Johann Schiller (1759-1805)

It is criminal to steal a purse, It

is daring to steal a fortune. It
is a mark of greatness to steal
a crown. The blame
diminishes as the guilt
increases.
 Legal aspect of Crime
• Legally, crimes usually are
defined as acts or omissions
forbidden by law that can be
punished by imprisonment
and/or fine
 Legalistic view of Crime
Murder, robbery, burglary, rape,
drunken driving, child neglect, and
failure to pay your taxes all are
common examples of legal aspect of
crime
 Sampson and Laub 1993;
Gottfredson and Hirschi 1990
• Eminent criminologists suggest that
• Key to understanding crime is to :
 Focus on fundamental attributes of
all criminal behaviors
 Not on specific criminal acts
 Sampson and Laub 1993;
Gottfredson and Hirschi 1990
Much past research on crime has been on
Politico-legal
Rather than behavioral definitions.
Criminologists emphasize that
 Instead of trying to separately understand
crimes such as:
 homicide Robbery Rape Burglary Embezzlement
etc
We need to identify what it is they have in
common.
 Behavioral aspect of Crime
• The behavioral definition of
crime focuses on, criminality , a
certain personality profile that
causes the most alarming sorts
of crimes.
 Behavioral aspect of Crime
All criminal behaviors involve use of :
Force
Fraud
Stealth
To obtain material/symbolic
resources.
These strategies of Criminality are:
 Risky
 Thrilling
Usually requiring little skill/planning.
Focusing on criminality rather than
political-legal definitions
Allows us to focus on perplexing
problem of :
 Why some acts (e.g., marijuana
consumption) are defined as crimes
 While similar more damaging acts (e.g.,
alcohol consumption) are not.
The above Issues are central to :
 Conflict theories
 Critical theories
 Feminist theories of crime
 Criminality
Criminality is a style of strategic
behavior
It is characterized by:
Self-centeredness
Indifference to suffering /needs of
others
 Low self-control
 Criminality
 Impulsive individuals are more prone:
 To find criminality an attractive style of
behavior
 To them criminality can provide:
 Immediate gratification
Through relatively easy / simple strategies
 Pathologization
• The linking of criminality, or other
behaviours, to physical or bodily
attributes.
 classicism
• The Enlightenment view of crime
that stresses free will and rationality
and the corresponding rationality of
the justice system.
 determinism
• According to the positivist school,
people become criminals through
factors largely out of their control –
be they biological, psychological or
social.
 deterrence
• Based on the idea that crime can be
discouraged through the public’s fear
of the punishment they may receive
if they break the law.
 Enlightenment thinking
• Thought that emerged during the
eighteenth century in the West and
that championed rationality, science
and progress, alongside the
importance of the individual and the
tolerance of different beliefs.
 experimental criminology
• Research which aims to test out
theories in the criminal justice field
and make policy recommendations
based on ‘hard’ evidence of what
works.
 free will
• According to the classical school,
people possess reason. This means
that they can calculate the course of
action that is in their self-interest.
This in turn gives them a degree of
freedom.
 just deserts
• A justification for punishment which
insists that offenders should be
punished only as severely as they
deserve. It was a reaction against the
unfair excesses of rehabilitation and
the ‘get tough’ drive from
conservatives during the 1970s.
 positivism
• In criminology, ‘positivism’ highlights
(a) scientific methods in the study of
crime; (b) the importance of criminal
types; and (c) theories of cause or
aetiology.
 marginalisation
• A state in which people live on the
edge of society and outside the
mainstream with little stake in
society overall.
 moral panic
• The heightened awareness of certain
problems relating to crime at key
moments.
primary and secondary deviance
• The distinction between original and
effective causes of deviance: primary
deviation arises from many sources
and is minor and insignificant;
secondary deviation is pivotal
because stigma and punishment
make it so.
 relative deprivation
• A perceived disadvantage arising
from a specific comparison.
 actuarialism
• Probability calculations and statistical
distributions to measure risk and
which underpin correctional policies.
 globalisation of crime
• The increasing interconnectedness of
crime across societies.
 money laundering
• Concealing the origins of money
gained illegally by moving it through
a series of banking transfers to
‘clean’ it
 postmodernism
• Grand or absolute truths are
challenged, and in their place we find
partial and limited truths: a much
less certain and more provisional
view of the world is in the making.
 hierarchy of victimization
• A concept that captures the unequal
status that victims experience in the
crime discourse and in their
treatment by criminal justice
agencies. Those at the top are
regarded as innocent and deserving
of help and sympathy, those at the
bottom less so.
primary and secondary victimization

• Primary victimization refers to the

direct impact of crime on the victims
while secondary victimization refers
to additional negative impact
resulting from the way others
(especially criminal justice agencies)
respond to them and the crime.
 victimology
• An area of study that is concerned
with the victim of crime. Often
described as a sub-discipline of
criminology.
• Rational choice theory: People generally act in their
self-interest and make decisions to commit crime
after weighing the potential risks (including getting
caught and punished) against the rewards.
• Social disorganization theory: A person’s physical
and social environments are primarily responsible for
the behavioral choices that person makes. In
particular, a neighborhood that has fraying social
structures is more likely to have high crime rates.
Such a neighborhood may have poor schools, vacant
and vandalized buildings, high unemployment, and a
mix of commercial and residential property.
• Strain theory: Most people have similar
aspirations, but they don’t all have the same
opportunities or abilities. When people fail to
achieve society’s expectations through
approved means such as hard work and delayed
gratification, they may attempt to achieve
success through crime.
• Social learning theory: People develop
motivation to commit crime and the skills to
commit crime through the people they
associate with.
• Social control theory: Most people would commit crime if
not for the controls that society places on individuals
through institutions such as schools, workplaces, churches,
and families.
• Labeling theory: People in power decide what acts are
crimes, and the act of labeling someone a criminal is what
makes him a criminal. Once a person is labeled a criminal,
society takes away his opportunities, which may ultimately
lead to more criminal behavior.
• Biology, genetics, and evolution: Poor diet, mental illness,
bad brain chemistry, and even evolutionary rewards for
aggressive criminal conduct have been proposed as
explanations for crime.
• criminology
• scientific study of nature, extent, cause, and control of criminal
behavior
• Criminological Enterprise
• The various subareas included within the scholarly discipline of
criminology, which, taken as a whole, define the field of study.

• Penology
• the study of the reform and rehabilitation of offenders and the
management of prisons
• capitol punishment
• the death penalty
• Classical Criminology

• positivism

• anomie

• conflict theory

• developmental theory
•
• Rational Choice Theory (choice theory)
• Trait Theory

• social structure theory

• Social Process Theory

• Deviance

• mosaic code
• precedent

• Appellate Court

• Felony

• Misdemeanor
• cycle of violence

• victim precipitation theory

• Deviant Place Theory

• Routine Activities Theory

• Classical criminology

• situational crime prevention

• General v Specific Deterrance

• Recidivism

• Incapacitation Effect

• Stratified society
• Collective efficacy

• Anomie theory

• Institutional anomie theory

• American dream

• Relative deprivation
• General strain theory (GST)

