Ch14 Verified Test Bank Comparative Criminology and

14

Comparative Criminology and Globalization

CHAPTER OUTLINE

This chapter compares U.S. crime and crime rates with that of other societies.

14.1 Approaching Comparative Criminology

Most theories about crime stem from the sociocultural context of a few Western societies, especially those that speak English. Comparative or cross-cultural criminology can potentially remedy the resulting ethnocentrism, allowing us to see whether crime generalizations derived from one’s own society necessarily apply to crime in all other parts of the globe.

The Goal(s) of Comparative Criminology

Comparative criminology is the systematic and theoretically informed comparison of crime in two or more cultures to create universal concepts and generalizations. According to Clinard and Abbott (1973) comparative criminology should proceed in three stages. Every generalization about crime should be tested (1) in one culture at a single point in time; (2) across two cultures that share some common sociological feature; and (3) across cultures that are completely dissimilar. However, societies sometimes differ in their basic definitions of crime; police procedures also vary. Given this, five procedural rules should be observed when making cross-cultural comparisons (cf. p. 355). For example, the comparison must use the same definition of a criminal behavior. Other rules help establish causation by ruling out variables that correlate with crime in one circumstance but not others. As illustration, Table 4.1 provides raw homicide data for various industrialized countries, 2006–2011. According to these data the United States has by far the highest homicide rate, about three times that of Canada and four times that of England and Wales. But the data cannot be accepted at face value; we must consider how the data are constructed in each country. Criminal definitions and patterns of reportability vary. Two other problems in comparative criminology are transnational crime and cultural relativism—each linked to the mutual influence between globalization and crime.

Transnational Crime

The chapter opens with six vignettes that demonstrate the complexity of transnational crime (TNC): crime that is committed across borders or across national boundaries. The UN (2010) estimates the cost of “goods and services” TNC at $870 billion annually, or about 1.5 percent of world GDP. Examples include trafficking animals in China and the United States through Latin America, data from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) suggesting the involvement of Russian organized crime in journalist murders, a prostitution ring that forced Mexican women into prostitution in New York and New Jersey, hacking credit card data then plundering ATMs in multiple countries, and a Kentucky couple who effectively enslaved a Bolivian woman as a domestic worker in their home. In all cases it is difficult to specify jurisdiction, the origin and location of the criminal acts, and even how to define the activity. TNC tends to blur the boundaries of traditional units of comparative analysis (e.g., “society,” “culture,” and “nation”). Transnational crimes typically involve criminal syndicates, but governments and those who patrol national boundaries may also be involved. The numerous forms of transnational crimes include terrorism; trafficking in persons, identities, animals, and human organs; drug trafficking; financial crimes; environmental crime; espionage and the illegal gathering of information; and trafficking in precious goods, such as metals, art, and archaeological artifacts. The complexities of these crimes make comparison difficult, but criminologists are exploring what makes a society vulnerable to TNC, for example, failed states, tyrannical law and order (Taliban in Afghanistan), or societies with weak militaries and/or systems of social control.

Cultural Relativism

When interpreting cross-national data, scholars must be aware of and cautious about cultural relativism.

Cultural relativism has two forms: epistemological and methodological. Epistemological relativism involves the claim that one can understand another culture only through the prism of one’s own culturally determined system of values, thereby implying that comparative studies are ultimately futile. Methodological relativism is a strategy that operates as a sensitizing device to variation in the definition and meaning of crime in other cultures.

A Case Study of Comparative Sexual Deviance

To demonstrate issues of relativism, the authors discuss a classic case study from comparative anthropology. Tables 14.2 and 14.3 provide data from Brown’s (1952) study of comparative sexual prohibitions, demonstrating that in every known society a variety of sexual practices are regulated differently. Brown argued that all 110 societies she studied prohibited the same, or similar, sexual practices with relatively common patterns of “punitiveness” and “permissiveness.” Besides the fact that Brown’s characterization of “simple” societies is heavily based on a Western ethnocentric idea of “developed” societies, there are at least two other problems with her generalizations. First, the culturally relative concept of “incest” was taken for granted by Brown as meaning the same thing across cultures, yet incest is defined differently in different cultures. This violates the principle that generalization must rest on “an identity between the [compared] practices.” Comparisons between simple and complex societies are most likely to be problematic. Under the Sexual Offenses Act of 2003, sexual intercourse between first and/or second cousins is legal in England and Wales but is illegal in nearly half of U.S. states. Second, her generalized assumption that punishments are rank-ordered in every society is clearly misinformed. Death might not be the most “serious” punishment inflicted on deviants; for example, in many societies banishment or exile might be considered a graver punishment. Edward Snowden’s 2013 flight to Moscow is illustrative. Is the exile a refugee, hero, outlaw, or welfare immigrant? Severity of punishment must be understood in its specific cultural context. \

Toward Uniform Cross-National Crime Data?

