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Crime, Violence, and Criminal Justice
- 1. Chapter 6 Crime, Violence, andCriminal Justice
- 2. Norms, Law, andCrime • Norms are rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members. • A law is a norm formally created through a society’s political system. – Civil law defines legal rights and relationships involving individuals and businesses. – Criminal law defines everyone’s responsibility to uphold public order.
- 3. Norms, Law, andCrime • Crime is the violation of a criminal law enacted by the federal, state, or local government. – Misdemeanor: a less serious crime punishable by less than a year in prison – Felony: a more serious crime punishable by at least one year in prison • 55% of people in the U.S. think dealing with crime is a “top priority” for our society. – Fear of crime is itself a social problem because it limits the things people do and the places they go.
- 4. Crime Statistics • Crimeagainst property is crime that involves theft of property belonging to others. – burglary, larceny-theft, motor-vehicle theft, arson • Crime against persons is crime that involves violence or the threat of violence against others. – murder and manslaughter, aggravated assault, forcible rape, and robbery
- 5. The annual FBIUniform Crime Report includes only reported street crimes. It does not include “elite crimes” such as business fraud, insider stock trading, corruption, price fixing, and illegal dumping of toxic wastes. The UCR underestimates the actual extent of street crime and gives a biased picture of the typical criminal.
- 6. Violent Crime: Patternsand Trends • Violent Crimes: – 12% of all serious offenses – increased quickly from 1960 until the early 1990s • Why a recent drop in violent crime? – Strong economy – Drop in use of crack cocaine – Hiring of more police – Tougher sentencing
- 7. Violent Crime: Murder •Rate has been falling since 1993 • Murder victims: – 78% are male – 51% are African American – 46% are white • Arrests made in 63% of all murders • 78% of all murder victims knew the offender; in 23% of the cases, they were related.
- 8. Violent Crime: Murder •Many cases of homicide include a history of the killer stalking the victim. – Stalking is defined as repeated efforts by someone to establish or reestablish a relationship against the will of the victim. – 75% of stalking victims are women.
- 9. Violent Crime: ForcibleRape • Nationally, only 28% of women who are raped make a report to the police. • Most attackers know their victims, but arrests are made in only 21% of reported cases. • Statistics include attempted rape and male rape victims, but not sex with a minor (statutory rape).
- 10. Violent Crime: Aggravated Assault •Aggravated assault accounts for 63% of all reported violent crime. • The majority of both victims and offenders are men. • Arrests are made in 51% of the reported cases.
- 11. Violent Crime: Robbery •Involves stealing and threatening another person; a property and a violent crime • Least likely of all violent crimes to result in an arrest; just 29% were cleared in 2012. • Offenders: • 87% male • 62% under age 25 • 55% African American • 43% white
- 12. Property Crimes: Patternsand Trends • Seven times as many property crimes as violent crimes • A property crime occurs every four seconds. • Annual losses: $16 billion • Arrests made in 18% of reported cases
- 13. Property Crimes: Burglaryand Larceny-theft • Burglary – only 11% of cases are cleared – Majority of those arrested are male (84%) and under 25 (55%) • Larceny-theft – 16% of cases cleared – Comprise 60% of all crimes tracked by FBI – 43% of arrests were females – includes shoplifting, purse-snatching
- 14. Property Crimes: Motor VehicleTheft and Arson • Motor Vehicle Theft – Only 7.4% of cases are cleared – Losses in 2012: $4.3 billion – Offenders: • 50% under 25; 81% males • Arson – 19% of cases cleared – Average loss of about $13,000 – Offenders: • 57% under age 25; 82% males
- 15. “Street” Crime: WhoAre the Criminals? • Age: young; arrest rates peak in the late teens • Gender: Males accounted for 63% of arrests for property crime and 80% of arrests for violent crime. – Women show up most often for larceny-theft (43% of arrests are of women), fraud (41%), embezzlement (48%), and prostitution (68%). • Social class: Crime rates are high in low- income neighborhoods but most crime is committed by a small number of repeat offenders.
- 16. • Race andEthnicity: – Most “street crime” arrests involve white suspects. – In proportion to population share (13%), African Americans are more likely than whites to be arrested • Black males are six times more likely than white males to spend time in jail. • One-third of black men in their twenties either in jail, on probation, or on parole “Street” Crime: Who Are the Criminals?
- 17. • Why doesrace play a large part in the street crime picture? – Deprivation faced by black youths may lead to hostility towards police and distrust of “the system.” – Prejudice based on race may prompt people to suspect blacks on the basis of skin color. – 72% of black children are born to single mothers. • Asian Americans underrepresented in street crime statistics: higher income levels and strong cultural emphasis on family, discipline, and honor. “Street” Crime: Who Are the Criminals?
