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Criminology & Sociology (CRY & SCY) CRY5023
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Overview Criminology Minor Topic
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CH1Criminology
= study of crime, criminals and criminal justice
‘crimen’ act of breaking the law or judicial process & ’-logy’ systematic study of something
—> started at least 250 years ago (appr. 1775)
—> objective: development of veri ed principles and other types of knowledge regarding this process of law, crime and treatment
Scope of criminology
Criminal laws Array of areas that are not quite so
Criminology explores the bases and implications of criminal laws clearly de ned by laws:
(how they emerge, work, get violated and what happens to the violators)
damage to environment hate crime
But:
—> laws vary from time to time and place to place state crimes
—> laws are relative
crimes against human rights
—> laws are always historically shaped
example: in some cases killing is allowed, capital punishment
=> To include these kind of areas is to maintain a broad vision
of forms of crime, social order and disorder and social
=> therefore, criminology should NOT be con ned by bounds of law, relations that uphold these
otherwise it would make criminology a very traditional, orthodox and even
conservative discipline *This broad vision may be characterized as: sociological approach to crime
*Psycho-social and bio-medical approaches can be viewed as:
a more expert-based forensic science
(since they are linked to evidence gathering and the design or evaluation of strategies
that aim to change criminal behavior)
Sociology
= systematic study of human society (= collections of people doing things together)
—> Focus on human society, rather than individuals
Sociology’s focus on society as a social order: social disorder
—> Scope: from day-to-day interactions between people to historical and global social phenomena
—> Sociological perspective: trying to step outside society, trying to look at society as a newcomer
• ‘social imagination’ - Charles Wrights Mills
Charles Wright Mills claimed that developing what he called ‘sociological imagination’ would help people to become more active citizens.
—> questioning common sense
—> connect history, biography & society:
The ‘social imagination’ enables us to grasp history and biography and the relations between the two within society
—> It can show that society (not our own individual failings) is responsible for many of our problems
Mills maintained: sociology transforms personal problems ———— into ————> public and political issues
(like criminal behavior) (like the crime problem)
• ‘criminological imagination’ - Jack Young
—> Crime is a sociological concept => crime is a social construct;
(not some autonomous entity) and what is regarded as crime is not xed but varies across time, place and people
—> Crime control and punishment are also shaped by social in uences (history and society)
“New Criminology” by Jack Young (2013) was inspired by Mills vision of “The Sociological imagination” :
problems generated by crime, deviance and punishment
should not just be situated at an individual level of motivation —— but ——> in wider social structures and historical processes
• Sociology, social divisions and crime
Divisions that are relevant in framing all kinds of social relations:
Primarily focus was upon major system of social but more recently sociologists have recognized that other divisions are also relevant:
devision: it focused especially on social class ii) Gender and sexuality divisions;
person’s gender or sexual orientation plays key role in crime and victimization
i) Social and economic divisions; up until the 1970’s focus on studying male criminals, ‘the generalisablity problem’
person’s labour, wealth and income = whether theories generated to explain male offending van be used to explain female offending
play key role in crime and victimization
iii) Ethnic and racialised divisions;
person’s race and ethnicity plays key role in crime and victimization
iv) Age divisions;
person’s age plays key role in crime an victimization
In practice: ‘Intersectionality’
= highlights interlocking in uences of class, gender, race and other forms of difference such as age, dis/ability, sexuality etc.
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, What is crime ~ according to criminologists
traditionally: violation of criminal law moving away from state-de ned acts:
Paul Tappan (1947): only when prosecuted and found guilty The Schwedigers (1970): violation of human rights
—> so State de nes what crime is (imperalistic war, racism, sexism, poverty)
William Chambliss (1988): state-organized crime
Edwin Sutherland (1940): what about white-collar crime (power con ict)
David Friedrichs (2007): criminologists must distinguish between:
Howard S. Becker (1943): - crime is an act that is labelled as crime
- social context matters
=> crime as a social construct
actions prohibited by actions de ned as criminal by actions regarded on some
- ‘deviance’ (violation of social norm) state’s law international law other criteria of harmfulness
(not state or intern. law)
Labelling theory Howard S. Becker “Outsiders”
‘Before any act can be viewed as deviant and before any class of
people can be labelled and treated as outsiders for committing the
act, someone (the moral entrepreneurs) must have made the rule which
de nes the act as deviant.’