Wolfgang’s classic study identified data adequacy and reliability as core problems for comparative criminology. Interpol data assume that all countries view crimes such as homicide and rape equally seriously. Wolfgang made three proposals to make data more conducive to cross-national comparisons. First, to standardize data “a team of experts from an international organization” (such as the U.S. Department of Justice) could help develop routine reporting practices. Second, legal definitions of crimes could be eliminated in favor of information about the type and extent of injury or property damage. Third, Wolfgang proposed a psychophysical weighting scale that would permit comparison of the relative seriousness of crime. Issues are raised, however, when one considers what the central theoretical problem of criminology should be. If criminological generalizations are based solely on a simplistic legalistic definition of crime, then criminology is based exclusively on the values enshrined in criminal law (see section 1.2).

Evaluation of Comparative Criminology

Comparative criminology provides the opportunity to test monocultural theory but it is fraught with problems, including blurring the very object of comparative criminological study—society and culture. Clinard and Abbott’s three stages of comparative testing framework is helpful, but what criteria should be used to address the third stage—comparison of “dissimilar” societies? Perhaps the solution is to follow Dixon’s (1977) advice “to maximize his [sic] understanding of alien cultures by honest-to-God fieldwork, moral charity, intellectual humility and a determination of the taken-for-granted assumptions of both his own and others’ cultural milieu” (p. 363).

14.2 Comparative Crime and Victimization Data

Cross-National Crime Data

Most comparative data are from the United Nations, Interpol, and WHO. Private human rights organizations such Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Oxfam, International Red Cross, and Doctors Without Borders also provide data.

1. The United Nations has collected worldwide crime statistics since 1946. Within the framework of creating stability and peaceful world conditions (Article 55), the United Nations officially promotes higher standards of living, full employment, social and economic development, solutions to international problems, and universal respect for human rights. The United Nations tries to systematically gather data on crime around the world, and disseminates its data in many ways. It publishes the “Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice” booklets, which compile information on human rights, capital punishment, and torture; prison labor, aftercare, parole, and recidivism; economic development, crime, and colonialism; juvenile delinquency; and ethical standards in criminal justice. Unfortunately these data are seldom useful for comparative criminologists, as the articles usually only provide data on one country. The United Nations also disseminates data through its Surveys on Crime Trends and Operation of Criminal Justice Systems (UNCJS), as well as on its website (http://www.uncjin.org/).

2. Interpol, the International Police Organization, is based in Lyon, France, and has published crime data biennially since 1950. In 2013 there were 190 member nations contributing data from national criminal justice agencies to the Interpol clearinghouse. Crimes include murder, sex offenses and rape, serious assault, thefts, fraud, counterfeiting, and drug offenses. Interpol also has occasional data on crimes against humanity, terrorism, trafficking of persons, the illegal drug trade, and corruption. The police-based data is plagued by idiosyncrasies, making comparison difficult.

3. The Comparative Crime Data File (CCDF) compiled by Archer and Gartner (1984), documents both raw numbers of offenses and offense rates for murder, manslaughter, homicide, rape, assault, theft, and robbery for 110 countries and 44 large cities up to 1982. It has some value for historical research.

Cross-National Victimization Data

Victimization surveys offer complementary and arguably more reliable information than police-based data (see section 2.3). As illustrated in Figures 14.1 and 14.2, victimization research reveals that some crime rates might be higher than they were originally thought to be in some countries. This casts doubt on some media claims regarding the claim that the United States had the highest rates of crime. But victimization studies also have problems including small sample sizes in some countries, the use of “households” as a unit of analysis (household size decreases as influence increases), and wording of questions.

International Crime Victims Surveys. More countries are beginning to participate in the International Crime Victims Surveys (ICVS), an attempt to systematically measure crime victimization based on consistent definitions. The ICVS includes standardized questions, sampling, and analytic techniques. Each country samples 500 to 2,500 subjects about 11 forms of victimization (categorized as “household property crimes” and “personal crimes”). If a subject has been victimized additional questions are asked about the incident(s). Questions about fear of crime and attitudes toward police are also asked. The ICVS have been conducted five times: 1989, 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004. The sixth is expected in 2014. In general, the ICVS shows that victimization levels increased between 1988 and 1991, stabilized or fell in 1995, fell further in 1999, and seemed to stabilize in 2004. Victimization for common crimes seems to have peaked earlier in the United States than elsewhere, although victimization levels are converging in the Western world. Trend data from Buenos Aires and Johannesburg also suggest a downturn. Reportability rates for five common crimes were found in 2004–2005 (figure 14.3). The highest rates were in Austria (70 percent), Belgium (68 percent), Sweden (64 percent), Switzerland (63 percent), and the United States (49 percent). Very low reporting rates were found in some parts of the developing world; Brazil, Cambodia, Peru, and Mexico were below 20 percent. Differences in reporting motivation could account for some of this because people might report to receive help, for retribution, or for prevention. For these and other reasons the authors urge caution when considering cross-national victimization data.

14.3 Cross-National Generalizations Regarding Crime

Criminologists have sought to make generalizations on three topics: countries with low crime rates, modernization and crime, and globalization and crime.

