CRJU 110 notes - Karen Parker PDF

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Karen Parker...

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CRIMINOLOGY - The study of crime - nature - Extent - Causes -

Status offense that young citizens can be arrested for As an adult it wouldn't be an offense - ex : running away from home

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Most frequently occurring offense : theft, shoplifting - Wanna know why it happens

1. Theoretical approach 2. Interdisciplinary approach 3. Scientific approach CRIMINAL JUSTICE - Criminal justice system (CJS): - DEF: formal process established to apprehend, adjudicate, sanction & treat criminal offenders - The main agencies and components responsible to enforce criminal laws - police, courts, and corrections - Criminal Justice: - The study of CJS agencies (describe, analyse, explain, & evaluate) - Focus on how the system operates - Interested in police actions - How often does a cop actually arrest someone: 50%

DEVIANCE - The study of behavior that departs from social norms - Behavior may or may not be criminal (illegal acts) - Deviant weird behavior : elevator - Norm violations - Statistical (average) - Reactionist - power/conflict

LAW & SOCIETY - How do we define law? - what law does: - Provides rules of conduct; body of rules - Sets out punishments for violations - Protects the welfare of society - Criminal laws: behavior laws - Civil violation: divorce - Criminal Law vs. Civil Law: Definitions and Differences. There are two main classifications of law. Criminal laws regulate crimes, or wrongs committed against the government. Civil laws regulate disputes between private parties. -

Theoretical analysis concerning legal institutions & processes Studies the impact of law on society Identifies social, political, & intellectual influences on law & legal activity

SOCIAL CONTROL ● Social control: ○ To ensure conforming behavior ● Two levels if social control: 1. Informal social control: ● Unofficial, unorganized, often face to face avenues to ensure conforming behavior (or social control) ● Ex: teachers or parents telling you something is wrong ● Peer pressure ● Ex: ridicule, rumors, gestures, propaganda 2. Formal Social Control: ● Official, often organized, avenues to ensure conforming behavior ● Ex: being arrested ● Schools = detention ● business= fired, a raise ● Three mechanisms of social control: 1. Norms ( normal ) ● Expectations of conduct in every given situation ● Normal behavior ( expected ) ○ Ex: classroom behavior, traffic & driving behavior, non-criminal/violent behavior 2. Sactions

● Positive or negative response ● Reactions or responses to behavior/actions ○ Negative sanction: reactions that punish for non-conforming behavior ■ Ex: restriction & fine ■ Come home later = get car taken away ○ Positive sanction: reactions that reward for conforming behavior ■ Ex: award, gold star, scholarships ■ Happy face on good homework 3. Laws ● Criminal laws to protect us from violations of criminal statutes & rules ● Civil laws to protect us from non-criminal personal & property violations ● Mechanisms can work together such as: ○ Formal social control can apply positive sanctions ■ Ex: schools give high achieving students awards & recognitions, employers give employees bonuses ○ Informal social control can apply negative sanctions ■ Ex: one friend starts a negative rumors about another, a cheating spouse gets shunned by relatives LAW ● Body of rules which defines which behaviors are forbidden ● Civil Law: ○ All law that is not criminal ○ Ex: torts= personal wrongs causing some to suffer loss emotionally, economically, or reputational ○ Contacts = breaking a contract ○ Property = neighbors fighting over property ○ Disputes ○ Commercial law ● Criminal law: ○ The body of rules that defines crimes ○ sets out their punishments ○ Mandates the procedures in carrying out the criminal justice system ○ Statues ● CRIME

○ Defined by criminal law: ○ An intentional act or omission, or an act in violation of criminal statutes, committed without defense or justification, and sanctioned by the state as either a felony or a misdemeanor ■ Certain standard is necessary =beyond a reasonable doubt ● FELONY ○ A more serious offense that carries a penalty of incarnation in a state prison, usually for one year or more ○ Capital felony punishable by death or life imprisonment ○ Q: does a person convicted of a felony offense lose any right? ■ Right to vote ● MISDEMEANOR ○ Incarcerated for at least a year ○ Less serious than felony ○ A minor offense punishable by less than one year's imprisonment in a local institution, such as county jail ■ Less than a year = local county jail ■ Prostitution ● STANDARD OF EVIDENCE ○ Must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt: ■ 4 elements are required 1. Actus Reus (guilty act) 2. Mens Rea ( guilty mind) = intentional 3. Concurrence = 4. Causation Actus Reus ● The guilty act ○ Includes: ■ Aggressive action ○ Legal duties: ■ Relationship of parties based on status ● Ex: husband/wife, parent/child, etc. ■ Imposition by statute ● Laws that require a person who observes an act to aid ■ Contractual relationships ● Ex: physician/patient, babysitter/child, etc. MENS REA ● The guilty mind ( sunbathing nude)

