Discussion question

Crime Against Persons and Property, White-Collar Crime, and Organized Crime

Introduction

Go to your daily newspaper, an online news source, or your local radio or television news station. As you read, watch, or listen, count the number of crimes reported in the first few pages or minutes and note what types of crime they are. Pay attention to whether one type of crime is dominant and, if so, what type of crime it is. News media insiders have a saying: "If it bleeds, it leads." In other words, if a story is extreme and violent, it will become the lead story for the evening. You now are in the mental mindset appropriate for this week and next: crime and crime types.

In Week 2, you were briefly introduced to crime types in the context of crime statistics and databases. This week and next you delve into crime typologies in much greater depth and discover more types as well as more nuanced definitions and breakdowns of types. Considered by your text to be "crime in the modern world," this week you explore the first set: violent crime (otherwise known as crime against persons), property crime, white-collar crime, and organized crime.

Learning Resources

Please read and view (where applicable) the following Learning Resources before you complete this week's assignments.

Readings

Course Text: Schmalleger, F. (2015). Criminology today: An integrative introduction (7th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

o    Chapter 10, "Crimes Against Persons"

o    Chapter 11, " Crimes Against Property" 

o    Chapter 12, " White-Collar and Organized Crime"

Media

DVD: The Prentice Hall ABC News Video Series for Introduction to Criminology.

Disc 1: "Fool's Gold" (7:46)

Video: Gaviria, M., & Smith, M. (Writers & Producers). (2009). The Madoff affair [Television series episode]. In Frontline. Boston: WGBH/Frontline/RAINmedia. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/madoff/etc/script.htmlChapter 6, "Final Days" (10:00)

Transcript available on website

This video series from Frontline details the life of Bernie Madoff. Chapter 6 deals with the final events leading up to the discovery of Madoff's Ponzi scheme.

Optional Resources

Media

DVD: The Prentice Hall ABC News Video Series for Introduction to Criminology.

Disc 1: "Master Thief" (41:04)

Disc 2: "Peterson Story" (40:38)

Disc 2: "Martha Stewart" (19:51)

Who's to Blame?

The "Who's to Blame" boxes in each chapter provide you with another way to consider crime and its causes as a manifestation of the social problems and social responsibility perspectives. They also bring biological, psychological, and sociological theories to life in vignettes about real crime, criminals, and victims, and they provide examples of crime against persons, property crime, white-collar crime, and organized crime. You might refer back to the crimes you read or heard about during the kick-off exercise at the beginning of the week. Can you think of some for which society seems more to blame and others for which blame seems more appropriately attributed to the individual?

To prepare for this Discussion:

Review the assigned reading in Chapters 9, 10, and 11 of your course text, Criminology Today.

Review the "Who's to Blame—The Individual or Society?" vignettes in Chapters 9 and 10 of your course text, Criminology Today.

Review the "Think about it" questions in each "Who's to Blame?" box and consider how you would answer them.

Consider whom you believe is more responsible for the crime in each vignette—the individual or society—and why.

Select one of the vignettes to use for this Discussion.

With these thoughts in mind:

Post by Day 4 your response to the questions for the vignette you selected. Also, briefly explain whether you think the individual or society is more to blame for the crime portrayed and why.

Be sure to support your postings and responses with specific references to the Learning Resources.