Terms and concepts of Introduction into Criminology
All definitions of the terms and concepts for the introduction into criminology exam
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Universiteit Utrecht (UU)
Minor Criminology
Introduction to criminology
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Introduction
Criminology: study of crime, justice, and societal issues, considering social,
economic, political, and cultural factors to understand crime's nature, causes, and
impact on society
o Interdisciplinary: sociology, forensic science, psychology etc.
Bias: commonly associated with certain ethnic/socio-economic groups
Assumptions: overly focussed on individuals, overlooking systemic factors like
poverty or social inequality
What is crime?
(always considering the social/economic/political context)
Legal: intentional act which breaks/goes against a law
Moral/sociological: what society deems as wrong (socially + morally) = deviant
behaviour
Human rights: all behaviour that goes against human rights
Harms: crime is a legal construct and too anthropocentric, it should include harm to
all (inc environment etc.)
o Zemiology is the study of social harms, not just crimes - focuses on
understanding harmful actions or conditions (like poverty, inequality, and
environmental damage) that may not be classified as crimes by law but still
cause significant damage to individuals or society.
Social constructivist:
o The product of the dynamics of a certain society
o crime is as is defined by the powerful
o Abolitionism: crime has no ontological reality – it is not the object but the
product of criminal policy
Advocates for getting rid of the CJS entirely
Theories in Criminology
Classicism: individuals choosing to commit crime
Positivism: individuals are influenced by forced outside of their control (see individual +
social pathologies
Structure-agency debate:
Structure: individuals are merely passive recipients of social (and structural)
determinations because they are subject to coercive social structures.
Agency: individual is a dynamic, rational and motivated actor making choices in a
given social context
Dual – Giddens Structuration Theory: structures shape actions, and actions in turn
create and maintain those same structures
, Epistemology: the study of knowledge
Positivism: discovery of reality through scientific method
Constructivism: people make sense of reality through experiences (which depend on
social constructions) creates multiple realities
Methods to collect social scientific data:
o Quantitative (rooted in positivism)
o Qualitative (rooted in constructivism)
1. Choice and decision-making:
o is a consequence of choice based on individuals weighing up benefits and
costs (likelihood + severity of punishment rational, selfish actors, free will
(Bentham)
o based on rational choice theory
o Hedonistic calculation + utilitarianism
o punishment should be: (1) certain; (2) delivered swiftly; (3) proportionate to
the harm caused (Beccaria)
2. individual pathologies: internal forces of biology or psychology influence actions
o Biological/psychological traits influence the criminogenic nature of X
man/woman (Lombroso)
o Underlying idea: atavism – somebody is an evolutionary throwback so cannot
control their behaviour and thus commit crime (Lombroso)
3. Social pathologies: individuals are influenced by their wider environment
(cultural/social structures)
o Anomie: breakdown of social norms that often accompanies rapid social
change (Durkheim) which explains criminality and deviance in US (Merton)
o Strain: gap in cultural goals and means to achieve these then strain is caused
and crime occurs as individuals seek illegitimate/illegal means to secure
success
o Rooted in socioeconomic inequality
4. Critical approaches: wider social processes (inequality/class/power/ marginalisation)
– challenging the status quo and the roles of institutions
o Neo-Marxist theorists: people in power stay in power bc they make the rules
and suppress people below
5. Integrated accounts: combination of above
Case: Why are students increasingly turning to sex work?
threefold ‘pull’ factors potentially present in student sex work – the experience of
personal satisfaction, the accrual of financial rewards, and the ensuing financial and
social survival that these permit (Agustin)
increasingly liberal social attitudes (the conversation)
‘emotional consumption’ (Egan 2005), ‘emotional connectedness through “mutual”
satisfaction, romance and friendship’ (Sanders 2008a) and ‘bounded authenticity’
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