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Mr.QCHAPTER 1
Introduction to Criminal Behavior
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CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR
- Intentional behavior that violates a criminal code, intentional in that it did not occur accidentally or without justification or excuse
- Vastly complex
- No all-encompassing psychological explanation for crime
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THE STUDY OF CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR
- Should we restrict ourselves to a legal definition and study only those individuals who have been convicted of behaviors legally defined as crime?
- Should we include individuals who indulge in antisocial behaviors but have not been detected by the criminal justice system?
- Should we include persons predisposed to be criminal?
THEORIES OF CRIME
- Provide a general explanation of crime that encompasses and systematically connects many different social, economic and psychological variables to criminal behavior
- Supported by well-executed research
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TWO THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES ON CRIME
- Classical Theory
- Free will
- Decision to violate law is choice
- Positivist Theory
- Determinism
- Criminal behavior is result of social, psychological, biological influences
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THREE PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN NATURE
Perspective | Assumption |
Conformity | Humans want to do right thing |
Nonconformist | Humans undisciplined |
Learning | Humans neutral |
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PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN NATURE
CONFORMITY PERSPECTIVE
- Humans basically good and want to live up to their potential, influenced by society’s attitudes and values
- Strain theory
- Crime occurs when there is perceived discrepancy between materialistic values and goals and available means to reach goals
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PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN NATURE
NONCOMFORMIST PERSPECTIVE
- Humans unruly and undisciplined, need rules and regulations to keep them in check
- Social control theory
- Crime occurs when one’s ties to standards are weak or nonexistent
PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN NATURE
LEARNING PERSPECTIVE
- Humans learn all behavior and beliefs from the environment
- Social learning theory
- Rotter, Bandura
- Differential association
- Sutherland
CRIMINOLOGY
Psychology
Sociology
Psychiatry
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SOCIOLOGICAL CRIMINOLOGY
- Examines relationships of demographic and group variables to crime
- Focuses on groups and society as a whole and how they influence criminal activity
- Racial disparity
- Unemployment
- Poverty
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PSYCHOLOGICAL CRIMINOLOGY
- The science of the behavior and mental processes of the person who commits a crime
- Focuses on how individual criminal behavior is acquired, evoked, maintained and modified
- Offender personality
- Offender behavior
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PSYCHOLOGICAL CRIMINOLOGY
DEVELOPMENTAL PERSPECTIVE
Protective Factors
Risk Factors
Dispositions or Traits
Trajectory of Criminal Behavior
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PSYCHIATRIC CRIMINOLOGY
- Traditionally followed psychoanalytic tradition
- Contemporary is more diverse and research based
- Education differences
- MD or DO as opposed to Ph.D. Psy.D. or Ed.D
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MEASURING CRIME
- Official police reports
- UCR
- NIBRS
- Self-report studies
- ADAM
- MFS
- NHSDA
- Victimization studies
- NCVS
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MEASURING CRIME
UNIFORM CRIME REPORTING SYSTEM (UCR)
- Compiled by the FBI
- Most cited source of U.S. crime statistics
- Federal agencies do not report
- Part I and Part II crimes
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UNIFORM CRIME REPORTING
COMMON PART I CRIMES
- Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter
- Forcible rape
- Robbery
- Aggravated assault
- Burglary
- Larceny-theft
- Arson
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UNIFORM CRIME REPORTING
COMMON PART II CRIMES
- Simple assaults
- Forgery and counterfeiting
- Fraud
- Embezzlement
- Stolen Property
- Offenses against the family and children
- Sex offenses
- Drug abuse violations
- Gambling
- Vandalism
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MEASURING CRIME
UCR PROBLEMS
- Hierarchy rule
- Reliance on agencies to report crime
- Dark figure
- Missing information
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MEASURING CRIME
NATIONAL INCIDENT-BASED REPORTING SYSTEM (NIBRS)
- All federal law enforcement agencies must collect and report data on two categories
- Group A offenses
- Group B offenses
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MEASURING CRIME
NIBRS
- Group A offenses
- The crime is viewed along with detailed data about aspects of the crime
- Group B offenses
- Information about the arrestee and circumstances of the arrest
HATE CRIMES
- The FBI definition
- A criminal offense committed against a person, property, or society which is motivated, in whole or in part, by the offender’s bias against race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, or ethnicity/national origin
HATE CRIME LEGISLATION
1990 Hate Crime Statistics Act
1994 Violent Crime Control and
Law Enforcement Act
1996 Church Arson Prevention Act
2009 Matthew Shepard Act
MEASURING CRIME
SELF-REPORT STUDIES
- Interviews or questionnaires
- Most individuals admit to violating criminal law
- Large dark figure
- Majority of self-reported crime is minor
MEASURING CRIME
DRUG ABUSE SELF-REPORT SURVEYS
Survey | Data Collection |
NHSDA | Computer interviews of individuals over age 12 |
MFS | Survey of U.S. high schoolers |
ADAM | Urinalysis |
MEASURING CRIME
VICTIMIZATION SURVEYS
- Extent to which individuals are victim of various crimes
- Victims able to describe the impact of crime and characteristics of offenders
MEASURING CRIME
NATIONAL CRIME VICTIMIZATION SURVEY (NCVS)
- Households interviewed every six months for three years
- Designed to supplement the UCR
- Provides detail about crime and victim
- Relationship patterns
- Intimate partner violence (IPV)
- Homeless not represented
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JUVENILE DELINQUENCY
- Status offenses
- Behavior not against the criminal code but forbidden to juveniles because of age
- Data Imperfect
- Nature and extent unknown
- Behavior may be regarded as “rite of passage” that stops with maturity
ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOR
- Habitual actions that violate personal rights, laws, and/or widely held social norms
- Legal delinquency and criminal behavior
- Actions that violate standards of society but undetected by law enforcement
FOCUS OF THE TEXT
- The persistent and repetitive offender
- Detected or undetected
- The individual who has frequently committed serious crimes or antisocial acts over an extended period of time
- The one-time serious offender
CHAPTER 1
KEY CONCEPTS
- Antisocial behavior
- Classical theory
- Clearance rate
- Cognitions
- Conformity perspective
- Criminal profiling
- Criminology
- Dark figure
- Developmental approach
- Differential association theory
- Dispositions
- Hate Crime Statistics Act
- Hierarchy rule
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CHAPTER 1
KEY CONCEPTS
- Index crimes
- Intimate partner violence
- Just-world hypothesis
- Learning perspective
- National Crime Victimization Survey
- National Incident-Based Reporting System
- Nonconformist perspective
- Nonindex crimes
- Part I crime
- Part II crime
CHAPTER 1
KEY CONCEPTS
- Positivist theory
- Psychiatric criminology
- Psychological criminology
- Social control theory
- Social learning theory
- Sociological criminology
- Status offenses
- Strain theory
- Theory verification
- Traits
- Uniform Crime Reporting