Countries with Low Crime Rates

Why some countries have lower crime rates than others is an important question. During most of the twentieth century, Japan had persistently low, stable, and occasionally declining crime rates. In 2007, for example, the Japanese homicide rate was 1.1 per 100,000 (or about one-fifth of the U.S. rate). Scholars have explained Japan’s consistently low interpersonal crime rates by referring to the extreme levels of conformity expected and enforced in Japanese culture (via childrearing practices, harsh criminal penalties, and the “surrogate family” of corporations, for example). The authors reject any explanation based only on social control, since rates might vary by crime type. Individual embezzlement might be low in Japan, but white-collar crime for the “good of the company” might be high, for example. The focus on conformity and control also neglects three facts (1) the relative absence of an underclass due to Japan’s comphrehensive system of social and welfare services; (2) income distribution is egalitarian in Japan; and (3) Japan does not have urban ghettos. Also, since Durkheim’s work on suicide, it is clear that different societies respond differently to social or personal crises. Thus, unemployment increases may be related to increased homicide in the United States but correlate with increased suicide in Japan.

The Republic of Ireland also has very low conventional crime rates. Compared with other industrialized countries, the homicide rate is low, and even with the economic downturn the overall crime rate has been declining in Ireland since 1975 (Table 14.1). The data both confirm and reject the arguments of modernization and urbanization as causes of crime in developed countries. The 41.3 percent increase in women killing men between the 1950s and 1970s is atypical for most developed societies. The lower crime rate overall might be a result of the heavy influence of Roman Catholicism in government, education, and family in the Republic of Ireland, as well as the good relationship between citizens and the Garda (in 2010, 81 percent of those surveyed were satisfied or very satisfied with the Irish police force).

Adler’s research in Nations Not Obsessed with Crime shows tremendous variation among low crime countries with respect to form of government, type of criminal justice system, unemployment rates, type of economy, and whether the population was homo- or heterogeneous. Shared among the low crime rate countries was the popular involvement in, or popularity of, the criminal justice system (regardless of CJS type)—meaning that the more people are involved in monitoring communities, the more crime rates are reduced. Another shared factor was social control outside the formal criminal justice system. Adler argued that these societies “transmit and maintain values by providing for a sharing of norms and by ensuring cohesiveness.” Maintaining traditional family values, she argues, is another form of informal social control that depends on transmitting shared values, whether religious, moral, or secular. Adler’s work is the only study to specify how high and low crime rate societies differ. But there are three main problems with her study: (1) little mention is made of the complex conceptual and methodological problems of comparative research; (2) the study relies on translations into English and official statements from government officials, which are prone to bias and misinterpretations; and (3) her study has been quite overtaken by recent developments, especially globalization and transnational crime.

Modernization and Crime

According to the “industrial convergence model” or modernization thesis, technological advances worldwide will lead to common social effects, such that all societies will eventually converge. The thesis has eight characteristics:

1. Populations grow rapidly, family size falls, women are emancipated, and marital relationships become more equal.

2. Knowledge, wealth, political power, and human rights become more available to the entire population.

3. The division of labor is highly developed, and education and occupation determine an individual’s position in society.

4. Ideological differences are minimized and a premium is placed on hard work and economic productivity.

5. Legal systems apply a more-or-less common law to individuals of all social ranks.

6. Although political ideologies are often quite different, the central government organizes all of society.

7. Human relationships tend to be specific and achievement oriented.

8. Large-scale urbanism ensures that social relationships are impersonal, superficial, and differentiated.

In criminology the convergence model suggests that violent crime, especially homicide, will increase as societies modernize. This effect is due to rapid industrialization and urbanization and resulting social upheaval: rapid population growth; negative effects on health, food, sanitation, and infant mortality; and the rise of the nation-state and mass social control apparatus, including criminal law and policing. At the same time a “civilizing process” (Elias, 1978) will occur, affecting areas as diverse as manners, public decorum, sporting rules, respect for individual rights, public executions, and the death penalty. Using WHO data for 34 countries, LaFree and Drass (2002) found support for the modernization thesis. Between 1956 and 1998, 70 percent of industrializing nations and 21 percent of industrialized nations experienced homicide booms. The United States, Greece, and Spain did also, but their increases are attributed to rapid social changes and disruptions specific to each country. The homicide rates began to drop as the disruptions lessened. In industrialized nations the best predictors of high rates of homicide are social and economic inequality and concentrations of poverty. These findings hold even when population size and density, gross national product, and urbanization are controlled for.