• Negative affective states

• Focal concerns
• Delinquent subculture

• Status frustration

• Middle-class measuring rods

• Reaction formation
• Social class

• Truly disadvantaged

• Culture of poverty
• Underclass

• Social structure theory

• Social disorganization theory
•
• Strain theory

• Strain

• Cultural deviance theory

• Subculture

• Cultural transmission
• Transitional neighborhood

• Concentration effect

• Differential opportunity
• Antisocial behaviour (ASB) Behaviour that
transgresses the accepted morals and norms of
behaviour of a given society without being
necessarily criminal. For example, the UK has
included nuisance neighbours; rowdy and
nuisance behaviour; intimidating groups taking
over public spaces; vandalism and graffiti;
people dealing and buying drugs on the street;
people dumping rubbish and abandoning cars;
begging and anti-social drinking; as being
antisocial (Home Office, 2004).
• Bullying Usually refers to school-based
behaviour. Bullying is characterized by acts of
intentional harm, repeated over-time, in a
relationship where an imbalance of power
exists. It includes physical actions (punching,
kicking, biting), verbal actions (threats, name
calling, insults, racial or sexual comments), and
social exclusion (spreading rumours, ignoring,
gossiping, excluding) (National Crime
Prevention Centre, 2008).
• Comprehensive approach A response
framework composed of three main
components: prevention, early intervention,
and graduated sanctions. The graduated
sanctions component consists of a system of
sanctions, including arrest, adjudication,
intensive probation, incarceration, and aftercare
for juvenile offenders, along with a continuum
of rehabilitation options (Office of Juvenile
Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 2000).
• Crime
• Any act punishable under the
Criminal Code whether or not it has
come to the attention of the police.
• Behaviour that breaks the law.
•
• Crime prevention Strategies and
measures that seek to intervene on
and modify identified risk factors in
order to reduce the likelihood that a
criminal act will be committed.
(Bratingham, Patricia et al., 2005):
• Deviance
• Behaviour that does not conform to
the dominant norms of a specific
society.
• Primary crime prevention Programs
designed for the general population
that address broad-based socio-
economic factors believed to be related
to increased likelihood of later
offending. For example, early child care,
income distribution programs, and
employment support programs.
• Secondary crime prevention
Programs or interventions designed
to address the risk factors related to
pathways to offending among
children and youth, or to address
situations that may enhance crime in
neighbourhoods.
• Tertiary crime prevention Directed
towards the prevention of criminal
re-occurrence. This includes
measures such as physical
modification of repeatedly victimized
buildings, offender rehabilitation
programs, etc.
• Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED) An approach to planning and
development that reduces opportunities for crime by applying design principles that make it
difficult for crimes to be committed. Examples include increasing surveillance to maximize
the ability to spot suspicious individuals, ensuring that the buildings in the area are clean and
free of graffiti, target hardening by increasing physical barriers and security devices, and by
increasing the territoriality by fostering the resident's control over the neighbourhood (Royal
Canadian Mounted Police, 1998). CPTED can reduce crime and fear through:
• Territoriality - fostering residents' interaction, vigilance, and control over their
neighbourhood.
• Surveillance - maximizing the ability to spot suspicious people and activities.
• Activity support - encouraging the intended use of public space by residents.
• Hierarchy of space - identifying ownership by delineating private space from public space
through real or symbolic boundaries.
• Access Control/Target Hardening - using physical barriers, security devices and tamper-
resistant materials to restrict entrance.
• Environment - a design or location decision that takes into account the surrounding
environment and minimizes the use of space by conflicting groups.
• Image/Maintenance - ensuring that the buildings in the area are clean, well maintained, and
graffiti-free.
• Criminality An individual's
propensity to offend. Criminality as a
concept is (1) the systematic, causal
component of crime; (2) driven by
social, biological, and psychological
factors; and (3) time varying
(Bushway et al., 2001).
• Delinquent youth A person between the
ages of 6 and 24 who has engaged in one or
more types of the behaviours set out in the
Criminal Code of Canada (Savoie, 2006).
Youth over the age of 12 who engage in
behaviours listed in the Criminal Code of
Canada can be charged under the Youth
Criminal Justice Act (YCJA). Youth aged 18
years and older will be charged in adult
court.
• Deviant behaviour Deviant
behaviour involves actions that
contravene informal rules or norms,
but not necessarily criminal laws. For
example, truancy is not listed within
the Criminal Code, but is deviant
because it contravenes norms.
(Mucchielli, L. 2000).
• Drug Any substance which is taken to
change the way the body and/or
mind functions (Health Canada,
2007).
• Evidence-based crime prevention (EBCP) Uses the highest
level of evidence available to consider the decision of
whether to implement a program designed to prevent
crime. This requires that results from evaluation be
integrated into decisions about interventions. Additionally,
one must use the most rigorous methods available to
assess the available research evidence and must use the
highest quality evaluation designs to investigate the effects
of crime prevention programs. The evidence used in EBCP
must be scientific evidence, meaning the program has been
scientifically tested and demonstrated to work in several
social and cultural contexts. (Welsh B., 2007).
• Geocoding The process of matching
crime incidents with particular
addresses (usually postal codes) in
order to create maps of the
geographical distributions of crime
(Savoie and Bédard, 2006).
• High-risk offenders "Offenders who have
committed serious offence and who are
under federal and provincial responsibility
which there is a reason to believe they
could commit another offence, including
sexual assault". Also, "offenders who are at
high risk of re-offending at the time of their
bail" (Ministry of Community Safety and
Correctional Services, 2008).
• Incidence (of crime) The number of
criminal acts within a given-sized
population used as a measure of the
volume of crime. For instance, the
number of violent criminal acts per
1,000 people.
• Integrated approach Recognition that
delivery of crime prevention
interventions (a) generally requires
involvement of more than one agency
such as schools, social services,
community police, etc. and (b) need to
form part of the continuum of response
to crime (Public Safety Canada, 2009).
• Offender Persons who have been found guilty of an
offence in a criminal court. Adult offenders include
all persons 18 years of age and older who breach the
provisions of provincial, territorial and federal
criminal legislation such as the Criminal Code of
Canada. Young offenders include persons aged 12-17
years, at time of offence, who are subject to the
provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act and are
processed through a separate youth justice system
(Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics, 1998).
• Prevalence (of crime) The
proportion of the population that
has committed at least one crime or
delinquent behaviour during the
period of study. It is also applicable
to the level and extent of
victimization within a population.
• Recidivism Recidivism is the act of a person
repeating a behavior that brings attention
to the criminal justice system after they
have either experienced negative
consequences of that behavior, or have
been treated to eliminate that behavior. It is
also used to refer to the percentage of
former offenders who are rearrested,
reconvicted, or returned to custody.
(Henslin, J. 2008).
• Socially Defined Behaviour
• Thought of as natural but is actually
the product of cultural expectations.
• SARA Model SARA stands for scanning, analysis, response,
and assessment. It is a problem-solving approach aimed at
reducing the impact of crime in a community: Scanning
involves the identification of recurring incidents.
• Analysis stage uses a variety of community sources to
determine why the incidents are occurring.
• Response involves the creation and implementation of a
strategy that aims to prevent future occurrences, protect
the victims of crime, and make crime locations less
conducive to criminal behaviour.
• Assessment involves the measurement of the impacts and
the effectiveness of the strategy (Levi and Maguire, 2004).
• Situational crime prevention Aimed
at reducing the opportunities to
commit crime and victimization
(Clarke, 1995). Examples include
closed circuit television (CCTV),
environmental and product design.
• Social crime prevention
Interventions designed to modify the
risk factors among individuals or
groups of individuals (as opposed to
situations or places) by using
psychological, sociological or
community-oriented measures
(Government of South Australia, nd).
• Social reintegration Development of social and
interpersonal relationships that give offenders
the opportunity to be actively engaged in roles
that allow them to gain useful and valued skills,
and practice 'being competent'. This may
involve: finding accommodation, employment,
securing a place in further education or
establishing basic daily social routines such as
picking up children from school, shopping and
cooking (Buchanan, 2004).
• Substance abuse The use of illegal
substances or the inappropriate use of legal
substances. The repeated use of these
substances to produce pleasure, to alleviate
stress, or to alter or avoid reality (or all
three). The use of these substances must
have a negative impact on social, familial,
and economic aspects of an individual's life
(Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration, 2000).
• Vulnerability Vulnerability is viewed by
many researchers as "a set of
characteristics or circumstances, which
predispose an individual to manifest
problems in adaptation". Other researchers
differentiate risk factors from vulnerability
by associating risk with environmental
influences and associating vulnerability
with the child (Trudel and Puentes-
Neuman, 2001).
• Vulnerable family (family at-risk) A family that has
an accumulation and interaction of risk factors,
including such things as: inadequate and ineffective
parental practices, parental and/or sibling criminality,
family violence, parental substance abuse, family
mobility, extreme economic deprivation and poor
neighborhood. A family that is incapable of
overcoming the challenges it faces to become
resilient, and provide a safe, structured, and
supportive/nurturing environment for their children
(National Crime Prevention Centre, 2008).
• Victim Surveys
• Surveys of the public which ask them
to report any crimes they have
experienced, whether or not they
have reported them.
• Reported Crime
• Crime that is reported to the police.
Not all crime is reported.
• Recorded Crime
• Crime that is recorded by the police.
Not all reported crime is recorded.
• Socially Constructed
• Views of what is criminal or deviant
behaviour are influenced by the
values and norms of the society we
live in.
• Functionalism
• An approach in sociology that seeks
to explain the existence of social
structures by the role they perform
for society as a whole.
• Peer Group Pressure
• A group of a person's own age who
are important to them and often
influence them to behave in a
particular way.
• Sub-Culture
• A group with a set of values and
ways of behaving which are
distinctive from the generally
accepted cultural values of society.
• Marxist
• Someone who believes in the ideas
of Karl Marx and sees the main
divisions in society based on social
class operating in a capitalist sytem.
• Capitalist Society
• An econimic system where the
production of goods is organised for
profit and sold to a free market.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
• People hear labels about themselves
from people who are more powerful
than they are. They come to believe
the labels are true. Threfore, the
labels becoming true.
• Agent of Social Control
• Individual or group that is
responsible for ensuring members of
society conform to socially
acceptable beahviour.
• Surveillance
• The monitoring of the behaviour of
people and objects withing society.
• Prosecution
• Conduct of legal proceedings against
a defendant for criminal behaviour.
• Symbolic interactionism
• a theoretical perspective in which
society is viewed as composed of
symbols that people use to establish
meaning, develop their views of the
world, and communicate with one
another
• Sensitizing
• Minor criminal activity that people
will accept
• Self-report studies
• People are asked to note down the
crimes they have committed.
• Collective efficacy
• The ability of a community to
achieve their aims.
• Night-time economy
• A leisure indursty has developed at
night, providing the location of many
offences
• Anomie