- 18. Juvenile Delinquency • Juveniledelinquency is violation of the law by young people. • The goal of the juvenile justice system is to protect the community and serve the best interests of youthful offenders. • For serious offenses, juveniles can be tried and sentenced as adults, but since 2005, they cannot be sentenced to death.
- 20. Hate Crimes • Ahate crime is a criminal offense against a person, property, or society motivated by the offender’s bias against a race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity or national origin. • 45 states and the federal government mandate additional penalties for offenses that meet the criteria of a hate crime. • Many hate crimes are not reported.
- 21. White-Collar Crime • Illegalactivities committed by people of high social position during the course of their employment or regular business activities • Edwin Sutherland (1940): – White collar crimes are more common than people imagine. – They often receive little public attention. – Cases are usually heard in a civil court, and if convicted, offenders rarely go to jail.
- 22. Corporate Crime • Unlawfulact committed by a corporation or by persons acting on its behalf • Gross negligence: knowingly producing a faulty or dangerous product. • The cost of white-collar and corporate crime is far greater than the costs of all property crimes in a year.
- 23. Organized Crime andVictimless Crime • Organized crime is a business operation that supplies illegal goods and services such as gambling, sex, or drugs. – Organized crime has become multinational. • Victimless crimes refer to offenses that directly harm no one but the person who commits them, such as gambling and prostitution. – They can, and do, cause harm.
- 24. Violence • Violence isbehavior that causes injury to people or damage to property. • Violence becomes a social problem to the extent that people define it that way: 1. What do the actors intend by their actions? 2. Does the violence conform to or violate social norms and values? 3. Does the violence support or threaten the social order? 4. Is the violence committed by or against the government?
- 25. Violence • Institutional violence, violencecarried out by government representatives under the law, is widely supported. • People are quick to condemn anti- institutional violence, violence directed against the government in violation of the law.
- 26. Serious Violence: MassMurder and Serial Killings • Mass Murder: intentional, unlawful killing of four or more people at one time and place. – occur in schools, businesses, or homes, where people assume they are safe from violence – Mass murderers are almost always men. • Serial Murder: the killing of several people by one offender over a period of time.
- 27. The Mass Mediaand Violence • Most researchers agree that watching violence may – encourage people to be more violent. – desensitize people to violence.
- 28. Youth Gangs andViolence • Youth gangs are groups of young people who identify with one another and with a particular territory. • Youth gangs can be: – nonviolent groups. – those who sometimes clash over turf. – all-out criminal organizations. • Typical violent gang members – come from poor, single-parent families. – are from neighborhoods characterized by high crime rates, drug abuse, and limited job opportunities.
- 29. Drugs and Violence •Drugs contribute to violence by distorting judgment and reducing inhibitions. • Some drugs are addictive and cause cravings so strong that people may turn violent in their search for the next high.
- 30. Guns and Violence •Many people blame the problem of crime on the easy availability of guns. – 34% of households have at least one gun. – 37% of these weapons are handguns. • Gun violence is the leading cause of death for African American and Latino males aged 15 to 34.
- 31. Guns and Violence •Liberals: – restrict availability of handguns – require trigger locks – ban military-style assault rifles • Conservatives: – Stand by Constitutional right to “keep and bear arms” – Widespread gun ownership may help to reduce crime by deterring would-be criminals.
- 32. The Criminal JusticeSystem • Society’s use of due process, involving police, courts, and punishment, to enforce the law. • Due Process: The criminal justice system must operate within the bounds of law.
- 33. Police • Police makechoices about what warrants their attention. • Smith and Visher found the following factors guide police in arrest decisions: 1. How serious is the crime? 2. What does the victim want? 3. Is the suspect cooperative? 4. Does the suspect have a record? 5. Are bystanders watching? 6. What is the suspect’s race?
- 34. Courts • 97% ofcriminal cases are settled through plea-bargaining, a negotiation in which the state reduces a defendant’s charge in exchange for a guilty plea. • Relying too heavily on plea bargaining can take away a defendant’s constitutional right to a trial.
- 35. Punishment Justifications for asociety to punish its wrongdoers: – Retribution, moral vengeance by which society inflicts on the offender suffering comparable to that caused by the offense. – Deterrence, using punishment to discourage further crime. – Rehabilitation, reforming an offender to prevent future offenses. – Societal protection, protecting the public by using incarceration or execution to prevent an offender from committing further offenses.
- 36. Does Punishment Work? •Increasing criticism of mass incarceration, with an unprecedented 2.3 million people behind bars. – Conservatives: Concerned about high costs ($30,000 per inmate per year) – Liberals: Concerned about violence of prison life, breaking up families, targeting of minorities.
