Module 6: Discussion

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MODULE

Seminar in Urban Problems

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University of Memphis Department of Public &

Nonprofit Administration

Euchner & McGovern (2003) Chapter 6 – Crime and the

Levels of Order

6

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Crime and the Levels of Order

 Crime – an act of commission or omission that violates a community’s formal rules of behavior

 “Formal rules for behavior” are shaped by societal values and strategies (such as policing) societies pursue in ensuring those values are upheld

 “Formal rules for behavioral” are NOT universal or fixed – they change based on change in societal values  Example – recent surge in decriminalization of

marijuana at the state/local level

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Crime and the Levels of Order

 “Defining crime produces a constant tension in which people learn the limits of their past understandings as new situations and understandings arise.” (p. 240)

 Crime is typically grouped as:  Crime against persons, including violent (e.g.,

robbery, rape) and non-violent (e.g., violation of contract)

 Crimes against property (e.g., theft, vandalism)  Crimes again society (e.g., tax evasion,

disorderly conduct)

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The Levels of Crime

 Crime is prevalent in the U.S., particularly in cities, but typically occurs in waves – example, crime rose in 1960s/70s, dropped in early 1980s, rose in late 1980s, dropped in 1990s

 Violent crime has been decreasing since 2017 but the U.S. murder rate (and violent crime in general) is historically higher than other countries

 FBI Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) – primary source for data on crime prevalence

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The Levels of Crime

 Crime – both organized and unorganized – has substantial economic impacts for a society  National estimates for victimization costs are in

hundreds of billions of dollar, between 2 and 6 percent of national GDP

 Crime can be organized – for example, FBI identifies roughly 33,000 violent street gangs, motorcycle gangs, and prison gangs

 Crime can be unorganized – for example, individuals committing driving under the influence

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The Levels of Crime

 Crime is political  Political campaigns often increase public fears of

crime  Media exposure often increases public fears of

crime  Political candidates historically do not want to

appear “soft” on crime

 “Minority communities, disproportionately located in cities, report a higher-than- average fear of crime.” (p. 245)

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The Causes of Crime

 Cause of crime is often viewed at:  Micro/individual level – typical view of

Conservatives, “An individual person is responsible for committing a crime”

 Macro/environmental level – typical view of Liberals, “An individual person’s environment is responsible for causing a person to commit a crime”

 To look at any one level is simplistic and does not consider all factors

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The Causes of Crime: The Level of the Individual

 Crime occurs when people lack the feeling of responsibility to assist in maintaining the order of society in which they live – acts of both commission (committing a crime) and omission (looking the other way)

 Calculated cost-benefit analysis to commit a crime is not always the case  “The ‘thicker’ the network of institutions,

routines, and informal relationships in a community, the greater chance that a person will rationally decide to abide by the community’s codes.” (p. 24)

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The Causes of Crime: The Level of the Individual

 Gender and age are the demographic variables that account most for crime – young males commit the most crimes

 Cities typically have a higher rate of crime than suburban and nonmetropolitan areas

 Genetic disposition to crime?  “Probably the best approach to the issue is to

understand that nature and nurture interact in complex ways, and that humane and smart public policy can make the best of whatever physical traits we have.” (p. 253)

 Link between literacy and incarceration

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The Causes of Crime: The Level of the Family

 Conservatives and Liberals both agree that the family is a strong factor in causing and preventing criminal behavior

 Family environment is pivotal in child development  Children’s experience of domestic abuse and criminality:

“Most children who experience domestic violence and abuse don’t go on to perpetrate it in adult life. Even given this, there is a well-documented correlation between various experiences of victimization and offending behavior (not solely in terms of experiences of domestic abuse). This correlation is generally referred to as a ‘victim-offender overlap’ in criminology and victimology.”

 Conservative and Liberals DON’T agree on what factors (e.g., individual choice, poverty, lack of life skills) cause families to behave dysfunctionally

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The Causes of Crime: The Level of the Community

 Generally, “safe and pleasant” communities have a strong impact on limiting dysfunctional (i.e., criminal) behavior – one’s environment impacts one’s behavior  Classic 1973 Zimbardo Prison Experiment

 Application of broken windows theory to 1990s policing led to 2000s “stop and frisk” and discriminatory policing – How A Theory Of Crime And Policing Was Born, And Went Terribly Wrong

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The Causes of Crime: The Level of the Community

 Guns, community, and homicide  Research on link between availability of guns

and homicide  BBC News (2021) - America's gun culture in

charts

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The Causes of Crime: The Level of Society

