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115 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What is the Crim J system
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•The various sequential stages through which offenders pass, from initial contact with the law to final disposition and the agencies charged with enforcing the law at each of these stages. Main components- law enforcement, courts, corrections. What are its responsibilities? A system that provides solutions to the crime problem and helps shape the direction of crime policy
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Crime as a recent development
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• Crime and violence have been present for 200 years,
• Slave patrols: vigilante groups that apprehended runaway slaves • Crime in the Old West • Crime in the cities • 1900-1935: the “Depression-era” outlaw |
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• Law Enforcement Assistance Administration (LEAA)
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provided federal funds to states for crimj activities, shut down in 82
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3 branches of government
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Legislative
Judicial Executive |
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Social control
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The Criminal Justice System of today utilizes social control which is the ability of society and its institutions to control, manage, restrain, or direct human behavior
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ABF-American Bar Foundation
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1950s
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Presidents Crime Commission
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1967
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Safe Streets and Crime Control Act
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1968
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Prison
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state or federal facility where convicted criminals are housed, typically for more than one ear
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Jail
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county complex that holds people awaiting trial, sentence, or serving a sentence less than a year
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Probation
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court ordered community supervision of convicted offenders required to obey specific rules of conduct while in the community
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Parole
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community supervision after a period of incarceration
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A person is under ARREST by the police when the following conditions exist:
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The officer has probable cause to believe that a crime has been committed and the person he seeks is responsible
The officer deprives the person of their freedom The suspect has lost their liberty and cannot voluntarily leave |
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Miranda Rights
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grand a suspect the right to refuse to answer questions after an arrest and to have an attorney provided to protect civil rights and liberties (Miranda v. Arizona)
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Presence Requirement
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police officer must obtain a warrant to make an arrest for a misdemeanor she did not witness
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Probable Cause Hearing
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if taken into custody for a misdemeanor, a hearing is held to determine if probably cause exists
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Nolle Prosequi
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decision to drop a case by a prosecutor if a witness refuses to testify, police error, or insufficient evidence exists
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Courtroom Work Group
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Made up of the prosecutor, defense attorney, judge and other court personnel
Functions to streamline the process of justice through the use of plea bargaining and other alternatives |
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exclusionary rule
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the legal doctrine that any evidence illegally seized by police cannot be used against a suspect in a court of law
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Crime Conduct (Model)
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model of justice that emphasizes the control of dangerous offenders and the protection of society through harsh punishment as a deterrent to crime
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Rehabilitation
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model that sees crime as an expression of frustration and anger created by social inequality that can be controlled by giving people the means to improve their lifestyle
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Due Process
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emphasizes individual rights and constitutional safeguards against arbitrary or unfair judicial proceedings
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Decriminalization
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The reaction of penalties and legalization of non-serious victimless crimes such as the possession of small amounts of marijuana, public intoxication and vagrancy
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Forms of Terrorism:
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• Contemporary
• Revolutionary • Political • Nationalist • Cause-Based • Environmental • Criminal |
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Denial of service attack
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extorting money from an internet service user by threatening to prevent the user from having access to the service
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Warez
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efforts of groups to download and sell copyrighted software in violation of its license
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Etailing fraud
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Illegally buying or selling merchandise on the internet
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Phishing
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illegally obtained personal information allowing someone to lure financial information and passwords
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Identity Theft
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is using the Internet to steal someone’s identity/impersonate the victim in order to conduct illicit transactions such as committing fraud using the victim’s name and identity
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How many people are currently under the criminal justice systems supervision?
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$150 billion dollars per year to supervise, more than 7 million people are under the control of the correctional system, including 2 million people behind bars, 4 million on probation and 700,000+ on parole
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When is someone under arrest?
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The arrest power of the police involves taking a person into custody in accordance with lawful authority and holding that person to answer for a violation of criminal law
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What is necessary for the police to attain an arrest warrant?
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1. The police officer believes that sufficient evidence of a crime exists to restrain the suspect. The officer has probable cause to believe that a crime has occurred and that the person he seeks to arrest is the culprit.