One of the basic problems with the current modernization theory is that crime patterns in Third World countries are not likely to repeat patterns of criminality in the more technologically advanced nations of the world. In China, for example, the transition from state socialism to market economy has not resulted in increases in homicide and assault, but by increased economically motivated crimes such as larceny, robbery, and fraud. The growth in commercial crime is slower in China than in former Soviet bloc and Eastern European transitional economies. Much Third World crime originates in the First World, resulting in transnational crime. One of the most egregious examples is the 1984 Union Carbide toxic chemical gas leak in Bhopal, India (see Box 12.3). Eight thousand people were killed immediately; by 2013 between 15,000 and 20,000 had died and 120,000 survivors continued to press injury claims for multiple serious health effects. Requests for extradition of Union Carbide CEO Warren Anderson from the United States by the Indian government continued unsuccessfully into 2013.

Modernization is not the result of some inner benevolent logic but, rather, a result of the dictates of economic and political power within a global capitalist economy. Crime patterns and large-scale acts of social harm cannot be understood if societies are viewed in isolation.

Globalization and Crime

No society on earth is untouched by the economic and cultural processes of globalization. However, the worldwide process of sameness is modified and contextualized by varying local circumstances. Globalization affects crime; even institutions of global governance commit crimes (e.g., the World Bank). Globalization affects how and under what conditions we work. Culturally, it affects our identities and how we live. Jock Young (2007) notes six ways the complex processes of globalization fuel discontent and various social and intersocietal problems worldwide.

1. Globalization widens income differentials.

2. Through cultural images and processes, globalization generates aspirations among the First World poor and throughout the Third World that are blocked by structural inequality and unfairness (i.e., relative deprivation).

3. Globalization creates a widespread crisis of identity (e.g., unemployment and family instability).

4. Perceptions of great unfairness and feelings of insecurity provide a rationalization for violence and a source of blame for crises.

5. Given the crises of identity and of security brought about by globalization, minor differences between and within societies and between ethnic or racial groups are accentuated (i.e., “narcissism”).

6. Globalization leads to identity wars and resulting crimes of passion, expressivity, and lifestyle.

American Exceptionalism: Crime and Incarceration in Comparative Perspective

The United States is exceptional in two ways: It has by far the highest homicide rate among technologically advanced nations and it has an unprecedented rate of mass incarceration.

The exceptionally high homicide rate needs to be considered in the context of the following:

1. The United States has had one of the highest rates of structural unemployment since 1945.

2. The United States has the largest underclass of persons economically, socially, and politically discriminated against based on race and ethnicity.

3. The United States has inferior social service systems for welfare, social security, health, and education.

4. The extreme commercialism of U.S. capitalism provides incentives and motivations to circumvent acceptable means of achievement.

5. The United States has one of the highest rates of firearm ownership in the world.

6. The U.S. criminal justice system is one of the most punitive in the world.

In 2011, the United States had about 2.25 million people incarcerated—this is both the most prisoners and the highest rate of incarceration in the world (see Table 14.4). According to Pew Research (2013) roughly one in 100 Americans is in prison or jail. The rate seems related to racial and social inequality, along with zero tolerance policies. There are also perhaps as many as 500,000 detainees held by immigration and military agencies. Incarceration rates for similar societies cluster between 55 and 120 per 100,000, but a few societies are much lower (e.g., Iceland at 40, Japan at 62, Sweden at 73, and Ireland at 85). Picking up on a theme of Chapter 1, it is not clear if increased surveillance and incarceration makes us more secure or more anxious. Our punitive policies appear to be part of the problem they supposedly address. Mass incarceration aggravates inequality and produces devastating consequences, especially for the poor and racial minorities.

CLASS EXERCISES

1. Distribute copies of paintings to students that can have ambiguous interpretations—such as Picasso’s cubist series—and have students write a brief synopsis of what the painting means to them. Ask students to gather in small groups and share their interpretations of the same painting. They will most likely have different reactions to the paintings and ideas regarding what the artist was trying to convey. Use this as an example of how each country might interpret a behavior differently depending on cultural patterns of behavior, social structure, and belief systems. What did each student bring to his or her interpretation of the painting in terms of beliefs, values, attitudes, and perceived norms? How might other countries react similarly with respect to normative behavior, structural inequalities, power, and authority?

2. Bring several short articles to class about the Iraq War from Time, Newsweek, the Nation, Mother Jones, and the Guardian. Divide the class into groups, with each group analyzing one of the articles. Then, bring the class back together and discuss the crimes identified from each perspective.

3. Have the students imagine that they are traveling to Afghanistan as a member of the Red Cross. They get lost, and they end up in a village where the residents do not speak English. Have the students discuss how they are going to figure out what is legal and what is not legal. Have them think about their normative behavior in terms of gender roles, eating, sleeping, and criminal behavior.

4. Show the film Broken on All Sides to illustrate and explore one aspect of “American exceptionalism”—mass incarceration. Have students discuss the film in relation to chapter 14 themes. The film also pairs well with Michelle Alexander’s book The New Jim Crow.

5. Visit the Interpol website, and have students explore the data and reports. Pick a particular crime and compare it in various societies. Have students consider how the differing social contexts might shape the definition of the crime, reportability rates, and so forth.

6. Visit the United Nations website (www.unodc.org), and peruse the topics studied by the Office of Drugs and Crime. Have students consider both what the UN studies and what it does not.

