The Problem of Crime Chapter 1 Test Bank

PART I: INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINOLOGY

1

The Problem of Crime

CHAPTER OUTLINE

1.1 Images of Crime

This chapter introduces students to the complexity of the study of crime and encourages students to understand crime by going beyond their own observations and opinions.

Crime as a Social Problem

The annual cost of crime in the United States is an estimated $1.7 trillion. According to a 1999 study this figure is more than four times higher than the annual budget of the U.S. Defense Department and amounts to $5,100 per person. Given the increased prison population and growth of cyber and environmental crime, this estimate is almost certainly too low today. Crime and its effects are considered social problems. Social problems are not merely conditions; they are concerns that vary by individual, group, time, and place. Social problems are constructed by (1) the arguments, rhetoric, and power of claims makers; (2) the pressure tactics of powerful private interest groups; and (3) the professional utterances of public officials. For example, child abuse was not considered a social problem until the 1960s. Other examples of how social problems vary in time and space include inequality, animal lab experimentation, marijuana, prostitution, and gambling—all of which have been seen as problems in some times and places but not others. Diverse claims makers/moral entrepreneurs are central to defining social problems. The Department of Justice, organizations such as the AMA and NRA, and even popular musicians help construct crime as a social problem. Two other factors critical in this process are fear of crime and crime in the mass media.

Crime and the Culture of Fear

Forty years ago a national study predicted an increasingly barricaded society in the near future. To a large extent these predictions have come true, especially in relation to increasing security measures taken by private citizens and the government. Fear of crime seems to be generating much of the contemporary quest for security. “Get tough on crime” rhetoric shape campaigns, leading to public support for harsh penalties and laws such as Three-strikes and Zero Tolerance. Economic concerns also increase public support for crime-related organizations such as Guardian Angels. Since 9-11, the USA Patriot Act, and the Port and Maritime Security Act have increased surveillance of public spaces. CCTV has recently been deployed in the “war on crime,” and drones may be next. Whether such surveillance deters crime is not clear. The Boston Marathon bombers were identified by CCTV and camera phone footage. In Britain, there is one private video surveillance camera per thirty-two people; some estimate that the average Londoner is filmed three hundred times per day. However, no more than 3 percent of street robbers are identified by CCTV. Even so, researchers such as Reid and Andersen (2012), claim that CCTV has “probably reduced” both crime and fear of crime.

The highest level of fear has transferred from violent street crime to terrorism since 9-11. Despite the fact that there has been a sharp decline in violent crime since the 1990s, 68 percent of Americans believe the crime problem is worsening (Gallop 2013). The same poll found that 75 percent of people worry about crime and violence either “a great deal” or a “fair amount” of the time. Other fears have also increased, including fear related to unemployment, outsourcing of jobs, health, environmental issues, nuclear arms, and viral diseases such as SARS and Swine Flu. Images of crime abound in mass media and popular culture. In the midst of these changes scholars debate what causes fear of crime (increased media coverage?), how to measure it, and how to distinguish fear of crime from other anxieties. Fear of crime may be related to “American exceptionalism” when it comes to violent crime and homicide, but the relationship between crime and fear of it is problematic.

Fear of crime reflects many dynamics, but research is consistent that fear of crime (and its related trauma) is greatest among the “relatively powerless sections” of society—the elderly, women, and racial minorities. Three different studies coalesce on the finding that TV watching (e.g., local news) is linked to high fear of crime, although neighborhood racial diversity is also important. Studying the triangular relationship among fear of crime, crime itself, and media crime images of crime is one of criminology’s most important tasks (see Figure 1.1).

Crime in the Mass Media

Beirne and Messerschmidt make three major points:

1. Both the amount and type of are distorted in the media. The result is an incorrect image of our society as having an enormous amount of violent crime.

2. The media have created the misleading impression that crime rates have consistently increased; however, the violent crime rate has fallen sharply in the last two decades.

