1. Crime and Criminal Justice
Chapter 9
Crime and Criminal Justice

2. Crime as a Social Problem
Official Statistics
Uniform Crime Report (UCR) is leading source of information on crime.
Produced each year by the FBI and tracks 3 categories of reported crime:
Violent crime, property crime, and other offenses
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3. Crime Statistics Violent crime: Property crime:
Murder, rape, robbery, gang violence, and aggravated assault
Property crime:
Burglary, mother vehicle theft, arson, and larceny
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4. Crime Statistics
UCR is in process of being replaced by National Incident Based Reporting System
National Crime Victimization Survey
Sent to selected households to probe frequency of unreported crime
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5. Figure 9.1 Crime clock, 2009: The crime clock should be viewed with care. Being the most aggregate representation of UCR data, it is designed to convey the annual reported crime experience by showing the relative frequency of occurrence of certain offenses. This mode of display should not be taken to imply a regularity in the commission of the offense; rather, it represents the annual ratio of crime to fixed time intervals.
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6. Crime and Delinquency Crime: 2 categories of criminal law:
Behavior that violates the criminal law
Punishable by a fine, jail term, or other negative sanctions
2 categories of criminal law:
Misdemeanors: minor crime, punishment is fine or <1 year in jail (ex: public drunkenness)
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7. Crime and Delinquency Delinquency:
Felonies: serious crimes, punishment is >1 year in jail or even death. (ex: murder, rape)
Delinquency:
When someone under 18 commits a crime or violates engages in an antisocial act
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8. Violent Crime
Actions involving force, or threat of force against others and includes:
Murder, rape, robbery, & aggravated assault
Murder: unlawful, intentional killing of one person by another
Mass murder: killing 4 or more people at one time in one place
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9. Violent Crime
Serial murder: 3 or more people over more than a month
Manslaughter: unlawful, unintentional killing of one person by another
Very accurate statistics as most don’t go unreported
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10. Violent Crime Most murderers kill people of their same race
Men are bulk of offenders and victims
Most murder victims and offenders were age eighteen and over
Most murderers kill people of their same race
Poor people are more likely to kill and be killed
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11. Rape
Act of violence in which sex is used as a weapon against a powerless victim
Several kinds of rape:
Forcible rape: forced sex on adult of legal age
Statutory rape: sex with someone under legal age of consent
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13. Figure 9.2 Murder by relationship of victim and offender, 2009
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14. Rape
Acquaintance rape: forced sex of people who meet in a social situation (date rape)
Rape is very often unreported so rates don’t reflect extent of problem
Men are most often the offenders
Rapists & victims tend to be under age 25
Offenders & victims usually the same race
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15. Map 9.1 Violent and property crime by region, 2009 (per 100,000 inhabitants).
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16. Property Crime Taking property from another:
Without force, threat of force, destruction of property
Most frequently reported in victimization surveys is burglary
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17. Property Crime Most frequently reported index crime is larceny-theft
African Americans and Latinos/as have a higher than average risk of being burglarized than whites
Most frequently reported index crime is larceny-theft
Statistics on auto theft are relatively accurate
Insurance companies require reporting auto theft
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18. Figure 9.3 Larceny-Theft in the United States, Percentage Distribution, 2009
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19. Occupational and Corporate Crime
Occupational (White-Collar) Crime
Illegal activities committed by people in the course of their:
Employment or normal business activity
Corporate Crime
Illegal acts committed by corporate employee:
On behalf of the corporation with its support
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20. Organized Crime Organized Crime
A business operation that supplies illegal goods and services for profit
Syndicated crime networks thrive because there’s demand for illegal goods & services
Organized crime often links up to legitimate businesses
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21. Juvenile Delinquency
Juvenile delinquency involves a violation of law or the commission of a:
Status offense by a young person under a specific age
Status offenses are not criminal acts per se:
But are illegal because of the offender’s age
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22. Who Commits Crime? Men are more likely to be arrested than women
Teenagers and young adults are most likely to be arrested for serious crimes:
Such as homicide, rape, and robbery
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23. Who Commits Crime?
People from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are more likely to be:
Arrested for violent and property crimes
People from upper classes generally commit white-collar or elite crimes
Low-income African Americans are overrepresented in arrest data
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24. Explanations of Crime Biological:
Cesare Lombroso: 19th century Italian
William Sheldon
Mesomorphs: muscular, aggressive and assertive
Endomorphs: fat, soft, round, extroverted
Ectomorphs: thin, wiry, sensitive, and introverted
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25. Explanations of Crime Psychological:
People with lower IQs commit more crime than people with higher IQs
Validity of IQ tests have come under scrutiny
Frustration-aggression hypothesis:
Frustrated people take out aggression onto others
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26. Sociological Explanations of Crime
Functionalist:
Strain theory (Robert Merton)
People feel strain when they’re exposed to cultural goals they can’t reach through approved means
Control theory
Delinquency and crime are more likely when a person’s ties to society are broken
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28. Sociological Explanations of Crime
Conflict
Authority and power relations contribute to some people becoming criminals
Radical-Conflict approach
Crimes people commit are based on their class position
Feminist approaches
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29. Sociological Explanations of Crime
Symbolic Interactionist
Criminal behavior is learned through interaction and socialization with others
2 Theories:
Differential association theory
Labeling theory
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30. Criminal Justice System
Police
Most visible link
Courts
Determine guilt or innocence
Punishment and prisons
Retribution, social protection, rehabilitation, and deterrence
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31. Can Crime Problem Be Solved?
Functionalist/Conservative:
Community policing can help
Conflict/Liberal:
Must reduce power differential- solve problem
Interactionist:
Teach people importance of law abiding behavior
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