Summary 'Introduction into criminology (Murphy)' RGBUSTR007 UU
Summary 'Criminology: A Contemporary Introduction' (Advanced criminology course UU)
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Universiteit Utrecht (UU)
Minor Criminology
Introduction to criminology
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Literature lectures introduction to criminology
Inhoudsopgave
Literature lectures introduction to criminology.....................................................................................1
Week 1................................................................................................................................................1
Ch1 (p.1-18)....................................................................................................................................1
CH5 (98-119)...................................................................................................................................2
Week 2................................................................................................................................................4
CH6.................................................................................................................................................4
CH8 (until page 179/8.4).................................................................................................................5
Week 3................................................................................................................................................7
Ch8 from 8.5 onwards (p.180)........................................................................................................7
Ch10................................................................................................................................................7
Week 4...................................................................................................................................................8
Ch 7 (until 5.3)................................................................................................................................8
Week 5................................................................................................................................................9
Ch7 from 7.4 onwards....................................................................................................................9
Ch11 until 11.3 (p.245)...................................................................................................................9
Week 6.................................................................................................................................................10
Ch11 from 11.4 onwards (p.245)..................................................................................................10
Chin, K. & Finckenauer, J.O. (2011) Chickenheads, agents, mommies, and jockeys: the social
organization of transnational commercial sex, Crime Law Soc Change, 56:463–484...................11
Week 7.................................................................................................................................................13
Erin, C. (2021) Cops, Firefighters, and Scapegoats: Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Professionals in
an Era of Regulatory Bulimia, Journal of White Collar and Corporate Crime, 2(1): 47–58............13
Week 8.................................................................................................................................................15
Ch9................................................................................................................................................15
Ch12..............................................................................................................................................18
Week 1
Ch1 (p.1-18)
Criminology is the study of crime, justice, law and order issues, and the broader dynamics (social and
cultural context, the political climate, economy) of societies in terms of informing how those things
exist are experienced.
,Gibbs’ cycle of reflection (reflective learner):
1. Describe what happened
2. Consider you feelings and thoughts at the time
3. Evaluate what was good and bad about the experience
4. Do an analysis in terms of what sense you can make of the situation
5. Form a conclusion in terms of what else you could have done
6. Develop an action plan for what you would do now
The criminal justice system
The various processes and agencies include law-making, enforcement of laws through agencies such
as the police, and then the processing, defense and sentencing of suspects via a system involving the
crown prosecution service and the court system, and the instruments for delivering punishment,
such as prisons and probation.
Crime
Crime is an intentional act which breaks or goes against a law of some sort. Criminologists point to a
range of problems associated with this, the legal definition. It must also be considered that laws are
not fixed or static. This, then, means that what is understood to be ‘crime’ must then also be fluid.
Also, the decision to criminalize certain behaviors has to be influenced by something, for example the
public, the media, from pressure groups.
The moral and social context of crime
Many damaging behaviors are not criminalized, while some groups in society are seemingly
disadvantaged by these behaviors. Also, certain behaviors who were not previously defined as illegal,
but become criminalized as the public begin to see them as problematic or immoral. This also relates
to what some criminologists describe as the socially constructed nature of crime, that is, how much
of what is viewed as ‘crime’ is a product of the dynamics of a given society at a given point in time.
Here, the notion of deviancy is important, and describes acts that are outside of the mainstream
values and norms of a society.
Some criminologists prefer to utilize the harm-based approach to think about offending. This means
that they can look at the social harms in context (health damage, working conditions).
Cyber crime and hate crime have emerged in recent decades as new crime categories.
CH5 (98-119)
What to count?
How crime is defined impacts on what exactly is measured, and how (e.g. criminal or harmful
definition). There are a number of now long-established mechanisms for counting crime that have
existed in places such as the UK for decades, and in the instance of official data, since the first half of
the nineteenth century. These measures tended to follow the legal definition of crime in determining
behaviors and events within their totals. But also, the actual processes to count crime have changed
over time. Criminologists are also interested in who is committing them; the victim; where it took
place.
How do we count crime?
Two main measures (third one not as important):
, 1. Official crime data from agencies who have some direct involvement in dealing with law and
order issues (official statistics/police recorded data)
a. Relate to information on crimes themselves
b. Free from issues such as sampling, ethics, the need to create a relevant data
collection survey.
c. Other countries collect similar forms of data (comparisons), how crime is collected
can differ between countries
d. Caution is required when interpreting the data, especially when accounting for
significant dips and falls over a short period, because the police may used different
methods over the years which leads to fluctuations.
e. Recidivism: a proven reoffence is defines as any offence committed in a one year
follow-up period that resulted in a court conviction, or caution in the one year
follow-up or a further six month waiting period
f. Critique:
i. Some data get lost
ii. Dark figure of unrecorded crimes (crimes that are lost for whatever reason)
iii. Not all crimes that are recognized are reported
iv. attrition (process whereby more and more of the total is lost over time,
through the various stages
2. Information taken from victimization survey work
a. It is an attempt to produce a generalizable set of findings, based on a complicated
representative sample of respondents.
b. Issues:
i. The extent to which the results for one year can be directly compared with
those from another. ( because of changes to police-recording practices
3. Self-report surveys
a. Include many crimes that were otherwise not reported, or not recognized by a
victim, or they are victimless crimes.
b. Issues:
i. The accuracy of peoples’ accounts are important (issue of social desirability)
ii. The extent to which people recognize the illegality of behaviors matters
4. Data from non-governmental organizations and investigative journalism
a. Information about specific types of crime
b. Offer an effective window into the crime problem
c. More underground and not known crime
Analogy of an iceberg
Most of the mass is hidden from sight under the surface. Not only is the bulk of the mass under the
water, but this can be divided into different elements according to the recognition, reporting, and
recording of crime.
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