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Week7_CrimeandSocialControl.pptxCrime and Social Control
Week 7
The Problem of Crime
Crime: action or behavior prohibited by law
Who decides what is offensive or harmful?
Are some harmful behaviors not considered crimes, and are some crimes not that harmful?
Are some people more likely than others to be considered criminals because of their gender, race, ethnicity, social class, age, or something else?
Types of Crime
Violent Crime
Homicide, assault, rape, robbery
Property Crime
Burglary, arson, larceny, motor vehicle theft
White-Collar Crime
Effects the largest amount of people and causes the most economic damage
Organized Crime
Groups and/or organizations that exist to commit crime and because of crime
Provides goods and services that the public demands, but that are illegal
Concept of Consensual Crime
Considered “victimless”
illegal drug use, gambling, pornography, sex work
The Problem of Crime
Deviance: a behavior that violates social norms and sometimes arouses strong social disapproval; any transgression of socially established norms
Sociologically speaking… deviance is not a quality of a behavior itself but rather the result of what other people think about the behavior
“deviance is not a quality of the act the person commits, but rather a consequence of the application by others of rules or sanctions to an ‘offender.’ The deviant is one to whom that label has been successfully applied; deviant behavior is behavior that people so label” (Becker 1963)
The Problem of Crime
Public Concern about Crime (data from the 2014, 2016, or 2018 General Social Survey [GSS])
33% said they were afraid to walk alone in their neighborhood at night
50% said that the government should spend more on law enforcement
69% said that we are spending too little money on halting the rising crime rate
20% said that they agree that immigrants increase crime rates
61% said that courts do not deal with criminals harshly enough
What do you think attributes to these recorded fears?
The Problem of Crime
Media Myths
Partially responsible for the public’s false ideas
Overdramatization and dominating coverage, “if it bleeds, it leads”
Media attention to violent crime gives the public the false impression that most crime is violent when in fact most crime involves theft of some sort (property crime)
Highlighting crimes committed by people of color and youths
Highlighting crimes in which victims are white
Measuring Crime
FBI Uniform Crime Report (UCR) and the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS)
Both official statistics, sent to the FBI by local law enforcement agencies
Police data – only crimes that have been reported
National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
Household and personal victimization administered every 6 months to about 49,000 households
Captures many crimes that are never reported because victims are more likely to report to the NCVS than to the police
Self-Report Survey
Respondents report on their own crime through anonymous surveys
Many of these surveys are given to children in schools
Who Commits Crime?
Men commit crime and are arrested more than women, but the gap is narrowing
Social Class Differences
Poor people are arrested more often for street crime
Wealthy people are arrested more often for white collar and organized crime
Racial and Ethnic Differences
Poverty and urban residence
Self-report data tells a much different story than the UCR, about the relationship between crime and race.
Annual Prevalence of Illicit Drug Use by Race, 1974–2014
Explaining Crime
Theoretical Perspectives
The Criminal Justice System
Police Officers’ “Working Personality”
Authoritarian and suspicious
Corruption: low level is common, high level is rare
Police brutality: unjustified or excessive force
Legal Representation for Defendants
Lack of adequate counsel for the poor
Plea bargaining
Incarceration and Crime Reduction
Highest incarceration rate of any western democracy
High costs to taxpayers
Imprisonment does not reduce crime
Reducing Crime
Strategies
Get-tough approach
Public health approach
Reducing poverty and improving neighborhoods
Changing how Americans raise boys
Expanding early childhood intervention
Improving education
Overhauling the criminal justice system
Think-Pair-Share
If we say that men commit more crime than women, does that imply that we are prejudiced against men? Why or why not?
If homicide is a relatively emotional, spontaneous crime, what does that imply about efforts to use harsh legal punishment, including the death penalty, to deter people from committing homicide?
According to labeling theory, why are arrest and imprisonment sometimes counterproductive?
Let’s Map Crime In Denver
