SOCIO 132
EXAM REVIEWER
WHAT IS CRIME?
CRIME
 A violation of a formally written or recognized criminal
code enacted by a political body
 Crime is a specific norm violation distinct from other none-
criminal norm violation
o i.e. Violation of civil law, administrative and
similar laws or codes; taboo with no equivalent
criminal punishment
 Punishment can be in the form of fines and similar
economic sanctions, deprivation of rights, banishment,
incarceration, or death
 Incarceration and other physical punishments, e.g. flogging,
lashes, are typically only reserved for crimes
CRIME: BASIC TYPES IN CRIMINOLOGY
 Mala in se, meaning bad in itself
o Universally regarded as morally objectionable
because it is harmful, destructive or cruel, e.g.
murder, rape, stealing, arson, etc.
 Mala prohibita, meaning bad because it has been prohibited
by a law
o Rather than directly harming a person or society,
these offense violate a regulatory law, typically
deemed as less serious, e.g. gambling, smoking,
drug use
CRIME AS A SOCIOLOGICAL CONCEPT
 Arising out of an agreed upon set of norms expressed
through a criminal code
 Can be constructed as an indicator of social conditions
o Functionalism: a symptom of a dysfunction,
boundary testing mechanism
o Conflict: often a creation of oppressive structures,
a means of controlling population
o Interactionism: arises in social interaction, label
as such
o Postmodernism: can be a form of resistance,
produced by or reproduces expressions of power
and knowledge systems
 Crime is juicy phenomenon to be demystified by sociology
CLASSIFICATION/NAMING OF CRIMES
 Based on victim or target
o Crimes against persons: murder, homicide,
personal injuries
o Crimes against property: theft, robbery, fraud
o Crimes against chastity
o Crimes against national security
o Also homicide, parricide, rapto de una muje,
carnapping, kidnapping, child abuse, elderly
abuse
 Based on perpetrators’/offender’s background
o E.g. white collar crime, crimes of public officers
 Based on manner of perpetration
o E.g. murder, homicide, manslaughter
 Based on outcome
o E.g. Assault and battery, manslaughter
 Based on social domains/location
o E.g. political crimes, occupational crimes, sex
crimes, street crimes, domestic violence, etc.
 Based on bureaucratic significance
o E.g. capital crimes, index crimes
o Index crimes
 Crimes regarded as serious by
authorities
 Occur with sufficient frequency and
regularity
 Serve as an indicator of the crime
situation
 In the PH:
 Murder
 Homicide
 Personal injury
 Robbery
 Theft
 Rape
CRIME IN THE PHILIPPINES
 Penal Code of the Philippines
o Derived from Spanish Code of 1800s
o “modern” code based on rational choice
philosophy
o Punishment based on severity of crime
o Graduated punishment, commensurate to offense
 1930s Revised Penal Code
o American period. US adopted Spanish Code,
introduced piecemeal revisions.
 Contemporary Philippine Revised Penal Code
o Integrates generations of revisions
o E.g. RA 9165, RA 8049
RCT: COMMENSURATE, GRADUATED PUNISHMENT
(Revised Penal Code of the Philippines, c. 1930s)
 Reclusion perpetua: pardoned after thirty years, unless such
person by reason of his conduct or someother serious cause
shall be considered by the Chief Executive as unworthy of
pardon
 Reclusion temporal: twelve years and one day to twenty
years
 Prison mayor and temporary disqualification: six years and
one day to twelve years, except when the penalty of
disqualification is imposed as an accessory penalty, in
which case its duration shall be that of the principal penalty
 Prison coreccional, suspension, and destierro : six months
and one day to six years, except when suspension is
imposed as an accessory penalty, in which case, its duration
shall be that of the principal penalty
 Arresto mayor: one month and one day to six months
 Arresto menor: one day to thirty days
MEASURING CRIME
 Volume: number of incidents or volume per month or
years; does not take into consideration the proportion in
relation to population
 Crime rate: ratio of crimes in an area in relation to its
population
o CR = crime volume/(population of area/100,000)
 Unified Crime Reporting Program (UCRP) : crime volume,
crime rate, crime trends (increase or decrease)
QUANTITATIVE SOURCES OF CRIME DATA
 Official crime records: reported to authorities or recorded
in offices
o Statistics, blotters, cases, population listing 
barangay police courts, jails, prisons
 Victimization surveys
 Self-reported surveys
 Standardized international comparison: HEUNI Report
RESEARCHING DEVIANCE: METHODOLOGY, METHODS,
TECHNIQUES IN DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
  Levels of distance and involvement:
METHODOLOGY o Complete observer
 The application of logic to the research problem o Observer as participant
