Crim 101 Notes #1

* What is criminology? A tender science studying offense and related phenomenon such as law making, fell behavior, victimization and penalty Discipline of criminology is a recent development most(prenominal) ideas and images we now sweep up up around discourtesy and lamentables emerged over last 2 or 3 centuries Modern criminology is multi-disciplinary (inter-disciplinary) Influenced by sociology, psychology, and biologyThe fascination with abhorrence Crime is popular vitrine for passwordpapers, TV enters , books and movies There is little relationship between wickedness news and actual amount of crimes Media focus primarily on violent crimes, compensate though such crimes forms only smart part of all criminal activity Appears as though police solve much(prenominal) crimes and discipline more cirminals than they do in reality The appeal of crime stories and crime newsCrime related stories be often dramatic and lurid Deal with righteous questions of good vs evil C riminals appear in stories as insane or wild psychopaths Stories happen in short time span- between newscasts or newspaper editions Easy for the public to understand Felsons 10 fallacies ab fall out crime Book 1. the dramatic Fallacy o keep ratings high, media explore strange/violent incidents to report/create dramas around murder makes up less than 1% of all crime, yet from watching TV or reading the papers, it seems like a commonplace events seems that just about murders be well-planned, down in the mouth affairs, or they happen solely by stochastic chance in fact, most murders start as arguments that escalate into violence most crimes be relatively minor property crimes 2. the cops and courts fallacy police work do to look more dangerous and challenging than it in reality is increased policing assemble to be of limited value ost crimes atomic number 18 non reported, most of crimes that atomic number 18 reported atomic number 18 non solved by police in truth few elaborate court trials (charges dropped, plea bargaining, guilty plea) 3. the not-me fallacy most people think they could never (or would never) commit a crime however, numerous people let shoplifted, smoked marijuana, driven when theyre impaired, or bypast joy-riding in a car most people violate at least some laws sometimes, even though they may not experience caught or end up with a criminal record 4. the barren youth fallacy endency to view younger people as beingness pure or innocent in reality, teen years are the most active years for criminal activity majority of crimes commit by younger offenders younger offenders often are more dangerous than older offenders 5. the ingenuity fallacy tendency to think criminals are more clever than they really are in reality, lightweight, high value items have made crime even more simple most criminals take little cooking, little skill, and almost no time to commit 6. the form crime fallacy endency to view crime as more create and c onspiratorial than it really is most criminals act quickly, avoid contact with co-offenders, and take int do a lot of work or planning dealing with organized criminals makes what law enforcement officials are doing seem more master(prenominal) and sophisticated than its really is 7. the juvenile gang fallacy juvenile gangs nowhere near as sinister as the media and law officials make them out to be loosely structured lots of so-called members just intermission out on the periphery crime that such gangs engage in is petty and disorganized 8. he welfare state fallacy awry(p) to blame crime on unemployment and poverty no evidence to show that government hand-outs or government programs do anything to decease crime when the thrift improves, or when government hand-outs increase, statistics show that crime goes up too 9. the agendum fallacy many individuals and groups blame crime on declining morality assure that a healthy does of moral and religious set is what criminals and fra ternity really needs most criminals already know right from wrong, and simply conduct to ignore it, especially when theyre not being observed 10. he whatever-you-think fallacy wrong to think that some crime is subjective, and is only regarded as crime because of labeling, media attention or influence of interest groups laws are actually quite similar across antithetic countries and different social systems criminologists who remonstrate about negative effects of labeling and how moral problems are turned into crime-control problems are misguided and side-stepping their responsibility to help solve the crime problem crime myths and realities * * * myth * reality Most criminals are dangerous and clever * Most criminals resemble their victims * Most criminals are pathological individuals who kill at random * Most crimes are routine, mundane and often trivial * Police investigators are clever and effective * Most crimes are not detected, or not reported, most go unsolved * Most crime s are violent * solely a small portion of crime is violent * The elderly are more likely to be victimized * Young, low SES males are more likely to be victimized * Victimization are rates liberation up * Victimization rates are going down onceptualizations of crime crime as a level-headed construct crime as a violation of social norms debate between the consensus vs. and conflict models the legal construct model Sacco and Kennedy say the dominant way of thinking about crime is in legal terms Crime is conceptualized relative to the concept of law- crime is breaking the law Because committing criminal act amounts to breaking the law, it is subject to prosecution and punishment The four main components a.Actus Reus a real event, in which somebody has committed or failed to commit an act b. Men Rea criminal intent you must have the intent to commit the act c. No legal defense or justification d. Must be reversal to a provision of criminal law Crime as normative violation pictures Mal a in Se Mala in se something bad or evil in itself Laws that criminalize acts most societies and cultures agree are inherently wrong, e. g. , murder and incest Mala ProhibitaMala prohibita something that is deemed to be wrong or criminal only because it is require Acts where there might be considerable disagreement from society to society re their legality Concensus vs. conflicy * consensus * conflict * Society as a usable organism * Society and social transformation rooted in social conflict * Norms/expectations based on shared values/interests * Society not organic or natural. But forced upon us * Those who are different (e. g. ,criminals) are deemed to be abnormal * Society/laws based on values and interests of those with the power