criminology is the story of
three revolutions: reason, science, and reflexivity
three schools of criminolgy
classical, positivist, and critical
In early Western history, the main theory of crime was
the demonic perspective
The demonic perspective saw crime as
sinful behavior, offense to God
criminology is the study of
crime and criminal justice
two types of parallel criminology include
1) positivists and classicists (mainstream) 2) critical
positivists and classicists are associated with
the "culture of control"
critical criminology is associated with
the creation of the intersection of biography and history and the struggles for human liberation and social justice
Classical criminology emerged during
the age of Enlightenment (mid 1700s - early 1800s)
classical criminology builds on the idea of
social contract
Thomas Hobbes was a
classical theorist
The two main classical theorists were
Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham
positivist criminology doesn't focus on law and crime, but instead
behavior and treatment should fit the criminal
Adolphe Quetlet
was a Belgian astronomer who was an early influential positivist, developed social mechanics, argued the many causes of crime
Three categories of crime according to Quetlet
accidental (wars, famine, and tsunamis), variable (personality), and constant (age, gender, occupation)
Francis Gall
phrenology (head shape)
Gregor Mendel
genetics
Charles Darwin
origin of species
Benjamin Rush
diseases of the mind
Cesare Lombrosos
biology
Italian school of positivism (Lombroso's 2 students)
Enrico Ferri and Raffaele Garofalo
Enrico Ferri argued
for a sociopolitical criminality that emphasized the interrelatedness of social, economical, and political factors of crime
Garofalo argued for
a doctrine of natural crimes
positivists argue over the relative importance of
nature versus nurture (heredity vs. social environment)
This Herbert Spencer model of society was discredited
bioevolutionary
The newest school of criminology
critical crimiology
Critical criminology is concerned with
"whose law" and "what order"
Critical criminologists are also
reflexive criminologists
crime theory frequently assumes
that criminal law is a direct reflection of consensus
The two main theorist who exposed the myth of the neutral criminal law
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Crime control in the U.S. can be subdivided into
instrumental and structural models of crime and criminal control
Richard Quinney argued that
two kinds of crimes emerged: crimes of domination and crimes of accommodation
Crimes of domination include
crimes of control (acts by police, FBI, in violation of civil liberties), crimes of government (Watergate, Iran-Contragate), crimes of economic domination (corporate acts of price fixing), and crimes of social injury (racism, sexism, and economic exploitation) - necessary for capitalism to exist
crimes of accommodation include
predator crimes (robbing, drug dealing), personal crimes (murder, rape), crimes of resistance (protests, sabotage
William Chambliss articulates a
structural-contradictions theory 62
E.A. Ross promoted the notion of
a criminaloid
"not really crimes" include (seven categories of crimes of the powerful)
corporate crimes, organizational crimes, crimes of globalization, environmental crimes, financial crimes, organizational white-collar crimes, state crimes, and state-corporate crimes
corporate crimes involves
a range of practices that victimize employees, consumers, environment, etc
corporate violence refers to
acts which inflict physical and emotional suffering rather than just monetary loss
environmental crimes
corporations and public policies that add degradation to the environment
crimes of globalization involve
the superexploitation of workers in developing countries
state crime
the act of public officials who try to perpetuate a specific administration, exercise government power etc
state-corporate crimes
hybrid of state and corporate crimes working together
race is defined by a constellation of traits including
physical characteristics, national origin, language, culture, and religion
Willem Bonger's 1943 study Race and Crime was written as a
critique against the growing fascist movement in Europe and arguments about the superiority of the Nordic peoples
A Theory of African American Offending
tried to recognize that centuries of subordination have created a worldview about African Americans
Peggy McIntosh developed a five stage framework that provides an overview of the ongoing process by which the fields of criminology and criminal justice
stage 1 - the intellectual falklands - ignored female criminality stage 2 - add women and stir - deviance is seen as normal, women insisted they be included in criminology research stage 3 - enter feminism - crimes that adversely affect women more than men (domestic violence) stage 4 & 5 - an emerging whole new pie - still conceptual because women and minorities are still being studies and literature is still being created
intersections and intersectionality
refers to efforts to combine the analysis of class and race and gender
radical perspective
drew on marx's ideas about capitalism and the social relations of production (1960s & 70s)
critical race theory assumes
racism is an ordinary, ingrained aspect of American society that cannot be readily remedied by law, developed in late 1970s by scholars who were discontent with the slow pace of achieving racial justice
critical race feminism
emerged from critical race theory to address the gap between what tended to be white feminism and critical race theories focusing on men
critical legal scholarship is used to
analyze, challenge, and resisting the dominant myths, presuppositions, and truths that make up the mainstream culture's view of race, gender, and law
critical white studies
newest body of scholarship that considers what it means to be white in the u.s.