3. The media distort the incidence of nonviolent crime.

The vast majority of information the general public receives about crime comes from the mass media, especially TV and print. Much of the information does not resemble actual crime patterns. Crime consumes one-third of television programming in the United States, for example, reality shows (e.g., Cops, Jail, America’s Most Wanted), prime-time dramas (e.g., NCIS, Castle, Law and Order-SVU), and documentaries (e.g., 20/20, 60 Minutes). Most of this coverage focuses on violent street crime, leading to distorted public “knowledge” of crime. For example, nonviolent crime represents 47 percent of reports to police but only 4 percent of newspaper coverage. “Hook and hold” news tactics focus on public safety to attract viewers. Class and race shape which crimes receive news coverage. Time and Newsweek for example, depict crime as a primarily urban African American problem. Hurricane Katrina coverage depicted African Americans as victims and whites mostly as saviors, even though poor whites were also victims. Some types of violence are more likely to be depicted, depending on the identities of victims and offenders. Studies of newspapers and TV reveal that homicides of marginal groups, especially people of color, are least likely to be reported. Even when media report an accurate amount violent crime, they tend to distort its seriousness. White-collar crime is the least common form of TV crime. In their coverage of corporate scandal major print media in “business friendly” ways. Media help create “moral panics” (Box 1.1. shows the conditions conducive to moral panic). But some potential panics, such as the “KG and KX series” photographs and Internet child pornography, “fail to launch.”

Going Public: Newsmaking Criminology and Public Criminology

Criminologists can help correct distorted media images by making their findings more available to the public. Newsmaking Criminology is a conscious effort to interpret, influence, and shape what is “newsworthy” and place crime stories in their proper contexts. Because “sound bite” formats do not favor reasoned analysis, criminologists have hosted radio shows that address various crime topics in detail. The book Public Criminology (Loader and Sparks 2011) notes that “going public” has its own dilemmas, such as “relevance” versus being a detached objective observer, and the need for researchers to sometimes act in evangelical fashion.

1.2 Crime, Criminal Law, and Criminalization

While the definition of crime seems universal and immutable, what defines crimes varies from place to place, time to time, and depends on a wide variety of circumstances. Captain William Kidd, for instance, can be seen as either a legal privateer or illegal pirate. With the Marihuana Tax Act, marijuana became illegal overnight at the Federal level, but the law is not necessarily enforced today, Moreover, recreational marijuana use has been decriminalized in some states; other states have legalized medical marijuana. Crime then, varies historically, cross-culturally, and is politically contested, making it difficult to define. The most precise definition is legalistic: crime is that which violates criminal law.

Crime as a Legal Category

Legalistic definitions of crime date to twelfth-century English common law. Their formal purpose is to protect the public. Criminal law is separate from canon (religious) law and civil law (torts and contracts). Only criminal law provides access to the criminal justice system. Felonies compared to misdemeanors distinguish the severity of the infraction and its punishment. Felonies are punishable by death or imprisonment for more than one year. Misdemeanors are punishable by a fine or confinement in a local jail for less than one year. In criminal law an act must be forbidden (there is no crime without law) and some form of punishment must be identified.

A criminal act must be voluntary or involve voluntary omission or failure to act; no one can be prosecuted for bad thoughts. See Figure 2.1 for examples of actus reus. Culpability also depends on criminal intent or mens rea. Intent is an elusive concept. Juveniles and those certified as “insane” or “severely retarded” are seen as incapable of intent. Strict liability offenses such as statutory rape or felony murder do not require intent. The Model Penal Code links guilt to acts that occur (1) with the purpose to do a forbidden act, (2) with knowledge of the nature of the act, or (3) with recklessness or negligence. Criminal responsibility can be mitigated or avoided if the act is seen as socially legitimate. The defense of “justification” can be raised in instances of duress (e.g., homicide in the face of grave danger), necessity (no other reasonable course of action), or duty (often raised by public officials such as police officers). Two conditions may negate mens rea: entrapment and/or insanity. Criminal intent assumes “free will,” but the authors note that individual acts are influenced by one’s social position and circumstances. As a discipline, criminology does not limit itself to the legalistic definition of crime. The legal approach is often too narrow and tautological.

Law and State

Law (as codified norm) is something other than simply a statement about what is permissible and what is prohibited. Law is a social phenomenon that is dynamic, not static, and exists within specific historical conditions. Less complex societies that experienced relatively little social inequality had minimal laws governing daily life. With the rise of agriculture, society became more complex, inequality increased, the state emerged as the central political institution, and laws proliferated. Laws have been enacted to preserve the privilege and interests of the powerful. Law is a form of social control, aimed at producing conformity to the expected rules of daily interaction. When such rules are violated, laws are applied to generate an official response to those violations. The criminalization process thus reveals the relationship between social inequality and law.

