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Chapter 4

Crime and Social Control

Mooney/Knox/Schacht, Understanding Social Problems, 10th Edition. © 2017 Cengage. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.

Chapter 4:Crime and Social Control

“Unjust social arrangements are themselves a kind of extortion, even violence.”

—John Rawls, A Theory of Justice

Learning Objectives

List patterns of crime and criminals that are consistent across global regions.

Argue which of the various methods of measuring crime is the most accurate.

Identify the crime prevention implications of each sociological theory of crime.

Differentiate between and give examples of each of the types of crimes discussed.

Using each of the demographic variables discussed, explain their relationship to the likelihood of criminal behavior and victimization.

Assess the relative consequences to society of crimes in the streets and crimes in the suites.

Analyze the various social forces that lead to and away from the punitive criminal justice policies of previous decades.

Chapter Outline

The Global Context: International Crime and Social Control

Sources of Crime Statistics

Sociological Theories of Crime

Types of Crime

Demographic Patterns of Crime

The Societal Costs of Crime and Social Control

Strategies for Action: Crime and Social Control

Understanding Crime and Social Control

The Global Context: International Crime and Social Control (1 of 4)

Several facts about crime throughout the world:

There is no country without crime.

Most countries have the same components in their criminal justice systems: police, courts, and prisons.

Adult males make up the largest category of crime suspects.

In all countries theft is the most common crime committed and violent crime is a relatively rare event.

The Global Context: International Crime and Social Control (2 of 4)

In 2013, globally, there were over 435,000 homicides:

About 31% are estimated to have occurred in Africa

36% are estimated to have occurred in the Americas

And 28% in Asia, 5% in Europe, and 0.3% in Oceana

Crime rates, the number of particular crimes per 100,000 people in a population, take into consideration differences in population size and are more accurate.

Countries with higher inequality tend to have higher homicide rates,

While more egalitarian countries have lower homicide rates.

The Global Context: International Crime and Social Control (3 of 4)

Transnational crime:

As defined by the U.S. Department of Justice, transnational crime is “organized criminal activity across one or more national borders” (U.S. Department of Justice 2012b).

The Global Context: International Crime and Social Control (4 of 4)

A young boy, a victim of human trafficking, is forced to work in a balloon factory outside of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Human trafficking is estimated to be a multibillion-dollar enterprise, approaching the international value of drug and arms trafficking according to Interpol.

What Do You Think? 1

In federal law, death resulting from aircraft piracy or attempted hijacking of an aircraft carries the death penalty. Do you think that deaths that result from maritime hijacking should carry the death penalty? What if the death is not of a hostage but of a fellow hijacker?

Sources of Crime Statistics

What is Crime?

A violation of a federal, state or local criminal law.

The three major types of statistics used to measure crime are official statistics, victimization surveys, and self-report offender surveys.

Official Statistics (1 of 2)

The Uniform Crime Report – Annually compiled by the F B I:

Crime rate is the number of crimes committed per 100,000 population.

Clearance rate is the percentage of crimes in which an arrest and official charge have been made and the case has been turned over to the courts

Official Statistics (2 of 2)

Official statistics have several shortcomings:

Many crimes are not reported.

Some reported crimes are not recorded by police.

Some rates may be exaggerated.

Victimization Surveys

Acknowledging the tendency for so many crimes to go unreported and thus undetected by the U C R, the U.S. Department of Justice conducts the National Crime Victimization Survey (N C V S).

Interviewers collect a variety of information, including the victim’s background (e.g., age, race and ethnicity, sex, marital status, education, and area of residence), relationship to the offender (stranger or nonstranger), and the extent to which the victim was harmed.

Self-Report Offender Surveys (1 of 2)

Self-report surveys ask offenders about their criminal behavior.

Self-report data compensate for many of the problems associated with official statistics but are still subject to exaggerations and concealment.

Self-Report Offender Surveys (2 of 2)

Self-report surveys reveal that virtually every adult has engaged in some type of criminal activity.

