What is criminology?
What 3 things does criminology examine? (hint: the unholy trinity)
1) the fear of crime
2) actual crime
3) crime imagery
What is reportability?
This concept describes how different crimes have different likelihoods of being reported to law enforcement.
What is a social construction?
This concept describes how crime measures are produced by people and shaped by social dynamics.
Name 3 examples of a social construction
1) law
2) crime
3) race
4) gender
5) family
6) citizenship status
What are crime myths?
false beliefs about crimes that are often socially patterned
Define analogous injury
This concept argues that there are legally permissible acts or social conditions that result in the same type of injury as crimes and should be studied as such (e.g. denial of basic needs, voting suppression, redlining, etc)
What is invisible crime?
Kappeler and Potter use this concept to describe the phenomenon where there is an abundance of official measures about street crime, but there is very little government-sponsored research on the crimes committed by social elites.
What 3 questions can help us evaluate sources of distortion in a method for measuring crime?
1)what is counted
2) what is not counted
3) how was the counting done?
What is an ideology?
These are group-based patterns of ideas, images, and ways of thinking/perceiving the world around us that are limited and partial.
What are cultural representations of crime?
(e.g., official and unofficial measures of crime, mass media) are often implicated in reinforcing or challenging existing social relations.
What name the 3 steps of the criminalization process?
1) defining acts as criminal
2) surveilling the behavior
3)responding to the behavior
What are Crimes Cleared by Arrest (CCA)?
Part 2 of the UCR uses this type of data. It is why the Part 1 “Most Important” Crimes seem so much higher than the non-index crimes.
What two categories of police-related procedures are ways that the UCR’s measures of crime could be distorted.
1) use of discretion and
2) statistical manipulation.
What is hegemony?
This type of social arrangement is primarily maintained through cultural forms and processes that produce our consent to the social order.
What are claims-makers/ moral entrepreneurs?
These individuals and/or groups construct social problems by framing some conditions as important and troublesome.
What is a defense of justification?
These types of defense, when successful, mean that legally a person does not have the criminal responsibility required by mens rea* (e.g. self defense)
*Mens rea = criminal intent
What are the 8 categories of crime in Part 1 of the Uniform Crime Reports?
1) Murder and non negligent manslaughter
2) Rape
3) Robbery
4 Larceny-Theft
5) Burglary
6) Aggravated Assault
7) Motor Vehicle Theft
8) Arson
Name 3 or more factors that influence how discretion is applied to recording a crime in the UCR
1)the crime’s legal seriousness
2) the complainant preference for whether to report or not
3) relational distance between the victim & offender
4) deference to the police
5) complainant status.
What role does media play in the social construction of crime?
The media tends to sensationalize crime and over-report violent acts which then leads to a distortion in reality for people who regularly consume media.
What are symbolic vehicles?
Crime myths can be referred to as symbolic vehicles because they (1) reflect or resonate with other social concerns (2) convey information about power structures.
1) across history/ time
2) across different cultures/ space
3) across societies/ region
What is the hierarchy rule?
This rule leads to crimes historically being undercounted as it only counts the most serious offense in a multi-offense incident
Name 3 political processes that can distort measures of crime by law enforcement
1) Prioritizing enforcing some crimes/groups/geographic areas over others
2) Resource allocation towards law enforcement
3) Pressure on complainants.
Explain the social implications of someone committing a misdemeanor vs a felony
Felony: jail time of 1 year or more and possible death penalty
Name three of the eight effects of crime myths according to Kappeler and Potter?
1) Creating and reinscribing moral boundaries
2) Creating a “scary view” of the world
3) Decreasing community solidarity
4) Increasing inter-group tensions
5) Providing a scapegoat or “folk devil”
6) Distracting from other issues/problems
7) Fueling or distorting other debates
8) Justifying, naturalizing, “explaining” the status quo?