Nice Quiet Week!

Complete the assigned Readings•Read pp. 148-187 in Henslin, and review the Web Resources related to crime, juvenile delinquency, and ways to treat criminals. In order to learn more about crime and the criminal justice system, refer to the document titled “Unit 4 Resources” in Doc Sharing.

Participate in Discussion•The book discusses four different ways to deal with criminals: retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, and incapacitation. Which of the four ways do you feel is most effective in dealing with criminals? Which do you feel is least effective? Explain your answers.•After watching ABC Primetime: Juvenile Corrections, and reading the chapter, answer the following questions: Why do juveniles get involved with crime? What are some differences and challenges human services professionals may face when working with juveniles convicted of crimes versus adults convicted of crimes?

Attend Seminar

The Problem in Sociological Perspective

• Crime: The violation of lawCrime is culturally relative

• Making acts criminal is a political process• Determining which behavior is criminal is a

political process• Power: The capacity to achieve goals in

the face of opposition

The Scope of the Problem

• Criminal Justice System: Agencies that respond to crime

• Crime Rate: Number of crimes occurring per 100,000 people

• The universal nature of crime: No society exists without crime

Symbolic Interactionism• Social Class And Labeling

– Social class affects our perception and behavior– Social class affects visibility– Social class affects styles of interaction

• Labeling– Practice that can set people on different paths in life

• Self-fulfilling Prophecy– Refers to something that becomes true because one said it might come true

• Police Discretion– Deciding whether to arrest someone or to ignore a particular

offense• Social class influences the authorities' reactions affecting who

shows up in official statistics

Functionalism

• Functionalists consider crime a natural part of healthy society.

• Strain theory states that illegitimate opportunity structures encourage some people to commit crime and provide that others will not have the need to.

• Robert Merton’s analysis: Conformists Innovators Ritualists Retreatists Rebels Innovation is most often the cause of criminal behavior Innovators turn to illegitimate means

• Social class and illegitimate opportunities– Illegitimate Opportunity Structures

• Opportunities woven into the texture of life in urban slums

– Middle and upper classes are not free of crime– Ponzi Scheme

• Occurs when high investment returns are paid to clients using other clients’ money—not real investment profit

• Why do only some people commit property crimes?– Inner controls– Outer controls

Conflict Theory

• Inequity in the legal system: power and social class

• Conflict theorists stress that every society is marked by power and inequality.– The Ruling Class– The Working Class: three major groups

• Upper-level managers and professionals• White-collar and blue-collar workers• Marginal working class

– Law is controlled by the ruling class

White-Collar Crime

• White-Collar Crime:– Crimes “committed by people of respectable and high

social status in the course of their occupation.”

• Two major types: Those committed by employees on behalf of a

corporation Those committed against a corporation

Professional and Organized Crime• Professional Criminals

– People who consider crime to be their occupation• Criminal Enterprise

– Crime committed within a highly organized gang• Mafia

– Famous organized crime group; made up only of Italians is a myth

• Organized crime involves three main elements:– In-group loyalty– Scorn for the values of the straight world– Pride in specialized skills

• Cosa Nostra: “our thing”– Structure in which leaders of most powerful families

form a “commission” or “combine” to take over weaker families.

• Mafia’s success despite government efforts– Bureaucracy– Provides illegal services in high demand– Wields influence through political corruption– Uses violence and intimidation– Conflict theorists: organized crime serves the goals of

the U.S. ruling class

Political Crime

• Political Crime: crime motivated by a particular ideology

• Some view political actions of individuals as major social problems, while viewing similar acts by government as acceptable.– Crimes designed to maintain the social order

The Criminal Justice System

• Plea Bargaining– Poor spend months (even years) behind bars awaiting trial– Plea Bargaining: Pleading guilty, even if innocent, for lesser

charge―encouraged by defense attorneys– Threats of mandatory minimum sentences to get guilty pleas– Judges impose harsher sentences on those who insist on

unnecessary trials– Age, employment, and the number of previous arrests affect

sentencing– Number of arrests, not the seriousness of those charges,

influences a sentence

• Recidivism and Rehabilitation– Recidivism rates: percentage of former

prisoners rearrested– Likelihood of recidivism is influenced by

gender, race–ethnicity, and age– The more often someone has been put in

prison, the greater that person’s chances of going back to prison

The Sting of Justice

• Respectability, wealth, and power insulate many lawbreakers.

• Assembly-line justice– Plea bargaining has become standard in U.S. criminal

justice system.• Vast majority of cases, people accused of a crime do not

receive a trial

– Criminal justice system is also slow and inefficient.– Plea bargaining and the inefficiencies of the court

system…

Bias in the Criminal Justice System• African Americans are 12% of the U.S.

population: 45% of prison inmates• Criminal conviction rates in U.S. vary greatly

among different racial groups– Unclear why African Americans are most apt to be

arrested and charged• Cannot conclude that the courts are biased for

or against minorities or for or against Whites– The evidence is inconclusive.

The Death Penalty

• Capital punishment– The decision by a jury in the sentencing phase of a

capital (death penalty) case to put an inmate to death– Best predictor of whether a man would be sentenced

to death was knowing that the victim was White and the accused Black

• Furman v. Georgia (1972)– Death penalty was being applied unconstitutionally—

in a discriminatory fashion

The Prison Experience

• The Zimbardo Experiment– Society structure and groups to which we

belong provide basis for our orientations and how we act toward others

– Provides insight into what is wrong with our prisons

– Adding to knowledge of why prisons fail to reduce crime

Social Policy• Retribution

– Punishment to uphold values• Restitution

– Compensation to victims for harm• Deterrence

– Create fear by letting potential offenders know they will be punished if they commit a crime

– Uniform sentencing: same sentence for everyone convicted of the same crime

• Rehabilitation: resocializing offenders

– Probation

– Imprisonment

– Parole

– Furloughs

– Halfway houses

– Honor farms

• Diversion: diverting offenders away from courts and jails

• Incapacitation– Removing offenders from circulation

• The debate over capital punishment– Proponents argue that death is appropriate

punishment for heinous crimes– Opponents argue that killing is never justified

Goals and Principles

• Clear laws• Swift justice• More rehabilitation programs• Added incapacitation• Task forces to investigate organized crime

white-collar crime• Harsh penalties• Prison reform• Unbiased research

The Future of the Problem

• Changes in crime• The criminal justice system

– The judicial system changes slowly• Need for fundamental change