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Understanding Crime and Justice Perspectives

Explore crime classifications, social perspectives on crime, measuring crime rates, impact of race and class on justice system, and challenges in prisons.

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Understanding Crime and Justice Perspectives

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  1. Chapter 9The Criminal Justice System • Crime and Deviance • Types of Crime • Crime and Organization • Race, Class, Gender and Crime • Police, Courts and the Law • Globalization and Crime

  2. Functionalist Perspective on Crime • Societies require a certain level of crime in order to clarify norms. • Crime results from social structural strains within society. • Crime may be functional to society, thus difficult to eradicate.

  3. Symbolic InteractionPerspective on Crime • Crime is learned though social interaction. • Labeling criminals tends to reinforce rather than deter crime. • Institutions with the power to label, such as prisons, produce rather than lessen crime.

  4. Conflict Theory Perspectives on Crime • The lower the social class, the more the individual is forced into criminality. • Inequalities in society tend to produce criminal activity. • Reducing social inequities in society will reduce crime.

  5. Measuring Crime • Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), crime data provided to the FBI by police departments, show increasing rates of crime. • Victimization surveys conducted by the National Institute of Justice suggest that crime is decreasing. 

  6. Why the Discrepancyin Crime Measurement? • Underreporting: 1/2 to 2/3 of all crimes go unreported. • Statistics are reported by agencies with a vested interest in reporting increased crime. • The FBI’s UCR inflates index crimes and underreports elite crimes. 

  7. Youth Gangs and Crime • Formed by a small group who create familial-like bonds. • They protect their “turf”, engage in crime, and require new members to endure initiation rituals. • Treating youth crimes as “delinquency” gives the courts flexibility to divert youth from a life of crime.

  8. Classifications of Crimes The UCR classifies crimes into 3 categories: • Personal crimes - murder, aggravated assault, rape, robbery • Property crimes - burglary, larceny, auto theft, arson • Victimless crimes - gambling, illegal drug use, prostitution 

  9. Elite and White-Collar Crime • Criminal acts by persons of high social status who commit their crimes in the context of their occupation. • Includes embezzlement, insider trading. • Those who engage in white-collar crime "normalize" their behavior.

  10. Race, Class and Crime • There is a strong relationship among unemployment, poverty, and crime. • Law enforcement is concentrated in lower-income and minority areas • 25% of white youths are sent to adult prison compared with 60% of black youths.

  11. The Policing of Minorities • Minority communities are policed more heavily. • Police are more likely to use force against minority suspects. • Racial profiling is widely used by police. 

  12. Race and Sentencing Minorities experience: • Higher bails • Less plea bargaining success • More guilty verdicts • Higher sentences • 42% percent of death row prisoners are black

  13. Prisons: Deterrence or Rehabilitation? • The threat of prison does not seem to deter crime. • Prisons do not rehabilitate. • Instead of teaching prisoners self-control and self-direction, prisons deny inmates any control over their lives.

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