Defining Criminology

1
Introduction to Criminology

• Defining Criminology
• The Criminal Law
• Development of Academic Criminology
• Theories of Crime
• Politics/Ideology

2
Defining Criminology

• Edwin Sutherlands definition
• The scientific study of lawmaking, lawbreaking,
  and the response to lawbreaking
• Lawmaking how laws are created/changed
• Lawbreaking nature/extent of crime
• Reaction police, courts, corrections
• Science vs. other ways of knowing stuff

3
Criminology vs. Criminal Justice

• Criminal Justice
• The study of agencies related to the control of
  crime
• Criminology
• The study of crime trends, nature of crime,
  theories of crime
• Reality? Two sides of the same coin

4
Criminology vs. Deviance

• Criminology focuses on crimes
• Crime violation of criminal law
• Deviance focuses on violations of societal norms
• These may or may not also be law violations
• Can you think of a norm violation that is not a
  law?
• How about a law violation that does not violate a
  norm?

5
A Very Brief History of Law

• 2000 BC Earliest Surviving Legal Codes
• 1750 BC Code of Hammurabi lex talionis
• Roman Twelve Tables 451 BC
• Dark Ages (500-1000 AD)
• Written codes were lost and superstitions and
  fear of magic dominated thinking.

6
Development of Common Law

• Norman Conquest (1066 AD)
• William the Conqueror establishes royal court
• Stare decisis became the dominant standard
• English common law born during the reign of Henry
  II (1154-1189)
• Circuit Judges
• Development of Jury System

7
Current Types of Law

• Criminal Law
• Procedural vs. Substantive
• Statutory vs. Common
• Civil Law
• Tort law

8
Substantive vs. Procedural Law

• Substantive Law
• Written code that defines crimes and punishments
• Procedural Law
• Rules of the court, trials...

9
Common Law v. Statutory Law
Common Law is judge-made law. The law is found in
previously decided cases.
Statutory Laws are derived from legislative acts
that decide the definition of the behavior that
is codified into law.
10
Criminal and Tort Law

• A public offense
• Enforcement is statebusiness
• Punishment is oftenloss of liberties or
  sometimes death
• Fines go to the state
• State doesnt ordinarily appeal
• Proof beyond a reasonable doubt

• A civil or private wrong
• Individuals bring action
• Sanction is normally monetary damages
• Both parties can appeal
• Individuals receives thecompensation for
  harmdone
• Preponderance of the evidence is required for a
  decision.

11
Seriousness of Crimes I

• Mala in se

• Mala prohibita

• Wrong or evil in themselves
• Core of legal code
• Homicide
• Robbery

• Wrong because they are prohibited
• Change over time and across society
• Prostitution
• Gambling

12
Seriousness of Crimes II
13
A criminal law must indicate a type of intent and
a specific behavior

• Actus Reas
• Physical act must be voluntary
• If crime isFailure to act, there must be legal
  obligation.
• Statutory Obligation, Relationship between
  parties, Contract
• Mens Rea
• General or specific intent
• Transferred Intent
• Negligence
• Strict Liability Offenses

14
Specific Criminal Defenses

• Deny the Actus Reas (I didnt do it)
• Deny the Mens Rea
• Ignorance / Mistake
• Intoxication?
• Insanity Defense

15
Who does the law serve?

• Consensus view
• Law results from societal agreement on what
  behaviors are most harmful
• Laws apply to all citizens equally
• Conflict view
• Law results from conflict over what behavior
  should be criminalized
• Those with the most power define what is criminal
  and often use the law to protect their interests
• Which is correct?

16
Criminology as a Discipline

• Until the 1970s, there was no criminology or
  criminal justice degree
• Sociology became the dominant disciple
• Still contributions from biology, psychology,
  political science
• 1980-Present
• Criminology emerging as separate entity
• PhD in Criminology/Criminal Justice now the norm
• Still debate about whether Criminology is a
  distinct discipline
• Organized around a class of behaviors rather than
  a distinct way of looking at the world
• Sociologists still see criminology as a
  sub-discipline of sociology

17
Sociological CriminologyGood Bad

• Good Focus on social structure and inequality
  healthy skepticism (debunking)
• Bad Ignore/ridicule outside disciplines and
  their focus on individual differences
• The Irony? Psychologists and biologists believe
  that social forces are as (or more) important
  than individual differences
• This class will explore crime from a
  multidisciplinary lens