• durkheim's term for a condition of society in which people

become detached from the norms that usually guide their
behavior
• Collective conscience
• Core, shared values of society
• Restitutive
• A kinder approach to law based on rehabilitation.
• Retributive
• A model of law based on revenge, deterrent.
• Right realism
• An approach to crime emphasising
'zero tolerance'.
• Social bond
• The forms of social control
preventing people acting in a deviant
way.
• Ethnographic
• Form of observational research in
which reasearchers live amongst,
and describes activities of, particular
groups beng studied.
• Focal Concerns
• Term used by Miller to describe key
values.
• Illegitimate opportunity structure
• An alternative, illegal way of life that
certain groups in society have access
to.
• Status frustration
• Cohen; when young males feel
looked down upon by society.
• Strain
• Merton; a lack of balance and
adjustment in society.
• Subcultural theories
• Explanations of crime and deviance
focusing on the idea that those who
deviate hold different values to the
majority.
• Subterranean values
• A set of deviant values that exist
alongside the socially approved
values, but are usually kept under
control.
• Techniques of neutralization
• Justifications for our deviant actions
• Scapegoat
• When someone / a group is blamed
for something
• Hegemony
• The ideas and values of the ruling
class that dominate thinking in
society.
• Folk devils
• Groups associated with moral panics
who are seen as the cause by the
media.
• Master status
• When you are given a label and that
is all you are known for / recongised
as.
• Moral Crusade
• The process of creating or enforcing
a rule based on 'morals'.
• Moral Panic
• Outrage stirred up by the media
about a particular group or issue.
• Primary deviance
• The act of breaking a social rule (Not
illegal).
• Secondary deviance
• The response to rule breaking, which
usually has greater social consequences
than initial rule-breaking
• Stigmatized
• Labelled in a negative way.
• Responsibilization
• Garland; The shift towards blaming
people for becoming victims of crime,
by suggesting they have not taken
adequate precautions.
• Victim surveys
• When people are asked what crimes
have happened to them over a
particular period.
• Cultural transmission
• Values are passed on from one
generation to the next.
• Opportunity theory
• Crime occurs when there is an
opportunity; stop the opportunity
and crime is less likely to occur.
• Differential association
• The theory that deviant behaviour is
learned from, and justified by, family
and friends.
• Situational crime prevention
• An approach to crime which ignores the
motivation for offending and instead
concentrates on making it more difficult
to commit crime.
• Youth at-risk Youth between the ages of 6 to 24 who
are at risk of engaging in delinquent behaviours or
criminal activity. Youth may have had negative
contact with various agencies such as law
enforcement and schools however this may not
always be the case. Youth at-risk have been exposed
to one or more risk factors such as substance abuse,
poor attachment to school, poor parenting, abuse,
etc. These risk factors work against a young person's
ability to develop the cognitive, social, emotional,
and physical ability of a well-adapted adult (Statistics
Canada, 2009).
• Presumption of innocence:
• The idea that all people accused of a
• crime are
• innocent until proven guilty.
• •
• Burden of proo
• f
• : The duty of the prosecution to prove that the
• defendant committed the crime for which he or she has
been
• charged.
• •
• Standard of proof
• : The level of evidence needed to convince the court
• of a person’s guilt. This level can vary based on the degree of the
• alleged crime. The standard for a murder case is “Beyond a
• reasonable doubt.”
• •
• Reasonable doubt
• : In a criminal case, prosecutors must present
• sufficient evidence to overcome the presumption of innocence and
• prove a defendant’s guilt “beyond a reasonable
• doubt.” In other
• words, no reasonable doubt about the defendant’s guilt could exist in
• the mind of the judge or jury based on the evidence presented.
• •
• Hearsay evidence
• : A statement provided by someone who
• did
• not
• witness an event. Instead, someone else tol
• d him or her what
• happened. Such evidence is not
• usually
• allowed in court.
• •
• Evidence presented in court:
• For a conviction to be legitimate, it must
• be based on the evidence presented in court and directly related to
• the crime.
• •
• Circumstantial evidence
• :A
• collection of details that can point to a
• specific conclusion
• but does not provide conclusive proof.
Other
• explanations are possible.
• Key Terms
• Accountability: this is a mechanism whereby a person or agency is required to answer to other people or agencies in respect of the actions they
intend to take or which have already been undertaken.
• Anomie: this refers to a state of social indiscipline in which the socially approved way of obtaining goals is subject to widespread challenge resulting
in the law being unable to effectively maintain social cohesion. The concept was developed by Emile Durkheim and subsequently advanced by Robert
Merton whose key difference was the circumstances under which a state of anomie arose.
• Attrition: attrition in criminal justice refers to the number of crimes that are committed and the number that end with the perpetrator of the offence
being convicted. This gap occurs because there are a number of stages in the criminal justice process and crimes are weeded out at each stage so
that the number of convictions represents only a small proportion of crime that has been committed.
• Bifurcation: this refers to sentencing policy that embraces a ‘twin-track’ approach whereby serious offences receive severe penalties (such as long
terms of imprisonment) and less serious crimes are responded to leniently (by responses such as non-custodial sentences served in the community).
• ‘Big Society’: this approach was associated with the 2010 Coalition government and was based on the concepts of empowerment and voluntarism
whereby communities would be encouraged to provide a range of services themselves. One advantage of this from the government’s perspective
was that it facilitated a reduced level of public expenditure.
• Broken windows: this refers to a view, put forward by Wilson and Kelling in 1982, that it is necessary to take firm action to enforce the law against
low level crime (characterized by vandalism and graffiti) which gives the impression that nobody cares about the neighbourhood and has a
detrimental impact on neighbourhood cohesion.
• Classicist criminology: this approach to the study of crime emphasized the importance of free will and viewed a criminal act as one that had been
consciously carried out by its perpetrator having rationally weighed up the advantages and disadvantages of undertaking the action. The main focus
of classicist criminology was on the reform of the criminal justice system.
• Code for Crown Prosecutors: this is prepared by the Director of Public Prosecutions and gives guidance to solicitors working for the Crown
Prosecution Service concerning the general principles to be followed when making decisions concerning whether or not to prosecute. The Code also
puts forward guidelines to aid decisions as to what precise charge should be brought against a person who is being proceeded against.
• Code of Professional Standards for Police Officers: this sets out standards for
the standards of professional behaviour that are expected from police officers,
the breach of which constitutes a disciplinary offence that could lead to
dismissal. This replaced the Police Code of Conduct in 2006.
• Cold case review: this practice entails the police investigating unsolved crimes
that occurred some time in the past in the hope that developments in forensic
science (especially in connection with DNA profiling) will result in a conviction.
• Community penalties: these embrace non-custodial responses to crime that
are served by offenders within their communities. The 2003 Criminal Justice
Act provided for community orders that enabled sentencers to prescribe a
wide range of requirements to address an individual’s offending behaviour.
• Contestability: this entails a mixed economy of service delivery whereby
services can be delivered by public, private or third sector providers. This
approach was developed in connection with the purchase of correctional
services that were designed to tackle recidivism and was subsequently
promoted in connection with local government by the 2006 White Paper,
Strong and Prosperous Communities.
• Crime and disorder reduction partnerships (CDRPs) The 1998
Crime and Disorder Act placed a statutory duty on police forces and
local authorities (termed ‘responsible authorities’) to act in
cooperation with police authorities, health authorities and
probation committees in multi-agency bodies which became known
as crime and disorder reduction partnerships (CDRPs). In Wales
CDRPs are termed community safety partnerships and this title has
since been adopted widely throughout England. The role of these
partnerships was to develop and implement a strategy for reducing
crime and disorder in each district and unitary local authority in
England and Wales.
• ‘Cuffing’: this practice entails a police officer either not recording a
crime that has been reported or downgrading a reported crime to
an incident which can be excluded from official statistics.
• Cybercrime: this term broadly refers to crime involving the use of computers. There are two main forms of computer-related crime – computer-
assisted crime involving the use of computers to perform crimes that pre-dated their existence such as fraud or theft, and computer-focused crime
that refers to the emergence of new crimes as the result of computer technology.
• ‘Dark figure’ of crime: this term refers to the gap between the volume of crime that is actually committed in society and that which enters into
official crime statistics. This discrepancy is explained by the nature of the process of crime reporting which consists of a number of stages, each of
which acts as a filtering process progressively reducing the number of crimes that are officially reported.
• Deviancy: this refers to actions committed by individuals to which society reacts in a negative way, even though these acts are not necessarily illegal.
Those who carry them out may thus encounter hostility from their fellow citizens resulting in their ostracism from society.
• Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP): this office was created by the 1879 Prosecution of Offences Act. The role of this official was to initiate and
carry out criminal proceedings and to advise and assist other officials (such as police officers) concerning the prosecution of offences. The 1985
Prosecution of Offences Act made the DPP head of the newly created Crown Prosecution Service that henceforth became responsible for the
conduct of criminal proceedings.
• Discretion: this refers to the ability of an official, organization or individual to utilize their independent judgement to determine a course of action (or
inaction) to be pursued in connection with an event that they encounter when exercising their professional duties.
• Doli incapax: this term applies to those who have committed crime but, because of their age, cannot held responsible for it because they are
considered insufficiently mature to be able to discern right from wrong. Currently, children below the age of 10 (the age of criminal responsibility)
are deemed to be in this situation. Formerly children aged 10–13 were also in this position, but this presumption was ended by the 1998 Crime and
Disorder Act.
• Economic crime: this term refers to a range of activities that include bribery, corruption, cybercrime, money laundering and various forms of fraud
that are associated with white-collar crime, middle-class crime and organized crime and which particularly impose a burden on business enterprise.
• Estate rationalization: this entails criminal justice agencies reducing the amount of property that they occupy. This can result in closures of premises
such as police stations and magistrates’ courts (thus saving on their running costs) and may be accompanied by co-location which entails a number of
criminal justice agencies operating from the same premises. This approach has been pursued since 2010 as a cost-cutting measure.
• Home detention curfew: this was introduced in 1999 to provide for the early release of short-term prisoners serving sentences between three
months and less than four years for the last two months of their sentence provided that they stayed at an approved address and agreed to a curfew
(usually from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m.) monitored by an electronic tag. This would last for a minimum of 14 days and a maximum of 60 days. Those who
breached the conditions of their curfew or who committed another offence while on curfew were returned to prison.
• Home Secretary: this minister heads the Home Office (or Home Department) and is in charge of a wide range of matters affecting the internal affairs
of the United Kingdom. This includes exercising ultimate responsibility for the police service and the maintenance of national security. The duties of
this role were re-vamped when the Home Office was split in 2007 with some of its functions (including responsibility for prisons) being transferred to
the newly-created Ministry of Justice.
• Human rights: these consist of basic entitlements that should be available to all human beings in every country. Unlike civil rights (that are specific to
individual countries), human rights are universal in application. A full statement of human rights is to be found in the European Convention for the
Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (1950).
• Institutional racism: this refers to the use of discriminatory practices against members of minority ethnic groups by an organization. The term is
capable of a number of definitions that include discrimination that is derived unwittingly from an organization’s culture and working practices.
• Joined-up government: this approach seeks to enhance the level of coordination between the various agencies whose work is of relevance to crime
and disorder. Joined-up government suggests that crime can be reduced by managerial improvements affecting the way in which the criminal justice
system operates.
• Judicial review: this is a legal procedure whereby the court is able to strike down an action undertaken by any public body, including the executive
branch of government, for reasons that include the correct procedures that are laid down in law have not been followed in reaching the decision.
• Justice model: this refers to an approach to the punishment of offenders that is underpinned by reductivist rather than rehabilitative ideals. In
particular it seeks to ensure that punishments reflect the seriousness of the crime that has been committed. Other features of the justice model
emphasize the desirability of consistent sentences (especially by curbing the discretion of officials working in criminal justice agencies) and the need
for the criminal justice process to effectively protect the accused’s rights.
• Lethal force: this refers to an intervention by a police officer that is likely to cause the death or serious injury to a person on the receiving end. Lethal
force is delivered by armed police officers whose decision to shoot a suspect is based on the belief that this is the only way guaranteed to protect
themselves and other members of the general public.
• Mandatory sentence: this imposes an obligation on sentencers (magistrates or judges) to hand out a stipulated
sentence – murder, for example, carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment. The present raft of
mandatory sentences was considerably added to in the 1997 Crime (Sentences) Act and subsequent legislation.
• Ministry of Justice: this government department replaced the Department for Constitutional Affairs in 2007
(which in turn had replaced the Lord Chancellor’s Department in 2003). It is responsible for a wide range of
agencies and services that operate within the criminal justice system including HM Prison Service and HM Courts
and Tribunals Service.
• Moral panic: this refers to a process in which a specific type of crime is focused upon by the media in order to
whip up public hysteria against those who are identified as the perpetrators. The aim of this is to secure
widespread public approval for the introduction of sanctions directed against the targeted group.
• New deviancy: this approach emphasized the social construction of crime and deviancy which arose as the result
of a negative reaction from society to a particular act. New deviancy theory concentrated on social reaction to
activities which were labelled as ‘deviant’ rather than seeking to discover their initial causes. Labelling theory is an
important aspect of new deviancy theory.
• New public management: this approach towards the delivery of services by the public sector emphasized the
importance of public sector organizations providing value for money and sought to reorganize the operations of
public sector agencies through the use of management techniques associated with the private sector such as the
use of performance indicators and business plans. This approach was associated with a shift towards organizations
attaining centrally determined objectives at the expense of compliance with bureaucratic rules and procedures.
• ‘Nothing works’: this approach stemmed from an article written by Robert Martinson in 1974 that asserted
programmes and interventions that were designed to rehabilitate offenders had largely failed to achieve this
objective. They hadn’t worked. The apparent failure of the rehabilitative ideal helped to popularize criminal justice
interventions of a more punitive nature regardless as to whether they aided the reform and rehabilitation of
offenders.
• OASys: OASys is the Offender Assessment System that is designed to assess the level of risk posed by all offenders
aged 18 and over. It is used by both the Prison and Probation Services.
• Panopticon: in 1791 Jeremy Bentham wrote a three-volume work, The Panopticon, in which he devised a blueprint
for the design of prisons which would enable them to bring about the transformation of the behaviour of
offenders. Central to his idea was the principle of surveillance whereby an observer was able to monitor prisoners