TEST BANK FOR CHAPTER 14

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. Comparative criminology is scholarly tradition that attempts to compare

a. one person’s experience with a type of crime to another person’s experience.

b. crime in different countries to create universal concepts and generalizations.

c. a particular form of crime in one U.S. city with the same type of crime in another U.S. city.

d. crime rates in one state to crime rates in another state to determine the effectiveness of each state’s crime policies.

2. Comparative criminology might address problems of “monocultural” theories developed

a. primarily in English-speaking Western countries.

b. in Japan.

c. in Central Europe prior to the formation of the European Union.

d. in Latin America.

3. Comparative criminologists point out that few criminological theories have been tested against the empirical and theoretical evidence of other

a. social trends.

b. types of behavior.

c. theorists.

d. societies.

4. Which of the following is a source of crime data for cross-national comparisons?

a. The Comparative Crime Data File

b. The Uniform Crime Reports

c. The International Crime Victimization Survey

d. The International Study of Juvenile Delinquency

5. The homicide rate in Japan is about __________ the rate in the United States.

a. three-quarters

b. half

c. one-fifth

d. one-tenth

6. The United Nations, in its efforts to create stability and peaceful international relations, promotes all of the following, EXCEPT

a. higher standards of living, full employment, and social and economic development.

b. intolerance of internal disputes within nations.

c. solutions of international economic, social, health, and related problems.

d. universal respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms regardless of race, sex, language, or religion.

7. How many nations were members of Interpol in 2013?

a. 71

b. 190

c. 210

d. 420

8. One of the major problems with the United Nations’ official crime data is that

a. they focus exclusively on a legalistic definition of crime.

b. there is inconsistency in defining the crimes being measured.

c. the theoretical value is limited because some of it includes estimates.

d. there are no problems with the United Nations’ data on crime.

9. According to the International Crime Victimization Survey, which of the following has a rate of reporting to police that is 20 percent?

a. The United States

b. Sweden

c. Brazil

d. Switzerland

10. How many types of victimization does the ICVS ask about?

a. 5

b. 11

c. 20

d. 35

11. Which of these is not one of the reasons why scholars should be cautious about the victimization data from around the world?

a. Cultural relativism.

b. Question wording reflects legal definitions of crimes.

c. Some samples are extremely large

d. Some countries calculate rates based on households, but others calculate using per-capita victimizations.

12. Epistemological relativism involves the claim that one can understand another culture only through the

a. prism of another’s frame of reference.

b. prism of one’s own culturally determined system of values, thereby implying that comparative studies are ultimately futile.

c. lens of a refined and humble scholar.

d. point of view of those victimized in that culture.

13. Methodological relativism is a strategy that operates as a sensitizing device to variation in the

a. theoretical approaches one uses in the study of crime.

b. political power structures present in every country.

c. definition and meaning of crime in other cultures.

d. none of the above.

14. In Brown’s study of comparative sexual practices, she attempted to demonstrate that every known society has

a. a range of approved sexual practices and another range of practices subject to taboo.

b. some level of sexual repressiveness.

c. some level of sexual permissiveness.

d. strict and violent prohibitions against any nonheterosexual, nonprocreative sexual activity.

15. Brown focused on all the following problems in her research, EXCEPT the

a. relative frequency with which specific types of sexual practices are considered deviant by different societies.

b. relative severity with which various deviant sexual practices are punished.

c. degree of correlation between relational and familial proximity between people and the prohibitions against incest.

d. degree of correlation between the frequency and the severity of punishments.

16. From her study, Brown claimed that the most forbidden sexual practices are

a. abortion, male homosexuality, and incest.

b. incest, abduction, and rape.

c. lesbianism, abortion, and incest.

d. homosexuality, incest, and rape.

17. From her study, Brown claimed that the least forbidden sexual practices are

a. sadomasochistic sexual practices.

b. homosexual affairs and group sex.

c. premarital affairs and sex with one’s fiancé.

d. premarital and extramarital affairs.

18. From her study of 110 societies’ sexual practices, Brown concluded that in every society when a sexual practice is forbidden the most, it is

a. punished the most severely.

b. punished the least severely.

c. never punished because no one finds out about it.

d. moderately punished.

19. Criticisms of Brown’s research hinge on the fact that she made certain assumptions about the

a. cultural meaning of each type of sexual practice.

b. seriousness of punishment as a form of redress.

c. importance of sex in society.

d. both a and b.

20. Criticisms of Brown’s research include that her findings cannot be

a. denied by studying the same cultures over again.

b. confirmed by studying other cultures.

c. replicated.

d. validated by historical data.

21. Which of the following is a problematic assumption made by Brown?

a. Homosexuality has been prohibited throughout time.

b. All sexual behavior is subject to societal regulation in culturally distinct ways.

c. Punishment is rank-ordered in terms of severity across all cultures at all times.

d. Incest practices across cultures are based on culturally sensitive definitions.