2. The officer deprives the individual of his or her freedom 3. The suspect believes that she is in custody of the officer and cannot voluntarily leave. He or she has lost his or her freedom. - An arrest warrant is a court order that empowers any police officer to arrest the suspect and bring the named person before the court. |
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Police Procedures
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- Initial Contact
- Investigation - Arrest - Custody |
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The Prosecutorial State
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Charging
- Preliminary Hearing/Grand Jury Arraignment - Bail/Detention - Plea Bargaining |
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Trial Stage
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- Trial/Adjudication
- Sentencing/Disposition - Appeal/Post-conviction Remedies |
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Correctional Procedures
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Correctional Treatment
- Release - Post-release |
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Nolle Prosequi
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The decision by a prosecutor to drop a case after a complaint has been made because of, for example, insufficient evidence, witness reluctance to testify, police error, or office policy
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Shared Decision Making
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allows the judge to remain the informal leader of the work group and also serves to diffuse blame for mistakes
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Shared Norms
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Each of the members of the work group agrees to behave in a predictable manner
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Socialization
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Newcomers are taught the informal expectations of the work group as part of their orientation
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Reward and Sanction
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Group members who abide by the norms are rewarded; those who do not are sanctioned
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Goal Modification
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Although all members share the goal of “doing justice,” its definition is often cloudy because it is difficult to define justice and/or measure whether it has been achieved
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Wedding Cake Model of Justice and its Different Levels
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1. Celebrated Cases – OJ Simpson, Michael Jackson
2. Serious Felonies – Murder, rape, robbery 3. Less Serious Felonies – Felonies by first time offenders 4. Misdemeanors – disorderly conduct, shoplifting, public drunkenness, etc. |
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Crime Control Perspectives
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A model of criminal justice that emphasizes the control of dangerous offenders and the protection of society through harsh punishment as a deterrent to crime
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Due Process Perspectives
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A model of criminal justice that emphasizes individual rights and constitutional safeguards against arbitrary or unfair judicial or administrative proceedings
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Probation:
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A sentence entailing the conditional release of a convicted offender into the community under the supervision of the court (in the form of a probation officer), subject to certain conditions for a specified time
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Parole
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The early release of a prisoner from incarceration subject to conditions set by a parole board
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Jail
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A county correctional institution used to hold people awaiting trial or sentencing, as well as misdemeanor offenders sentenced to a term of less than one year
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Prison
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A state or federal correctional institution for the incarceration of felony offenders for terms of one year or more; penitentiary
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Decriminalization
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Reducing the penalty for a criminal act without legalizing it
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Deinstitutionalization
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The movement to remove as many offenders as possible from secure confinement and treat them in the community
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Net Widening
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People who normally wouldn’t be sentenced to probation are. Jail stays are the same amount of people – this is supposed to save money but doesn’t
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Types of terrorism
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Contemporary
- Revolutionary - Political - Nationalist - Cause-based - Environmental - Criminal – funding their actions through criminal means (like the drug trade, human trafficking, child sex trade, etc) |
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Types of Cyber Crime
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Computer Fraud
- Distributing Illegal Sexual Material - Denial-of-Service Attack: Extorting money from an Internet service user by threatening to prevent the user from having access to the service - Illegal Copyright Infringement - Internet Securities Fraud - Entailing Fraud: Identity Theft Cyber Valdalism |
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Entailing Fraud
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Illegally buying or selling merchandise on the Internet
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Identity Theft
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Using the Internet to steal someone’s identity and/or impersonate the victim in order to conduct illicit transactions such as committing fraud using the victim’s name and identity
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Mass Murder
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kill many victims in a single violent outburst
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Spree Killer
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spread their murderous outburst over a few days or weeks
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Serial Killer
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kill over a long period of time but typically assume a “normal” identity between numbers
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Violent Crime
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rape, serial murder, child abuse, etc
- Gang Violence - Multiple Murder - Intimate Violence |
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Hate Crime
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Criminal acts directed toward a particular person or member of a group targeted because of their racial, ethnic, religious, gender or sexual characteristics
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Public Order Crime
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Behaviors considered illegal because they run counter to existing moral standards. Obscenity and prostitution are considered public order crimes
- Substance Abuse |
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Economic Crime
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- employee White-Collar Crime: involves the violation of rules that control business enterprise. They can include pilferage, bribery, commodities law violations, mail fraud, computer fraud, environmental, Internet scams, extortion, forgery, insurance fraud, price fixing, and environmental pollution
- Organized Crime |
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National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS):
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The nation’s primary source of information on criminal victimization. Each year, data are obtained from a national sample that measures the frequency, characteristics, and consequences of criminal victimization by such crimes as rape, sexual assault, robbery, assault, theft, household burglary, and motor vehicle theft
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NCVS: What info is collected?
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- Crime characteristics
- Victim characteristics - Offender characteristics - Household characteristics - Reporting to police and contact with the criminal justice system |
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NCVS: How is it compiled?