Law and Criminalization

“Criminalization” refers to “the process whereby criminal law is selectively applied to social behavior.” It involves (1) the enactment of legislation that outlaws certain types of behavior; (2) the surveillance and policing of that behavior; and (3) if detected, the punishment of that behavior. The debate about criminalization focuses on how the criminalization process has contributed to the rise of a humane and rational modern civilization, or whether the process has been an instrument used to defend the interests of the powerful, which contributes to specific forms of social inequality. The authors tend to view criminalization and criminal law as reflecting the interests of the powerful.

1.3 Crime as a Sociological Problem

The purpose of criminology is to chip away at stereotypical or value-laden images to explain the complex social reality of crime. The academic discipline of criminology originates with both classical (1760–1820) and positivist (1820–1890) traditions. As discussed in chapter 3, aspects of both approaches still flourish. “Criminologist” appeared in Britain in the 1850s. “Crimnology” as the study of crime was first used in 1885 by Raffaele Garofalo. The field was established in the United States around 1900. Box 1.2 details the rise of U.S. sociology as linked to (1) the Progressive Era (1890—1910); (2) expansion of American universities from the mid-1870s on; and (3) government recognition of new academic associations (1865–1905), including the ASS (American Sociological Society). The academic roots of criminology stem from the social sciences; modern day criminology is interdisciplinary, but most criminologists are drawn from sociology. Because the legalistic definition of crime is limiting, sociologists favor five other definitions, each of which is discussed in turn.

Crime as a Violation of Conduct Norms

In 1938, Thorsten Sellin objected to relying exclusively on the legal definition of crime because it simply reinforced the conventional public perception of crime, and thereby limited criminological investigations. Instead, Sellin advocated that “conduct norms” should form the basis of a sociological definition of crime. These include conduct norms stemming from formal and informal controls: custom, tradition, ethics, religion, and rules of criminal law. Since every society has conduct norms, Sellin believed this sociological definition would offer new opportunities to investigate crime.

Crime as Social Harm and Analogous Social Inquiry

After Sellin, Edwin Sutherland (1949) expanded the definition of crime to incorporate the social harm that results from white-collar crimes as well as conventional crimes. Sutherland was especially interested in expanding the definition to include violations of regulatory laws that are not necessarily violations of criminal law but still cause social harm. Raymond Michalowski defines analogous social injury as “legally permissible acts or social conditions whose consequences are similar to those of illegal acts” (2007) that result in bodily harm, significant deprivation of human needs, and/or limitations on political and social participation. Examples include the U.S. government’s “Operation Gatekeeper” (a high-tech militarization of the U.S.-Mexico border), tobacco deaths, physician negligence, and job-related injuries and deaths. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2012) reports 438,00 annual deaths from tobacco, 200,000 people injured or killed by medical negligence, and 4,609 fatal work accidents in 2011. Given the numbers, it is important to expand the definition of crime beyond the legalistic approach.

Crime as a Violation of Rights

To some criminologists, crime is any behavior that violates human rights. That is, all human beings have inalienable rights (such as life and liberty) and violations of these rights should be viewed as criminal acts. Herman and Julia Schwendinger state that the definition of crime should be based on human rights. Specifically, they state that all humans should be granted rights that are absolutely essential to life (health, shelter, and food) and that are essential to a dignified human existence (freedom of movement, free speech, education, and employment). Thus a government that fails to address poverty could be considered criminal. Recent cases of U.S. “extraordinary rendition” and waterboarding under George W. Bush can be seen as violations of Article 17 of the Geneva Conventions. The CIA continued to waterboard and torture in the 2010 Libyan conflict. Increasingly, the rights of nonhuman animals are also considered. The rights approach opens the possibility that legal categories themselves can be criminal. Rights are cultural constructs that can be used as weapons, as in recent conflicts between China and the United States. Many societies in parts of Africa and the Middle East reject the idea of universal human rights and thus view its imposition as a form of imperialism.

