Chapter Summary

CHAPTER 9: CRIME AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Crime is one of the social problems most feared by the average American. Even though most people have no daily exposure to criminal behavior, some people are obsessed with its perceived threat. These concerns are partly influenced by the popularity of television shows and movies that depict crime and violence and the emphasis crime receives by the news media. With the exception of 2001, the rate of serious violent crime has actually fallen over the past ten years.

The leading source of information on crimes reported in the United States is the Uniform Crime Report (UCR) which is annually published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The UCR divides crimes into the eight most serious crimes, called index crimes, and all other crimes that are referred to as non-index crimes. A similar classification of crimes for states is felony for more serious crimes and misdemeanor for relatively minor crimes.

The reporting and compilation of crime statistics present a number of problems to the FBI. Some laws vary in their definition and application from state to state. Victims of crime sometimes fail to report their victimization. Not all municipalities participate in responding to the FBI’s request for crime information.

An additional manner in which crime can be categorized and studied is by the nature of the crime itself. These six categories include violent crime, property crime, occupational crime, corporate crime, and juvenile delinquency.

Violent crime includes murder, rape, assault, hate crimes, and gang violence. Murder is the unlawful, intentional killing of one person by another. Manslaughter is the unintentional killing of one person by another. Mass murder is the killing of four or more people at one time and in one place by the same person. Serial murder is the killing of three or more people over a month by the same person. In the United States there were over 14,400 murders in 2003. Murder is an intra-racial crime with poorer and younger men and minorities being over represented as both actors and victims.

Rape is often thought to be a sexually motivated crime. In fact, however, it is an act violence in which sex is used as a weapon against a powerless victim. Rape takes various forms including forcible rape, statutory rape, and acquaintance rape. Statistics on rape are among the most misleading crime statistics because the crime often goes unreported. Rape is a crime that is gender specific with women being the victim and men the offender in most cases. Although there is no single profile of a rapist, most rapists are under twenty-five years of age, white, divorced or separated, poor, unemployed or in school. Offenders and victims are usually of the same race and class.

Gang violence includes murder, rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Typically gangs are composed primarily of young males of the same race or ethnicity. Gang violence may be influenced by the socialization of males for male dominance and the patriarchal social structure. Gang violence, as well as individual violence, may take the form of a hate crime. In a hate crime an individual or individuals are singled out for attack because of an ascribed status, such as race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or disability.

The most common property crime is burglary, unlawful or forcible entry or attempted entry of a residence or business with the intent to commit a serious crime. African-Americans and Latinos/as have a higher than average risk of being burglarized than whites, as do families with incomes earning less than $7,500. Other common property crimes include auto theft, shoplifting, and identity theft. Identity theft is extremely difficult on the victim. Sometimes it takes the victim several years to get his or her credit and finances back to normal.

White collar crime includes employee theft, fraud, embezzlement, and soliciting bribes. Corporate crime includes anti-trust violations, deceptive advertising, infringement on patents, copyrights, or trademarks, unlawful labor practices, price fixing, and financial fraud. Corporate crime has both direct and indirect economic effects. Direct economic losses are far greater than the losses from street crimes. Indirect cost of corporate crime include higher taxes, increased cost of goods and services, massive loss by investors, and an overall loss of faith by the public in the economy.

Organized crime is an illegal business enterprise. It specializes in crimes such as drug trafficking, prostitution, gambling, loan sharking, money laundering, and large scale theft. There is no single group that controls organized crime in the United States. Instead, syndicated crime networks share in “the action” to profit desired, but illegal, goods and services to the public.

Although most criminal law is directed at adult offenders, there is a considerable amount of criminal behavior committed by juveniles. In addition to committing law violations that would qualify as a crime regardless of one’s age, juveniles can also be charged with status offenses, acts that are illegal only because of the age, or status, of the offender. Criminal violations and status offenses committed by juveniles account for about one-fifth of all the arrests in the United States.

The most significant factor in any study of delinquency and crime arrest rates is gender. Men are more likely than women to be involved in major property crime as well as juvenile delinquency. Crime and delinquency is also a young person’s game, with serious crime peaking during the teenage years and young adulthood.

Crime and delinquency can be explained in biological, psychological, and sociological terms. Early biological explanations focused on atavism, a biological throwback to an earlier stage of evolution. Theories that linked personality to body type and the extra chromosome theory (XYY) were also popular at one time. More contemporary biological theory focuses on the cortex of the brain and neurological explanations, especially for violent behavior.

Psychological explanations of crime and delinquency focus on individual characteristics. These characteristics are discovered using personality inventories to identify abnormal personality traits such as psychopathology and low intelligence. One particular theory used to explain violence and aggression is the frustration-aggression hypothesis formulated by John Dollard.

Sociological explanations that attempt to answer the cause of crime and delinquency focus on various aspects of society. Functionalists rely on strain theory and control theories. Both are macrolevel approaches. Strain theory has its roots in Durkheim’s concept of anomie and was formulated by sociologist Robert Merton in 1938. The key to understanding strain theory is the ability of individuals to reach cultural goals by the means approved by society. Whether or not one accepts the goals and/or means results in one of five typologies: conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, or rebellion. Control theories explain crime and delinquency as expected behavior. Rather than asking why crime and delinquency are so prevalent, control theorists ask why there isn’t more. Control theorists explain deviant behavior with environmental factors (pulls), internal pressures (pushes), and the inability of inner and outer containments of society. Social bond theory concentrates on a person’s ties, or bond, to society as the deciding factor to explain deviant, criminal, and delinquent behavior. This bond consists of one’s attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief with their respective group.

Conflict theorists focus on how authority and power relationships can contribute to criminality. The maintaining of the capitalists’ superior position in society is at the highlight of the radical-critical conflict approach. The liberal feminist framework focuses on gender discrimination in society and socialist feminism addresses the exploitation of women by capitalism and patriarchy.

Symbolic interactionists rely on two major theories to explain crime and delinquency. Differential association theory states people learn crime and deviance from people with whom they associate. This includes the techniques, motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes that accompany crime and delinquency. Labeling theory states that no behavior is inherently deviant, criminal, or delinquent. It is the reaction, or labeling of society, that makes this behavior right or wrong.

Responding to crime and delinquency in behalf of the public is the role of the criminal justice system. Some critics question whether or not it is actually a true system because of the lack of uniformity throughout the system. Others question whether or not the criminal justice system is actually a part of the problem, rather than a solution. Included in the criminal justice system are the police, courts, jails, and prisons involved in law enforcement and the administration of justice. Perhaps the greatest controversy within the criminal justice system is the use of capital punishment (the death penalty). Opponents of capital punishment argue the death penalty is discriminatory. Those who favor it use the “eye for an eye” philosophy and consider it justifiable compensation.

Equal justice for all under the law is a dubious goal to achieve. But the system can certainly improve by addressing its obvious flaws that include symptoms of racism, sexism, classism, and ageism.