without them being aware when they were being watched. The design of Millbank Penitentiary and Pentonville
Prison adopted many of the features of Bentham’s panopticon.
• Penal populism: the terms ‘penal populism’ or ‘populist punitiveness’ were coined during the 1990s. They
emphasize the need to adopt a harsh approach towards those who carry out crime. Governments following this
course of action do so as they believe that the approach of ‘getting tough with criminals’ is viewed favourably by
the general public.
• Penology: this term refers to the study of the way in which society responds to crime. It covers the wide range of
processes that are concerned with the prevention of crime, the punishment, management and treatment of
offenders and the measures concerned with reintegrating them into their communities.
• Plural policing: this entails an enhanced role for organizations other than the police service in performing police-
related functions. Those performing this work effectively constitute a second tier of police service providers and
the organizations supplying work of this nature may be located in either the public or private sectors.
• Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCS): the 2011 Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act provided for the
replacement of police authorities with directly elected PCCs, for each of the 41 forces covered by the legislation
(the Metropolitan Police Service and the City of London Police force not being covered by the Act). These officials
were designed to replace bureaucratic accountability (that had previously been imposed by a centrally-directed
target regime) with local political control to ensure that policing responded to the concerns of neighbourhoods.
• Political spectrum: this is a model which places different political ideologies in relationship to each other, thereby
enabling their differences and similarities to be identified. Ideologies are placed under the broad headings of ‘left’,
‘right’ and ‘centre’, indicating the stances they adopt towards political, economic and social change – the right
opposes this, the left endorses it and the centre wishes to introduce changes of this nature gradually within the
existing framework of society. When applied to criminology, the terms ‘left’ and ‘right’ are especially employed to
describe progressive and retributive stances towards the aims of punishment.
• Positivist criminology: this approach to the study of crime adopts a deterministic approach whereby offenders are
seen as being propelled into committing criminal acts by forces (that may be biological, psychological or
sociological) over which they have no control. Positivist criminology also insists that theories related to why crime
occurs should derive from scientific analysis.
• Pre-sentence report: this is a report that provides information to sentencers regarding the background of an
offender and the circumstances related to his or her commission of a crime. It is designed to ensure that a
sentence of the court is an appropriate response to the criminal action that has been committed. Pre-sentence
reports are prepared by the Probation Service.
• Privatization: this approach was favoured by new right governments and was consistent with their belief in the
free market. It entails services previously performed by the public sector being transferred to private sector
organizations. These services are either totally divorced from government henceforth, or are contracted out and
are thus periodically subject to a process of competitive tendering by bodies wishing to deliver them. This latter
process is termed ‘outsourcing’. The main reason for pursuing this approach is a presumption that it delivers
services more cheaply than the public sector.
• Problem-oriented policing (POP): this is a method of policing that seeks to tackle the root causes of recurrent
problems as opposed to an approach whereby the police react to each manifestation of them. POP emphasizes
the importance of identifying and analysing recurrent problems and formulating action to stop them from
occurring in the future. Problem-oriented policing emphasizes the multi-agency approach to curbing crime,
whereby activities directed at crime involve actions undertaken by a range of agencies and not by the police alone.
• Reactive policing: this is a style of policing (that has also been dubbed ‘fire brigade policing’) in which the police respond to events rather than
seeking to forestall them. This method of policing tends to isolate the police from the communities in which they work and tends to promote the use
of police powers in a random way based on stereotypical assumptions. This style of policing was widely regarded to have been a significant factor in
the riots that occurred in a number of English cities in 1981.
• Reassurance policing: the key aim of this style of policing is to combat the fear of crime by making people feel safer in their neighbourhoods. It is
associated with a constant uniformed presence in a locality whose key purpose is to tackle low level crime and disorder that creates feelings of
insecurity amongst residents. The reassurance agenda was promoted in the early years of the twenty-first century and is especially associated with
neighbourhood policing that was rolled out across England and Wales in 2008.
• Recidivism: this refers to the reconviction of those who have previously been sentenced for committing a crime. It is an important measurement of
the extent to which punishment succeeds in reforming the habits of those who have broken the law.
• Reductivism: this term refers to methods of punishment that seek to prevent offending behaviour in the future. Punishment is designed to bring
about the reform and rehabilitation of criminals so that they do not subsequently indulge in criminal actions.
• Responsibilization: this entails governments shifting the task of crime control from the central state to the local level where it is carried out by a
range of actors including local government, private and voluntary sector bodies and the general public. Crime and disorder reduction partnerships
are an important example of this process in operation.
• Restorative justice: a key aim of restorative justice is to enable a person who has broken the law to repair the damage that has been caused to the
direct victim(s) and to society at large. The main intention of this process is to enable the offender to become reintegrated into society. This
approach is popular with the 2010 Coalition government as it is a cost-effective response to crime.
• Retributivism: this term embraces responses to crime that seek to punish persons for the actions they have previously committed. Punishment is
justified on the basis that it enables society to ‘get its own back’ on criminals, regardless of whether this has any impact on their future behaviour.
• Risk: this term refers to the role that criminal justice policy accords to securing public safety. Agencies operating within the criminal justice system
have increasingly formulated their interventions on the basis of predictions regarding the extent to which the future behaviour of offenders was
likely to jeopardize communal safety. Attempts to assess the future risks posed by offenders have given rise to actuarial penal techniques.
• Routine activities theory: this concept was developed by Marcus Felson and Lawrence Cohen in 1979. It is based upon rational choice theory and
suggested that three factors were necessary for crime to occur – a motivated offender, a suitable target and the absence of a capable guardian. It
was put forward as one explanation of repeat victimization.
• Rule of law: this constitutional principle asserts the supremacy of the law as an instrument governing the actions of individual citizens in their
relationships with each other and also controls the conduct of the state towards them. In particular it suggests that citizens can only be punished by
the state using formalized procedures when they have broken the law, and that all citizens will be treated in the same way when they commit
wrongdoings.
• Sentencers: this term applies to officials who deliver society’s response to crime through the courts over which they preside. In the criminal justice
system these comprise judges and magistrates.
• Sentencing tariff : the tariff sets the level of penalty that should normally be applied by sentencers to particular crimes. In the case of murder, the
tariff was the period that had to be served in prison in order to meet the requirements of retribution and deterrence. In 2002 the Sentencing
Advisory Panel recommended that the phrase ‘minimum term’ should be substituted for ‘the tariff’ in these cases.
• Separation of powers: this concept suggests that each of the three branches of government (the executive, legislature and judiciary) should perform
a defined range of functions, possess autonomy in their relationship with the other two and be staffed by personnel different from that of the others.
This principle was first advocated by Baron Montesquieu in his work De l’Esprit des Lois, written in 1748, whose main concern was to avoid the
tyranny that he believed arose when power was concentrated in the executive branch of government. Although total separation of the three
branches of government is unworkable in practice, the judiciary in England and Wales have historically enjoyed a considerable degree of autonomy.
• Situational crime prevention: this approach to crime prevention entails manipulating the immediate environment to increase the effort and risks of
crime and reduce the rewards to those who might be tempted to carry out such activities. The situational approach is heavily reliant on primary
prevention methods and is contrasted with social methods of crime prevention that seek to tackle the root causes of criminal behaviour, typically
through social policy.
• Social disorganization: this approach to the study of crime was associated with the Chicago School of Human Ecology. It suggests that crime was an
ever-present feature of a specific geographic area of a city that Ernest Burgess in 1925 had termed ‘zone two’ or the ‘zone of transition’. It was
characterized by rapid population change, dilapidation and conflicting demands made upon land use. The absence of effective mechanisms of social
control was viewed as the main reason for this area of the city being a constant crime zone.
• Social methods of crime prevention: social crime prevention is based upon the belief that social conditions such as unemployment, poor housing and
low educational achievement have a key bearing on crime. It thus seeks to tackle what are regarded as the root causes of crime by methods that seek
to alter social environments.
• Social strain theory: this explanation of crime was developed by Robert Merton whose ideas were originally put forward in 1938. He asserted that
anomie arose from a mismatch between the culturally induced aspirations to strive for success (which he asserted in Western societies was the
pursuit of wealth) and the structurally determined opportunities to achieve it. Social inequality imposed a strain on an individual’s commitment to
society’s success goals and the approved way of attaining them, and resulted in anomie which was characterized by rule-breaking behaviour by those
who were socially disadvantaged.
• Standards of Professional Behaviour for Police Officers: this sets out the standards of professional behaviour expected of police officers, the breach
of which constitutes a disciplinary offence that in extreme cases can result in dismissal from the police service. It was formerly known as the Police
Code of Conduct (and before that as the Police Disciplinary Code).
• Taken into consideration (TIC): this term (that is also referred to as ‘write-offs’) entails an offender who has been apprehended for committing a
crime confessing to others. He or she is not specifically charged with these additional offences and may suffer no further penalty for these
admissions. The system has been criticized for being a means whereby police officers artificially boost their force’s detection rates through
confessions from criminals that are not always reliable.
• ‘Third sector’: this term applies to organizations that do not operate in the public or private sectors. It embraces a range of voluntary organizations,
charities, community organizations operated by volunteers and cooperative ventures.
• Tripartite system of police governance: this term denotes a three-way division in the exercise of responsibility over police affairs shared between
police authorities, the Home Secretary and chief constables. This system was initially provided for in the 1964 Police Act. The 2011 Police and Social
Responsibility legislation replaced police authorities with directly elected Police and Crime Commissioners.
• Victimology: this aspect of criminology concerns the study of victims of crime. In particular it seeks to establish why certain people become victims of
crime and how personal lifestyles influence the risk of victimization.
• What works ? This agenda emphasized the importance of evidence-based solutions to problems and issues facing the criminal justice system.
Typically, a policy would be piloted, its operations would be subject to evaluation and, if deemed successful, would then be rolled out nationally.
• White-collar crime: as initially defined by Edwin Sutherland, this term referred to crimes committed by respectable persons within the environment
of the workplace. Subsequent definitions have differentiated between illegal actions carried out in the workplace that are designed to benefit the
individual performing them, illicit actions that are intended to further the interests of a commercial concern carried out by its employees, and
criminal activities by persons of ‘respectable’ social status to further their own interests but which are not performed in the workplace (such as tax
evasion and insurance fraud).
• Youth Rehabilitation Order: this form of community penalty for offenders below the age of 18 was introduced by the 2008 Criminal Justice and
Immigration Act. It was modelled on the community order that was introduced in relation to adult offenders by the 2003 Criminal Justice Act and
embraces a wide range of requirements that can be imposed on a juvenile offender.
• Zero tolerance: this approach is most readily identified with a style of policing that emphasizes the need to take an inflexible attitude towards law
enforcement. It is especially directed against low level crime and seeks to ensure that the law is consistently applied against those who commit it.
Unlike problem-oriented policing, it does not require the involvement of agencies other than the police to implement.
• Original Alphabetical
• Criminology
• The scientific study of the nature, extent, cause, and control of criminal behavior
• Interdisciplinary
• Involving two or more academic fields
• Criminal Justice
• System made up of the agencies of social control, such as police departments, the courts, and correctional
institutions, that handle criminal offenders
• Criminological enterprise
• The various subareas included within the scholarly discipline of criminology, which, taken as a whole, define the
field of study
• Valid measure
• A measure that actually measures what it purports to measure; a measure that is factual
• Reliable measure
• A measure that produces consistent results from one measurement to another
• White-collar crime
• Illegal acts that capitalize on a person's status in the marketplace. White-collar crimes may include theft,
embezzlement, fraud, market manipulation, restraint of trade, and false advertising
• Criminal statistics
• Part of the criminological enterprise. Gathering valid crime data. Devising new
research methods; measuring crime patterns and trends.
• Sociology of Law/Law and Society/Socio-Legal Studies
• Part of the criminological enterprise. Determining the origin of law. Measuring
the forces that can change laws and society.
• Theory Construction
• Part of the criminological enterprise. Predicting individual behavior.
Understanding the cause of crime rates and trends
• Criminal Behavior Systems
• Part of the criminological enterprise. Determining the nature and cause of
specific crime patterns. Studying violence, theft, organized crime, white-collar
crime, and public order crimes
• Penology: Punishment, Sanctions, and Corrections
• Part of the criminological enterprise. Studying the correction and control of
criminal behavior. Using the scientific method to assess the effectiveness of
criminal sanctions designed to control crime through the application of
criminal punishments.
• Victimology
• Part of the criminological enterprise. Studying the nature and cause of victimization. Aiding crime victims; understanding the nature and extent of
victimization; developing theories of victimization risk.
• Penology
• Subarea of criminology that focuses on the correction and control of criminal offenders
• Rehabilitation
• Treatment of criminal offenders that is aimed at preventing future criminal behavior
• Capital Punishment
• The execution of criminal offenders; the death penalty
• Mandatory sentences
• A statutory requirement that a certain penalty shall be carried out in all cases of conviction for a specified offense or series of offenses.
• Victimology
• The study of the victim's role in criminal events
• Utilitarianism
• The view that people's behavior is motivated by the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain
• Classical Criminolgy
• Theoretical perspective suggesting that people have free will to choose criminal or conventional behaviors; people choose to commit crime for
reasons of greed or personal need; and crime can be controlled only by the fear of criminal sanctions
• Positivism
• The branch of social science that uses the scientific method of the natural sciences and suggests that human behavior is a product of social,
biological, psychological, or economic forces
• Biosocial Theory
• Focuses on the interaction between biological and social factors as they are related to crime
• Sociological criminology
• Based on the work of Quetelet and Durkheim, that focuses on the relationship between social factors and crime
• Anomie
• A lack of norms or clear social standards. Because of rapidly shifting moral values, the individual has few guides to what is socially acceptable.
• Chicago School
• Group of urban sociologists who studied the relationship between environmental conditions and crime.
• Socialization