18
A Crude History of Criminology

• Demonic Perspective pre-1750s
• Crime as gods will, result of demonic possession
  
• Classical School (1750s-1900 1970s to now)
• Utilitarian philosophy (Becarria, Bentham)
• A response to an unjust/arbitrary legal system
• Free will, humans use a hedonistic calculus
• Rational legal code ? less crime
• Basis of deterrence theory

19
Crude HistoryPart II

• Positive School (1900-present)
• Crime is caused by outside forces (determinism)
  
• Solution is to fix these causes (medical model,
  rehab)
• Scientific research on offenders, crime (not law)
• Different types of positivism
• Bio/psych determinism (1900-1920s)
• Sociological theory (1920s-Present)
• Critical theories (1960s-early 1970s)
• Developmental Theory (1990s-present)

20
Crime Theory

• Backbone of criminology
• Scientific Theory
• Must be able to test theory
• A GOOD theory survives empirical testing
• Empirical real world observations
• Some theories are sexier than others
• Parsimony
• Scope
• Usefulness of policy implications

21
Flow Chart for Evaluation
NO Useless, stop here

• Evaluate the
• Following
• Scope
• Parsimony
• Policy Implications

Falsifiable? Logical?
Yes
Empirical Evidence?
YES
NO Modify/Discard
22
Empirical Evidence is the KEY

• Theories attempt to demonstrate cause-effect
• Criteria for causation in social science using a
  poverty ? crime example
• Time ordering poverty happens before crime
• Correlation X is related to Y
• Relationship is not spurious (e.g., low
  self-control causes both poverty and crime)

23
Methods for generating evidence

• Experiment
• Key is randomly assigned groups
• Only factor that effects outcome is group
  difference at start of experiment
• Limit artificial nature

24
Experimental Design (2 of 2)
25
Methods for generating evidence II

• Non-experimental
• Survey research
• Cross sectional
• Longitudinal
• Limit how to rule out spuriousness
• Upside ask whatever you want

26
Ideology in Criminology

• Walter Miller
• Ideology is the permanent hidden agenda of
  Criminal Justice
• What is Ideology?
• American Political Ideology
• Liberal/Progressive Ideology
• Conservative Ideology
• Radical Ideology

27
Dominant Ideologies in U.S.

• CONSERVATIES

• LIBERALS

• Value order/stability, respect for authority
• People get what they deserve
• Crime caused by poor choice (Free will)

• Value equal opportunities and individual rights
• Success/failure depends on outside forces and
  where you start
• Crime is caused by outside influences

28
Implications of Ideology for Crime and Justice

• Conservatives tend to fit with Classical School
• Neo-Classical deterrence, incapacitation
• James Q. Wilsons policy analysis
• Liberal/Progressive fit with positive school
• Favor decriminalizing some acts
• Root causes of crime only fixed by social
  change
• Rehabilitation may be possible
• Elliott Currie ample evidence that government
  can address social ills and prevent crime
• Radical Marxist/conflict theory

29
Ideology as hidden agenda

• Many policies and programs are driven more by
  ideology than empirical evidence
• Intensive supervision probation (conservatives)
• Restorative justice (liberals)

30
The Martinson Report (MR)

• The Martinson Report was review of studies on
  rehabilitation published in the early 1970s
• Concluded that not much is working
• Used by politicians as the reason for abandoning
  rehab
• Social Context of the 1960s
• Hippies, Watergate, Attica, Viet Nam, Kent State
• Conservatives? SKY IS FALLING
• Liberals? Cannot trust the government
• Reality liberals and conservatives were both
  ready to pull the plug on rehabilitation

31
The Limits of Empirical Evidence

• Criminologists tend to be cautions with
  conclusions
• All studies are flawed in some way
• Politicians and public tend to over generalize
  from a single study
• This can lead to bad policy
• RAND Felony Probation study
• Domestic Violence Experiments

32
Good theory makes good policy

• In a perfect world, programs and policies would
  flow from empirically supported theories of crime
• Unfortunately, people often shoot from hip
• Policy without Theory
• The panacea problem scared straight,
  intensive probation, boot camps, warm and fuzzy
  circle
• Some hope in evidence-based movement
• Multisystemic Therapy (MST)
• Targets for change parental supervision,
  delinquent friends, reducing rewards for
  deviance