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- Completed every six months
o Panel design (6 mo for a period of 3 yrs) - 134,000 members from 77,000 households age 12 or older (2005) |
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NCVS: Strengths
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- Measures reported and unreported crime
- Not affected by changes in police practices or reporting methods - Collecting more info: contact with criminal justice system, costs of medical Tx (?) related to crime and recovery of property |
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NCVS: Weaknesses
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memory errors
telescoping effect: crimes happened more recently than they actually did errors of deception/embarassing |
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-Criticisms of NCVS
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o Expects respondents to be candid
o Some may downplay or exaggerate acts o Measurements issues (crime seriousness) o Misses some serious and institutionalized offenders |
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Uniform Crime Reports
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The official crime data collected by the FBI from local police departments
o Part I Crimes – Violent stuff o Part II Crimes – All other crimes besides traffic violations |
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- Collection methods:
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o Monthly reports
o Crime that is reported (false reports omitted) o Still reported if no arrest o Report “cleared” crimes (20%) § Only 20% of all crimes are investigated, solved and cleared |
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- UCR Strengths
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o Provides local level data
o Counts the number of homicides |
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-UCR Weaknesses
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o Measures are more about police workload and practices and includes police bias (discretion)
o Hierarchy rule o Includes only known crime and includes false reports § Unreported crimes are not included and uncleared false reports are not removed from the UCR |
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What is the hierarchy rule?
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It is a weakness in the UCR. When there are multiple offenses at one time, only the worst crime is recorded
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Brady Act (1993)
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-Efforts to control based on restrictions
o Wait period for handguns at first then both handguns and rifles o Background checks o Federal prohibitions |
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-FVCCLEA (1994)
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Federal Violent Crime Control Law Enforcement Act
o Dealt with automatic weapons - 65% of crimes involve firearms. |
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Instrumental Crimes
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Criminal acts intended to improve the financial or social position of the criminal
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Expressive Crimes
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Criminal acts that serve to vent rage or frustration
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Class and Crime
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official statistics indicate that crime rates in inner-city, high-poverty areas are generally higher than those in suburban or wealthier areas. Surveys of prison inmates consistently show that prisoners were members of the lower class and unemployed or underemployed in the years before their incarceration
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Race and Crime
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Official crime data indicate that minority-group members are involved in a disproportionate share of criminal activity
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Who, in terms of age, are most likely to commit crimes?
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Age is inversely related to criminality. Regardless of economic status, marital status, race, sex, etc, younger people commit crime more often than older people. 16-25 is the age group that makes up the highest percentage of all criminal activity
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Career Criminals:
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Persistent repeat offenders who organize their lifestyle around criminality
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Chronic Offenders
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As defined by Marvin Wolfgang, Robert Figlio, and Thorsten Sellin, delinquents who are arrested 5 or more times before the age of 18 and who commit a disproportionate amount of all criminal offenses.
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-The Three Strikes Law
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Sentencing codes which require that an offender receive a life sentence after conviction for a third felony. Some states allow parole after a lengthy prison stay – for example, 25 years.
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-Criminology
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The study of the nature, extent, cause and control of criminal behavior
- An understanding of why people commit crime is the basis for how we treat and handle offenders - Knowing the causes of a particular social problem enables us to formulate policies that can prevent them - Effective crime control policies come from empirically based knowledge on criminogenic risk factors |
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Rational Choice Theory?
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- People choose to commit crime after weighing all potential costs and benefits of the act
- The Human calculator - Assumption of free will, rationality and that offenders have information on all the costs and benefits of an act - Prominent theory supporting our corrections policies in the last few decades |
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three necessary components of Routine Activities Theory?
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- Crime occurs when three elements come together:
1. A suitable target 2. A motivated offender 3. A lack of a capable guardian |
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- General Deterrence
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o A crime control policy that depends on the fear of criminal penalties, targeted towards the entire population
o People refrain from crime because they fear punishment o Murder à death penalty |
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- Specific Deterrence
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o Punishment should be severe enough to convince convicted offenders to not repeat their criminal activity
o “That was so bad, I am not doing that again” o Shock incarceration – putting a first time offender in prison for a short duration to shock them with the idea of being in prison |
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- Biochemistry
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o Nutrition deficiencies, hormone imbalances, metabolism, exposure to environmental contaminants
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- Behavioral Genetics
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o Heritability, IQ, Evolution, Aggression
o Twin studies support genetic theories – identical twins who were separated at birth are equally as likely to commit crime no matter where and how they are raised o People with lower IQs tend to commit crime. IQ is largely genetic and is passed down from generation to generation, adding to the idea that crime may run in the family |
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- Neurophysiology
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o Brain, Pre-frontal cortex, neurotransmitters, sensation-seeking, ADHD
o Criminals and people who are more violent tend to have a less developed pre-frontal cortex à in charge of judgments and makes you more thoughtful and less impulsive |
