Criminology 1

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Rational Choice Theory:

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Law-violating behavior is the product of careful thought and planning. Offenders choose crime after considering both personal-money, revenge, thrills, entertainment- and situational factors, such as target availability, security measures, and police presence. Criminal evaluates all aspects of the crime, such as the rewards/benefits along with the type of punishment if caught. Two types: offense & offender specific: offense specific because offenders react selectively to the characteristics of particular crimes. Offender specific because criminals are not simply driven people who, for one reason or another, engage in random antisocial acts.

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Trait Theory:

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Created by Lombroso; the theory that the view that criminality is a product of abnormal biological or psychological traits.
• Contemporary trait theory→ theorists do not suggest that a single biological or psychological attribute adequately explains all criminality
• biological Trait Theory→ trait theory that focuses on the biological conditions that control human behavior.
• Psychological trait theory→ second branch of trait theory that focuses on the psychological aspects of crime, including the associations among intelligence, personality, learning, and criminal behavior.

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Social disorganization:

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Focuses on the urban conditions that affect crime rates. Disorganized area is one in which institutions of social control, such as the family, commercial establishments, and schools have broken down and can no longer perform their expected or stated functions. Indications of disorganization include high unemployment and school dropout rates, deteriorated housing, low income levels, and large numbers of single-parent households. (Shawn & McKay)

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Social strain:

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Believes that crime is a function of the conflict between people’s goals and the means they can use to obtain them. Theorists argue that although social and economic goals are common to people in all economic strata, the ability to obtain these goals is class dependent.

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Merton’s Strain Theory

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: tries to explain social class differences in the crime rate.

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General Strain Theory:

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view that multiple sources of strain interact with an individual’s emotional traits and responses to produce criminality.

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Cultural Deviance:

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combines elements of both strain and social disorganization theories. According to this view, because of strain and social isolation, a unique-lower class culture develops in disorganized neighborhoods.

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Differential Association:

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View that people commit crime when their social learning leads them to perceive more definitions favoring crime than favoring conventional behavior.

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Control Theory

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Social control theory is the view that people commit crime when the forces binding them to society are weakened or broken

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Critical Theory

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: result of exposure to opposing norms, attitudes, and definitions of right and wrong, moral and immoral

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Labeling Theory:

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the view that people become criminals when labeled as such and when they accept the label as a personal identity

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Instrumentalist view:

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the law and justice system serves the powerful and rich and enables them to impost their morality and standards of behaviors on the entire society. See criminal law and the criminal justice system as capitalist instruments for controlling the lower class.

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Structural View

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: theorists disagree with the view that the relationship between law and capitalism is unidirectional, always working for the rich and against the poor. It’s based on belief that criminal law and the criminal justice systems are means of defending and preserving the capitalist system.

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Critical Feminism:

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Views gender inequality as stemming from the unequal power of men and women in a capitalist society, which leads to the exploitation of women by fathers and husbands. Explains both victimization and criminality among women in terms of gender, inequality, and patriarchy.

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Latent Trait Theory:

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theoretical views that criminal behavior is controlled by a master trait, present at birth or soon after, that remains stable and unchanging throughout a person’s life time.

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General Theory of Crime:

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according to Gottfredson and Hirschi, a developmental theory that modifies social control theory by integrating concepts from biosocial, psychological, routine activities, and rational choice theories.

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Age graded Theory: (Sampson & Laub)

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find that the maintenance of criminal career can be affected by events that occur later in life, even after a chronic delinquent career has been undertaken. They disagree that once this course is set, nothing can impede its progress.

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NIBRS

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- Program that requires local police agencies to provide a bried account of each incident ad arrest within 22 crime patterns including incident victim and offender information

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UCR

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- large database complied by the FBI of crimes reported and arrests made each year throughout the united states

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NCVS

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- the ongoing victimization study conducted jointly by the justice department and the US census bureau that surveys victims about their experiences with law violation