○ Law acknowledgment for types of intent: 1. General intent 2. Specific intent ( rarest) 3. Constructive intent/malice 4. Transferred intent ( “bad aim”) 1. General intent ● Only requires that a defendant know, in general terms, that the type of conduct in which he/she is engaged, even if the actor does not foresee the result, that the conduct may produce ● Specific intent = direct evidence of intentionality is rare ● Thus, we must infer the facts & circumstances surrounding the incident

2. Specific Intent ● Direct evidence of the person's state of mind ● Requires that the actor have formed the intent in his/her mind in specific conduct & to cause a particular result ● Ex: DNA, prints, proof 3. Transferred Intent ● The theory of transferred intent in criminal law has a long history. ○ If a man maliciously shoots an arrow at another with intent to kill him and a person to whom he bore no malice is killed by it, this would be murder for the person who shot the arrow with the intent to kill, & is the same offense as to such person as if he had killed the person he aimed at ( red vs. saunders, 1576) ● More recently, the court has held: ○ When an unintended victim is struck down as a result of an unlawful act actually directed against someone else, the law prevents the actor from taking advantage of his own wrong & transfers the original intent from the one against whom it was directed to the one who actually suffered from it ( Fussell vs. State, 1988)

purposely knowingly

recklessly Negligently STANDARD OF EVIDENCE ● Both guilty mind & guilty act must be proven ● The only exception is strict liability crimes ● These do not require mens rea; liability without fault ● Ex: public welfare crimes that statutes prohibit, such as traffic laws ● Formula : ○ Act + intent + concurrence + causation + injury + harm + prohibited = crime CONCURRENCE ● Establishes the relationship between the act & the mind ○ Guilty mine = guilty act CAUSATION ● Determination of “cause in fact” or “proximate cause” ( eliminating other rival causes) ○ Linking the harm to the cause ● Addressing the question, would the harm have occured if not for the action/inaction of another?

3 sources of information about crime: 1. Uniform crime report (UCR) ● Crime statistics are collected by branches of the criminal justice system (police departments) ● Crime statistics are compiled & shared by the FBI ● Data are accumulated nationally as police officers reports calls, crimes, & arrests ● UCR Strengths: 1. It shows trends & patterns of crime over time 2. It provides crime data at different levels ● UCR weaknesses 1. Recording practices are inconsistent ● Police departments are inconsistent in how they document crime (discretion in arrests, reports, & in what to record) 2. Multiple offenses are not recorded, only the most serious crime

3. Different police departments & police officers may define a type of crime differently 4. Not all jurisdictions report crime statistics to the FBI ■ Rural, small police departments 5. Not all crimes are reported to the police ■ Dark figure crime: refers to those crimes that go unreported to officials ■ Rape & aggravated assault the most unreported crimes 2. National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) ● NCVS provides estimates of the victimization experiences for the entire U.S. population ● NCVS is designed to show the amount of criminal victimization occuring in the U.S., even when such victimization does not come to the attention of the police ● NCVS strengths: 1. Gets at the Dark Figure of Crime and why crimes go unreported 2. Provides information on the victims of crime (attitudes, cost of crime, injuries, weapon use, beliefs about crime & punishment) 3. Based on probability sampling (random & representative) ● NCVS Weaknesses: 1. High costs 2. The data are dependent on the recall of the respondents 3. Respondents are not likely to report failed attempts (UCR does) 4. People may define crime differently than the criminal justice officials 5. Respondents often fail to report certain types of crime and/or crimes that involve acquaintances or relatives of the victim 6. In collecting information, only one person per household is interviewed 7. Major variation noted in reporting by respondent’s rape, age, income, and education 3. Self- report Surveys (SRS) ● Ask people to state if (and how often) they have engaged in acts that could be defined as criminal or delinquent ● SRS Strengths: 1. Gets at the dark figure of crime 2. Provides detailed demographic information on offenders (school attendance, family situation, conventional activities, and other individualized and theoretical information) 3. A source of information on attitudes & beliefs of those who engage in criminal activity

Textbooks outline: ● INTRO ○ Criminal justice systems have issues with developing punishment policies ● Chapter 1 ○ 1.1: criminal justice prof//essions/ ■ FSU school shooting ■ Virginia Tech school shooting = largest school shooting ■ Job differ from custodial services to high levels of administrative positions...