Crime, Violence and Criminal Justice

laws of a state

Political perspective:
Crime is the result of criteria that have been built into the law by powerful groups, which are then used to label selected undesirable forms of behaviour as illegal

Sociology aees crime as an anti-social act of such a nature that its repression is necessary to the preservation of the existing system of society

Psychological perspective:
Crime is problem behavior that contravenes the criminal law and results in difficulties in living within a framework of generally accepted social arrangements

and deviance?
Are people basically good?
Why are some people violent and aggressive?
Are people motivated only by self-interest?

forms of behavior when members of society generally agree that such laws are necessary

Pluralist perspective

Behaviors are typically criminalized through a political process only after debate over the appropriate course of action

Process
Conflict
Emergent
Interdisciplinary theories, or integrated theories, could possibly be a ninth category.

the individual exercise of “free will.”
Pain and pleasure are the two central determinants of human behavior.
Punishment is sometimes required to deter law violators.
Crime prevention is possible through swift and certain punishment, which offsets any gains to be had through criminal behavior.

Social Policy

Classical theories form the basis of many criminal justice programs, predominant in Russia
High crime rates call for punishment to get even and to prevent future crime.

choice.
Individuals commit crime when the benefits outweigh the costs.

Routine activities theory

Lifestyles contribute to the volume and type of crime found in society.
Crime is likely to occur when a motivated offender and a suitable target come together in absence of a capable guardian.

genetically determined.
Basic determinants of human behavior may be passed from generation to generation.
Some behavior is the result of propensities inherited from more primitive developmental stages in the evolutionary process.

Social Policy

Policies based on biological theories are usually considered “extreme.”
For example:
Eugenics movement of the 1920s;
Castration of pedophiles

to criminal behavior:
DNA
environmental contaminants
nutrition
hormones
physical trauma
body chemistry in human cognition and behavior
Chromosome Theory (Jacobs)
Biocriminology
Heredity

Social Policy

Policies look to modify body chemistry to change behavior.
Example: Medication

of analysis.
Personality is the major motivational element.
Crimes result from inappropriately conditioned behavior.
Abnormal mental processes may have a number of causes.
Diseased mind
Inappropriate learning
Improper conditioning
Psycopathology

Social policy

Policies are primarily individualistic and oriented toward individualized treatment and therapy plans designed to reduce a person’s dangerousness

weight to:
The clash of norms and values among variously socialized groups
Socialization and the process of association between individuals
The existence of subcultures and varying types of opportunities

Social policy

Social programs are instituted to change cultural conditions and societal arrangements that lead people into crime

Burgess mapped Chicago based on the city’s social characteristics. They developed the Concentric Zone Theory.
Concentric zones are likened to a bull’s eye with the center of the city being the target.
Shaw and McKay related this theory to crime.
Crime increased as one moved towards center of the city, with the highest crime rates in the “zone of transition,” where there was a lot of poverty, illiteracy, lack of schooling, unemployment, and illegitimacy (social disorganization).
Social disorganization leads to crime.

Social policy

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design(CPTED):
Natural surveillance
Natural access control
Natural territorial reinforcement

term anomie (normlessness) in the late 1800s.
Robert K. Merton (1910–2003) defined anomie as a disjuncture between societal goals and legitimate means. He developed a typology of adaptations:
Conformist—
\accepts goals and means (law abiding)\
Innovator—
accepts goals, rejects means (
property/white-collar offenses)
Retreatest—
rejects both goals and means
(addiction/victimless crimes)
Ritualist—
rejects g
oals, accepts means (repetitive/mundane lifestyle)
Rebel—rejects g
oals and means an
d substitutes his own goals and means (political crime)

Subcultural theory

Cohen (b. 1918)—reaction formation, lower class youth’s rejection of middle class values, leads to the development of gangs and reinforces the subculture.
Miller—Lower class priority concerns of trouble, toughness, excitement, smartness, fate, and autonomy lead to crime.
Cowards and Ohlin proposed that an illegitimate opportunity structure allows delinquent youths to achieve success outside of legitimate ways.
Wolfgang and Ferracuti coined the term “subculture of violence” after examining homicide rates in Philadelphia in the 1950s.
Here, violence is a traditional, and often accepted, method of dispute resolution.

are often the most attractive to policymakers
They are consistent with popular cultural and religious values

Social policy

Change of socialization and learning processes

Crime is learned. It is learned by the same principles that guide learning of law abiding behavior of conformists (Sutherland);
Social Learning: a perspective that says people learn how to behave from others whom they have the opportunity to observe.

Restraint theories focus on Constraints—those forces that keep people from committing crimes
One restraint theory, offered by Walter Reckless (1899-1988) is containment theory.
There are two types of Containment:
1)Outer—elements outside of individual (friends, law, family, social position) control behavior.
2)Inner—those elements psychological in nature (conscience, positive self-image, tolerance) control behavior.

and society as the primary operative mechanism
Elements of the social bond include:
Attachment (to others)
Commitment (to appropriate lifestyles)
Involvement (in conventional values)
Belief (in correctness of rules of society)

Life course

Social development theories represent an integrated view of human development that points to the process of interaction among and between individuals and society as the root cause of criminal behavior.
An example, put forth in 1993 by Sampson and Laub, is the life course perspective.
Crime is linked to turning points in one’s life.
Turning points are transitional periods during which one can either walk toward or away from crime.

economic and other social inequities.
Key elements are:
Society is composed of diverse social groups.
Conflict among groups is unavoidable because of differing interests and differing values.
Group conflict centers on exercise of political power.
Laws further the interests of the lawmakers.
Radical Criminology
Peacemaking Criminology

Social policy

Many suggest that the only real way to produce change is through revolution.
Modern thinkers believe that we need a middle- of-the-road solution. Such solutions include:
Increasing job opportunities
Reducing prison overcrowding
Prosecuting corporate crimes
Restructuring the bail system
Promoting community corrections
Returning to Shaming and informal social control (Barithwaite)