Beccaria and Becker
Beccaria's (1764) "On Crimes and Punishment" was written as a....
Critique of Power
Mechanical vs Organic Solidarity
Mechanical: Solidarity based on shared beliefs due to low division of labor
Organic: Solidarity based on economic interdependence because of high division of labor
What percentage of crimes are known to police?
Between 1/2 and 1/3
General crime trends from 1960 to present?
General increase from 1960 to 1980 with some dips. Decrease from 1980 to 1894. From 1985 to 1994, increased to historic levels. Then from 1995 to present, crime has consistently decreased.
Peak arrest age for property and violent crime?
Property: 16 Violent: 18
How many data sources were used?
2
Becker's 4 definitions of deviance
Abnormal, Pathology, Social pathology, and Simple rule breaking
Punishments have become less severe as ___
-Power has become decentralized
-Higher division of labor
-Changes in the justification of power
What are index crimes?
Part I crimes of the UCR (Murder, aggravated assault, forcible rape, robbery, burglary, arson, larceny, motor vehicle theft)
The biggest reason for the crime increase of the 1980's according to Baumer, and the proportion of the crime increase it is responsible for?
Crack market (25-40%),
Three primary reasons for gender gap in offending?
1) Gender norms 2) Strain 3) Biology
How many waves of data were utilized from the first data source?
3
What is bad in it itself?
Male in se
What is the difference between the conflict model and the consensus model?
Conflict model: Laws and rules made by those with power Consensus model: Laws are made because they appeal to the the intuitive sense of justice people feel
Factors that influence crime reporting
-Offender relationship to victim
-Severity of crime
-If offender has a weapon
-If force was used
-Amount stolen
-Threat of death
-Invasion to home
Big three reasons for crime decrease from 1993 to present?
Baumer's big three: Incarceration (10-35%), Economy (10-30%), Teen births (10-35%)
Two explanations for desistance from crime?
Biology
Life events/turning points
What offenses were measured?
1) Hit someone outside of the house; 2) Thrown objects such as rocks or bottles at people; 3) carried a hidden weapon; 4) maliciously set fire to a building, property, or car; 5) snatched a purse or picked a pocket; 6) attacked someone with a weapon; 7) used a weapon to rob someone; or 8) been in a gang fight
Two determinants of punishment severity
How tempting the crime is AND the harmfulness/destructiveness of behavior
Under the consensus model, what determines law
Collective conscious or the totality of shared beliefs
Describe the design used by the NCVS
Rotating panel design. Households are interviewed every 6 months for 3.5 years for a total of 7 interviews About 30,000-50,000 households participate yearly, for a total of 75,000-100,000 total participants. Interviews everyone in the household with the exception of children under 12
Three arguments Rosenfeld made?
1) Crime decrease is real 2) Long enough to be considered a trend 3) Crime decrease will eventually stall or crime will increase
This emotion is criminogenic, and because men experience it more often, they commit more crime
Anger
The odds of violence among first generation immigrants are ____ of those of third generation immigrants
Half
Beccaria's major points on torture?
1)Erases distinguish between innocent and guilty 2)Worse for innocents
Two problems with the consensus model
-Arbitrary traditions/collective conservatism
-Pluralistic ignorance
Under-reported crimes:
-Minor
-Attempted
-Crimes committed by family/friends
-Sexual crimes
-Property crimes committed outside the home
This time period was characterized by a expanding circle of empathy and the Republic of Letters
Humanitarian Revolution
This broad explanation of the racial gap in offending points to a historical explanation/antecedent that points to globalization, migration, and a shift to a service based economy
The Great Migration
Racial differences in offending were explained away after adjusting for these neighborhood characteristics.
Immigrant concentration, percentage professional/managerial, concentrated disadvantage, and residential stability
Four reasons why punishments should be mild
Certainty principle, declining sensitivity, brutalization effect, egitimacy
This is really a Crime Trends question. What data did Baumer use to test the factors related to the crime increase and decrease?
114 cities with populations of 100,000 or more in 1980
Problem with the unweighted crime rate
All offenses given equal weight so that crime rates reflect lesser offenses
Two types of changes in policing potentially related to the crime decline
-Changes in style: This did not matter
-Changes in size: This had a small effect (3-7%)
What are the two positions in the age-crime debate? Describe each position
"Everyone desists"
The propensity to offend decreases with age, and eventually everyone will desist.
"Life course persistent"
The reason for the age crime curve is that most people become involved in delinquency during adolescence. But a small group of offenders never desists
The odds of violence for those in neighborhoods that are comprised of 40% immigrants are ____ lower
4/5