Criminal Justice 200 Chapter 3

Front 1

Deviance

Back 1

A violation of social norms defining appropriate or proper behavior under a particular set of circumstances. (Often includes criminal acts).

Front 2

Theory

Back 2

A set of interrelated propositions that attempt to describe, explain, predict, and ultimately control some class of events.

Front 3

Hypothesis

Back 3

An explanation that accounts for a set of facts and that can be tested by further investigation. Something that is taken to be true for the purpose of argument or investigation.

Front 4

Research

Back 4

The use of standardized, systematic procedures in the search for knowledge.

Front 5

Interdisciplinary Theory

Back 5

An approach that integrates a variety of theoretical viewpoints in an attempt to explain something, such as crime and violence.

Front 6

Classical School

Back 6

An eighteenth-century approach to crime causation and criminal responsibility that grew out of the Enlightenment and that emphasized the role of free will and reasonable punishments. Believes that punishments have to outweigh the potential risks of committing the crime.

Front 7

Neoclassical Criminology

Back 7

Contemporary version of classical criminology that emphasizes deterrence and retribution and that holds that human beings are essentially free to make choices in favor of crime and deviance or conformity to the law.

Front 8

Rational Choice Theory

Back 8

A perspective on crime causation that holds that criminality is the result of conscious choice. Predicts that individuals will choose to commit crime when the benefits outweigh the risks.

Front 9

Routine Activities Theory

Back 9

A neoclassical perspective that suggests that lifestyles contribute significantly to both the amount and the type of crime found in any society.

Front 10

Capable Guardian

Back 10

Those who effectively discourage crime and prevent it from occurring.

Front 11

Biological School

Back 11

A perspective on criminological thoughts that holds that criminal behavior ha a psychological basis.

Front 12

Phrenology

Back 12

The study of the shape of the head to determine the anatomical correlates of human behavior.

Front 13

Atavism

Back 13

A condition characterized by the existence of features thought to be common in earlier stages of human evolution.

Front 14

Positivist School

Back 14

An approach to criminal justice theory that stresses the application of scientific techniques to the study of crime and criminals.

Front 15

Somatotyping

Back 15

The classification of human beings into types according to body build and other physical characteristics.

Front 16

Psychobiological

Back 16

Contemporary biochemical and psychological perspectives on criminology.

Front 17

Supermale

Back 17

Human male having XYY chromosome structure.

Front 18

Biocriminolgy

Back 18

Field of study that links violent of disruptive behavior to eating habits, vitamin deficiencies, genetics, and other conditions that effect body tissues.

Front 19

Psychological School

Back 19

Perspective on criminological thought that views offensive and deviant behavior as the product of dysfunctional personality.

Front 20

Behavioral Conditioning

Back 20

A psychological principle that holds that the frequency of any behavior can be increased or decreased through reward, punishment, and association with other stimuli.

Front 21

Psychoanalysis

Back 21

A theory of human behavior, that sees personality as a complex composite of interacting mental entities.

Front 22

Psychopathology

Back 22

The study of pathological mental conditions (mental illness).

Front 23

Psychopath

Back 23

A person with a personality disorder, especially one manifested in aggressively antisocial behavior, which is often said to be the result of a poorly developed superego.

Front 24

Psychosis

Back 24

A form of mental illness in which the sufferers are said to be out of touch with reality.

Front 25

Schizophrenia

Back 25

A mentally ill individual who suffers from disjointed thinking and possibly from delusions and hallucinations.

Front 26

Psychological Profiling

Back 26

The attempt to categorize, understand, and predict the behavior of certain types of offenders based on behavior clues they provide.

Front 27

Dangerousness

Back 27

The likelihood that a given individual will later harm society or others.

Front 28

Chicago School

Back 28

A sociological approach that emphasizes demographics and geographics and that sees the social disorganization that characterizes delinquency areas as a major cause of criminality and victimization.

Front 29

Social Disorganization

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A condition said to exist when a group is faced with social change, uneven development of culture, maladaptiveness, disharmony, conflict, and lack of consensus.

Front 30

Anomie

Back 30

A socially pervasive condition of normlessness. Also, a disjunction between approved goals and means.

Front 31

Reaction Formation

Back 31

The process whereby a person openly rejects that which he or she wants or aspires to but cannot obtain or achieve.

Front 32

Subculture of Violence

Back 32

A cultural setting in which violence is a traditional and often accepted method of dispute resolution.

Front 33

Defensible Space Theory

Back 33

The belief that an area's physical features may be modified and structured so as to reduce crime rates in that area and to lower fear of victimization that residents experience.

Front 34

Broken Window Thesis

Back 34

A perspective on crime causation that holds that the physical deterioration of an area leads to higher crime rates and an increased concern for personal safety among residents.

Front 35

Social Process Theory

Back 35

A perspective on criminological thought that highlights the process of interaction between individuals and society. (Especially social learning.)

Front 36

Social Learning Theory

Back 36

A psychological perspective that says that people learn how to behave by modeling themselves after others whom they have the opportunity to observe.

Front 37

Containment

Back 37

The aspects of the social bond and of the personality that acts to prevent individuals from committing crimes and engaging in deviance.

Front 38

Labeling Theory

Back 38

A social process perspective that sees continued crime as a consequence of the limited opportunities for acceptable behavior that follow from the negative responses of society to those defined as offenders.

Front 39

Moral Enterprise

Back 39

The process undertaken by an advocacy group to have its values legitimated and embodied in law.

Front 40

Social Development Theory

Back 40

An integrated view of human development that points to the process of interaction among and between individuals and society as the root cause of criminal behavior.

Front 41

Life Course Perspective

Back 41

An approach to explaining crime and deviance that investigates developments and turning pints in the course of a person's life.

Front 42

Conflict Perspective

Back 42

A theoretical approach that holds that crime is the natural consequence of economic and other social inequities.

Front 43

Radical Criminology

Back 43

Conflict perspective that sees crime as engendered by the unequal distribution of wealth, power, and other resources.

Front 44

Peacemaking Criminology

Back 44

A perspective that holds that crime control agencies and the citizens they serve should work together to alleviate social problems and human suffering, thus reducing crime.

Front 45

Feminist Criminology

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A developing intellectual approach that emphasizes gender issues in criminology.

Front 46

Constitutive Criminology

Back 46

The study of the process by which human beings create an ideology of crime that sustains the notion of crime as a concrete reality.

Front 47

Postmodern Criminology

Back 47

Builds on the tenants of postmodern social thought and thinks that the previous theories were wrong or outdated.

Front 48

Deconstructionist Theory

Back 48

Emerging approach hoping to replace previous theories.