 Problematizing a subject matter and devising systematic, o Participant as observer
logical, viable, and defensible means to arrive at answers o Complete participant
 Epistemological approach
 Quantitative vs. Qualitative approaches, mixed methods ANALYSIS OF DOCUMENTS (TEXT)
 Reading the text as narrative
EMPHASIS ON SOCIAL RESEARCH  Critical discourse as analysis
 Study questions must be well-conceptualized  Distinct from content analysis (which is the quantitative
 Systematic means of identification of data source analysis of words)
 Methodical data collection process  Examples:
 Objective, bias-free, or normative position identified or o Archival data
transparent o Court records
 Participation in larger network of knowledge o Diaries
o Letters
QUANTITATIVE APPROACH
 Draws from the positivist tradition that regards phenomena
as absolute, real, measurable, can be explained (effects are PRISONS AND JAILS
caused), and predictable
 Measurement or quantification via numbers PURPOSES OF INCARCERATION
1. Incapacitation: preventing offenders from doing crime;
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH METHODS: EXPERIMENTS public safety
 Effects of one variable to another, or of some to many 2. Deterrence: preventing others from committing crime
others through vicarious warning
 E.g. obedience to authority 3. Retribution: address the feelings of injustice by victims and
o Milgram’s experiment the public
4. Rehabilitation: reform the offender
o Stanford Prison Experiment
5. Restoration: like reform, reintegrate the offender into
society
SECONDARY DATA 6. Repopulation of a territory
 Analysis of statistical data 7. Deployment of prison labor
 Examples:
o Anthropometric data of criminal vs. non-criminal TOTAL INSTITUTIONS (Erving Goffman, Asylums: Essays on the
population Social Situation of Mental Patients and Other Inmates)
o Police records of index crimes  System with marked barrier between the system and the
 Index crimes: crimes that occur on a outside world; these demarcations have equivalent social
more regular basis and considered barriers
threatening
o Ensuring that measurements are valid and SHARED SPHERES OF LIFE
consistent  Sleep, play, work and other activities
o Conducted in the same place
SURVEYS o Carried out in the company of a large group
 Measures public opinion as well as experiences o Tightly scheduled
 Example: public opinion surveys of SWS and Pulse Asia o Tasks come together to serve a larger goal of the
institution
SELF-REPORT SURVEY
 Work incentives do not have the same significance on as
 Individuals report their having participated in a deviant
they do outside
behavior
 Potential incrimination of participants (research ethics)
STAFF-INMATE SPLIT
 Example: self-report delinquency survey
 Two different social and cultural worlds develop
 There is considerable social distance between the two
VICTIMIZATION SURVEY
groups
 Individuals answer questions about having been victims of
 E.g. custodians and inmates, guwardiya at preso, faculty
deviant behavior
and students; hierarchy
 Potential stigma to participants who were victims (research
ethics)
MORTIFICATION PROCESS [SELF]
 “Upon entrance, (an inmate) is immediately stripped of his
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
wonted supports and his Self is systematically, if often
 Guided by the constructivist approach
unintentionally, mortified.”
 Descriptive, phenomenological, interactionist
 An inmate goes through a series of abasements,
 Interested in meaning-making and lived reality
degradations, humiliations, and profanations of self.
 Focus on unfolding interaction
 Radical shifts in one’s Moral Career
o “changes occur in the beliefs concerning the self
QUALITATIVE INTERVIEWS
 Aims to capture the subjective narrative and interpretation for the inmates and their significant others”
of individuals
PRIVILEGE SYSTEM
OBSERVATION AND PARTICIPANT OBSERVATION  House Rules: prescriptions on inmate conduct
 Understand the world-in-operation of subjects in a field site
  Rewards and Privileges: remunerative controls are held out
in exchange for obedience to staff
 Punishments
o Given out as a result of rule-breaking
o Usually more severe than would be given in the
outside world
TYPES OF TOTAL INSTITUTIONS FOR PERSONS
 Thought to be incapable but harmless
o Those with disabilities, nursing homes,
orphanages, and halfway houses for homeless
 Thought to be incapable but pose unintended threat to the
community
o Sanitorium, mental hospitals, hospitals for
patients with contagious diseases
 Thought to pose intentional dangers to community
o Jails, prisons, prisoners of war camps, and
concentration camps
 Pursuing some technical task
o Army barracks, military ships, boarding schools,
work camps, colonial compounds, servants’
quarters, etc.