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- Neurophysiology
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o Brain, Pre-frontal cortex, neurotransmitters, sensation-seeking, ADHD
o Criminals and people who are more violent tend to have a less developed pre-frontal cortex à in charge of judgments and makes you more thoughtful and less impulsive |
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Psychodynamic Theory
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- Psychodynamic (Psychoanalytic) Theory
o People incur problems early in childhood that imbalance their personality o Unconsciously desire to commit crime (id) and cannot control these desires (ego) - Research suggests most incarcerated inmates suffer from some sort of mental illness |
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Psychopath
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A person characterized by a lack of warmth and feeling, inappropriate behavioral responses and inability to learn from experiences
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Labeling Theory
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o Crime is a result of individuals being labeled as criminal
o Self-fulfilling prophecy o Stigma from label limits opportunities and influences an individual thinking, “I am supposed to act like…” o Chicken or the egg problem: What comes first, the criminal behavior or the label as a criminal? o Policy Implications: Decriminalization? Deinstitutionalization? Diversion Programs? |
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o Sutherland’s Differential Association Theory
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§ First to posit that criminal behavior is learned
§ Individuals who turn criminal do so because they associate with others who hold values favorable to breaking the law (rationalizations and attitudes) and vise versa § Priority (first exposure), frequency (how often), duration (how long), and intensity (greater importance) |
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o Akers’ Social Learning Theory
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§ Expanded on Differential Association by discussing how crime is learned
§ Imitating others’ behavior and associating with different peers effects behavior through positive and negative reinforcement. · If rewarded (both physically and emotionally) for criminal behavior, then behavior will continue |
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. How does criminal behavior differ, in development, from other behaviors? Or does it?
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Crime is learned just like every other behavior; through associations, exposure, reinforcement, or attitudes
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– How does the “American Dream” cause crime?
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o American emphasis on economic success creates “normlessness” and strain on individuals to success
o Western cultures are very individualistic and people are expected to succeed economically o Need to achieve the “American Dream” o However, we do not describe the means to achieve that dream à individuals turn to crime o Stress stemming from our desire to succeed leads individuals to turn to criminal behavior to succeed o Prevention policies based on Strain theories? § Redistribution policies? |
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Social Disorganization Theory
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o Shaw and McKay - 1932
o Theory which attempts to describe why crime rates are higher in inner-cities o |
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o Collective Efficancy
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a condition of mutual trust and cooperation that develops in neighborhoods with high levels of informal social control
o These areas also reject middle-class values and develop a delinquent subculture based on “the code of the street” |
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o Travis Hirschi’s Social Bond Theory
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o States we are all born criminal, and thus, conformity is what needs to be explained
o Hirschi states that attachment, commitment, involvement and beliefs influence conformity o Individuals refrain from crime because they are bonded to pro-social individuals and institutions o Informal social controls o People commit crime because they have no bonds which controls their behavior |
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o Gottfredson and Hirschi’s A General Theory of Crime
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o Criminals and differ in their ability to exert self-control
o Self-control is developed through effective parenting o General in the sense that it attempts to explain all crimes and analogous behaviors o Research shows low self-control is a strong predictor of crime |
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Self Control Theories
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o Criminals and differ in their ability to exert self-control
o Self-control is developed through effective parenting o General in the sense that it attempts to explain all crimes and analogous behaviors o Research shows low self-control is a strong predictor of crime |
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Conflict Theory-->Durkheim
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o Based on the idea that society is not held together by a consensus of major values but is rather the congregation of opposing groups fighting for power
o Focuses on both the creation of law and on why people commit crime |
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o Conflict Theory and Laws
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Laws reflect the interest of the most powerful rather than those in the society as a whole
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o Conflict Theory and Criminal:
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Crime is a normal and learned behavior on one group that violate the norms of another group
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o Sampson and Laub’s Age-Graded Theory
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§ An integrated theory of crime
· Include social learning, social control and self-control variables · Social learning with peers and low self-control influence one’s propensity toward crime o Propose that “turning points” in life lead to criminal desistance |
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§ Marriage and employment are the two most important turning points
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· People that experience these turning points move away from committing crime. People that do not are likely to become career criminals
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o Moffitt’s Life-Course Persistent Offending
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§ States that individuals who only offend during adolescence are psychologically different than persistent offenders
§ Adolescent limited offenders imitate persistent offenders because they want to be seen as more mature § Studies show that life-course offenders do suffer from more cognitive deficits |
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o Victim Precipitation Theory
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§ The victim’s of crime play a role in provoking criminal behavior (homicides)
§ Active vs. Passive Precipitation |
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o Lifestyle Theory
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§ Having a risky lifestyle increases the likelihood you will be victimized
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o Routine Activities Theory
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§ Attractive targets are poorly guarded
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“Transition areas” experience higher crime rates because they are characterized by:
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§ Residential Mobility
§ Heterogeneity - diversity § Lack of informal social controls |