For individuals to be officially labeled criminals;

their behavior must become known to have occurred;

the behavior must come to the attention of the police, who then file a report, conduct an investigation, and make an arrest; and finally;

the arrestee must go through a preliminary hearing, an arraignment, and a trial and may or may not be convicted.

Sociological Theories of Crime

Structural-Functionalist Perspective (1 of 4)

According to Durkheim and other functionalists, crime can have the following functions for society:

Strengthens group cohesion

Can lead to social change

Structural functionalist is a perspective and not a theory of crime. There are three functionalist theories of crime:

Merton’s Strain Theory

Subcultural Theories

Control Theory

Structural-Functionalist Perspective (2 of 4)

Merton’s Strain Theory:

People adapt to inconsistency between means and goals in society.

This inconsistency leaves people “strained.”

Methods of adaptation: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion.

Structural-Functionalist Perspective (3 of 4)

Subcultural Theories:

Certain groups or subcultures in society have values and attitudes conducive to violence.

Members of these subcultures adopt the crime-promoting attitudes of the group.

Structural-Functionalist Perspective (4 of 4)

Control Theories (Hirschi 19 69):

Social bonds constrain some individuals from violating social norms:

Attachment to significant others.

Commitment to conventional goals.

Involvement in conventional activities.

Belief in the moral standards of society.

Conflict Perspective (1 of 2)

Social inequality leads to crimes as means of economic survival.

Those in power define what is criminal.

Law enforcement penalizes those without power and benefits those with power.

Conflict Perspective (2 of 2)

To Marxists, the cultural definition of women as property contributes to the high rates of female criminality and, specifically, involvement in prostitution, drug abuse and petty theft.

Under a plan called “Coalition Project 2012,” prostitutes can no longer advertise by standing or sitting in residential windows or storefronts, and now use art objects as symbolic representations.

Symbolic Interactionist Perspective (1 of 3)

Labeling Theory

Being labeled deviant leads to further deviant behavior:

The labeled person is denied opportunities to engage in nondeviant behavior.

The labeled person adopts a deviant self-concept and acts accordingly.

Symbolic Interactionist Perspective (2 of 3)

Primary and Secondary Deviance

Primary deviance is deviant behavior committed before a person is caught and labeled an offender.

Secondary deviance is deviance that results from being caught and labeled.

Symbolic Interactionist Perspective (3 of 3)

Being labeled as deviant often leads to further deviant behavior because:

The person who is labeled as deviant is often denied opportunities for engaging in non-deviant behavior, and

The labeled person internalizes the deviant label, adopts a deviant self-concept, and acts accordingly.

What Do You Think? 2

It is often assumed that serial killers are exclusively male. What do you think is the origin of the male serial killer stereotype?

Types of Crime

Types Of Crime

Index offenses

Violent crime

Property crime

Vice crime

Organized crime

White-collar crime

Computer crime

Juvenile delinquency

Index Offenses

The F B I identifies eight index offenses as the most serious crimes in the United States.

The index offenses, or street crimes as they are often called, can be against a person (called violent or personal crimes) or against property.

Other types of crime include vice crime (such as drug use, gambling, and prostitution), organized crime, white-collar crime, computer crime, and juvenile delinquency. Hate crimes are discussed in Chapter 9.

Street Crime: Violent Offenses (1 of 5)

Violent crime includes homicide, assault, rape, and robbery.

Homicide refers to the willful or non-negligent killing of one human being by another individual or group of individuals.

Although homicide is the most serious of the violent crimes, it is also the least common, accounting for 1.2 percent of all violent crimes.

Street Crime: Violent Offenses (2 of 5)

Mass murders have more than one victim in a killing event.

Unlike mass murder, serial murder is the “unlawful killing of two or more victims by the same offender(s), in separate events”

Another form of violent crime, aggravated assault, involves attacking a person with the intent to cause serious bodily injury.

Street Crime: Violent Offenses (3 of 5)

Acquaintance rape is committed by someone known to the victim.

As much as 80% of all rapes are committed by someone the victim knows.

