INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINOLOGY

DEFINING CRIMINOLOGY THE CRIMINAL LAW

DEVELOPMENT OF ACADEMIC CRIMINOLOGYTHEORIES OF CRIMEPOLIT ICS/ IDEOLOGY

DEFINING CRIMINOLOGY

• Edwin Sutherland’s 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

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

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 violation?• How about a law violation that does not violate a

norm?

TYPES OF LAW

• Criminal Law• Procedural vs. Substantive• Statutory vs. Common

• Civil Law• Tort law

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SUBSTANTIVE VS. PROCEDURAL LAW

• Substantive Law• Written code that defines crimes and punishments

• Procedural Law• Governs actors in the criminal justice system (e.g., when

can the police search your vehicle?)

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COMMON LAW V. STATUTORY LAWCOMMON LAW V. STATUTORY LAW

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Common Law is judge-madelaw. The law is found in previously decided cases.

Common Law is judge-madelaw. The law is found in previously decided cases.

Statutory Laws are derived fromlegislative acts that decide the definition of the behavior that iscodified into law.

Statutory Laws are derived fromlegislative acts that decide the definition of the behavior that iscodified into law.

CRIMINAL AND TORT LAW

• A public offense• Enforcement is state

business• Punishment is often

loss of liberties or sometimes death

• Fines go to the state• State doesn’t

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 the

compensation for harmdone

• “Preponderance of the evidence” is required for a decision.

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SERIOUSNESS OF CRIMES I

Mala in se

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

Mala prohibita

• Wrong because they are prohibited • Change over time and

across society• Prostitution • Gambling

SERIOUSNESS OF CRIMES II

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More serious offenses

Punishable by deathor imprisonment for more than a year in astate prison.

FELONY

Less serious offenses

Punishable by incar-ceration for less than ayear in a local jail or house of correction.

MISDEMEANOR

A CRIMINAL LAW MUST INDICATE A TYPE OF INTENT AND A SPECIFIC BEHAVIOR

• Actus Reas • Physical act must be voluntary• If crime is“Failure 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

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SPECIFIC CRIMINAL DEFENSES

• Deny the Actus Reas (I didn’t do it)

• Deny the Mens Rea• Ignorance / Mistake• Intoxication?• Insanity Defense

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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?

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

SOCIOLOGICAL CRIMINOLOGY—GOOD & 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

A CRUDE HISTORY OF CRIMINOLOGY

• Demonic Perspective pre-1750s• Crime as god’s 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

CRUDE HISTORY—PART 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)

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

FLOW CHART FOR EVALUATION

Falsifiable?

Logical?

NO = Useless, stop here

YES EmpiricalEvidence?

NO: Modify/Discard

Yes

Evaluate the Following:• Scope• Parsimony• Policy Implications

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)

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

EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN

METHODS FOR GENERATING EVIDENCE II

• Non-experimental• Survey research• Cross sectional Stimulant Study • Longitudinal

• Limit = how to rule out spuriousness• Upside = ask whatever you want

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

DOMINANT IDEOLOGIES IN U.S.

CONSERVATIES

• Value order/stability, respect for authority

• People get what they deserve

• Crime caused by poor choice (Free will)

LIBERALS

• Value equal opportunities and individual rights

• Success depends on outside forces & where you start• Crime is caused by

outside influences

IMPLICATIONS OF IDEOLOGY FOR CRIME AND JUSTICE

• Conservatives tend to fit with “Classical School”• “Neo-Classical” = deterrence, incapacitation • James Q. Wilson’s “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

IDEOLOGY AS “HIDDEN AGENDA”

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

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

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

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…