State of mind (drug-
induced)
Criminology
Today: An
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28. Crime and the Criminal Justice
System
• Background • Immediate
contributions - failure contributions –
to: features of situation
– Prevent crime – Presence/absence of
– Identify/inhibit specific police officers
offenders – Availability of official
– Prevent release of assistance
recidivists – Willingness of officers to
Criminology intervene pre-crime
Today: An – Response time
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29. Crime and the Victim
• Background contributions
– Passive presence
– Active contributions through lifestyle
• Victim precipitation
– Active victim participation in initial stages of
criminal event
– Victim instigates chain of events resulting in
Criminology
victimization
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30. Crime and Society
• Background contributions
– Generic social practices and conditions
– Socialization process
• Foreground contributions
– Distribution of resources
– Accessibility of services
Criminology
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31. Immediate Effects of Crime
• Outputs affect all parties involved
• Impact affected by perceptual filters
– Results in ongoing interpretations before, during,
after crime
– Everyone associated with a crime engages in
interpretations
Criminology
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32. Integrative Approach to Crime
• Attempt to identify and understand multiple
causes of crime
• Highlight the processes involved in the
criminal event as it unfolds
• Analyze the interpretation
Criminology of the crime
phenomenon
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33. Integrative Approach to Crime
Crime as an emergent activity that:
• Arises out of past complex causes
• Assumes a course that builds upon immediate
interrelationships among everyone involved
• Elicits a formal response from the justice system,
Criminology public perceptions, and may give rise to
shapes
Today: An
changes in social policy
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34. The Primacy of Sociology?
• Many disciplines have made important
contributions to criminology
• Many criminologists today operate
primarily from a sociological perspective
• Many modern theories
Criminology of criminal behavior
Today: based in sociology
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35. The Primacy of Sociology?
• Advantages
– Crime is a social phenomenon
– Much contemporary criminology rests on tradition of
social scientific investigation
• Problems
– Reluctant to accept findings from other disciplines
– Frequently unable to integrate these findings into
Criminologyexisting sociological understandings of crime
Today: An
– Unable to show effective ways to control crime
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