Crime and Deviance

Defining crime contingent upon definitions of deviance must also be considered. Deviance is any social behavior or social characteristic that departs from a society’s conventional norms and standards and for which the person is sanctioned. The deviance perspective implies that there is nothing in the nature of any act to identify it as deviant. Rather, deviance is in the eye of the beholder, which directs attention to how deviance is constructed, by whom, and why.

Crime, Globalization, and Global Conduct Norms

Globalization refers to the worldwide process whereby individuals, people, economies, and nation-states are becoming increasingly interconnected and interdependent. Globalization processes affect crime. 9-11 cannot be understood outside the global context. Global conduct norms have emerged alongside the growth of international law since the Nuremberg Trials, creation of the United Nations, and the ICC via the 2002 Treaty of Rome. Examples of ICC offenders include former Bosnian president Radovan Karadvic (on trial for war crimes including Europe’s largest massacre since 1945); Thomas Lubanga (convicted in 2012 for war crimes in Democratic Republic of Congo); Cambodian Khmer Rouge leader Kaing Guek Eav, alias “Duch” (sentenced to life in prison for the murder of at least 14,000 people in the “killing fields”); Cote d’Ivoire president Laurent Gbabgo (charged in 2013 for crimes against humanity committed in 2010–2011); and a still active arrest warrant for Sudanese president Zomar Hassan al-Bashir. In 2013 the UN had peacemaking missions in 15 countries, such as Haiti, Mali, Lebanon, and the Ivory Coast. A new study by Pierotti (2013) shows that attitudes in favor of women’s rights and against intimate partner violence are spreading, but it is not clear how regular global conduct norms will become.

Assessment

Beirne and Messerschmidt focus on crime as a sociological problem. It should be noted, however, that the emphasis is on the overriding patterns of criminal behavior and victimization beyond the reductionist tendencies of individual explanations. This book does not take a fixed position concerning the definition of crime, but it does question the legalistic approach in some places (e.g., corporate and political crime, chapters 12 and 13). The book allows the students to understand crime and the work of criminologists from a variety of perspectives.

CLASS EXERCISES

1. Have students write a short two-page paper that compares a fictional portrayal of crime with an actual crime.

2. Watch an episode of a TV crime drama and have students identify the narrative line of a crime story including the “villain,” “the victim,” and “the hero.” In discussion, be sure to address the race, gender, and perceived class of each of these characters, and consider how these might influence public notions of the “crime problem.” It is also helpful to consider the “representativeness” of the depicted crime, for example, violent street crime rather than property or white-collar crime.

3. Have students collect popular news magazines and newspapers to bring into class. Require students to work in small groups to evaluate how their magazines and papers portray—and potentially distort—crime.

4. Have students watch reality-based crime programs for a week. During this week, they should record the race/ethnicity, gender, and perceived class of law enforcement compared to suspects. Also have students record who the advertisers are during the commercial breaks.

5. Split the class into groups, and have them establish a criminal code based on one of the sociological definitions of crime (ideally, one group per sociological approach). Have the groups present their codes to class, then discuss how their codes differ from the legalistic approach to the same phenomenon. Note that in many cases the legalistic approach might not even address the acts in question.

TEST BANK FOR CHAPTER 1

Multiple-Choice Questions

1. In 1970 the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence predicted that

a. private homes would be increasingly monitored by security equipment.

b. armed guards would be monitoring public schools.

c. gun ownership would be nearly universal.

d. all of the above

2. In 1970 the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence predicted that

a. American cities would experience widespread ethnic pluralism.

b. American suburbs would no longer exist due to terrorism.

c. streets and neighborhoods would be unsafe in differing degrees.

d. slums would be transformed into places for urban renewal.

3. Which of the following populations has the highest levels of fear of crime?

a. children in all communities

b. elderly, women, and racial minorities

c. African Americans, white-collar professionals, and law enforcement officers

d. blue-collar workers, Native Americans, and adolescents

4. Anderson, an economist, estimated that the annual cost of crime in the United States is

a. $450 billion.

b. $450 million.

c. $1,700 billion.

d. $800 million.