Also known as: Societal reaction theory
Labelling theory builds from symbolic interactionist tenet that people
de ne and construct their identities from society’s perception of them. Grounds for criminalization:
1. harms
2. wrongs
3. other grounds (symbolic or instrumental (maintain public order)
Criminalization and de ning ‘crime’
Criminal offences: determined by law to be crime
Crime can be de ned in terms of:
Social construction: determined by society / individuals to be a crime
Often NO agreement on criminalization (soft drugs, euthanasia, pollution)
=> differs between persons, time, places, culture, perspectives
Garofalo (1885): natural crime Becker (1963): —> crime as a social construct
Durkheim (1895): link to cultrue… crome as normal and functional - crime as a reaction
=> start of critical criminology: in uence of the powerful
Bonger (1932): crime and economic conditions
Hulsman (1986): abolitionism (restorative justice) (no ontological reality)
Tappan (1947): democracy decides what is criminal
Hogan (2001): crime because someone criminalized it
Sutherland (1945): power con ict
De ning crime
—> society’s perception of the seriousness or (moral) wrongfulness of a given act often does NOT re ect the perceived or objective
harm that it causes (moralistic logic > consequentialist logic) — Adriaenssen (2020);
—> legality and illegality of behaviour varies widely according to (national, historical) context;
—> cultural and historical variation, but similar implicit assumption: the power to determine what is or is not a crime is the nation state
Approaches to crime:
‘Crime’ as Legalistic approach Social constructionist approach Universalist approach:
contested concept crime is what violates
to use as basis for human rights (also by
scienti c discipline states)
formal legal de nition: beyond criminal law:
de ned by the state, also civil and administrative penalties
proscribed by criminal law, (corperate crime)
state sanction
Labelling: Social harm conception:
crime exists only when a particular act is NOT the law, but harm as a criterium
labelled as crime by the state and/or society (economical, environmental, social)
- should not necessarily attract penalty - harm should attract some sort of penalty (green crimes)
Social groups create and apply de nitions for What’s different?
deviant behaviour. Acts and individuals are —> challenges power (who makes the laws)
NOT inherently deviant until some social group —> includes mass harms (air pollution, building collapses)
de ne them that way. - Becker “Outsiders” —> allocates responsibility (corporate, collective, political)
—> focuses policy on reducing harms
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,CH11
Theft, fraud and other property crimes
Property crimes
= involves stealing and dishonestly obtaining or damaging another’s property, whether tangible goods or intangible property
=> Includes burglary, theft and illegal export of cultural property and theft of intellectual property
—> (copyright infringement, counterfeiting (namaak))
=> most frequently reported crime
• Hidden gure of property crime
Property offences (burglary, theft and criminal damage (not robbery, they are crimes of violence) account for 2/3 of all police recorded crimes.
But police recorded crime data does NOT provide an objective and incontrovertible measure of criminal behaviour:
—> the data often uctuate according to organisational constraints and priorities of the criminal justice system
(example: changes in police practice and priorities will have a signi cant effect on the of cial crime data);
—> reporting rates: theft of cars and burglaries in which something was stolen were almost always reported, partly because of the
seriousness of the offence and partly because victims who are insured need to report the crime in order to make an insurance claim
‘Target’ product
1979 1999
Cohen and Felson Ron Clarke
developed VIVA model into new acronym
VIVA model
Value; Inertia; Visibility; Access CRAVED model
6 key elements that make objects most attractive to thieves and are thus most stolen:
Concealable; Removable; Available; Valuable; Enjoyable; Disposable.
examples: mobile phones in UK, domestic animals in Malawi
Clarke’s data showed that thieves tend to steal less of what they actually crave and more of what they able to easily steal
• Range of property crimes
Against the background of social change and technological advances:
=> the range of property crime activities has broadened signi cantly AND increasingly moved into transnational businesses.