 How does poverty relate to crime?  Limited economic and educational

opportunities and sense of despair lead to crime – “crime is my best alternative”

 Link between unemployment and crime  Lower wages (or no wages at all) makes

crime appear as a better payoff  Link between poverty, inequality, and crime

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The Causes of Crime: The Level of Society

 How does inequality relate to crime?  Disproportionate levels of unemployment and

poverty in Black and Hispanic populations – disproportionate levels of Black and Hispanic involvement throughout the criminal justice process

 Blacks are incarcerated in state prisons at a rate 5 times that of Whites, some states up to 10 times

 Beyond state prisons, racial disparities are found throughout the criminal justice process – arrests, local jails, sentencing, etc.

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The Causes of Crime: The Level of Society

 “Relative deprivation” – being at the low end of high levels of inequality in society can have an aggravating effect

 Poverty and social isolation in society can easily perpetuated in inner-city environments, leading to crime

 Does moving people to different communities have an impact?  Evaluating HUD’s Moving to Opportunity (MTO)

Program from 1994-2010

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The Causes of Crime: The Level of the System

 “The U.S. criminal justice system is not a coherent, unified structure. The justice system is instead a confederation of semiautonomous operations” (p. 265)

 Criminal Justice System Flowchart

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The Causes of Crime: The Level of the System

 Interactions of police with the citizens they are bound to protect is a vastly influential in the success of the system

 Human Rights Watch 1998 report on police abuse in 14 large U.S. cities

 Police violence is disproportionately applied to non-white people

 Vigilance against police brutality:  Helps prevents undermining of legitimacy of police  Improves policing effectiveness  Independent oversight of police departments –

around 150 civilian oversight agencies in the U.S.

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The Causes of Crime: The Level of the System

 Elected prosecutors generally have substantial power and discretion in the system, such as in bail, plea bargaining, charging (although varies by jurisdiction)  ACLU – power of prosecutors to end mass incarceration  U.S. Department of Justice – Principles of Federal

Prosecution  Rights of criminal defendants have been established

and restricted through series of Supreme Court decisions beginning in the 1960s

 Mandatory sentencing laws such as mandatory minimums and “three strike” laws have contributed to mass incarceration

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The Causes of Crime: The Level of the System

 Prisons – considered primary deterrent for crime, yet prison life and conditions vary substantially from prison to prison, largely unpleasant at the least  Some of the worst prisons – Department of Justice

ongoing concern with Alabama state prisons  Whole picture of prisons in U.S. – Incarceration in the

U.S.: The Big Picture  U.S. in the world leader in incarceration

 Ongoing debate between prison as deterrent vs. prison as rehabilitation

 Bureau of Justice Statistics (2018) – state prisoner recidivism between 2005-2014 remains grim with 68% rearrested in 3 years, 79% within 6 years, 83% within 9 years

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The Causes of Crime: The Level of the System

“ ‘As sentencing laws get tougher and punishment proposals get more vicious,

there’s a tendency toward a great wave of dehumanization of inmates.’ Such a

dehumanization is not only problematic from a human rights standpoint but also feeds the spiral of violence that hurts the

larger community.” (p. 275)

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The Causes of Crime: Policy Responses to Crime

 Develop programs that address root causes – education, job skills, behavioral health (addiction and mental health)

 Utilize private security  The Guardian (2017) – “According to

Department of Labor statistics, there are more than 1.1 million private security guards in the US – compared with about 660,000 police and sheriff’s officers.”

 Enables more community policing? Or contributes to inequality in safety?

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The Causes of Crime: Policy Responses to Crime

 Empower communities and community organizations (such as block associations) to take proactive action towards maintaining order in collaboration with police

 Shift the approach in policing  “Night-watchman” vs. “Legalistic cop” vs.

“Service (community) cop”  Data-driven policing coupled with

community policing

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The Causes of Crime: Policy Responses to Crime

 Revisit errors of proportionality in sentencing (such as mandatory minimums, three-strikes laws)

 Revisit use of deterrence – not all acts of crime are rationally calculated in relation to perceptions of deterrence

 Revisit “corrections” – how does the prison system prepare individuals for reentry into society

 Addressing organized crime activity in cities requires partnering with jurisdictions outside of the city

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The Causes of Crime: Policy Responses to Crime

 Additional source for policy responses to crime in cities: National League of Cities, Public Safety & Crime Prevention Federal Advocacy Committee (2020). Public Safety and Crime Prevention Policy and Resolutions