- 37. Restorative Justice and CommunityBased Programs • Restorative justice is a response to crime seeking to restore the well-being of the victim, offender, and larger communities lost due to crime. • Correctional programs located in society as a whole rather than behind prison walls: – Probation – Shock Probation – Parole
- 38. The Death Penalty •18 states have abolished the death penalty; six have done so since 2006. • Between 1977 and 2014, – more than 8,000 people were sentenced to death. – 1,359 executions were carried out. • Trend is downward: – 2013: 80 death sentences and 39 executions – 47% of all death row prisoners are in Texas, California, and Florida. • 65% of U.S. adults support death penalty in cases of murder.
- 39. Biological Causes ofCrime • Early research into biological causes: – Cesare Lombroso (1876) – William Sheldon (1949) – Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck (1950) • 1960s: Genetics and criminal behavior • 2000s: Neurocriminology • Biological theories do not provide an adequate understanding of criminal behavior.
- 40. Psychological Causes ofCrime • Personality traits play a part in criminality. • Problems with this approach: – Many serious crimes are committed by people who are quite “normal” – psychological theories consider only the individual, not how society defines them
- 41. Structural-Functional Analysis: Why SocietyCreates Crime • Emile Durkheim: the Functions of Crime – Crime affirms a society’s norms and values. – Recognizing crime helps everyone recognize the line between right and wrong. – Reacting to crime helps bring people together. – Crime encourages social change. • Crime is a creation of society, not individuals. • Crime is a normal and necessary element of society.
- 42. Structural-Functional Analysis: Why SocietyCreates Crime • Robert Merton: Strain theory – Crime is a product of society itself. – Patterns of rule-breaking depend on whether or not • people accept society’s goals. • society provides the opportunity to reach these goals. – Five specific outcomes: Conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, rebellion
- 43. • Cloward andOhlin: Opportunity structure – Becoming a criminal depends on the presence of illegitimate opportunity. – Patterns of conformity and criminality depend on people’s relative opportunity structure. Structural-Functional Analysis: Why Society Creates Crime
- 44. • Travis Hirschiargues that social ties discourage crime. • Social ties that operate to control crime: – attachment to other people – access to conventional opportunity – involvement in conventional activities – belief in the rightness of cultural norms and values Structural-Functional Analysis: Why Society Creates Crime
- 45. Symbolic-Interaction Analysis: Socially ConstructingReality • People learn criminal behavior from their surroundings. • What is defined as a crime and who is defined as a criminal result from a highly variable process of social definition.
- 46. Symbolic-Interaction Analysis • EdwinSutherland: Differential Association Theory – Learning takes place in social groups. – Deviance depends on extent of contact with those who discourage conventional behavior. • Howard Becker: Labeling Theory – The only real definition of “rule breaking” is behavior that people label that way. – No action is right or wrong in any absolute sense.
- 47. Symbolic-Interaction Analysis • Lemert:Primary vs. Secondary Deviance – How individuals can be changed by the labels people apply to their behavior. – Primary deviance (skipping school, underage drinking) may have only passing significance. – Reaction of others to primary deviance can provoke secondary deviance and the individual begins basing choices on this “deviant identity.”
- 48. Symbolic-Interaction Analysis • ErvingGoffman: the Power of Stigma – A stigma is a powerful negative social label that changes a person’s self-concept and social identity. – Once stigmatized, an individual may find that conventional friends disappear. – A criminal prosecution can be a powerful ritual that stigmatizes an individual.
- 49. Social-Conflict Analysis: Crime andInequality • Karl Marx: Class and Crime – Social problems in terms of class conflict – Crime as a product of social inequality – Solution to the crime problem: Eliminate capitalism for a more egalitarian system.
- 50. Feminist Analysis: Crime andGender • With less access to good jobs and positions of power, some women see crime as a means of coping with their exploitation and as a way to make a living. • Police are far more likely to arrest women working as prostitutes than men who pay for sex. • Women are at high risk of sexual violence.
- 51. Politics and Crime:Constructing Problems and Defining Solutions • Conservatives claim – that people raised in strong, law-abiding families are unlikely to commit crime. – in tougher laws, more aggressive policing, and harsher penalties to combat crime. – that crime can be controlled when parents teach children to make the right choices in a world of pressures.
- 52. Politics and Crime:Constructing Problems and Defining Solutions • Liberals claim – many people live in situations that pressure them to break the law. – that crime is caused by a harmful environment, particularly by living in poverty. – that jobs are the key to a drop in the crime rate.
- 53. Politics and Crime:Constructing Problems and Defining Solutions • The radical left claims – that economic insecurity is the real violence carried out against people every day. – the solution begins with a restructuring of the economic and political system. – that a more egalitarian social order can make a real claim to justice.