 Training for the religious or those needing retreat
o Abbeys, monasteries, convents, cloisters
ADAPTATION ALIGNMENTS/PROCESS
 Situational withdrawal: withdrawal or disinvolvement
 Rebellion: inmate challenges the institution by refusing to
cooperate
 Colonization: replicating the outside world within the
establishment; crafting a more bearable life inside
 Conversion: taking the official or staff view of himself;
accepting the role of the perfect inmate
PILLARS OF CRIMINAL JUSITCE
 Law enforcement
 Investigation and prosecution
 Courts (judiciary)
 Corrections (penology and rehabilitation)
 Community
THE BUREAU OF CORRECTIONS
 Agency under the Department of Justice, “mandate to carry
out institutional rehabilitation programs of the government
for national offenders, those sentenced to more than three
years, and to ensure their safe custody”
 Facilities:
o New Bilibid Prison, Muntinlupa City
o Correctional Institute for Women, Mandaluyong
City
o Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm, Puerto Princesa
City
o Davao Prison and Penal Farm, Panabo
o San Ramon Prison and Penal Farm, Zamboanga
City
o Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm, Occidental
Mindoro
o Leyte Regional Prison, Abuyog
PERSPECTIVES/THEORIES IN UNDERSTANDING CRIME
 BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
o Somatotyping: typing of bodies
 Mesomorph: violence
 Ectomorph: depression/suicide
 Endomorph: addiction
 PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
 RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY
 SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES
DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION THEORY (EDWIN
SUTHERLAND)
 Criminal behavior is learned
 Criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other
persons in the process of communication.
 The principal part of learning criminal behavior occurs
within intimate personal groups.
 When criminal behavior is learned, the learning includes:
o Techniques of committing the crime
o The specific direction of motives, drives,
rationalizations, and attitudes
 The specific direction of motives and drives is learned from
definitions of the legal codes as favorable or unfavorable
 A person becomes a delinquent because of an excess of
definitions favorable to the violation of the law over
definitions unfavorable to the violation of law
 Differential associations may vary in frequency, duration,
priority, and intensity
 The process of learning criminal behavior by association
with criminal and anti-criminal patterns involves all of the
mechanisms that are involved in any other learning
 While criminal behavior is an expression of general needs
and values, it is not explained by those general needs and
values, since noncriminal behavior is an expression of the
same needs and values
THE CRIMINAL CAREER
 The acquisition of criminal norms that lead to criminal acts
and the individual view of the criminal behavior. It
involves:
o Identification with the crime
o Commitment to crime as social role and
characteristic activity
o Progression in crime through development of
increasingly complex criminal techniques and
sophisticated attitudes
SUBCULTURAL THEORY OF CRIME
 Lower class communities subscribe to a subculture that
normalizes violence and norm-violation (Walter Miller)
 Focal concerns of the lower-class:
o Trouble
o Toughness
o Street-smartness
o Excitement
o Fate
o Autonomy
LOWER-CLASS DELIQUENT SUBCULTURE (Albert Cohen)
 Mainstream values represented by the school are middle
class values
o Ambition
o Deferred gratification
o Respect for property
o Nonviolence
 Lower class youths experience frustration because they
have not been socialized to fulfill these standards
 As a reaction (reaction formation), they resist the values by
subscribing to alternative standards to gain status within
their ranks
 Non-utilitarian delinquencies reflecting negativism,
hedonism, group autonomy
SOCIAL BOND THEORY (Hirshi)
 Bond to conventional society and its groups deters crime
 o Conventional family, friends, schools, and similar  Anti-social behavior that violates moral, ethical, or legal
groups standards for the benefit of a corporate or government
o Integration vs. isolation entity; rooted in the corporate and governmental search for
o Conventional groups vs. delinquent groups profit and power (Simon 2007)
 Elements of social bond:
o Involvement CONTROL FRAUD
o Attachment  Situations in which top leaders (CEO, etc.) of an
o Commitment organization uses the organization as a tool or weapon for
personal gain (Black 2005)
o Belief
RED-COLLAR CRIME
DELINQUENCY AND DRIFT (David Matza)
 Committed when white-collar criminals become violent
 Youths do not necessarily commit to deviance or non-
toward their victims as they attempt to conceal their illegal
conformity
actions (Perri and Lichtenwald 2007; Brody and Kiehl
 They drift between criminal and delinquent action and
2010)
conventional behavior
 Assassinations, kidnappings, and harassment arising from
 Typically, offenders express guilt and remorse
business rivalry, botched business deals, and imminent
 Commits violations due to peer pressure or influence
discovery of illegal behavior by white-collar criminals
 Contingencies of learning, association, and bond with a
group that can define values
INDIVIDUAL VS. SOCIAL (ORGANIZATIONAL)
ENVIRONMENT
SOCIAL CLASS, SOCIAL STATUS, AND CRIME
 What sorts of individuals are predisposed to fraud?
