Chapter 2.ppt 1

SOC 3880 – Criminal
Justice
mbritz@clemson.edu
Criminal Justice
CHAPTER 2
DEFINING
AND
ANALYZING
CRIME

© 2013 by Pearson Higher Education, Inc
Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 • All Rights Reserved
2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
2.5
Explain why limits are imposed on criminal laws and how
those limits are defined.
Define terms related to drugs and victimless crimes.
Describe the issues surrounding gambling, pornography, and
prostitution.
Summarize various efforts to respond to the drug problem.
Summarize arguments for and against drug legalization and/or
decriminalization.
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

2.6
2.7
2.8
2.9
2.10
Summarize the various methods of how crime is measured.
Describe some of the problems of measuring crime.
Summarize crime-related statistics and trends.
Define terms related to measuring crime.
Compare the public's fear of crime with the actual amount of
crime.
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

2.11
2.12
2.13
2.14
2.15
Describe major characteristics of victims and offenders.
Explain the concept of crime profiling.
Outline the history of alcohol and drug use and abuse in
America.
Outline the development of criminological theory.
Summarize major theoretical perspectives on criminal behavior.
2.16 Define terms related to theories of criminal behavior.
CHAPTER OBJECTIVES

Explain why limits are imposed on
criminal laws and how those limits are
defined.
Learning Objectives
After this lecture you should be able to complete the following Learning Outcomes
2.1

Define terms related to drugs and
victimless crimes.
Learning Objectives
2.2

Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458 • All Rights Reserved7
2.2

Describe the issues surrounding
gambling, pornography, and
prostitution.
Learning Objectives
2.3

Types of Crimes2.3
Mala in se
Mala
prohibita
vs.

Summarize various efforts to respond
to the drug problem.
Learning Objectives
2.4

2.4

Summarize arguments for and against
drug legalization and/or
decriminalization.
Learning Objectives
2.5

Summarize the various methods of
how crime is measured.
Learning Objectives
2.6

2.6

Also Known Today as the
UCR/NIBRS Program
Produces an Annual Overview
of Major Crime Titled Crime in
the United States
2.6

2.6

FBI's UCR Program Initiated
Development of a New
National Crime Collection
Represents a Significant
Redesign of the Original
UCR Program
The Original UCR System
Was "Summary Based," the
Newly Enhanced NIBRS Is
Incident Driven
City, County, State, and
Federal Law Enforcement
Agencies Furnish Detailed
Data on Crime and Arrest
Activities at the Incident
Level
2.6

Describe some of the problems of
measuring crime.
Learning Objectives
2.7

2.7

2.7
UCR/NIBRS NCVS
The Belief That the Police
Can't Do Anything
Fear of Reprisal
Embarrassment About the
Crime Itself/or Fear During
False or Exaggerated Reports
Unintentional Inaccuracies
(Memory Problems/May Not
Remember the Exact Details)
Forgotten Crimes

3 Parties Involved in Crime Reporting2.7
Offender
VictimPolice

Summarize crime-related statistics
and trends.
Learning Objectives
2.8

2.8

Define terms related to measuring
crime.
Learning Objectives
2.9

Compare the public's fear of crime
with the actual amount of crime.
Learning Objectives
2.10

2.10

Describe major characteristics of
victims and offenders.
Learning Objectives
2.11

2.11

Explain the concept of crime
profiling.
Learning Objectives
2.12

Types of Profiles2.12
Offender
Victim
Crime
Scene

2.12

Outline the history of alcohol and
drug use and abuse in America.
Learning Objectives
2.13

2.13

Outline the development of
criminological theory.
Learning Objectives
2.14

Summarize major theoretical
perspectives on criminal behavior.
Learning Objectives
2.15

2.15

Define terms related to theories of
criminal behavior.
Learning Objectives
2.16

2.1
2.2
2.3
2.4
Explained in Chapter 3
See page 78 for Key Terms
In the continuing effort to establish the limits of acceptable
behavior, the mala prohibita offenses of alcohol consumption,
commercialized sex, gambling, and drug use have drawn the most
attention over the years.
The prohibition of narcotics was highlighted by the formation of the Drug
Enforcement Administration in 1973 and the creation in 1989 of the
position of "drug czar" to head the Office of National Drug Policy. These
initiatives further promoted the criminalization of narcotics, increasing the
penalties for violations and emphasizing law enforcement approaches to
controlling the problem.
CHAPTER SUMMARY

2.5
Legalization of drugs is unlikely to occur any time soon because
drugs still carry the same degree of stigma that prostitution does.
Nevertheless, this stigma has been overcome in the case of gambling,
so legalization of drugs may be a matter of time. There is abundant
evidence regarding the ineffectiveness of police crackdowns,
interdiction efforts, and attempts to eradicate drug production in source
countries, as well as of the high economic and social costs of long-term
imprisonment.
2.6
Crime is measured by the Uniform Crime Reporting Program (UCR),
National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), The National Incident-Based
Reporting System (NIBRS), the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, and
self-report surveys.
2.7 Problems of measuring crime include underreporting of crime and a
continually growing population which can make crime rates misleading.
Most property and violent crime offenders are young—between the ages
of eighteen and twenty-five. Approximately 1 million violent crimes are
committed annually by current or former intimate partners, about 85
percent of which are against women.
2.8
CHAPTER SUMMARY

2.9
2.10
See page 78 for Key Terms
Fear of violent crime remains high. Despite falling rates of violent crime
nationwide, crime remains a serious problem that is drawing significant
attention. That attention increasingly is drawn to the highest-risk group—
the young.
2.11
Males comprise 82 percent of arrests for violent crime, although the rate
of female arrests is rising slowly. Women are more likely to commit
crimes against intimates, relatives, or acquaintances than are men.
Whites account for 68 percent of all arrests, while blacks are arrested for
30 percent of all crimes. Except for the crime of rape, males are
victimized by violent crimes at a rate almost twice that for women.
Women are the victims of property crimes at a rate similar to that for
men. Blacks are victims of violent crime at higher rates than any other
race. Hispanics have crime victimization rates lower than that of whites
and blacks.
Analysis of criminal incidents to isolate the precise characteristics
of offenders, victims, and situations in order to better understand and
prevent crime.
2.12
CHAPTER SUMMARY

The number of adults arrested for violation of drug laws increased by 6
percent in the last decade, and total nearly 1 million arrests each year.
The proportion of drug offenders in state prisons is approximate 20
percent of all inmates.
2.13
During the twentieth century growing concern led to
systematic study of the causes of crime, but this study has not discovered
a uniform explanation. Some have argued that a single explanation
should be able to account for all criminality, whereas others believe that
different explanations are required for different types of crime and
different offenders
2.14
The classical school of thought in criminology sees crime as resulting
from the conscious exercise of an individual's free will that is controlled
by the threat of punishment. Positivism sees crimes as the result of
internal and external influences on an individual. Structural explanations
of crime focus on the selective formulation and application of the law
rather than on the behavior of individuals. The ethical view sees crime as
a moral failure in decision making.
2.15
See page 78 for Key Terms2.16
CHAPTER SUMMARY

Chapter 2.ppt 1

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