Although acquaintance rapes are the most likely to occur, they are the least likely to be reported and the most difficult to prosecute.

Street Crime: Violent Offenses (4 of 5)

Classic rape is committed by a stranger, with the use of a weapon, resulting in serious bodily injury to the victim.

The rapist was a stranger who used a weapon and the attack resulted in serious bodily injury.

Women hesitate to report the crime out of fear of not being believed.

The increased use of “rape drugs,” such as Rohypnol, may lower reporting levels even further.

Street Crime: Violent Offenses (5 of 5)

Robbery:

Robbery, unlike simple theft, also involves force or the threat of force or putting a victim in fear and is thus considered a violent crime.

Officially, in 2013, more than 345,000 robberies took place in the United States. Robberies are most often committed using “strong-arm” tactics and occur disproportionately in southern states.

Street Crime: Property Offenses (1 of 2)

Property crimes are those in which someone’s property is damaged, destroyed, or stolen; they include larceny, motor vehicle theft, burglary, and arson.

The number of property crimes has declined 16.3% since 2004, with a 4.1% decrease between 2012 and 2013.

Street Crime: Property Offenses (2 of 2)

Larceny, or simple theft, accounts for more than two-thirds of all property arrests, and is the most common index offense.

Burglary, which is the second most common index offense after larceny, entails entering a structure, usually a house, with the intent to commit a crime while inside.

Arson involves the malicious burning of the property of another.

Vice Crime (1 of 3)

Vice crimes, often thought of as crimes against morality, are illegal activities that have no complaining participant(s) and are often called victimless crimes.

Examples of vice crimes include using illegal drugs, engaging in or soliciting prostitution, illegal gambling, and pornography.

Vice Crime (2 of 3)

Most Americans view drug use as socially disruptive. There is less consensus, however, nationally or internationally, that gambling and prostitution are problematic.

In the United States, prostitution is illegal with the exception of several counties in Nevada.

Gambling is legal in many U.S. states including casinos in Nevada, New Jersey, Connecticut, North Carolina, and other states, as well as state lotteries, bingo parlors, and horse and dog racing.

Pornography, particularly Internet pornography, is a growing international problem. Regulation is made difficult by fears of government censorship and legal wrangling as to what constitutes “obscenity.”

Vice Crime (3 of 3)

Organized Crime:

Criminal activity conducted by members of a hierarchically arranged structure devoted primarily to making money through illegal means.

White-Collar Crime (1 of 3)

White Collar Crimes are those committed in course of employment or by corporations in the interest of maximizing profit.

Occupational - individuals commit crimes in the course of their employment.

Corporate - corporations violate law to maximize profit.

White-Collar Crime (2 of 3)

Air Force Lt. Stephanie Erdman’s eye was injured by shrapnel when the airbag in her 2002 Honda Civic exploded. Lt. Erdman testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation on the defective Takata airbags and the need for vehicle recalls.

White-Collar Crime (3 of 3)

Insider trading is the use of privileged (i.e., nonpublic) information by an employee of an organization that gives that employee an unfair advantage in buying, selling, and trading stocks or other securities.

Corporate violence is the production of unsafe products and the failure of corporations to provide a safe working environment for their employees.

Computer Crime

Computer crime is any law violation in which a computer is the target or means of criminal activity.

One of the fastest growing crimes in U.S.

Hacking - unauthorized computer intrusion.

Identity theft - stealing of someone else’s identification to obtain credit.

What Do You Think? 3

In 2013, Edward Snowden released classified documents that revealed secret government programs that collected telephone and Internet data on U.S. citizens. What do you think? Is Snowden a traitor as the government contends, or a hero for exposing what he claims are civil liberty violations?

Juvenile Delinquency and Gangs

In general, children younger than age 18 are handled by the juvenile courts, either as status offenders or as delinquent offenders.

A status offense is a violation that can be committed only by a juvenile, such as running away from home, truancy, and underage drinking.

A delinquent offense is an offense that would be a crime if committed by an adult, such as the eight index offenses.

