Crime and Environment

n Niches and natural areas for crime (Park and Burgess)

n Concentric zones and disadvantage (Shaw and McKay/Faris and Dunham)

n Social disorganization and disenfranchisement – zones in transition, housing projects (mapping)

n Crime and grime hypothesis/broken windows – neighborhood resources (Wilson and Kelling)

Biopsychosocial approach

n Crime, criminals and victims are too narrowly defined by biology, demographics, psychology, and sociology

n suggests a disconnect between economic conditions and crime in that crime rates increased as economy improved since 1960s

n Could have to do with reporting changes, more CJ resources, more criminal opportunities, and less social control

Social Strain vs.Social Control

n Why do people commit crime? (strain)

n Why are most people law abiding?

n Frustration Aggression theory/strain (Merton) – conform, innovate, ritual, retreat, rebel

n Social Bonds (Hirschi) – attachment to family, involvement in community, commitment to school etc., belief in communal norms, values

n Self control and neighborhood efficacy

Victims

n Demographics – gender, age, race

n Environment – housing, location

n Reporting practices

Victims and Age

Criminals

n They violate law and can be punished.

n Criminals in every society.

n Criminal justice system defines typical criminals by who they process and protect us from.

n Typical Criminals or Typical suspects?

Typical Criminals in United States

n Young urban males

n Poor

n Disproportionately black

n Differ in physique, intelligence, personality

n Sub-cultural – crime rewarding

n Psychopathic – no empathy

Racial trends

n Crime intraracial – within race

n Whites DWI, Asians gambling, Blacks crimes of violence

n Targetted law enforcement

n Culmulative disadvantage – institutional racism, perception of threat, family disruption

Gender gap in offending

n Gender ratio – 20-25%, Rates parallel to men in ebb and flow

n Generalizabilty - Theories

n Gendered crime - Differing offenses – runaway, less violent

n Gendered pathways - Excluded, insulated from organized crime

n Gender lives – different turning points than men

Female Offenders

n 1980 – 1989, 200% increase

n 24% of all suspects

n 15% incarcerated jails and prisons

n Differing demographics

n Different types of criminality

n Differing correctional need

Index Offenses

Why are Women more involved with the Criminal Justice System?

n Shift domestic to commercial sphere

n 1960s women’s movement backlash

n change in families

n Change in policing practices

n Relative deprivation theory