CRJ270 Chapter1

Introduction to Criminology
CRJ 270
Instructor: Jorge Pierrott
Criminology Today
AN INTEGRATIVE INTRODUCTION
SEVENTH EDITION
CHAPTER 1
What Is Crime?
Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Frank Schmalleger All Rights Reserved
Instructor Introduction
Jorge Pierrott
Mobile: (775) 232-7036

Please text me for emergency only
Email: jpierrott@wnc.edu

Chapter Objectives
After reading this chapter, students should be
able to answer the following questions:
• What is crime? What is the definition of crime
that the author of this textbook has chosen to
use?
• What is deviance? How are crime and deviance
similar? How do they differ?
• Who decides what should be criminal? How are
such decisions made?
• What is the theme of this book? Upon what two
contrasting viewpoints does it build?
• What does it mean to say that “criminal activity
is diversely created and variously interpreted”?
Introduction
• Crime-related entertainment extremely

popular today.
• Inexplicability of crime fascinates
people.
• This text examines causative factors in
effect when a crime is committed.
• It encourages an appreciation of the
challenges of crafting effective crime-
control policy.
What are your favorites?
22. Orange is the New Black – Prison Drama
21. Luther – Crime Drama
15. Homeland – Crime/Terrorist Drama
14. Walking Dead – Violent Drama
13. American Horror Story – Horror/Crime Drama
12. Top of the Lake – Mystery/Crime Drama
8. Boardwalk Empire – Crime Drama
7. Archer – Crime/Spy/Comedy
5. The Americans – Crime/Spy Drama
4. Game of Thrones – Fantasy/Crime/Violent Drama
3. Justified – Crime Drama
2. Hannibal – Crime Drama
1. Breaking Bad – Crime Drama List drafted by: Slant Magazine

Impact of the Media on Crime
• What are the typical images on crime?

• How are they distorted by the media?
• What types of crimes are normally featured?
• How “real” are reality TV shows?
• Do you believe crime related shows and
information leave viewers with a mistaken
impression of law enforcement?

Activity 1
• Gather up in your assign groups and

discuss the following:
 Discuss TV shows such as Cops, NCIS, Blue
Bloods, Breaking Bad and provide the following
information:
• What is commonly the gender and race of the
suspects?
• The gender and race of the police officers?
• The type of crime?
• The products being advertised during these programs.

What is Crime?
• Four definitional perspectives

 Legalistic
 Political
 Sociological
 Psychological
continued on next slide

What is Crime?
• Perspective is important because it

determines the assumptions we make
and the questions we ask
• This book uses the legalistic
perspective

Legalistic Perspective
• Crime:
 Human conduct in violation of the
criminal laws of a state, the federal
government, or a local jurisdiction that
has the power to make such laws

Legalistic Perspective
• Key shortcoming
 Yields moral high ground to powerful
individuals who can influence lawmaking
• Laws are social products – crime is
socially relative, created by legislative
activity

Political Perspective
• Crime:
 The result of criteria that have been
built into the law by powerful groups
and are then used to label selected
undesirable forms of behavior as illegal
• Laws serve the interests of the
politically powerful
• Crimes are behaviors those in power
perceive as threats to their interests

Sociological (Sociolegal)
Perspective
• Crime:
 An antisocial act of such a nature that
its repression is necessary or is
supposed to be necessary to the
preservation of the existing system of
society
• Crime is an offense against human
relationships first, a violation of law
second

Psychological (Maladaptive)
Perspective
• Crime:
 Problem behavior, especially human
activity that contravenes the criminal
law and results in difficulties in living
within a framework of generally
acceptable social arrangements
• Any behavior which is maladaptive
would be considered crime
• Includes any harmful or potentially
harmful behaviors
Crime and Deviance
• Deviant behavior
 Human activity that violates social
norms
• Deviance and crime overlap – not
identical
• Delinquency: Violations of the criminal
law and other misbehavior committed
by young people

Figure 1-2 The Overlap between Deviance and Crime
Source: Schmalleger, Frank J., Criminology. Printed and Electronically reproduced by permission of Pearson
Education, Inc., Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

What Should Be Criminal?
• Lack agreement about appropriate legal

status of behaviors such as drug use,
abortion, gambling, etc.
• Question answered differently by two
contrasting perspectives
 Consensus
 Pluralist

Activity #2
• Make a list of five legal behaviors, which

you consider deviant.
• Compare and contrast the items on your

lists. Focus on the wide range of opinions
present among a fairly homogenous group
(university students studying criminal
justice). Discuss possible reasons for
differing opinions (e.g., religious beliefs,
profession, prior experiences with the
criminal justice system).

What Should Be Criminal?
Consensus Pluralist
• Laws enacted to • Behaviors criminalized
criminalize behaviors through a political
when members of process, after debate
society agree over appropriate
• Homogeneous course of action
societies • Involves legislation,
• Shared consensus appellate court action
hard to achieve in • Most applicable to
diverse multicultural diverse societies
societies

What Is Criminology?
• Wide variety of definitions available

• Text definition of criminology:
 An interdisciplinary profession built
around the scientific study of crime and
criminal behavior, including their
manifestations, causes, legal aspects,
and control
• Includes consideration of possible
solutions to crime problem

Criminology’s Basic Questions
• Why do crime rates vary?