• Process of human development and enculturation. Socialization is influenced by key social processes and institutions.
• Conflict theory
• The view that human behavior is shaped by interpersonal conflict and that those who maintain social power will use it to further their own ends
• Critical Criminology
• The view that crime is a product of the capitalist system
• Developmental theory
• The view that criminality is a dynamic process, influenced by social experiences as well as individual characteristics
• Rational choice theory
• The view that crime is a function of a decision-making process in which the would be offender weighs the potential costs and benefits of an illegal act
• Trait Theory
• The view that criminality is a product of abnormal biological or psychological traits
• Social Structure Theory
• The view that disadvantaged economic class position is a primary cause of crime
• Social Process Theory
• The view that criminality is a function of people's interactions with various organizations, institutions, and processes in society
• Classical/Choice Perspective
• Situational forces. Crime is a function of free will and personal choice. Punishment is a deterrent to crime
• Biological/Psychological Perspective
• Internal forces. Crime is a function of chemical, neurological, genetic, personality, intelligence, or mental traits
• Structural Perspective
• Ecological forces. Crime rates are a function of neighborhood
conditions, cultural forces, and norm conflict
• Process perspective
• Socialization forces. Crime is a function of upbringing, learning, and
control. Peers, parents, and teachers influence behavior
• Conflict perspective
• Economic and political forces. Crime is a function of competition for
limited resources and power. Class conflict produces crime.
• Developmental perspective
• Multiple forces. Biological, social-psychological, economic, and
political forces may combine to produce crime
• Deviance
• Behavior that departs from the social norm but is not necessarily criminal
• Critical criminologists
• Members of a branch of criminology that focuses on the oppression of the poor, women, and minorities, thereby
linking class conflict, sexism, and racism to crime rates. Examines how those who hold political and economic
power shape the law to uphold self-interests
• Crime
• An act, deemed socially harmful or dangerous, that is specifically defined, prohibited, and punished under the
criminal law
• Decriminalized
• Having criminal penalties reduced rather than eliminated
• Criminal Law
• The written code that defines crimes and their punishments
• Consensus View
• The law defines crime; agreement exists on outlawed behavior; laws apply to all citizens equally
• Conflict view
• The law is a tool of the ruling class; crime is a politically defined concept; Real Crimes such as racism, sexism, and
classism are not outlawed; The law is used to control the underclass
• Interactionalist View
• Moral entrepreneurs define crime; Acts become crimes because society defines them that way; Criminal labels are
life-transforming events
• Code of Hammurabi
• The first written criminal code, developed in Babylonia about 2000 BC.
• Mosaic Code
• The laws of the ancient Israelites,found in the Old Testament of the Judeo-
Christian Bible
• Precedent
• A rule derived from previous judicial decisions and applied to future cases; the
basis of common law
• Common Law
• Early English law, developed by judges, which became the standardized law of
the land in England and eventually formed the basis of the criminal law in the
US
• Statutory Crimes
• Crimes defined by legislative bodies in response to changing social conditions,
public opinion, and custom
• Felony
• A serious offense that carries a penalty of imprisonment, usually for one year
or more, and may entail loss of political rights
• Misdemeanor
• A minor crime usually punished by a short jail term and/or a fine
• Purposes of Criminal Law
• Deterrence, social control, maintain social order, express morality,
equity, punishment,and retribution
• Deterrence
• Deter people from crime through fear of punishment
• Social control
• Prohibit behaviors harmful to others
• Maintain social order
• Support the free enterprise system
• Express morality
• Reflect public opinion and morality
• Equity
• Make criminals pay back for their crimes
• Punishment
• Punish wrongdoings
• Retribution
• Eliminate need for personal revenge
• Appellate court
• Court that reviews trial court procedures to determine
whether they have compiled with accepted rules and
constitutional doctrines
• Three major ethical issues in Criminology
• What to study; whom to study; How to study
• Original Alphabetical
• Expressive violence
• Acts that vent rage, anger, or frustration
• Instrumental violence
• Acts designed to improve the financial or social position of the criminal
• Eros
• The life instinct, which drives people toward self-fulfillment and enjoyment
• Thanatos
• The death instinct, which impels towards self-destruction
• Psychopharmacological relationship
• In such a relationship, violence is the direct consequence of ingesting mood-altering substances
• Economic compulsive behavior
• Violence committed by drug users to support their habit
• Systemic link
• A link between drugs and violence that occurs when drug dealers turn violent in their competition with rival gangs
• Subculture of violence
• A segment of society in which violence has become legitimized by the custom and norms of that group
• Rape
• The carnal knowledge of a female forcibly and against her will
• Date rape
• A rape that involved people who are in some form of courting
relationship
• Marital exemption
• The formerly accepted tradition that a legally married husband
could not be charged with raping his wife
• Statutory rape
• Sexual relations between an underage minor female and an adult
male
• Virility mystique
• The belief that males must separate their sexual feelings from their
need for love, respect, and affection
• Narcissistic personality disorder
• A pattern of traits and behaviors indicating infatuation and fixation with one's self to the exclusion of all others, along with the egotistic and ruthless
pursuit of one's own gratification, dominance, and ambition
• Aggravated rape
• Rape involving multiple offenders, weapons, and victim injuries
• Consent
• Victim of rape must prove that she is in no way encouraged, enticed, or misled the accused rapist
• Shield laws
• Laws that protect women from being questioned about their sexual history unless such questioning directly bears on the case
• Murder
• The unlawful killing of a human being with malice aforethought
• First-degree murder
• Killing a person after premeditation and deliberation
• Premeditation
• Considering the criminal act beforehand, which suggests that it was motivated by more than a simple desire to engage in an act of violence
• Deliberation
• Planning a criminal act after careful thought, rather than carrying it out on impulse
• Felony murder
• A killing that accompanies a felony, such as robbery or rape
• Second-degree murder
• A person's wanton disregard for the victim's life and his or her own desire to inflict serious bodily harm on the victim, which results in the victim's
death
• Manslaughter
• Homicide without malice
• Voluntary or nonnegligent manslaughter
• A killing committed in the heat of passion or during a sudden quarrel that provoked violence
• Involuntary or negligent manslaughter
• A killing that occurs when a person's acts are negligent and without regard for the harm they
may cause others
• Infanticide
• Murder of a very young child
• Filicide
• Murder of an older child
• Eldercide
• Murder of a senior citizen
• Serial killer
• A person who kills three or more persons in three or more separate events
• Mass murder
• This killing of four or more victims by one or a few assailants within a single event
• Spree killer
• A killer of multiple victims whose murders occur over a relatively short span of time and often follow no
discernible pattern
• Battery
• Offensive touching, such as slapping, hitting, or punching a victim
• Assault
• Either attempted battery or intentionally frightening the victim by word or deed (actual touching is not involved)
• Road rage
• Violent assault by a motorist who loses control of their emotions while driving
• Child abuse
• Any physical or emotional trauma to a child for which no reasonable explanation, such as an accident or ordinary
disciplinary practices, can be found
• Neglect
• Not providing a child with the care and shelter to which he or she is entitled
• Child sexual abuse
• The exploitation of children through rape, incest, and molestation by parents or other adults
• Robbery
• Taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or
threat of force or violence and/or by putting the victim in fear
• Acquaintance robbery
• Robbery in which the victim or victims are people the robber knows
• Hate crimes (bias crimes)
• Violent acts directed toward a particular
person or members of a group merely
because the targets share a discernible
racial, ethnic, religious, or gender
characteristics
• Workplace violence
• Violence such as assault, rape, or
murder committed at the workplace
• Stalking
• A course of conduct that is directed at a
specific person and involved repeated
physical or visual proximity,
nonconsensual communication, or
verbal, written, or implied threats
sufficient to cause fear in a reasonable
person
• Terrorists
• Individuals or groups that
systematically attack or threaten
violence to terrorize individuals,
groups, communities, or
governments into acceding to the
terrorists' political demands
• Guerillas
• Fighters who are usually located in rural areas and attack military,
police, and government targets in an effort to unseat or replace the
existing government
• Insurgents
• Individuals or groups who confront the existing government for
control of all or a portion of its territory, or to force political
concessions in sharing political power
• Revolutionaries
• Either nationalists who struggle against a sovereign power that
controls the land, or local groups that battle the existing
government over issues of ideology and power
• Death squads
• Use of government troops to destroy political opposition parties
• USA PATRIOT Act (ASAPA)
• An act that gives sweeping new powers
to domestic law enforcement and
international intelligence agencies in an
effort to fight terrorism, to expand the
definition of terrorist activities, and to
alter sanctions for violent terrorism
• criminology
• The scientific study of the nature,
extent, cause, and control of criminal
behavior
• criminologists
• Researchers who use scientific
methonds to study the nature, extent,
cause, and control of criminal behavior
• criminal justice
• Refers to the study of the agencies of social
control (police, courts, and corrections)
• scientific method
• Using verifiable principles and procedures for
the systematic acquisition of knowledge;
typically involves formulating a problem,
creating a hypothesis, and collecting data
through observation and experiment to verify
the hypothesis
• phrenologist
• A scientist who studied the shape of the skull and
bumps on the head to determine whether these
physical attributes are linked to criminal behavior;
phrenologists believed that external cranial
characteristics dictate which areas of the brain
control physical activity
• utilitarianism
• The view that people's behavior is motivated by the
pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain
• classical criminology
• The theoretical perspective suggesting
that (1) people have free will to choose
criminal or conventional behaviors; (2)
people choose to commit crime for
reasons of greed or personal need; and
(3) crime can be controlled only by the
fear of criminal sanctions
• positivism
• The branch of social science that
uses the scientific method of the
natural sciences and suggests that
human behavior is a product of
social, biological, psychological, or
economic forces
• physiognomist
• A scientist who studied the facial
features of criminals to determine
whether the shape of ears, nose, and
eyes and the distance between them
are associated with antisocial
behavior
• psychopathic personality
• A personality characterized by a lack of
warmth and feeling, inappropriate
behavior responses, and an inability to
learn from experience. Some
psychologists view psychopathy as a
result of childhood trauma; others see it
as a result of biological abnormality
• atavistic anomalies
• According to Lombroso, the physical characteristics
that distiguish bron criminals from the general
population and are throwbacks to animals or
primitive people
• biological determinism
• A belief that criminogenic traits can b e acquired
through indirect heredity from a degenerate family
whose members suffered from such ills as insanity,
syphilis, and alcoholism, or through direct heredity-
being related to a family of criminals
• criminal anthropology
• Early efforts to discover a biological asis
of crime through measurement of
physical and mental processes
• biosocial theory
• An approach to ciminology that focuses
on the interaqction between biological
and social factors as they relate to a
crime
• cartographic school of criminology
• An approach developed in Europe in the
early nineteenth century making use of
social statistics to provide important
demographic information on the
population, including density, gender,
religious affiliations, and wealth. Many of
the relationships between crime and social
phenomena identified then still serrve as a
basis for criminology today
• anomie
• A condition produced by normalessness.
Because of rapidly shifting moral values, the
individual has few guides to what is socially
acceptable. According to Merton, anomie is
a condition that occurs when personal goals
cannot be achieved by available means. In
Agnew's revision, anomie can occure when
positive or valued stimulie are removed or
negative or painful ones applied
• Chicago School
• Group of urban sociologists who studied the relationship between
environmental conditions and crime
• social ecology
• Environmental forces that have a direct influence on human
behavior
• social psychology
• The study of human interactions and relationships, emphasizing
such issues as group dynamics and socialization
• socialization
• Process of human development and enculturation. Socialization is
influenced by key social processes and institutions
• ecological view
• A belief that social forces operating
in urban areas create criminal
interactions; some neighborhoods
become natural areas for crime
• socialization view
• One view is that people learn criminal attitudes
from older, more experienced law violators.
Another view is that crime occurs when children
develop an inadequate self-image, which
renders them incapable of controlling their own
misbehavior. Both of these views link criminality
to the failure of socialization, the interactions
people have with the various individuals,
organizations, institutions, and processes of
society that help them mature and develop
• bourgeoisie
• In Marxist theory, the owners of the
means of production; the capitalist
ruling class
• proletariat
• A term used by Marx to refer to the
working class members of society who
produce goods and services but who do
not own the means of production
• rational choice
• The view that crime is a function of a
decision-making process in which the
potential offender weighs the
potential costs and benefits of an
illegal act
• criminological enterprise
• The areas of study and research that
taken together make up the field of
criminology. Criminologists typically
specialize in one of the subareas of
criminology, such as victimology or
the sociology of law
• crime typology
• The study of criminal behavior involving research on
the links between different types of crime and
criminals. Because people often disagree about types
of crimes and criminal motivation, no standard exists
within the field. Some typologies focus on the
criminal, suggesting the existence of offender groups,
such as professional criminals and so on. Ohters
focus on the crimes, clustering them into categories
such as property crimes, sex crimes, and so on
• consensus view
• The belief that the majority of citizens
in a society share common ideals and
work toward a common good and that
crimes are acts that are outlawed
because they conflict with the rules of
the majority and are harmful to society
• substantive criminal law
• A body of specific rules that declare
what conduct is criminal and
prescribe the punishment to be
imposed for such conduct
• social harm
• A view that behaviors harmful to other
people and society in general must be
controlled. These acts are usually
outlawed, but some acts that cause
enormous amounts of social harm are
perfectly legal, such as the consumption
of tobacco and alcohol
• deviant behavior
• Behavior that departs from the social
norm
• conflict view
• The view that human behavior is
shaped by interpersonal conflict and
that those who maintain social power
will use it to further their own needs
• interactionist view
• the view that one's perception of
reality is significantly influenced by
one's interpretations of the reactions
of others to similar events and
stimuli
• stigmatize
• To apply negative labeling with
enduring effects on a person's self
image and social interactions
• moral entrepreneurs
• Interest gorups that attempt to control
social life and the legal order in such a
wasy as to promote their own personal
set or moral values. People who use
their influence to shape the legal
process in ways they see fit
• common law
• Early Englis law, developed by judges,
that incorporated Anglo-Saxon tribal
custom, feudal rules and practices, and
the everyday rules of behavior of local
villages. Common law became the
standardized law of the land in England
and eventually formed the basis of the
criminal law in the United States
• mala in se
• Acts that are outlawed because they
violate basic moral values, such as
rape, murder, assault, and robbery
• mala prohibitum
• Acts that are outlawed because they
clash with current norms and public
opinion, such as tax, traffic, and drug
laws
• statutory crimes
• Crimes defined by legistative bodies in
response to changing social conditions,
public opinion and custom
• stalking statutes
• Laws that prohitit "the willful, malicious,
and repeated following and harassing of
another person"
• Theory
• a set of interconnected statements or propositions that explain how
two or more events or factors are related to one another.