5. The cost of crime includes

a. crime-induced production.

b. opportunity costs and economic transfers.

c. the value of risks to life and health.

d. all of the above

6. After September 11, 2001, American’s greatest fear shifted from crime to

a. street crime.

b. terrorism.

c. environmental risks and hazards.

d. nuclear war.

7. The public’s view of social problems always includes

a. child abuse.

b. crime in general.

c. drug abuse.

d. none of the above

8. Which of the following has the greatest effect on whether a condition is perceived as a social problem?

a. political debate

b. the mass media

c. advertising

d. consumerism

9. Where do most people get their “knowledge” of crime from?

a. television

b. movies

c. the Internet

d. criminology courses

10. Approximately what proportion of total television programming is devoted to crime or law enforcement?

a. 10 percent

b. 80 percent

c. 33 percent

d. 50 percent

11. Which type of crime is least likely to be covered by television news?

a. rape

b. murder

c. white-collar crime

d. drug-related crime

12. When crime is reported on the evening news, it is primarily

a. white-collar crime.

b. violent street crime.

c. property crime.

d. political crime.

13. A recent study found that a majority of television shows depicted scenes of sexual harassment and that these offenses were

a. treated seriously by the proper authorities.

b. perpetuating the myth that sexual harassment is not a serious crime.

c. quickly defused by the targets of harassment.

d. always dismissed as unimportant in the work environment.

14. __________ is the least likely type of crime reported on television.

a. Violent street crime

b. Property crime

c. Public order crime

d. White-collar crime

15. What percentage of Americans has no experience with crime?

a. 90 percent

b. 75 percent

c. 33 percent

d. 25 percent

16. What is crime from a legal standpoint?

a. An unintentional act, committed with defense or excuse and modestly penalized.

b. An intentional act, committed without defense or excuse and severely penalized.

c. An unintentional act in violation of the criminal law, committed without defense.

d. An intentional act in violation of the criminal law, committed without defense or excuse and penalized by the state.

17. A basic principle expressed in English common law is:

a. no crime without law, no punishment without law.

b. no crime without criminals, no punishment without crime.

c. no criminals without crime, no state without punishment.

d. no law without lawyers, no crime without the state.

18. Which of the following is not a type of law?

a. canon law

b. criminal law

c. civil law

d. conditional law

19. Responsibility for a crime requires that criminal intent be evaluated. This intent includes if the defendant acted

a. purposefully.

b. knowingly.

c. negligently or recklessly.

d. All of the above are aspects of criminal intent.

20. Criminal responsibility can be avoided if the act was “justified” based on

a. insanity.

b. duress, necessity, or duty.

c. entrapment.

d. a disease of the mind.

21. The successful defense of “duty” to avoid criminal responsibility usually involves cases in which

a. anti-abortion activists kill abortion doctors to “save babies.”

b. firefighters break and enter a home to save a small domesticated animal.

c. police officers kill a person in the line of duty.

d. politicians engage in corruption because everyone else does it.

22. The ________ defense is successfully used when the defendant “lacks substantial capacity to appreciate the criminality (wrongfulness) of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the requirements of the law.”

a. entrapment

b. duress

c. duty

d. insanity

23. One problem with the legalistic definition of crime is that it is based on an assumption of

a. free will.

b. precedent.

c. habitual offending.

d. none of the above

24. Law is

a. the expressed will of God.

b. ultimately connected with justice.

c. a social phenomenon created by members of society under specific historical conditions.

d. immutable and never changing.

25. In hunter-gatherer societies

a. property was communally owned.

b. social classes did not exist.

c. an organized state or ruler did not exist.

d. all of the above.

26. As social inequality increases, law

a. decreases.

b. increases.

c. evaporates.

d. stagnates.

27. The rise of state governments and legal systems emerged within which historical condition?

a. postindustrial society

b. nomadic society

c. agricultural society

d. militant society

28. What does it mean to say that law serves a function of social control?

a. It manufactures conformity, suppresses deviance, establishes guilt, and provides for punishments.

b. It manufactures conformity, suppresses deviance, establishes guilt, and precludes punishment.

c. It manufactures deviance, suppresses conformity, establishes guilt, and executes punishment.

d. It manufactures conformity, suppresses deviance, excuses guilt, and forgoes punishment.