The most common status offenses handled in juvenile court are underage drinking, truancy, and running away.

In 2013, 9.7% of all arrests (excluding traffic violations) were of offenders younger than age 18.

Demographic Patterns of Crime

Demographic Patterns of Crime (1 of 2)

Although virtually everyone violates a law at some time, individuals with certain demographic characteristics are disproportionately represented in the crime statistics.

Victims, for example, are disproportionately young, lower-class, minority males from urban areas.

Similarly, the probability of being an offender varies by gender, age, race, social class, and region.

Demographic Patterns of Crime (2 of 2)

Figure 4.4 Percentage of Arrests for Selected Crimes by Sex, Age, and Race, 2013

Source: F B I 2014a.

Gender and Crime

It is a universal truth that women everywhere are less likely to commit crime than men.

In 2013, males accounted for 73.5 percent of all arrests, 79.9 percent of all arrests for violent crime, and 62.6 percent of all arrests for property crimes.

Feminist criminology focuses on how the subordinate position of women in society affects their criminal behavior and victimization.

Age and Crime

In general, criminal activity is more prevalent among younger people than among older people.

In 2012, 37.5 percent of all arrests in the United States were of people younger than age 25.

What Do You Think? 4

Research indicates that inmates with traumatic brain injury (T B I) are more likely to (1) violate facility rules (2) be drug involved (3) repeat criminal acts (4) have great difficulty acclimating to life outside confinement (Kaba et al. 2014). What do you think can be done to stop the violence-T B I-crime cycle?

Race, Social Class, and Crime (1 of 3)

Race is a factor in who gets arrested. Minorities are disproportionately represented in official statistics.

For example, African Americans represent about 14 percent of the population but account for 38.7% of all arrests for violent index offenses, and 29% of all arrests for property index offenses.

Race, Social Class, and Crime (2 of 3)

On December 12, 2014, peaceful protesters gathered in Los Angeles, protesting jury decisions not to indict police officers who were responsible for the deaths of several black males including Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, and Eric Garner. Here posters are discarded on Hollywood Boulevard.

Race, Social Class, and Crime (3 of 3)

Racial profiling—the practice of targeting suspects on the basis of race—may be responsible for their higher arrest rates.

Proponents of the practice argue that because race, like gender, is a significant predictor of who commits crime, the practice should be allowed.

Opponents hold that racial profiling is little more than discrimination and should, therefore, be abolished.

Region and Crime

Crime rates are higher in metropolitan areas than in nonmetropolitan areas.

In 2013, the violent crime rate in metropolitan statistical areas was 397.4 per 100,000 population; in cities in nonmetropolitan statistical areas, it was 376.7 per 100,000 population.

Crime and Victimization

The National Crime Victimization Survey (N C V S) indicates a slight decline in violent crime, from 26.1 to 23.2 victimizations per 1,000 population, and a more dramatic decrease in property crime, from 155.8 to 131.4 victimizations per 1,000 household.

Victims who knew their offenders were most likely to classify them as “friends or acquaintances.”

These results are, in part, a function of the tendency for females to be much more likely to report victimization by an intimate partner than males.

The Costs of Crime and Social Control

Physical Injury and the Loss of Life

Crime often results in physical injury and loss of life.

Moreover, the U.S. Public Health Service now defines violence as one of the top health concerns facing Americans.

The High Price of Crime (1 of 3)

Conklin (2007), suggested that the financial costs of crime can be classified into at least six categories.

Direct losses from crime, such as the destruction of buildings through arson, of private property through vandalism, and of the environment by polluters.

Costs associated with the transferring of property.

Costs associated with criminal violence, for example, the medical cost of treating crime victims.

The High Price of Crime (2 of 3)

Costs associated with the production and sale of illegal goods and services.

The cost of prevention and protection—the billions of dollars spent on locks and safes, etc.

The cost of social control—the criminal justice system, law enforcement, litigative and judicial activities, corrections, and victims’ assistance.