• Scientific Theory
• logically sound, empirically verifiable

• Inductive theory
• theory developed after systematic observation

• Deductive theory
• developed and tested through empirical
• Parsimony
• simplicity of its structure, few assumptions, few explanations, considered superior

• Scope
• sometimes called pervasiveness, the range of phenomena that a theory can explain

• Accuracy
• extent to which the theory matches empirical reality, allows us to make correct predictions about the occurrence
of the phenomenon in question.

• Social Sciences –Level of accuracy?

• seldom approaches the level of accuracy of the those developed in these other fields

• Scientific predictions derived from theories are…

• probabilistic - not absolute, observe a general pattern

• Paradigms
• school of thought within a discipline, is always influenced by researcher’s values, research must remain objective
during the data analysis
• aradigm provides the scientist with a model for
(List 3)
• choosing the problems to be analyzed, the
methods for analyzing them, the theoretical
framework for explaining them

• Scientific Revolution
• inadequate paradigm is replaced, promotes
advancements in a discipline
• Three paradigms in criminology
• Classical, Positivist, Marxist/Radical

• Classical Theory
• Beccaria - On Crimes and Punishment, Model for penal reform, Punishment is
Deterrence

• Successful Punishment includes:

• Swift, Certain, Proportionate , Appropriate

• Punishment should be appropriate to the "seriousness" of the crime. List three

categories of seriousness:
• crimes against state and representatives, injure security/property of
individuals, disrupt public peace
• Beccaria opposed the death penalty because?
• no deterrent effect, leaves no permanent impression on them

• Bentham and Becarria's work was referred to as:

• "administrative and legal criminology"

• Neo-Classical Theory
• Revision of classical theory to include mitigating factors

• Rational choice theory

• Crime Specific, different crimes - meet different needs - in different
offenders
• Choice structuring
• offender characteristics, combined with offense
characteristics, shape criminal decisions

• Types of criminal decisions:

• Involvement decisions - multistage, made over
extended period of time, Event decisions -
made quickly
• Positive Theory
• Positivists assume determinism - offender's choices are limited

• Marxist Social Theory

• law as well as crime reflect the economy of society. "A society
organized into social classes is inherently unequal", Marxist theory
"sees criminal behavior as a rational response to dehumanizing
conditions."

• Three ways Marx and Engels viewed crime

• Lumpenproletariat -"dangerous class",
Primitive rebellion thesis - crime is a form of revolt against ruling
class/capitalist system, Demoralization - living as a "have-not" in the
capitalist system
• Classical Theory
• Founder Beccaria: Cost/Benefit, Pursuit of Pleasure, Minimize Pain, Free Will Choice

• Positivist Theory
• Founder Lombroso: Caused/Determined, Emphasis on biological, psychological, sociological
deficiencies

• Chicago School
• Shaw + McKay+Sampson et al.: Disorganized communities -social control breakdown, -
criminal cultures emerge, -lack “collective efficacy”, -unable to fight back

• Shaw and McKay

• Based study off of Ernast Burgess “Zones”of city: poverty, rapid population growth,
heterogeneity, transiency. These disrupt social institutions –Higher crime in these areas
= “Social Disorganization”
• More then one type of moral institution - "groups" compete for their allegience
• Sampson and Grove
• Inner-city crime because residents lost: informal social control