22. The aim of comparative criminology is the construction of

a. one overall theory of crime.

b. distinct, discrete, and objective measures of crime.

c. culturally insensitive measures of crime and deviance.

d. cross-cultural generalizations on crime.

23. Given the current state of comparative criminology, it appears suitable to make comparisons only between countries that have

a. different sociological and structural features.

b. common sociological and structural features.

c. common psychological and cultural patterns.

d. different psychological and cultural patterns.

24. Comparative criminologists point out that because legal definitions vary from place to place and culture to culture,

a. strict offense-by-offense comparisons are nearly impossible.

b. the comparativist must define for himself or herself what is meant by the terms of his or her research.

c. scholars must be in agreement on the theoretical approaches they are using.

d. scholars must all agree on the political implications of the research.

25. Wolfgang’s proposal for developing a reliable cross-national source of crime data includes

a. standardizing national police data.

b. surveying state attorneys general for their definitions of crime.

c. eliminating the legalistic definition of crime.

d. both a and c

26. Which of the following is NOT one of the three stages that a comparative criminological study must follow?

a. A generalization must be developed.

b. A generalization must be tested in one culture at a single point in time.

c. A generalization must be tested across two cultures that share the same common sociological features.

d. A generalization must be tested across cultures that are completely dissimilar.

27. Among the five rules for constructing a cross-cultural generalization about crime are the following, EXCEPT:

a. Event x is not the cause of rising crime rates if it occurs when rising crime rates do not occur.

b. Event x is not the cause of rising crime rates if it does not occur when rising crime rates do occur.

c. X is not necessarily the cause of the rising crime rates if one or more variables are present at the same time.

d. The generalization “x causes crime” stands on its own merit and requires no theoretical explanation.

28. One of the most commonly accepted generalizations about crime around the world is that crime is caused by

a. cultural conflict and social disorganization.

b. modernization and urbanization.

c. differential reinforcement and differential association.

d. economic inequality and age distributions.

29. According to the modernization thesis, as a society modernizes

a. the population will decline.

b. the division of labor will shift to a service sector economy.

c. knowledge, wealth, political power, and human rights become more available to the entire population.

d. ideological differences are highlighted and become the major source of violent conflict.

30. What was the death toll from the 1984 Bhopal chemical disaster by 2013?

a. 1,000 to 5,000

b. 4,000 to 7,000

c. 15,000 to 20,000

d. 20,000 to 24,000

31. The Union Carbide chemical leak disaster in Bhopal illustrates that the “modernization” thesis is

a. completely accurate.

b. mostly accurate.

c. harmlessly flawed.

d. seriously flawed.

32. Which of the following is not a characteristic of modernization?

a. Knowledge, wealth, and political power become more widely available.

b. Human relationships become more diffuse and ascribed (rather than oriented toward achievement).

c. A central government unites the country despite ideological political differences.

d. Women are emancipated and relationships between spouses become more equal.

33. Among the conclusions drawn by Archer and Gartner’s study of urbanism and homicide rates is that

a. absolute deprivation is more important than relative city size.

b. absolute city size corresponds perfectly to homicide rates.

c. the homicide rate in one city must be seen relative to the homicide rate for the rest of the country.

d. homicide rates increase dramatically with increased city size.

34. What have researchers found most closely associated with high rates of homicide?

a. Racial inequality.

b. Gross national product and technological underdevelopment.

c. Gender inequality and violent forms of masculinity.

d. Social and economic inequality and concentrations of poverty.

35. What reason have scholars given to explain Japan’s low crime rates?

a. Cultural expectations of conformity.

b. Rampant economic productivity.

c. Traditional family values where women raise children under the control of men.

d. Buddhist practices of humility and honor.

36. Why are some scholars critical of the standard explanation for Japan’s low crime rate?

a. It doesn’t explain high rates of individualistic white-collar crimes such as embezzlement.

b. The data focus on corruption and corporations rather than conventional crimes.

c. Japan’s egalitarian income distribution, extensive social and welfare services, and absence of urban ghettos are not considered.

d. The fixation on culture shows obvious Western cultural bias.

37. The Republic of Ireland’s low crime rates have NOT been attributed to

a. relatively good relations between police and citizens.

b. immigration.

c. the influence of the Roman Catholic Church.

d. all of the above are reasons for the low Irish crime rate.

38. What is the similarity between low crime countries according to Adler’s Nations Not Obsessed with Crime?

a. The popularity of and citizen participation in the criminal justice system.

b. Democratic government and high levels of educational spending.

c. A relatively high proportion of women in the government.

d. Slow rates of urbanization and low unemployment.

39. One major flaw with Adler’s study of low crime countries is that she

a. fails to measure crimes committed by women.

b. does not provide an adequate measure for economic inequality.

c. directly challenges the cultural definitions of crime in each country.

d. fails to tackle the tough conceptual and methodological issues facing comparative criminology.

