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Chapter 9 The Criminal Justice System

Chapter 9 The 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. Functionalist Perspective on Crime. Societies require a certain level of crime in order to clarify norms.

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Chapter 9 The Criminal Justice System

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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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