• Sampson + Wilson
• "Race, Poverty and Place" : Disorganizations across communities are intimately linked to
racial inequality.
Social Isolation
Race and crime determinant
-Structural social disorganization
-Cultural social isolation
• Sampson et al.
• “collective efficacy”- unable to fight back
Informal Social control
Social Cohesion and Trust
• A
• Abolitionism
A political and criminological perspective that advocates
the radical transformation/replacement of modern
punishment forms with a more reflexive and multifaceted
approach capable of better understanding dominant
ideological constructions of crime.
• Accountability
The ways in which organizations and individuals are
rendered answerable for their policies and day-to-day
activities, exerted by internal and external mechanisms.
• ’.
• Acquisitive crime
A term used to categorize economically motivated crimes.
• Actuarial justice
A term coined by Malcolm Feeley and Jonathan Simon to
try to characterize a possible emerging aspect of criminal
law and criminal justice. The term derives from ‘actuary’,
meaning a statistician who works for an insurance company
to calculate risks, premiums and payouts. Actuarial justice
thus suggests a form of justice based on calculation of risks,
and the statistical use of past data to predict the likelihood
of future events.
• Administrative criminology
A form of practical policy-relevant criminology
that focuses almost exclusively on the nature of
the criminal event and the particular setting in
which it occurs. Under this perspective, the
offender is considered only as a ‘rational actor’
who makes calculated decisions about the costs
and benefits of criminal action. Administrative
criminologists seek to reduce the opportunities
for crime, thus making the costs/risks of crime
outweigh the potential benefits.
• Aetiological crisis
The majority of post-war criminology was predicated on the
basis that poor social conditions caused crime.
Consequently, if a meaningful reduction in crime was to
occur, then governments needed to implement a series of
social democratic policies specifically aimed at reducing
unemployment and raising general living standards. Despite
substantial improvements in the Western world in these
and other areas during the years 1950–70, recorded crime
soared to unprecedented levels. This refutation of the then
major thinking in the social sciences has been described by
Jock Young as the ‘aetiological crisis
• Aetiology
The philosophy of causation; the study of causes.
• Ageism
Discrimination or prejudice against people because of their age or presumed
age.
• Appeal
The initial decisions made by magistrates’ or Crown Courts can be challenged
by a convicted defendant (or in some cases by the prosecution). This is known
as an ‘appeal’ and can be either on the question of the correctness of the
conviction itself or the appropriateness of the sentence. The appeal will be to
a higher court—this will normally be to the Crown Court from the magistrates’
or to the Court of Appeal from the Crown Court.
• Atavism
The recurrence of certain primitive characteristics that were present in an
ancestor but have not occurred in intermediate generations.
• Behaviourism
A psychological approach (first promoted by
J.B. Watson in 1913) that stresses that the only
proper subject matter for scientific study in
psychology is directly observable behaviour.
• Bifurcation
A dual-edged approach to the problem of offending
which allows governments to reserve custody for the
most serious offenders and to use community
penalties for not-so-serious offenders. In practice, it
often involves a more punitive approach across the
whole range of punishments.
• Binge drinking
Refers to the consumption of large amounts of
alcohol in a single drinking session.
• Business cycle (or economic) cycle
The ups and downs often seen simultaneously
in most parts of a country’s economy. They tend
to repeat at fairly regular time intervals. This
involves shifts over time between periods of
relatively rapid growth of output (recovery and
prosperity), alternating with periods of
recession or relatively slow economic growth.
• Civilizing process
Concept developed by Norbert Elias
(1897–1990) to refer to the
pacification of medieval society
through the development of self-
restraint, social regulation and
increasing repugnance towards
violence.
• Cognition
A somewhat inexact, indeterminate
term that encompasses concepts
such as memory, imagery,
intelligence and reasoning. Often
described as ‘a synonym for
thinking’.
• Community notification
Allowing communities to know when a sexual
offender who may pose a risk has moved into their
midst. This policy is not pursued in the UK, but is in
the USA where it is sometimes known as ‘Megan’s
Law’. The policy is premised on the idea that
information on the offender known to the
professionals and practitioners working with the
offender should not be held only by those
professionals and practitioners and that with such
‘notification’ the community will be better able to
protect itself.
• Community penalties
In its broadest sense, this term refers to
any sentence that does not involve
imprisonment and therefore includes
cautions, discharges and fines as well as
sentences involving supervision or
monitoring. In its narrower sense, the
term refers to community orders.
• Conscious mind
Being aware (cognisant) of one’s actions and
emotions. Actions undertaken by the conscious
mind are intentional.
• Consumer expenditure (or in shorthand
consumption)
The money from income, savings, or from
borrowing spent on the purchase of currently
produced goods and services. Consumption
tends to increase as income increases, but not
by as much.
• Corporate crime
Illegal acts or omissions which are the result of deliberate
decision-making or culpable negligence within a
corporation.
• Corporation
Used here to denote all companies registered under the UK
Companies Acts, from the smallest limited liability company
to the largest multinational.
• Corporatism
A word used to describe an approach to criminal justice
based on centralization, government intervention and
cooperation of agencies and professionals working towards
common goals. Typically, it has also been associated with
the use of targets, and prescribed ways of working.
• Crime count
The number of offences occurring within a
given referent of time and space, for
example, the number of burglary offences
in England and Wales per year.
• Crime flux
A concept that defines the crime rate as a
product of the prevalence of victims in the
population, and the frequency with which
they are victimized.
• Crime frequency
How the counts of criminal offences are
distributed amongst a population, for
example, how many people are victims, and
how frequently are they victimized.
• Crime markets
A market that deals specifically with the
acquisition, distribution and consumption
of illegal goods and services.
• Crime rate
The measure that gives an index of
crime occurring in a particular
jurisdiction for a specific time period.
• Crime statistics
The accounts that the State compiles of
the actions of its agencies concerning
those acts which the law proscribes.
• Crime victimization surveys
Large-scale sample surveys of general populations
whose purpose is to estimate, describe and explain
the distribution of crime victimization and victims.
• Criminal law
This is the regulation of conduct by the creation of
criminal offences—laws, made by Parliament, that
forbid particular conduct and lay down punishments.
Nowadays the courts no longer create new offences,
although their decisions shape the boundaries of
offences.
• Criminological psychology
A sub-discipline existing broadly at the
interface between psychology and
criminology that seeks to apply psychology
to help explain criminal behaviour.
• Criminological verstehen
Sympathetic or affective understanding
regarding the situated experiences and
emotions of criminals, crime control agents
and crime victims.
• Cultural criminology
A distinct theoretical, methodological and interventionist approach to the
study of crime that places criminality and its control in the context of culture;
that is, it views crime and the agencies and institutions of crime control as
cultural products—as creative constructs. As such they must be read in terms
of the meanings they carry. With its focus on situated meaning, identity,
space, style, and media culture, along with its commitment to understand and
account for the ongoing transformations and fluctuations associated with
hypercapitalism, cultural criminology is an attempt to create a ‘post’ or ‘late’
modern theory of crime.
• Culture
The symbolic environment created by social groups; the meaningful way of life
shared by group members.
• Cybercrime
Criminal activities which take place in ‘virtual’ space using networked
technologies. They cut across national boundaries, which has implications for
law enforcement and punishment.
• Dangerousness
An individual’s actions or behaviour pattern
considered dangerous to the safety of that
individual or other people—a person may
be so disposed by individual characteristics
or by pre-disposing circumstances in their
immediate environment—the behaviour is
usually associated with elements of
unpredictability.
• Decarceration
Refers to policies and practices that aim to reduce
the numbers of offenders in prison by providing
alternative measures for dealing with them in the
community. Theoretically, the debate about
decarceration was at its height in the 1960s and
1970s and included reduction in the use of other
institutions, most notably psychiatric hospitals. With
the dramatic increase in the prison population in the
1990s, the term and the debate has largely fallen
into disuse.
• Defence representation
A key element of a fair trial is that of ‘equality of
arms’—that the prosecution and defence are
allowed the same facilities to put their case. An
individual defendant will never have the same
resources as the State but the State must
provide for adequate representation of
offenders, whether in the police station or in
court. The criminal justice system also provides
for defendants to be assisted by lawyers, paid
out of public funds.
• Deterrence
The idea that crime can be reduced if
people fear the punishment they
may receive if they offend.
• Discipline
A term used by Michel Foucault to describe a
method by which some people can efficiently
control others, and which he claims is at the
heart of modern public institutions such as the
prison, school and hospital. Discipline is the
analysis and ‘correction’ of others’ behaviour,
especially in relation to time and space, and is a
key part of his understanding of how
surveillance operates and what it is trying to
achieve.
• Discrimination
The unfavourable treatment based on a
person’s colour, age, sexuality, gender or
ethnicity.
• Diversion strategy
Describes efforts to minimize young offenders’
involvement with the formal youth justice
system, steering them away from the more
punitive sentences such as custody, and where
possible keeping them out of the system
entirely.
• Edgework
The momentary integration of subcultural practices
with experiences of extreme risk and excitement.
• Elder
The blanket label of the ‘elderly’ can perpetuate a
stereotype that the elderly population constitutes a
homogeneous social group. The term elder will be
used as a generic term to define those persons over
the age of fifty in recognition of the positive aspects
that older age can confer.
• Empathy
The ability to identify mentally with another
person and thus understand how others feel.
• Empirical research
Research based upon the analysis of data rather
than conceptual analysis.
• Environmental criminology
A form of criminology that focuses on the
complex relationships that exist between crime,
space and environment.
• Ethnicity
The problem that arises from using the
biological concept of ‘race’ to describe social
phenomena has led some theorists to reject the
term ‘race’ in favour of ‘ethnicity’. Like the
terms ‘race’ and ‘racism’, ‘ethnicity’ has no
universally agreed definition. The term ethnicity
characterizes social groups based upon a shared
identity rooted in geographical, cultural,
historical factors and migratory patterns.
• Ethnography
The study of groups of people in their natural setting, typically
involving the researcher being present for extended periods of time
in order to collect data systematically about their daily activities and
the meanings they attach to them.
• Evaluation
A form of research, which prioritises solving practical problems over
the generation of new theoretical knowledge.
• Experiments
An approach to social research which involves emulating the
approach of the natural scientists by collecting data from an
‘experimental’ and a ‘comparison’ group to test a hypothesis.
• ‘Fair trial’ and criminal procedure
Procedural laws govern the actions of law enforcement
agencies. In the pre-trial process, such laws provide legal
powers for the police enabling them to arrest and detain
suspects. The rules also ensure that suspects are treated
with due respect. Equally important are trial procedures—
the idea of a ‘fair trial’ is enshrined in many human rights
conventions and this idea governs such matters as the way
in which defendants can defend themselves from
accusations, the roles of the judge, as well as of the
prosecuting or defending lawyers, the presentation of
evidence, the questioning of witnesses and the taking of
verdicts.
• Fear of crime
General term that suffers from lack of clarity in
its definition. Generally taken to refer to
concern, worry or anxiety about crime but there
is research evidence that it may be a conduit for
broader concerns about change and
uncertainty. At the start of the twenty-first
century the focus for the police has broadened
to encompass a reassurance agenda as
politicians struggle with falling recorded crime
levels and rising levels of public anxiety.
• Focus groups
A data collection method which takes advantages of the
dynamic interaction of groups to collect largely qualitative
data.
• Folk devil
As constructed by the mass media and public officials, a
public identity that comes to embody a larger sense of
threat and social insecurity.
• Functionalism
A structuralist perspective, which argues that, although
crime and deviance are problematic, they also serve a
social function by contributing to the smooth running of
the social system as a whole (see Chapter 4).
• Gender
A socially constructed phenomenon that refers to
differences ascribed by society relating to expectations
about appropriate social and cultural roles.
• Generalizabilty
The extent to which research findings can be applied
beyond the sample being studied; for example, to other
groups or to different locations.
• Governance
This is often used as a general term to denote governing
strategies originating from inside and outside the State,
though in this volume is used more straightforwardly to
refer to the constitutional and institutional arrangements
for framing and monitoring the policies of the police.
• Governmentality
A term invented by Michel Foucault to describe
certain specific techniques developed over the
centuries by governments and the State, so as to
exercise power over populations as a whole. It
complements ‘discipline’, which refers to the
operation of power at the level of public institutions.
• Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
The total value of all goods and services produced
within a country during a specified period (most
commonly per year).
• Hegemonic masculinity
The prevailing idealized cultural conception of dominant
(hegemonic) masculinity involving the dominance of
women, heterosexuality, the pursuit of sexual gratification
and independence. This is a cultural resource enacted to
maintain domination over ‘subordinate masculinities’.
• Hegemony
The dominance of one particular ideology, resulting in the
empowerment of particular values, beliefs and practices
over others and frequently resulting in the naturalization of
those values, beliefs and practices throughout the social
body.
• History from below
A form of historical narrative developed and
popularized in the 1960s. This form of history
focuses on the study and analysis of the lives of
‘ordinary’ individuals within society as well as
individuals and regions that were not previously
considered historically important. This has given
rise to the important developments in such
fields as women’s history, black history, and gay
and lesbian history.
• Home Office Counting Rules
Official instructions that set out how,
and in what ways, incidents are to be
recorded and counted as offences.
• Hypothesis
A theoretical assertion about the
relationship between two or more
variables which can be tested.
• Ideal type
An abstract model of a phenomenon which
illustrates a generalization for descriptive
purposes. For example, in the context of
victimization, the ‘ideal victim’ is an innocent,
elderly, vulnerable person. This does not imply
that such people are typical of victims of
crime—rather, it shows how many people think
about victims and suggests a commonsense
understanding which should be challenged and
tested by research.
• Incapacitation
Punishment which calculates the risk of future crimes and
uses a custodial setting to remove the offender from
society to protect the public from further harm.
• Institutionalized racism
The term ‘institutionalized racism’ was first introduced in
1968 by Carmichael and Hamilton in their seminal text,
Black Power: The Politics of Liberation in America. Common
to most definitions of institutionalized racism is the
collective failure of an organization to provide an
appropriate service to people because of their colour,
culture, or ethnic origin.
• Interviews
A data collection method based upon the posing of a series
of questions, usually face-to-face but sometimes using
more indirect approaches (for example, telephone).
• Intimate (domestic) violence
Predominantly (but not exclusively) violence against
women and children within the family, which can take
many forms including physical assault, rape and sexual
violence, psychological or emotional violence, torture,
financial abuse including dowry-related violence, and
control of movement and of social contacts.
• Jurisprudence
The science or philosophy of law.
• Justice model
One that places the offence at the centre,
regarding it as an act of will. It is to be dealt
with by punishment set to reflect the
seriousness of the crime. The justice model
also emphasizes the legal rights of
offenders, for example, to representation in
court.
• Labeling theory
A criminological theory that locates the
meaning of human activity not in the activity
itself, but in others’ reactions to it.
• Late modernity
A period in the historical development of
capitalism characterized by individualization,
globalization, personal insecurity,
hyperconsumption and the decline of large-
scale collective initiatives such as the welfare
state.
• Legal psychology
A sub-discipline of psychology specifically concerned with
the application of psychological knowledge and research to
the process of law.
• Life-Course
A term that has replaced the term life stages to reflect
holistic understanding of the ageing process. The blurring
of the life-course problematizes negative ‘ageist’
stereotypes and practices and in turn produces more
accurate and positive images that imply that later life is a
time for vitality, creativity, empowerment and
resourcefulness—all attainable in old age.
• Mafia
A term often used to describe an organized crime group
consisting of particular ethnic members, for example,
Sicilian Mafia, Russian Mafia. It has also been used in
reference to individuals and groups who deal specifically in
illegal protection.
• Managerialism
The use of a more corporatist strategy to deal with crime.
The ‘managerial’ approach aims not necessarily to deliver
‘welfare’ or ‘justice’, but to find the most efficient and
effective way of managing a visible crime problem.
• Media
Any technological form of communication or
expression designed to impart meaning (television,
newspapers, Internet, radio, brochures, road signs,
advertising billboards).
• Method triangulation
The practice of using more than one research
method when conducting empirical research.
• Moral entrepreneur
A powerful person or group seeking to impose a
moral agenda by creating a new category of crime
and crime control.
• Moral panic
As generated by the mass media and public
authorities, the public’s belief that a
particular crime or criminal is symptomatic
of larger moral failures and social harms.
• National Crime Recording Standard
A protocol to standardize crime recording
practices amongst police forces, with effect
from April 2002.
• Neighbourhood Watch
• Voluntary organizations that are devoted to
preventing crime and disorder in local
neighborhoods. Members are not expected
to intervene in possible criminal incidents
but to be the eyes and ears of the police by
being alert to unusual activity. Grew rapidly
in numbers during the 1980s as part of the
Conservative government’s emphasis on
active citizenship.
• Net widening
A term used to identify the counter-intuitive problem
posed by the proliferation of ‘alternatives’ to prison.
There is a risk that innovative non-custodial
sentences might be used by sentencers for offenders
who would previously have received less severe
sentences rather than more severe sentences. If this
happens, it means that more, rather than fewer
offenders are likely to end up in prison. In this way,
the net of criminal justice intervention is thrown
wider.
• Night-time economy
Used to describe bars, pubs, nightclubs and
fast-food outlets, often clustered in town
and city centers.
• Normalization thesis