40. Which country is the major exception to the modernization thesis?

a. The United States

b. Ireland

c. Brazil

d. Canada

41. Which of the following is a true statement about incarceration in the United States?

a. Although it is high, it is similar to that of other technologically developed nations.

b. The United States incarcerates the highest number of people, but it does not have the highest rate of incarceration.

c. The U.S. rate of incarceration is one of the lowest among technologically developed nations.

d. The United States incarcerates the highest number of people and has the highest rate of incarceration in the world.

42. How many people were incarcerated in the United States in 2011?

a. less than 1 million

b. a little over 1 million

c. 2.25 million

d. over 3 million

43. Which of the following is NOT part of the “civilizing process”?

a. Bans on sports that use animals.

b. Increased respect for individual rights.

c. An expanded network of public surveillance.

d. Better manners and comportment in public.

44. Which country has by far the highest rate of incarceration?

a. Saudi Arabia

b. the United States

c. Israel

d. South Africa

45. Which of the following is a true statement about LaFree and Drass’ test of the modernization thesis?

a. WHO data did not support it.

b. WHO data were mixed and could neither support nor refute it.

c. WHO data supported it with no contravening cases.

d. WHO data supported it but with a few exceptional cases.

46. Transnational crime is crime committed

a. in only one country.

b. in one state.

c. across borders or national boundaries.

d. none of the above.

47. How does the process of globalization fuel social and intersocietal problems, including crime?

a. Globalization widens income differentials and leads to identity wars.

b. Globalization generates aspirations among the First World poor and throughout the Third World.

c. Globalization generates feelings of relative deprivation.

d. All of the above.

48. Which country has no standing army?

a. Canada

b. Mexico

c. Ireland

d. Costa Rica

49. In what way is the United States truly “exceptional”?

a. We have the most just system of criminal justice in the world.

b. We have the highest rate of incarceration in the world.

c. We have the highest homicide rate among technologically developed nations.

d. Both b and c are correct.

50. How many African American men are incarcerated in the United States?

a. 1 in 200

b. about 1 in 100

c. 1 in 75

d. 1 in 15

True or False Questions

1. _____ The aim of comparative criminology is to make generalizations about crime within social contexts and cross-national parameters.

2. _____ Epistemological relativism holds that because one can never understand the beliefs of cultures different from our own, we must compare our culture with other cultures.

3. _____ Methodological relativism is a strategy for comparing different cultures and, at the same time, attempts to respect the facts of cultural diversity.

4. _____ In a study of sexual practices in 110 societies, Brown found that there is no universal taboo against incest.

5. _____ The modernization thesis predicts that violent crime will decrease as countries develop.

6. _____ The urbanization thesis suggests that low crime rates in urban areas result from the relatively more sophisticated acceptance of ethnic pluralism present in modern cities.

7. _____ Japan has been hailed as a society with low crime rates as a result of the extreme level of expected conformity.

8. _____ Punitive penal policies are a violent part of the very problem they are apparently designed to solve.

9. _____ Police-based crime data are much more reliable than data from private human rights organizations such as Amnesty International or Doctors Without Borders.

10. _____ The United States incarcerates black men at a rate higher than that of South Africa.

11. _____ The United States has one of the lowest incarceration rates in the world.

12. _____ Globalization has no effect on the rate of crime.

13. _____ Cross-national data are completely reliable.

14. _____ Epistemological relativism holds that because we can never understand the beliefs of cultures different from our own, we cannot compare our culture with such cultures.

15. _____ Countries across the world are increasingly cut off from each other, making it relatively easy to compare cultures and crime rates.

16. _____ The United States has the lowest homicide rate among technologically advanced societies.

17. _____ In addition to persons who are in jail or prison, the United States has approximately 500,000 detainees in immigration and military facilities.

18. _____ Although similar societies cluster at a rate of 55–120 per 100,000, the rate of incarceration in the United States is 716 per 100,000.

Essay Questions

1. Write a brief essay that demonstrates your understanding of comparative criminology. What is it and what does it attempt to do? What are some of the major sources of data for comparative criminologists? What sorts of issues must criminologists take note of when making cross-cultural crime comparisons?

Required content:

1. Comparative criminology is the systematic comparison of crime in two or more cultures.
2. Comparative criminology looks for offending and victimization patterns and attempts to arrive at generalizations related to them.
3. Data sources include large-scale international organizations such as the UN, Interpol, and WHO. Private human rights organizations (such as Doctors without Borders, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch) also provide data.
4. One major problem of comparative criminology is “cultural relativism.”
5. Extreme “epistemological” relativism implies the impossibility of making any comparisons.
6. “Methodological” relativism reminds us that we need to pay attention to how other societies define various crimes since we might not be comparing the same thing (i.e., the problem of “identity”).

Additional content:

1. Comparative criminology is also called “global criminology” or “border-crossing criminology.”
2. One question comparative criminology attempts to answer concerns the effect of globalization on crime in various societies (e.g., what social conditions are conducive for transnational crime?).
3. Victimization studies may also be used in comparative context, but they also have problems of identity.
4. Interpol data are so idiosyncratic that their reliability and validity are suspect.
5. Incest is one example of the problem of identity.