29. Criminalization refers to

a. the enactment of legislation that outlaws certain types of behavior.

b. the surveillance and the policing of outlawed behavior.

c. punishment for the offense (if detected).

d. all of the above.

30. The criminalization process maintains

a. the interest of the powerless and reduces the benefits of privilege to the powerful.

b. the interest of the powerful and tends to increase access to resources by the powerless.

c. the social inequalities throughout society by preserving the interest of the powerful.

d. social equality and treats all citizens fairly.

31. The term criminology derives from the latin crimen, which translates to

a. judgment, accusation, or offense.

b. criminal, offender, or judge.

c. prejudice, accusation, or justice.

d. action, movement, change.

32. Criminology, as a respectable academic discipline, was established within what era in U.S. history?

a. The Depression Era.

b. The Progressive Era.

c. The radical era of the 1960s.

d. The World War II Era.

33. Thorsten Sellin wanted to expand the definition of crime beyond the legalistic view. He saw crime as a

a. form of deviance.

b. violation of human rights.

c. violation of conduct norms.

d. social harm.

34. Defining crime as a violation of human rights means that criminologists may study ________ from inadequate guarantees of basic rights that are essential to life.

a. poverty and homelessness

b. limited health care availability

c. gender discrimination

d. all of the above

35. Edwin Sutherland suggested that crime should be understood within the context of the harm done, which means that

a. white-collar offenses would be criminally rather than civilly prosecuted.

b. anyone who harms another person, regardless of motive, would be criminally responsible.

c. everyone who inadvertently causes damage to another’s property would be criminally responsible.

d. none of the above

36. According to Raymond Michalowski, crime based on analogous social injury allows criminologists to study _________ acts as having similar consequences to criminal acts.

a. courageous

b. illegal

c. legal

d. discourteous

37. Based on the concept of analogous social injury, tobacco companies should be held criminally responsible for

a. nothing, because smokers choose their addiction.

b. the nearly 200,000 tobacco-related deaths each year.

c. the thousands of low birth-weight babies whose mothers smoke.

d. the cost to taxpayers for medical treatment for smokers.

38. Which of the following is an example of media bias regarding crime?

a. Mass media underreporting white-collar crime.

b. Mass media exaggerating the amount of violent interpersonal crime.

c. Mass media often distorting racial patterns of crime and victimization.

d. All of the above are examples of mass media bias regarding crime.

39. The process of defining crime is an inherently __________ activity.

a. radical

b. political

c. obfuscating

d. objective

40. Which of the following is not an advantage of the rights approach to defining crime?

a. The content of rights do not vary across cultures.

b. Some legal categories themselves might be considered criminal.

c. It is less objective than the legal approach is.

d. It would allow criminologists to consider the rights of animals.

41. When was the ICC created?

a. 1945

b. 1950

c. 2002

d. 2008

42. Because crime should be seen as a sociological problem, we must examine

a. how patterns of reproduction generate crime.

b. how patterns of political and economic power are distributed.

c. how patterns of social and ideological structures are created.

d. both b and c above.

43. One effect of globalization has been

a. an increase in opportunities for crime.

b. a creation of victims who are impacted by global crime.

c. an emergence of global conduct norms.

d. all of above

44. What historical event eventually led to the creation of the ICC?

a. Nuremberg Trials

b. September 11, 2001

c. My Lai massacre in Vietnam

d. Charges of “torture” during the Bush era

True or False Questions

1. _____ In 1970, the National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence predicted that, in the near future, society would be free of crime and violence because the known causes would be eliminated.

2. _____ The perception of social problems changes over time and place, and depends on the perspective of the group examining it.

3. _____ The media almost always portrays crime accurately.

4. _____ In a violence index from 1967 to 1987, researcher George Gerbner found that 80 percent of television programming contained violence.

5. _____ If one relies on the mass media for crime information, he or she will have an accurate image of crime in the United States.

6. _____ There is no behavior that is universally defined as criminal in all societies at all times.

7. _____ Criminal law, which deals with public offenses, is virtually the same as civil law.

8. _____ Felonies are offenses that carry less than one year in jail as a punishment.

9. _____ As societies become increasingly complex, more laws are passed to regulate transactions between those with power and those with less power.

10. _____ Criminalization is the process in which an offender is adjudicated through the criminal justice system.