Particularly associated with the work of
Howard Parker and his colleagues who
argue that recreational drug use has
become a central component of
contemporary youth culture.
• Nothing works
The notion that became popular in the
1970s and 1980s that nothing could be
done to reduce re-offending. It fitted
well with the anti-welfarist views of the
time, which have now been replaced by
the more nuanced view that some
interventions work for some offenders
in some situations.
• Observation
A research method which involves watching, and sometimes
participating in, social activities.
• Offender Management
A term increasingly used to describe the process of working with
offenders at different stages of the criminal justice process with the
aspiration of preventing reoffending. The nature and extent of
‘management’ is determined by the level of risk and harm the
offender is judged to pose to the public.
• Organizational culture
Culture has been defined as ‘the way we do things around here’,
and while organizations themselves tend to have their distinct
cultures, these often take distinct forms within different parts of an
organization.
• Organizational structure
Refers to the lines of authority, decision-making,
accountability, management systems and the relationships
between constituent parts of an organization.
• Organized crime
A generic description of any criminal activities carried out
by a group of two or more people. Official usage of this
term specifies that the groups engaged in these activities
are motivated by profit, operate over a period of time and
are willing to use violence as well as actively seeking to
influence those across the legal divide such as the police,
politicians, bankers and so on who can further their cause.
Organized crime is not a legal term.
• Patriarchy
Refers to a system of social structure and
practices in which men dominate.
• Phenomenology
A method of philosophical investigation that
seeks to describe and understand experienced
phenomena. Although phenomenological
methodologies are deliberately complex and
opaque, one could say that the ‘goal’ of
phenomenology is to challenge and question
the foundational knowledge claims.
• Phrenology
Phrenology is the study of the structure
of the skull to determine a person’s
character and mental capacity. It is
associated with the work of the
Austrian physician Franz Joseph Gall
(1758–1828). Gall was one of the first to
consider the brain as the home of all
mental activities.
• Physiognomy
Physiognomy is the interpretation of
outward appearance, especially the
features of the face, to discover a person’s
predominant temper and character.
• Police
The specialist state agency tasked with law
enforcement and order maintenance.
• Policing
Organized and purposive forms of social control and
regulation, involving surveillance and the threat of
sanctions for discovered rule-breaking.
• Positivism
Positivism is a form of empiricism that was established by
the sociologist Auguste Comte in the nineteenth century.
Rejecting metaphysical or theological explanations, it
attempted to emulate the methods of natural science. Thus
only scientific or empirical investigation and observation
will enable a true understanding of social structures and
institutions.
• Post-disciplinary
Refers to theories of surveillance and/or punishment
that derive from, and accept in part, Foucault’s
theory of technologies of power and of discipline,
but which argue that the disciplinary historical phase
is in the process of being superseded by a new
technology of power.
• Problem drug use
Problem drug use involves dependency, regular
excessive use or use which creates serious health
risks (for example, injecting) and it is usually
associated with the use of Class A drugs.
• Proportionality
A philosophical ideal stating that
punishment should be proportionate
to the criminal act.
• Prosecution and trial
In its technical sense, ‘prosecution’ means bringing an
offender in front of a properly constituted tribunal (the
magistrates’ or Crown Court) in order to test the validity of
a formal accusation made against the defendant. The
obligation is on the State as prosecutor to satisfy the
tribunal that the accusation is true beyond reasonable
doubt. The preparation of a case for trial and the
presentation of that case is predominantly undertaken by
the Crown Prosecution Service, although other agencies
such as Customs and Excise and Inland Revenue may take
responsibility for mounting their own prosecutions.
• Psychometrics
The measurement (typically via
questionnaires or inventories) of
psychological characteristics such as
intelligence, personality and
creativity.
• Punitive populism (or variants on it such as
populist punitiveness, penal populism)
The pursuit of a set of penal policies to win
votes rather than to reduce crime rates or
to promote justice. Central to this strategy
is the support of imprisonment and,
generally, the advocacy of tough measures
to deal with offenders.
• Qualitative data
Textual, visual or audio data which are not amenable to measurement, provide an insight into
social phenomena (for example, crime, sentencing, victimization) and convey, for example,
subjective interpretations of meaning.
• Quantitative data
Numerical data which measure social phenomena (for example, crime, sentencing,
victimization), typically through some form of counting and subsequent statistical
manipulation.
• Quantitative history
Quantitative history involves the use of empirical, statistical historical data (such as census
returns, crop yields, tax records) in the study of historical topics. It is often associated with
the emergence of social history, which borrowed methodologies from the social sciences.
• Questionnaires
A standardised research instrument used to collect data from respondents about a particular
topic.
•
• Race
The terms race and ethnicity have been used interchangeably but are not
synonymous. Current notions of race are centred exclusively on visible (usually
skin colour) distinctions among populations, although its historical origins and
usage were broader and included religious and linguistic groups (such as Jews
or the Irish) who were considered to be ‘races’.
• Racism
Many authors define racism as a ‘doctrine, dogma, ideology, or set of beliefs’.
All definitions of racism have a set of common themes—typically the belief
that certain groups are innately, biologically, socially, morally superior to other
groups, based upon an assumption held about them.
• Racist violence
Any incident, including threats, harassment, emotional and physical harm,
which is perceived to be racist by the victim, or any other person.
• Rational choice theory of crime
A classical model of human choice that
assumes that offenders rationally
calculate the costs and benefits of
committing a crime. The rational choice
theory is the leading perspective behind
the majority of contemporary
situational crime prevention initiatives.
• Rational economic (wo)man
An ideal type economists use to derive
theories about human behaviour. The
assumption is that, faced with choices and
given their preferences, individuals will
always act in such a way as to optimize their
economic well-being. They weigh up the
costs and benefits of different actions and
choose the one that will leave them the
best off.
• Recession (economic recession)
Defined formally by economists as
occurring when the amount of goods and
services produced by a country’s economy
falls in two successive quarters. A sustained
recession, such as that in the 1930s, is often
referred to as a depression. A recession will
lead to fewer jobs and higher levels of
unemployment.
• Recreational drug use
Characteristically centred on the use of cannabis and ‘dance drugs’
(for example, ecstasy), recreational drug use may be frequent but
does not involve excessive use, dependency or serious risks to
health.
• Regulation
Within criminology, this term implies the control of business activity
within the framework of a set of rules, by an agency or by
dedicated personnel assigned to ensure compliance with those
rules.
• Rehabilitation
The belief that it is possible to tackle the factors that cause
offenders to commit crimes and so reduce or prevent re-offending.
The focus is usually on individual factors such as employability,
problem substance use, and anger management.
• Relativism
The perspective that knowledge is
relative and contingent rather than
absolute and determined.
• Resettlement
Refers to a long tradition of work which
aims to reintegrate imprisoned
offenders back into the community.
• Restoration
In the History of England the term
‘Restoration’ has a specific meaning in as
much as it is used to describe the process
whereby Charles II regained the English
throne after the Parliamentarian rule in the
wake of the English Civil War. More
commonly, though, the Restoration period
refers to the subsequent years of Charles
II’s reign (1660–85).
• Restorative justice
An approach to criminal justice which aims to restore
victims, offenders and the wider community as far as
possible to the position they were in before the offence
was committed, by involving them in the decision-making
process and attempting to reconcile their conflicts through
informal (but structured) discussion. Mechanisms for
implementing RJ include victim–offender mediation; direct
or indirect reparation; family group conferences; changes
to sentencing arrangements which involve wider
community representation; and community involvement in
supervising offenders using circles of support and
accountability.
• Retribution/Just desert
Punishment that seeks to express social disapproval and concern
but which is proportionate to the harm caused by the crime.
• Revisionist history
Historical revisionism is the re-examination and reviewing of the
stories told as history with an eye to updating them with more
recently discovered, more unbiased or more accurate information.
Broadly, it is the approach that history as it has been traditionally
told may not be entirely accurate and may be subject to review.
Revisionist history challenges orthodox and traditional approaches
to an historical problem. A revisionist history of crime offers new
perspectives to the orthodox (often called Whig) version that many
historians accept.
• Risk assessment
The activity of collating information on an individual,
their immediate circumstances and social
environment with a view to assessing the likelihood
of particular behaviour patterns occurring in the
future. This may divide into clinical collection and
assessment, and actuarial assessment; the latter
implying a statistical analysis based on particular
categories of people. In the case of sexual offenders
this is an increasingly formalized and coordinated
activity sometimes using risk assessment
‘instruments’.
• Risk factors
Increasingly used to refer to individual or social factors which increase the probability of
involvement in crime.
• Risk management
The activity of using a risk assessment to manage the future risk an individual may pose. In
the case of sexual offending this is an increasingly formalized and coordinated activity
involving various forms of containment and incapacitation to achieve public protection (for
example, supervision, registration, routine surveillance, longer custodial or hospital
detention).
• ‘Rule of law’
The idea of the ‘rule of law’ is that individuals and the State should regulate their conduct
according to the law. Laws must be created in a constitutionally proper fashion to be
effective, normally through legislation passed by Parliament but such statutory offences can
be contrasted with ‘common law’ offences which are based on the decisions of courts. Law
enforcement agencies such as the police, the prosecution, the courts or prisons can only
exercise their powers (such as those of investigation, trial or detention) where they have legal
authority to do so.
•
• Self-regulation
Self-regulation refers to the expectation that most people
are capable of complying with the law most of the time,
not because of the fear of punishment but because they
have internalized the values and norms of society and
consider that it is in their own interests, and the interests of
those that matter to them, to comply. If they occasionally
break the law then it is assumed that this will produce a
sufficient feeling of guilt and shame for them to regulate
their behaviour without either restrictions or assistance
from other people. The ultimate aim of criminal justice
policy, therefore, is to produce self-regulating citizens who
require minimal outside intervention to be law-abiding.
• Sex
Refers to biological criteria for classifying persons as male or
female.
• Sexism
Refers to oppressive attitudes and behaviours directed towards
either sex.
• Sexual offending
The commission of acts of a sexual nature against a person without
that person’s consent (for example, rape, indecent assault) or
where that person lacks the capacity to consent (for example,
because they are a child, have learning difficulties, or are otherwise
incapacitated); these acts may be accompanied by violence or the
threat of violence. The commission of acts of a sexual nature that
are ‘prohibited’ by law (for example, between members of the
same family, or abuse of a position of trust).
• Situational crime prevention
An approach to crime prevention involving the
management, design or implementation of the immediate
environment in which crimes occur in order to reduce
opportunities for crime.
• Social control
A term used in various different ways in criminology. In the
context of surveillance, its most frequent use is to claim
(following Marxist theories of class conflict and
domination) that the essential ‘function’ of surveillance is
to help the State gather information on individuals or
groups it perceives as representing a threat to its (class-
based) interests, and/or to prevent such threats from
arising in the first place.
• Social exclusion
A term used to describe people or areas suffering from a
combination of problems such as unemployment, poor
skills, low incomes, poor housing, high crime environments,
bad health and family breakdown. It is distinguished from
financial poverty and focused rather on constricted access
to civil, political and social rights and opportunities.
• Social interactionism
A theoretical approach that stresses the interactions
between individuals as ‘symbolic and linguistic exchanges’.
Within this rubric, crime is understood as a product of
social interaction.
• Style
A symbolic medium for the display of collective
identity and affiliation; style often serves also as the
medium for others’ attempts at surveillance and
control.
• Subculture
The distinctive symbolic environment of a criminal
group, often embodying language, rituals and
symbols that, when considered in relation to the
study of crime and deviance, run counter to the legal
constraints and conventional understandings
proffered by mainstream society.
• Tautology/Tautological
(In theoretical terms) something that relies upon circular reasoning.
• Thatcherism
A label given to a set of political values associated with Margaret
Thatcher, the Conservative Prime Minister of the UK from 1979 until
1990. Economically committed to allowing markets to operate
freely and opposed to supporting firms or industries that
performed badly, its policies involved privatizing nationalized
industries, reducing state expenditure particularly on welfare. Its
advocates believed the Welfare State was to blame for the growth
in a ‘dependency culture’ where people relied on State handouts
rather than working and providing for themselves and their
families.
• Time series data
Refers to data collected from a particular
geographical unit—town, region or country—at fixed
intervals—daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly,
annually—for example, annual recorded crime in
England for each year from 1950 to 2003. Time series
analysis refers to statistical techniques that examine
how the measurement varies over time. In contrast,
cross-section data is collected for a particular time
period across different geographic units, for example,
recorded crime in each local authority in the UK in
2004.
• Total institution
An organization which controls all aspects
of people’s daily lives. Primarily associated
with the work of sociologist Erving
Goffman, who saw the total institution as a
social microcosm which was controlled by
an hegemony with clear hierarchies and
sets of rules. Examples include prisons,
schools, mental institutions and
workhouses.
• Traditional crime
Those acts upon which criminal justice
agencies—and criminologists—have
typically focused their energies, such as
interpersonal violence, theft, burglary,
the use and distribution of illegal
substances, public order offences, and
so on; also frequently referred to as
‘street’ crime or ‘conventional’ crime.
• Transnational organized crime
A relatively recent term that is
applied to activities carried out by
crime groups across jurisdictions,
either by the same group or in
collaboration with others. It is
intended to reflect the globalizing
tendency of organized crime.
• Unconscious mind
The part of the mind that is inaccessible to the
conscious mind but which still affects behaviour and
emotions.
• Unemployment
The State of being available and able to work but
unable to find a paid job. In practice, difficult to
identify and measure. For example, government
rules as to the meaning of ‘available for work’ or
eligibility for benefit can change, altering the
numbers counted as unemployed without the
material position of any particular individual altering.
• V
• Validity
The extent to which the conclusions reached are credible
and plausible.
• Verdicts and sentencing
At the end of a trial, the magistrates (or the jury in a Crown
Court) will bring in a verdict—this derives from the Latin for
a ‘true statement’. This verdict will be guilty or not guilty.
After a verdict of guilty, the court will proceed to sentence.
A sentence is a court order which specifies the penalty
(from fines to community-based sanctions to
imprisonment) to be imposed and which gives legal
authority to agencies such as probation or the prison
service to enforce that penalty.
• Victim blaming
Ways of thinking about the causes of criminal
victimization which seek explanations from the
individual victim’s conduct and the victim’s
relationship with the offender, rather than looking
for wider social factors which help to explain
victimization. In the context of police investigations,
victim blaming can take the form of disbelieving the
victim’s report of a crime being committed, or giving
some types of incident lower priority on the grounds
that the victim is less deserving than others.
• Victim impact statements
A mechanism for allowing victims of crime
to give a written statement of the impact of
the offence upon them, materially and
emotionally, so that courts and other
criminal justice agencies can take this
information into account. An apparently
straightforward and sensible innovation
which has been controversial and largely
ineffective in practice.
• Victimology
A sub-discipline of criminology. It is concerned with
the study of victims of crime; the causes, nature and
impact of victimization; and the dynamics of
relationships between victims, offenders and the
environments in which victimization occur.
• Violence
Behaviour that intentionally threatens or does
physical harm, and involves the infliction of
emotional, psychological, sexual, physical and
material damage.
• Welfare model
One in which offending is taken to be a symptom of
psychological or social deprivation. The response
rests with providing expert-led treatment in order to
meet the individuals’ needs and so reduce offending.
• Welfare State
A State which takes the responsibility for providing
basic services to its population. Through systems of
social security it guarantees to meet people’s basic
needs for housing, health, education and income.
• ‘What works’
In its narrowest sense, ‘What works’ refers to a movement
that emerged in the 1980s and 1990s in North America and
spread worldwide. Its aim has been to revive interest in
offender rehabilitation through the promotion of
programmes for offenders, based on cognitive behavioural
psychology and supported by scientific evidence of success
in reducing rates of re-offending. The term is intended to
counteract the claim that ‘nothing works’ in offender
rehabilitation. In its broader sense, the term has come to
refer to a very wide-ranging and controversial political and
ideological agenda that emphasizes individual responsibility
for offending and minimizes the role of social determinants.
• Whig History
A term used to describe the views of some eighteenth and
nineteenth century British historians that British history
was a march of progress whose inevitable outcome was the
constitutional monarchy. It takes its name from the British
Whigs, advocates of the power of Parliament, who opposed
the Tories, supporters of the power of the King and the
aristocracy. Whig history is criticized for its overemphasis of
the roles played by key political figures and for downplaying
the historical importance of the struggles between different
classes and groups.
• White-collar crime
Offences committed by people of
relatively high status or enjoying
relatively high levels of trust, and
made possible by their legitimate
employment.
• Youth gangs Youth gangs typically consist of
young people who self-identify as a group
(i.e. having a group name); are generally
perceived by others as a distinct group; and
are involved in a significant number of
delinquent incidents that produce
consistent responses from the community
and/or law enforcement agencies (National
Crime Prevention Centre, 2007).