2. Summarize the modernization thesis, including why it is controversial, data that support the thesis, and the few cases that seem not to.

Required content:

1. The modernization thesis argues that technological development produces common effects in different societies, leading to a sort of convergence or similarity
2. In criminology, the modernization thesis suggests that as societies modernize their homicide rate increases dramatically.
3. In support of the thesis, LaFree and Drass used WHO data to show that 70 percent of industrializing nations but only 21 percent of industrialized nations had homicide “booms” between 1956 and 1998.
4. However, Spain, the United States, and Greece—all developed nations—also had homicide booms during this period.
5. It is unlikely that Third World crime patterns will simply repeat patterns from the developed world.
6. In China, for example, homicide and assault have not increased alongside the transition to a market economy. (Instead, economically motivated crimes and commercial crimes have increased.)

Additional content:

1. The modernization thesis is sometimes called the “industrial convergence model.”
2. The thesis initially arose in the early 1960s.
3. The thesis is related to the “civilizing process”—that is, the cultivation of less formal but very effective forms of social control.
4. The boom in the United States seems related to widespread political turmoil in the 1960s and 1970s.
5. The rise of commercial crimes in China is slower than that occurring among former Soviet bloc and Eastern European countries that are transitioning out of socialism.
6. The homicide boom in Greece seems related to the fall of the military junta in 1974.
7. In Spain, the boom seems related to Franco’s death in 1975.
8. Both Japan and Ireland have low rates of homicide. But trends in Ireland both support (decreased rate of familial homicide and increased stranger homicide since the 1960s) and challenge (homicide did not increase as agriculture collapsed) the modernization thesis.

3. Some of the most interesting questions posed by comparative criminologists concern societies with low crime rates. Identify two such societies, and briefly discuss what might account for the lower rates and any controversies that might surround them.

Required content:

1. Japan is an example of a society with a historically low crime rate.
2. The Republic of Ireland is another society with a historically low crime rate.
3. For Japan, some analysts point to informal social controls that produce pressure for conformity and Japan’s efficient and well-respected police force.
4. For Ireland, analysts often point to the influence of Roman Catholicism on the government, family, and education. The Irish police force is also well respected.
5. Beirne and Messerschmidt reject any analysis of Japan that is limited to social control mechanisms. They point out that different societies respond differently to social and political crises.

Additional content:

1. The insight that different societies respond differently to crisis is similar to Durkheim’s analysis of suicide.
2. Increased unemployment may lead to increased homicide in the United States but increased suicide in Japan.
3. Adler’s research is the only systematic exploration of differences between high crime and low crime societies.
4. Adler identified some shared trends in low crime societies, for example, low urban populations and population density, agriculture, a higher crude death rate, and fewer phones and radios.
5. Adler also found amazing variation in terms of economic system, form of government, type of religion, capital punishment, unemployment, and rate of urbanization.
6. One thing shared by the diverse low crime countries was the increased popularity of the criminal justice system.

4. Transnational crime (TNC) is sometimes called border-crossing crime. Either way this form of crime poses specific problems for criminologists. Briefly explain what some of these problems are and why they are problematic.

Required content:

1. With TNC it is often difficult to pinpoint where the crime originates, where it was located, and how many jurisdictions are involved.
2. TNC often blurs some of the basic comparative categories of criminology, such as society, nation, or culture.
3. TNC also takes a surprising array of forms, making comparison difficult.
4. One area of inquiry related to TNC concerns factors that make societies more susceptible to it, but analysts disagree as to causes.
5. Another focus of work explores how globalization processes play out differently in different societies.

Additional content:

1. Some criminologists point to failed states as a source of vulnerability.
2. Other criminologists point to tyrannical forms of law and social control.
3. Other possible causes include long borders, corrupt politicians, weak informal social control, and weak militaries.
4. Different societies collect their data differently.
5. Societies also differ in how seriously they view specific criminal acts.

Additional Sources

Alexander, Michelle. 2010. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: The New Press. An analysis of race-related social, political, and criminal justice system phenomena, including the mass incarceration of African-American and Latino men in the United States

Broken On All Sides (2012): Documentary film that explores racial inequalities in the U.S. criminal justice system, based in part on Alexander’s book (2010) regarding mass incarceration of racial minorities as a form of the “new Jim Crow.”

The FBI web page on organized crime provides data and analyses related to TNC. http://www.fbi.gov/about-us/investigate/organizedcrime.

Harris, Kamala. 2014. Gangs Beyond Borders: California and the Fight Against Transnational Organized Crime. California Office of the Attorney General. Available online at http://oag.ca.gov.

Transnational Organized Crime. 2012. 66 (1). A special issue of The Journal of International Affairs. Available online at http://jia.sipa.columbia.edu/transnational-organized-crime/.

United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime. Various research publications related to transnational crime patterns available for download at www.unodc.org.