=> New or existing from of property crime can also be carried out more extensively, more quickly, more ef ciently and with greater ease
of concealment
—> ‘thefts to order’ luxury cars are well-organized operations (forging registration plates and documentation, smuggling cars across borders)
Globalisation of car theft, Ron Clarke and Rick Brown contribution of factors:
I. So many cars driven across borders, relatively easy to transport car across border
II. May seem that the car is shipped to legitimate enterprises
III. Impossible to examen every container with cargo and countries receiving stolen cars may be corrupt
IV. Vehicle theft is not a high priority in developing countries, have far more serious crimes
V. Several groups may bene t from exporting stolen cars, insurance companies, companies that ship the car, the ones that sell car to victim
—> new property crimes emerge: bank or credit card fraud
offenders tend to adapt to displace their crimes in response to new initiatives to control crimes and the development of new crime opportunities
presented by changes in technology such as the shift to plastic money (credit card fraud)
• The social distribution of crime risks
The risk for property crime is unequally distributed among the population: with the ‘most marginalized social groups living
in the poorest areas’ generally bearing the greater burden of crime
The risk of property crime victimization is unevenly distributed within and between different localities and various sections of the population (residents of
large cities, households headed by Hispanics, African-Americans and young people)
—> higher levels of physical property crime prevailing in socially deprived areas
geography:
Hotspots of crime (concentration of the incidence of crime) are in urban areas and the poorest ‘striving’ areas
social class:
People living in urban inner-city areas and in social housing are particularly vulnerable to crime problems
Residential burglary: poorer households with few home security measures in high-crime areas and areas of deprivation
Repeat victimization = same location, person household, business or vehicle suffers more than 1 crime event over speci ed period of time
—> disproportionate victimisation of the poor, of young people and of minority ethnic groups
Ethnic minority groups are generally more at risk of household crimes than white communities
=> however, extremely dif cult to isolate ethnicity as a discrete variable in explaining patterns of victimisation,
also socioeconomic factors and wider processes of radicalization into play
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, • Pro le of property crime offenders
Throughout the 18,19 en 20th century: young, male, poorly educated (if at all), and employed in low-skilled and low-paid jobs
=> reinforced conventional understanding of ‘problem populations’ in society
the ‘typical offender’ is male (80% of offenders) and young (age 10-25)
Edwin Sutherland ‘professional thieves’: demonstrates their characteristics as a specialist occupational group de ned by the level of
commitment to illegal activities as a means of making a living
=> ‘all purpose criminal’: who makes crime a career of chose and a way of life
Distinction between professional property crime and amateur property crime: For example Maguire has identi ed 3 types of burglars
I. Low-level burglars II. Middle-level burglars III. High-level burglars
young adults which are opportunists whose start criminal career at young age, move in and well connected with sources of information about
involvement in crime is usually short-lived out of crime. Generally older, more skillful and goods to steal. Carefully plan their crimes and
experienced than the low-level ones possess skills and technical expertise to
overcome complex security measures
Search out targets across a wider geographic
area and tend to have assistance un sale of the
stolen property
Not only criminals, also respectable people in normal circumstances of their everyday job:
- not scanning something in supermarket, undercharging friends
=> concept of neutralisation: denial of injury caused (it wont hurt the store) or denial of the victim (the store exploits customers, the deserve it)
- employees: rule-bending en rule-breaking ( ddle traveling expenses and slush money as a perk of the job)
Motivation
—> Stephen Lyng’s concept of ‘edgework’ & Katz: excitement as part of their motivation
—> Hutton: crime as a ‘normal’ phenomenon rather than an ‘exceptional’ one, because, they see it as work due to their economic situation
Dual edged thrill
- Excitement
- Risk of getting caught
=> crucial factor is drugs
offenders
• Controlling property crime
Felson’s Routine Activity Theory focusses on 3 key elements of crime: targets
absence of guardians
Those who interfere with the offenders play an even more central role in crime and its prevention as a capable guardian
=> social control becomes a critical element in crime are trends and has a key role in contributing to a reduction of property crimes
• Pattern of property crime
1930-1950 1950 - 1970 1970,1980,1990
Steady increase of crime during the inter-war and post-war periods consumer booms and technological revolutions put decline in property crimes
generated by the Depression as well as the temptations created by the into circulation a mass of portable, high value goods
rst signs of the consumer society. Consumer booms (1930’s and 1950’s) =>televisions, radios and stereos, cars were an
generated both more goods for those with disposable income and the attractive target
desire for more goods which resulted in property crime
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