Month: September 2022

1.) What is the Uniform Crime Report (URC)

• This is used for law enforcement and it provides reasonable statistics
• Its also a great platform for students who are studying criminology and criminal justice
• This is a platform that has been used since 1930
• This is nation wide and has been submitting crimes and data that has been observed from over 18,000 cities

2.)What are Index Crimes and Non-Index Crimes?

• Index crimes are crimes considered serious in nature and occurring with sufficient frequency and regularity that they are considered index to the crime situation in a given area
• This involves murder, homicide, physical injury, rape, robbery, theft and carnapping
•  Non-Index crimes are violations of special laws which involve reckless imprudence resulting in damage
• This includes property or physical injury, violations against women and children, illegal possession of firearms and drugs, illegal logging, lasciviousness, direct assault, and other crimes not listed under index crimes.

3.) What crimes are excluded from Index offenses?

• Arson (couldn’t find much on this topic)
• Any deviant crime

4.) What is the “dark figure” of crime?

• Is the amount of unreported or undiscovered crime
• This is in Criminology and Sociology

5.) What do SRD and NCVS stand for, and how do these approaches address the “dark figure”?

• SRD= Self Report Data
• NCVS= National Crime Victimization Survey
• NCVS approaches the “dark figure” by polling a large number of households, victimization surveys such as the National Crime Victimization Survey are able to uncover some of the crime incidents that were never reported or discovered by police.

6.) What are some examples of major trends that are observed in UCR, SRD, NCVS Data?

PART ONE:

1.) Outline the main tenets of classical criminological theory

• We can see that it explains crime in more of a sense that it is free-will decisions to make criminal choices and behaviors.
• There are 4 basics elements of classical criminology : Rationality (idea that people choose to commit crime), Hedonism (assumption that people seek pleasure and try to avoid pain), Punishment (acting as a deterrent to crime), Human rights (must be respected by society)
• We can also see that there are 3 main principles : Human beings have free will and are rational actors, human beings have a certain inalienable rights, there is a social contract between citizens and the state

2.) What role does rational choice play in criminal behavior for classical theorist?

• For classical theorist the rational choice theory insists that crime is calculated and deliberate
• In an article found, it’s described as views man as a reasoning actor who weighs means and ends, cost and benefits, and makes a rational choice. The foundation of rational choice theory is behavioral choices, that includes the choice of the person to engage in criminal activity based on intent/premedication and that the possible benefits outweigh the risk (Bond, 2015).
• This is important to classical theorist because the majority of classical economic theories are based on the assumption of rational choice theory: “individuals make choices that result in the optimal level of benefit or utility for them”

3.) Why is the concept of deterrence so important to classical theory?

• Deterrence is designed to punish current behavior(s), but also ward off future behaviors through sanctions or threats of sanctions
• These basic principles of classical theory would later come to be known as deterrence theory
• I found something interesting online where it compared the rational choice theory and the deterrence theory and how they differ but also connect and I believed that to be important: “rational choice theory states that individuals have free will to choose between criminal and non-criminal behaviors. Deterrence theory, on the other hand, is a choice-based theory that states people commit crimes when the expected benefits of committing a crime outweighs the likely cost of it” (Hasa, 2020)

4.) Outline the importance of certainty, severity, and speed to the deterring effects of punishment

• “Certainty has a greater impact on deterrence than severity of punishment. Severity refers to the length of a sentence. Studies show that for most individuals convicted of a crime, short to moderate prison sentences may be a deterrent but longer prison terms produce only a limited deterrent effect” (NIJ, 2016).
• Severity =to the length of a sentence.
• Certainty= the likelihood of being caught and punished for the commission of a crime.

5.) How rational is choice?

• According to the definition of rational choice theory, every choice that is made is completed by first considering the costs, risks, and benefits of making that decision
• Choices that seem irrational to one person may make perfect sense to another base don the individuals desires

6.) Does deterrence work?

• In my opinion, I think that deterrence does work but also to an extent. For this question I did some research and I came across many articles proving that it does work but as many saying that its a myth.
• For example, in one article a professors talked about : “The severity of punishment, known as marginal deterrence, has no real deterrent effect, or the effect of reducing recidivism,” he says. “The only minor deterrent effect is the likelihood of apprehension. So if people think they’re more likely to be caught, that will certainly operate to some extent as a deterrent” (Knight, 2020)
• In another article, it stated “Initial research supported the theory that severe punishments deter crime. A series of studies examining homicide rates found that the severity of punishment for homicide had a deterrent effect” (Johnson, 2019).

PART TWO:

6.) Have you been deterred from behaving a certain way because of the threat of formal punishment?

• I like this question because I feel like everyone at some point in their life will change their behavior due to the thought of formal punishment. I feel as though It’s human nature to do this. No one likes punishment, especially formal punishment. I have done this in all honesty probably more than one time in my life. The first example that came to mind that pertains to me is speeding. As we know cops and state troopers are always out but there is always an abundance of them on holiday weekends. I think I tend to normally a faster driver so I know Ive done this. If Im driving on the highway no matter where Im going I know that there is going to be a lot of cops looking for certain behaviors on the road (in this case, mostly speeding). I will reduce my speed, a lot less than the speed I normally drive, in fear of a higher cost ticket as well as the punishment of being pulled over. I just the risk of these formal punishments are extra high during these times.

My Standpoint:

If I was asked to define or even give my best explanation at what Criminology was this is what Id say. Criminology is the study of criminal behavior in less legal terms and more focused on psychology and sociology. I think this definition is flexible and different for everyone because it incorporate a lot. Ive spent a lot of my life looking at criminology and what that could mean for me and my future. Ive dreamed about growing up and pursuing a career in this field. I think Criminology is important for many reasons. It allows room for help with alleviating social injustice , discrimination and even with poverty. Criminology is so broad that so many aspect fall under that category.

Criminology in Legal Terms:

Criminology includes the study of all aspects of crime and law enforcement—criminal psychology, the social setting of crime, prohibition and prevention, investigation and detection, capture and punishment.

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/criminology#:~:text=Criminology%20includes%20the%20study%20of,probation%20officers%2C%20judges%2C%20etc.

Who is Involved?

• Legislators (a person who makes laws; a member of a legislative body)
• Social workers (helps individuals, groups, and families prevent and cope with problems in their every day lives “diagnose and treat mental, behavioral, and emotional problems”)
• Probation Officers (a person appointed to supervise offenders who are on probation)
• Judges (an elected or appointed official who conducts court proceedings)
• ect.

Current Articles:

As I was going through some online articles about what Criminology was and how its helpful and what it entails. I came across an article that went through all the different approaches Criminologist use during there career to asses different situations. This article was written by Dr. Martin Ahmad Mughal who studied at the Punjab University Law College; Superior Law College. This article really imprints on how Criminology is broad and that it can be personalized but also flexible on how things are run!

Something that I wanted to pull from the article that I found interesting and important was when the author said ” This paper tells Rational actor model of crime and criminal behavior is based on the notion of free will, it proposes that human beings choose to commit criminal behavior and can be deterred through the threat of punishment ” (Mughal, 2011)

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1941974