The High Price of Crime (3 of 3)

Figure 4.5 Administration of Justice Costs by Function, 19 77-2020 (2016-2020 projected)*

* Discretionary Budget Authority as a percentage of G D P, F Y1977-F Y2020.

Source: Austin 2015.

Social and Psychological Costs

Crime entails social and psychological costs as well as economic costs.

One such cost—fear—is dependent upon individual perceptions of crime as a problem.

For example, surveys since 2001 indicate that Americans’ fear of victimization has increased even as violent and property crime rates have decreased.

Strategies for Action

Local Initiatives (1 of 2)

Technology and Crime: hard technologies include metal detectors, home security systems, etc. and soft technologies include crime analysis programs, Amber alerts, etc.

Programs: PredPol, SpotShotter system, Facebook, G P S

Controversial

Local Initiatives (2 of 2)

Youth Programs: Early intervention programs acknowledge that preventing crime is better than “curing” it once it has occurred.

Community Programs: Neighborhood watch programs involve local residents in crime prevention strategies.

What Do You Think? 5

Although the video cameras in Chicago were installed initially to monitor traffic safety, three-quarters of the cameras have now been upgraded to 360-degree viewing capabilities. There are now surveillance cameras in neighborhoods, on buses and trains, and in schools, leading one journalist to conclude, “[T]here are few places you can go in Chicago without being monitored” (Tobin 2015, p. 1). The Illinois A C L U has objected to the cameras on the grounds that their ability to “pan-tilt-zoom,” use face recognition software, and automatically track someone from one camera to the next is a violation of civil liberties, including the right to privacy (A C L U 2011). What do you think?

Criminal Justice Policy (1 of 8)

The criminal justice system is based on the principle of deterrence—the use of harm or the threat of harm to prevent unwanted behaviors.

The criminal justice system assumes that people rationally choose to commit crime, weighing the rewards and consequences of their actions.

Thus “get-tough” measures hold that maximizing punishment will increase deterrence and cause crime rates to go down.

Criminal Justice Policy (2 of 8)

Law Enforcement Agencies: In 2013, the United States had ~1,000,000 full-time law enforcement officers and full-time civilian employees (e.g., clerks, meter attendants, correctional guards), yielding an estimated 3.4 law enforcement personnel per 1,000 inhabitants.

There are over 14,000 law enforcement agencies in the United States.

Criminal Justice Policy (3 of 8)

Rehabilitation vs. Incapacitation

An important debate concerns the primary purpose of the criminal justice system: Is it to rehabilitate offenders or to incapacitate them through incarceration?

Both rehabilitation and incapacitation are concerned with recidivism rates, or the extent to which criminals commit another crime.

Rehabilitation - Helping offenders rehabilitate using education and job training, individual and group therapy, substance abuse counseling, and behavior modification.

Incapacitation - Putting offender in prison.

Criminal Justice Policy (4 of 8)

Fear of crime has led to a public emphasis on incapacitation and a demand for tougher mandatory sentences, a reduction in the use of probation and parole, support of a “three strikes and you’re out” policy, and truth-in-sentencing laws.

However, these tough measures have recently come under attack for three reasons.

First, research indicates that incarceration may not deter crime.

Second is the accusation that get-tough measures, such as California’s “three strikes and you’re out” policy, are not equally applied.

Finally, in an environment of budget deficits and legislative cuts, states simply can no longer afford the policies of decades ago.

What Do You Think? 6

Do you think geriatric prisoners should receive some special dispensation—that is, is there any age when they should simply be released? Do you think there should be high-security nursing homes?

Criminal Justice Policy (5 of 8)

Corrections:

An examination of global rates reveals that the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world—707 per 100,000 population.

The U.S. rate exceeds many times over those of other countries; for example, the rate in Russia is 467, China’s rate is 120, the rate for England and Wales is 148, for Canada 118, and Germany, 85.

The recent three-year decline in the U.S. prison population, which had grown by 436 percent between 19 79 and 2009, ended in 2013 with a slight increase in the prison population

Criminal Justice Policy (6 of 8)

Figure 4.6 Distribution of Total Correctional Population, Offense Categories*

*Most recent data available

Source: Wagner and Sakala 2014.