11. _____ Defining crime based on conduct norms, as Thorsten Sellin advocated, requires a unified consensus of what is considered “right” and “wrong.”

12. _____ The mass media rarely alters the events of a crime.

13. _____ Law originated in a society that had little or no inequality.

14. _____ Crime is a category that has absolute and universal meaning.

15. _____ Globalization has not changed the dynamics of crime in the United States.

16. _____ Criminologists agree that the criminalization process represents increased humanity and rationality as states and nations modernize.

Essay Questions

1. Although many people think of crime as a legal problem, crime is also a social problem. Briefly explain what it means to describe crime as a “social problem.”

Required content

1. a social problem is a matter of concern or perception
2. objective conditions, no matter how bad, are not necessarily a social problem
3. perceptions of social problems vary by individuals and groups

Additional content

1. mass media are central to constructing social problems
2. claims makers and moral entrepreneurs are central features of social problems
3. fear is an important dynamic in constructing crime as a social problem

2. Demonstrate your understanding of the nature of criminal law by addressing its origin, its purpose, and the nature of criminal culpability.

Required content

1. criminal law originated with the emergence of social inequality (the transition to agriculture and state societies)
2. the purpose of criminal law is protecting the public from the wrongdoing of others
3. criminality culpability concerns blameworthiness, which rests on mens rea (intent) and actus reus (voluntary act or omission)

Additional content

1. mitigations/modifications/negations of culpability: insanity, entrapment, duress, duty, necessity
2. criminal law differs from other laws: it is coercive and professionally enforced
3. criminal law is not merely custom
4. infractions of criminal law cannot be handled informally

3. Compare and contrast the legalistic and sociological approaches to crime. In the course of your answer, be sure to identify how each approach defines crime and include at least one strength and one weakness of each approach.

Required content

1. legal approach: crime is defined by criminal law
2. sociological approach: uses criteria in addition to criminal law to define crime, e.g., conduct norms, social harm/analagous social injury, human rights, global conduct norms, deviance
3. strength of legal approach: clear and precise
4. strength of sociological approach: corrects bias in the values that underpin legalistic definitions (recognizes that criminal law is shaped by power and politics)
5. weakness of legal approach: limited by inability to address the politicized nature of criminal categories
6. weakness of sociological approach: much more complex and/or scholars disagree on which sociological approach is best

4. Briefly explain what the criminalization process is and why the authors argue that criminalization is not a neutral process.

Required content

1. enactment of legislation that prohibits an act
2. surveillance of the act
3. punishment if the act is detected
4. criminalization tends to reflect the interests of the more powerful members of society

Additional content

1. criminalization maintains inequality
2. criminalization sometimes results from power struggles
3. some scholars view the criminalization process positively; contributes to a more rational and humane society

Additional Sources

Best, Joel. 1993. Threatened Children: Rhetoric and Concern about Child-Victims. Chicago: University of Chicago.

Cavendar, Gray. 2003. Reality Television Constructs Crime. In J. Best and D. Loseke, eds., Social Problems: Constructionist Readings. New York: Aldine De Gruyter.

Ferrell, Jeff, and Neil Websdale, eds. 1999. Making Trouble: Cultural Constructions of Crime, Deviance, and Control. New York: Aldine De Gruyter.

Fishman, Joshua. 1978. Crime Waves as Ideology. Social Problems 25(5): 531–43.

Rome, Dennis. 2004. Black Demons: The Media’s Depiction of the African American Male Stereotype. New York: Praeger. (Chapter 3 discusses race and the UCR.)

Potter, Gary W., and Victor E. Kappeler. 2006. Constructing Crime: Perspectives on Making News and Social Problems. Long Grove, IL: Waveland.

Assassin of Youth (1935) and Marijuana (1936): Antidrug propaganda films that illustrate the construction of moral panics.

Crash (2004): A dramatic film useful for analyzing fear of crime, the malleability of “crime” definitions, racism, and the racialization of crime.

Illegal Drugs and How They Got That Way. Multipart series produced by the History Channel—useful for showing the historicity of crime and social problems.

Zilney, Laura J., and Lisa Anne Zilney. 2009. Perverts and Predators: The Making of Sexual Offending Laws. New York: Rowman & Littlefield.