• Why do individuals differ as to
criminality?
• Why is there variation in reactions to
crime?
• What are the possible means of
controlling criminality?

What Is Criminology?
• Criminology is interdisciplinary
• Criminology needs to be integrated
• Criminology contributes to criminal
justice:
 Application of the criminal law and study
of the components of the justice system
 Police, courts, corrections
 Focus on control of law-breaking

What Do Criminologists Do?
• Criminologist
 Studies crime, criminals and criminal
behavior
• Criminalist
 A specialist in the collection and
examination of the physical evidence of
crime

• Criminal Justice Professionals

 Do the day-to-day work of the criminal
justice system

Academic
criminologists Other career tracks
• Ph.D. in criminology, • Work in CJS
CJ, related field • Private security or
• Teach in universities private investigation
• Conduct research to • Law school
advance criminological • Work for legislative
knowledge bodies, provide
• Publish in journals expertise to civil
organizations

Theoretical Criminology
• Subfield of general criminology mainly

found in colleges and universities
• Assume explanations for criminal
behavior

• Theory:
 Made up of clearly stated propositions
that affirm or assume relationships
between events and things under study
• Criminologists have developed many
theories to explain and understand
crime

• General theory
 Tries to explain all/most forms of crime
through a single overarching approach
• Unicausal theory
 Assumes a single identifiable source for
all serious deviant and criminal behavior
• Integrated theory
 Tries to explain crime by merging
concepts from different sources
Criminology and Social Policy
• Translational criminology
 Focuses on translating research results
into workable social policy
• Sound social policy needs to be linked
to objective findings of well-conducted
criminological research

The Theme of This Text
Social Problems Social Responsibility

• Crime a manifestation • People responsible for
of underlying social own behavior, choose
problems crime over legitimate
• Public health model to options
deal with crime • Personalized crime-
• Macro approach reduction strategies
• Micro approach

The Social Context of Crime
• Crime does not occur in a vacuum –

every crime has a unique set of
 Causes
 Consequences
 Participants
• Crime provokes reactions from many
sources
• Reactions to crime may affect future
criminal events
Figure 1-7 Interpreting the Criminal Event

The Causes and Consequences of
the Criminal Event
• Crime is a social event, not an isolated
individual activity
• Crime is socially relative

The Causes and Consequences of
the Criminal Event
• Crime results from the coming together
of inputs provided by the offender, the
victim, the criminal justice system, and
society
 Foreground – features that immediately
determine the nature of the crime
 Background causes – generic
contributions to the crime

Crime and the Offender
Background Foreground
• Life experiences • Motivation
• Biology/genetic • Specific intent
inventory • State of mind (drug-
• Personality induced)
• Values/beliefs
• Skills/knowledge

Crime and the Criminal Justice
System
• CJS contributes to • Proper system
crime through failure response may reduce
to: crime
 Prevent crime  Presence/absence of
 Identify/inhibit specific police officers
offenders  Availability of official
 Prevent release of assistance
recidivists  Willingness of officers to
intervene pre-crime
 Response time

Crime and the Victim
• Passive presence • Victim precipitation
• Active contributions  Active victim
through lifestyle participation in initial
stages of criminal event
 Victim instigates chain
of events resulting in
victimization

Crime and Society
• Legislation defining • Distribution of
crime resources
• Generic social • Accessibility of
practices and services
conditions
• Socialization process

The Consequences of Crime
• Outputs/immediate consequences
affect those parties directly involved
• Real impact mediated by perceptual
filters
 Results in ongoing interpretations
before, during, after crime
 Everyone associated with a crime
engages in interpretations

Integrative Approach to Crime
• Text takes 3-D integrative view of

crime
 Try to identify, understand causes of
crime
 Highlight processes involved in the
criminal event
 Analyze interpretation of the crime
phenomenon

Integrative Approach to Crime
• Crime seen as emergent activity that

 Arises out of past complex causes
 Assumes a course building on
immediate interrelationships
 Elicits formal response from CJS, shapes
public perceptions, may lead to changes
in social policy

The Primacy of Sociology?
• Many disciplines have made important

contributions to criminology
• Many criminologists today operate
primarily from a sociological
perspective
• Many modern theories of criminal
behavior based in sociology

The Primacy of Sociology?
• New and emerging perspectives being

recognized, but sociological perspective
dominates


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Introduction to Criminology

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Mobile: (775) 232-7036

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

• Crime-related entertainment extremely

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

• What are the typical images on crime?

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

• Gather up in your assign groups and

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

• Four definitional perspectives

continued on next slide

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

• Perspective is important because it

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

continued on next slide

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

• Lack agreement about appropriate legal

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

• Make a list of five legal behaviors, which

• Compare and contrast the items on your

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

• Wide variety of definitions available

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

• Why do crime rates vary?

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

continued on next slide

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

• Criminal Justice Professionals

continued on next slide

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

• Subfield of general criminology mainly

continued on next slide

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

continued on next slide

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Social Problems Social Responsibility

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

• Crime does not occur in a vacuum –

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

continued on next slide

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

• Text takes 3-D integrative view of

continued on next slide

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

• Crime seen as emergent activity that

Criminology Today, 7th Edition Copyright © 2015 by Pearson Education, Inc.

• Many disciplines have made important