Criminal Justice Policy (7 of 8)

Probation: The conditional release of an offender who, for a specific time period and subject to certain conditions, remains under court supervision in the community.

Parole entails release from prison, for a specific time period and subject to certain conditions, before the inmate’s sentence is finished.

Criminal Justice Policy (8 of 8)

Capital Punishment: With capital punishment, the state takes the life of a person as punishment for a crime.

In 2014, 22 countries carried out 607 executions excluding the thousands who are thought to have been executed in China.

The United States is the only western industrialized nation in the world to retain the death penalty.

In 2014, 35 inmates were executed in the United States.

Of the 31 states that have the death penalty, the majority and the federal government almost exclusively use lethal injection as the method of execution.

Legislative Action (1 of 2)

Gun Control

In 2013, firearms were used in 69% of the nation’s murders, 40% of robberies, and 21.6% of aggravated assaults.

Those against gun control argue that not only do citizens have a constitutional right to own guns but also that more guns may actually lead to less crime as would-be offenders retreat in self-defense when confronted.

Legislative Action (2 of 2)

Major legislative initiatives have been passed in recent years, including the 19 94 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, which created community policing, “three strikes and you’re out,” and truth-in-sentencing laws.

Other significant crime-related legislation:

Medicare Fraud Enforcement and Prevention Act

Preventing Gun Violence Act

Safety from Sex Offenders Act

Nicole’s Law

Child Gun Safety and Gun Access Prevention Act

Understanding Crime and Social Control

Research supports both structural functionalists and conflict theorists.

National Criminal Justice Commission Act of 2015 (if passed) would establish a commission to review the criminal justice system and make recommendations

Movement toward restorative justice (repairing victim-offender-community relationship)

Quick Quiz 1

According to your text, which is the most common crime?

A. rape

B. theft

C. murder

D. arson

Answer for Quick Quiz 1: B

Theft is the most common crime.

Quick Quiz 2

Which crimes are considered victimless crimes?

A. street crimes

B. vice crimes

C. white collar crimes

D. violent crimes

Answer for Quick Quiz 2: B

Vice crimes are considered victimless crimes.

Quick Quiz 3

Advocates of incapacitation believe recidivism can be reduced by:

A. capital punishment.

B. changing the criminal

C. utilizing half way houses.

D. placing the offender in prison.

Answer for Quick Quiz 3: D

Advocates of incapacitation believe recidivism can be reduced by placing the offender in prison.

Quick Quiz 4

Which mode of adaptation is most associated with criminal behavior?

A. conformity

B. ritualism

C. retreatism

D. innovation

Answer for Quick Quiz 4: D

Innovation is the mode most associated with criminal behavior.

Quick Quiz 5

Crime strengthens group cohesion, provides employment opportunities, and acts as a catalyst for social change. Which sociological perspective would focus on the benefits of crime?

A. symbolic interactionism

B. structural functionalism

C. exchange theory

D. conflict theory

Answer for Quick Quiz 5: B

Crime strengthens group cohesion, provides employment opportunities, and acts as a catalyst for social change. The structural functionalism perspective would focus on the benefits of crime.

Quick Quiz 6

Carol steals a candy bar from a drugstore. She is apprehended. When Carol returns to school, no one wants to talk to her. Carol finds acceptance among a group of girls who shoplift. While hanging out with them, Carol joins in the shoplifting. This is an example of which theory?

A. labeling theory

B. strain theory

C. association

D. control theory

Answer for Quick Quiz 6: A

This is an example of labeling theory.

Quick Quiz 7

Price-fixing, anti-trust violations and "churning" are examples of what type of crime?

A. corporate violence

B. corporate crime

C. victimless crime

D. organized crime

Answer for Quick Quiz 7: B

Price-fixing, anti-trust violations and "churning" are examples of corporate crime.

Psychology SOC ASSIGNMENTS4

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