o Reckless, risk-taking
 Social class is a category that defines an individual or
o Competitive
group’s position within society’s structure inequality
 Stratification in economic (wealth), cultural (prestige), or o Appetite for wealth/privilege
political (power) status o Independent mindedness/stubbornness
 Class often refers to economic standing o Narcissism
 Status often refers to sociocultural and political standing o Grandiosity (needs admiration, lacks empathy)
but also often used to refer to overall combined o Overconfidence
socioeconomic status (SES) o Moral apathy (amorality); lack of empathy
o In the Philippines, type of residence and (blames the victim)
occupation are often used as indicators of social o Calculating
class  INDIVIDUAL TRAITS
 Criminal behavior in relation to social class or o Personality  motivation  circumstances
socioeconomic status o Perceptions of unfair treatment/underappreciation
o Feelings of territorial ownership
WHITE-COLLAR CRIME o Entitlement
 “Crime committed by a person of respectability and high o Skilled sociability
social status in the course of his occupation” (Sutherland, o Lack of empathy or remorse
1939)
o Detachment from normal relationships
 Redefinition of criminality to include persons of status
 Departure from earlier stereotype and bias on lower class o Anti-social personality disorder
criminality o Ego/power – fraud as a source of power, esteem,
 Crime in the streets vs. crime in the suites domination
 Identifiable white-collar crimes: 4%  Victims as inferior, stupid, or “had it
o Malversation coming”
o Illegal recruitment  General dislike or lack of respect for
o Swindling the victim
o Strong sense of relative deprivation  keeping
 “White collar crime involves the use of a violator’s position
of significant power, influence, or trust in the legitimate up with the lifestyle rather than true poverty
economic or political institutional order for the purpose of o Adverse financial or business conditions (threat
illegal personal or organizational gain.” (Reiss & Biderman of losing it all)
1980) o Stress (financial crisis, adverse business
o Insider trading conditions, relationship breakdowns, etc.)
o Corruption, i.e. awarding of contracts to preferred o Lifestyle choices (compulsive gambling,
contractors or suppliers substance abuse)
o Price-fixing  SOCIAL BACKGROUND (US)
 “Economic offense committed through the use of some o Educated
combination of fraud, deception, or collusion” (Wheeler et o Late-career/older
al. 1982) o Low integration to conformist groups
o Dysfunctional upbringing
ORGANIZATIONAL CRIME o Navigate within a social environment conducive
 “Illegal acts of omission or commission by a legitimate to fraudulent conduct
organization in accordance with its goals that result in a o What sort of work (social) environment
serious physical or economic impact on employees, encourages fraud?
consumers, or the general public” (Schrager & Short 1978)
WHEN IT CANNOT BE DETECTED
ELITE DEVIANCE  An opportunity is present
  The individual is tempted and inclined
 Nothing prevents it from happening
 ROUTINE ACTIVITY THEORY (Felson 2002)
o What are the conditions necessary for crime?

WHEN FRAUD IS TOLERATED: SOME FACTORS

 Offender takes cue from the culture of the organization
 Supported by structural factors, e.g. incentives/rewards
system
 Insulation from scrutiny accountability
 (learning and neutralization theories)

CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND SOCIAL ORDER: LOIC AND

WACQUANT
 Ghetto and prison meet and mesh – prisons become like
ghettos and ghettos like prisons
 Racially disproportionate hyper-incarceration (US)
 Prisons create caste control; deals population of young
black men rejected by the wage-labor market
 Carceral system redefined citizenry within a racialized
public culture of vilification of criminals
 Welfare treatment of poverty by penal management

PENAL POPULISM: DAVID GARLAND AND JOHN PRATT

 Subscribes to a policy that is ‘tough on crime’
 Values public sentiments against crime and criminal
offenders over empirical evidence or opinions of crime
experts, call for punitive control measures (Pratt 2007)
 Criminal punishment as an expressive institution, its rituals
directed less at offenders and more at the “audience of
impassioned onlookers whose cherished values and security
had been undermined” (Garland 1991)
 Privileges public opinion and political currents in crime
policy
 Decline of penal welfarism