Criminology: Connecting Theory, Research, and Practice Chapter 1 Crime, Deviance, and Criminology: A Brief Overview ©2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Introduction The study of crime has two main dimensions Behavioral Definitional Social behavior either conforms to the established order or contributes to social disorder ©2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

What Is Crime? Legalist perspective Political perspective Crime is behavior that violates criminal codes and statutes Makes several unsupported assumptions Political perspective Crime is socially constructed behavior Emphasizes the role of political power in the creation of legal definitions ©2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

What Is Crime? Psychological perspective Sociological perspective Crime is maladaptive behavior Definition is very broad and encompasses many behaviors Sociological perspective Crime is behavior that threatens the social order Focuses on all actions that cause harm, misfortune, and distress to others ©2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

What Is Crime? ©2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

What Is Crime? Individual Rights or Social Conformity…You Decide ©2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

What Is Deviance? Deviance: Behavior that elicits a social reaction by violating the standards of conduct defined by society Categories of social norms Folkways: Nonbinding social convention Mores: Strong convention about right/wrong Taboos: Prohibition on socially offensive acts Laws: Written formal decree ©2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

What Is Deviance? Society does not always agree on the social and legal status of some behaviors Even when society does agree, consensus can change from time to time and place to place The definitions of crime and deviance are subjective and depend on the specific time and place Crime: Human behavior that we interpret as violating society’s norms for a specific time and place and that must be controlled and prevented by legal decree ©2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

What Is Deviance? ©2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

What Is Criminology? Criminology: The scientific study of the incidence and forms of crime and criminal behavior, their causes and consequences, and social reaction to, control of, and prevention of crime Criminologists are academics, researchers, and policy analysts who focus on understanding the nature and meaning of crime, patterns of criminal behavior, causes of criminality, and society’s reaction to crime ©2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

What Is Criminology? ©2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

The Popular Image of Crime Versus the Reality of Criminal Behavior Crime is committed by ordinary people The popular image of crime comes from media portrayals that provide a false representation of crime-related facts and incidents Crimes reported by the media are often the crimes that take place the least The media focuses on dramatic, unusual, and shocking events, and places less emphasis on the everyday criminal behavior of regular people ©2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Criminology and Theory Theory: A set of propositions that put forward a relationship between the categories of events or phenomena we are studying Criminological theories must account for the great diversity of crime and incorporate a wide variety of perspectives ©2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Criminological Research and Public Policy Criminology research allows policymakers to develop evidence-based strategies and interventions It is the source upon which we rely to guide our understanding of current criminal justice issues Criminology: Connecting Theory, Research and Practice ©2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Criminology and the Law Consensus view Crime is a social phenomenon that is generally agreed to be harmful, undesirable, and disruptive Criminal law thus defines as criminal all behavior believed to be repulsive to all individuals in society Conflict view Crime and deviance are products of unequal power relationships Crime control thus becomes a tool of the powerful to control the behavior of the less powerful ©2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Criminology and the Law Two Perspectives on Law ©2012, The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All Rights Reserved.