criminal law furnishes the basis for much of criminology and criminal justice as though
the law were objective or neutral
criminology needs philosophical reflection on the nature of crime to
establish its intellectual independence of the state and therefore declare its status as a social science rather than an agency of social control
The novel Snow Crash
set in the US that magnifies the militarization of policing and economic priveledge
Many critical criminologists argue that criminal justice is
about controlling the poor and keeping them in their place
Crime often refers to _______ rather than ________.
crime in the street/ crime in the suites
class can be defined as
any division of society according to status or social ranking
Horton and Hunt define social class as
stratum of people of similar position in the social status continuum
_______ is ultimately the primary factor involved in motivations and opportunities to commit crime as well as in responses of the criminal justice apparatus.
Money
Karl Marx identified the bourgeoisie as
those who owned the means of production - banks, factories, and businesses
the petty bourgeoisie are those who
don't have any ownership but occupy management or professional positions
the proletariat are those who
are workers who need to sell their labor to make a wage
the surplus population is also referred to as
the lumpenproletariat
the term precariat refers to
those who have a precarious financial existence because of low job security, poor pay, and paycheck to paycheck lifeestyles
stratification
the distribution of social goods like incomes, wealth, and prestige
whites have about ______ times the wealth of blacks
eight times
political action committees
PACs donate thousands or even millions dollars to obtain political clout.
John Rawls argues that
justice is the result of decisions that people would make about society from behind a veil of ignorance
the corporation's legally defined mandate is to
pursue, relentlessly and without exception, its own self-interest, regardless of the often harmful consequences it might cause to others
utilitarianism of Cesar Beccaria falls under
Classical Criminology
instrumental marxism
sees criminal law and the criminal justice system as capitalist instruments for controlling the lower class
structural marxism
based on the belief that criminal law and the criminal justice system are a means of defending and preserving the capitalist system
class and criminology - class is related to political power making - five problems
(1) Criminology theory has accepted how the criminal law defines crime (2) Criminology has acted as if the definition of crime is an objective statement about harm (3) Crime theory assumes that criminal law is a direct reflection of consensus (4) theories of criminal law exclude inequality as part of their explanation (5) crimes against humanity are excluded from study
crimes of accommodation are penalized because
they threaten the political and economic status quo
status
a recognized social position that an individual occupies
Class society a ______ society with pronounced social stratification
capitialist
Class mobility describes the movement or shifting across ________ classes
socio-economic
Stratification involves the role of the CJ system and the phenomenon "The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison"
true
Financial assets
—measure of usable wealth or ownership of the economic system (stocks, bonds, trusts)
Merton argued that socially mandated goals are uniform throughout society and access to legitimate means to achieve those goals is bound by class and status
true
Some people have inadequate means to attain societal goals.
true
Modes of Social Adaptation include
Conformity; Innovation; Ritualism; Retreatism; Rebellion
THE UPPER CLASS: THE CORPORATE RICH .
constitute about 0.1% of all families in the United States
The top 1.5% of households had incomes
exceeding $250,000 with 146,000 households
Cultural as well as economic capital is required for
membership in the upper class
The class is characterized by 'doing
Upper Middle Class
This upper middle class consists of lawyers, physicians
true
In general the upper middle class carries out the mandates of
the upper class or supports them in a variety of ways. It may provide it with cultural capital often associated with education.
lower middle class
These are the 'white collar' lower middle management type people, Occupations tend to be those of teacher lower level management Small business owners the largest in contemporary western societies do most of the work of the society They are often quite conservative and very active in their religious communities
THE WORKING CLASS: SKILLED AND UNSKILLED
seen as the backbone of America This class consists of people who build the goods that we all consume truck drivers, policeman, firefighters, steel workers and coal miners This class also includes those who have very minimal skills
THE LOWER CLASS: THE POOR / AN UNDERCLASS?
often seen as an underclass a group that is perpetually underprivileged often not even managing to get by characterized as having little formal education few if any marketable skills.