Crime and Criminology

1. Crime and Criminology Crime Durkheim on crime Criminology

2. Instructor Dr. Arina Gertseva Office: Wilson Hall, room 146 Office Hours: M, W, F: 8:30 -11:30a.m. or by appointment E-mail: garina@wsu.edu Phone: 509-335-3065

3. Teaching Assistant Sarah Akers Office: 236 Wilson-Short Hall Office Hours: by appointment E-mail: sarah.akers@wsu.edu

4. Required Books Anthony Walsh “Criminology” by Sage (2012) In Their Own Words: Criminals on Crime Edition 5 by Paul Cromwell (Editor). (2009) Roxbury Publishing Company.

5. How to Do Well in This Course: • Come to class on a regular basis.  Exam materials will come from lecture notes. • Do not skip quizzes.   • Do the readings on time. • If something is unclear, ask me during or after class, during my office hours, or email me at garina@wsu.edu. • Keep track of your records and grades.

6. Angel • ANGEL:https://lms.wsu.edu/ • IT Helpdesk: 509-335-HELP (4357) • To log on to Angel, you must be enrolled in a course; otherwise you will get a “disabled logon” message. The course title for all activated courses should appear in the Courses box on the left. • IF IT DOESN’T, contact your instructor, or WSU Online.

7. Results of the survey (N=38)

8. Results of the Survey

9. Results of the Survey

10. Crime can be defined as… • Form of normal behavior • Violation of behavioral norms • Form of deviant behavior • Form of inequality

11. Form of normal behavior • Protecting family/children • Fighting back (cases of domestic violence)

13. Carol Carr • Carol Carr, 64, killed her sons, Michael R. Scott, 42, and Andy B. Scott, 41, in a nursing home • Both men were in the advanced stages of Huntington's disease and were bedridden • The disease, a degenerative nerve disorder that causes involuntary body movement, dementia and death, killed their father, Ms. Carr's first husband.

14. Carol Carr • ''What she did was illegal, but also what she did was moral: she stopped the suffering of these children,'' her lawyer, Lee Sexton, said.

15. Meredith's Story Sexual Abuse starting at 4 Started drugs at 13 Pregnancy at 14 Drug addiction at 18 Sentenced at 21 Check Fraud at 21 Abusive boyfriend at 19 Ironically, Meredith describes her prison experience as “…probably the best thing that’s happened to me.”

16. Form of inequality • For many years, human rights groups have attacked Nike (and other companies) for the low pay, terrible working conditions, abusive treatment, and for the use of child labor

17. Nike Workers cannot drink water or go to the toilet when they want Workers receive less than the legal minimum wage, even though Nike makes huge profits “Abusive treatment", physical and verbal, is exercised on a everyday basis

18. Emile Durkheim (1895) • Made three specific claims about the nature of crime: • Crime is normal • Crime is inevitable • Crime is useful

19. Crime is normal • Crimes occur in all societies • They are closely tied to the fact of collective life

20. Crime is inevitable • No society can ever be entirely free of crime • A community of saints in a perfect and exemplary monastery cannot be free of “crime” • Faults that appear venial to the ordinary person will arouse the same scandal as does “normal crime” • Absolute conformity to rules is impossible

21. Crime is useful • If crimes were not committed, then the values of society would become blurred • If there is no punishment, then there would be no way of reestablishing the values that the crime offends

22. Crime is useful • Crime is indispensable to the normal evolution of law and morality • Rosa Parks (was a criminal) is a hero now • Her simple act of protest galvanized America's civil rights revolution

23. Three perspectives on crime • The Consensus View of Crime • The Conflict View of Crime • The Interactionist View of Crime

24. The Consensus View of Crime • Consensus = agreement • Crimes are behaviors believed to be repugnant (repulsive) to all elements of society • Criminal law – written code that defines crimes and their punishments

25. Crime (legalistic definition) • Crimeis an act in violation of a criminal law for which punishment is prescribed

26. Legalistic definition • Some activities are not crimes even though they are immoral (watching pornography, torturing animals, creating poor working conditions) • No law= No crime

27. Domestic Violence • Twenty-five years ago, police, prosecutors, and judges did not view domestic abuse (rape and battering) as real crime but rather as private matter where the woman to blame • No law = no crime

28. Conflict View of Crime • Crime of inequality includes a lot of behaviors that are omitted by legalistic definition • Crimes of power (price fixing, unsafe working conditions, nuclear waste products, war-making,etc)

29. Conflict View of Crime • Crime of inequality includes a lot of behaviors that are omitted by legalistic definition • Crime is a political concept used to protect powerful people • Crimes of power (price fixing, economic crimes, unsafe working conditions, nuclear waste products, war-making, domestic violence, etc)

30. '‘Eco-mafia'' • The developing South (particularly African countries like Somalia, Sudan, Eritrea, Algeria and Mozambique) has become the dump for hundreds of thousands of tones of radioactive waste from the world's rich countries

31. Nuclear waste drums found by Greenpeace • IIlegal dumps - among the largest in the world - in Somalia, where workers handle the radioactive waste without any kind of safeguard or protective gear - not even gloves • The workers do not know what they are handling, and if one of them dies, the family is persuaded to keep quiet with a small bit of cash

32. Interactionist View of Crime • The main idea behind the interactionist approach to deviance is that the definition of what is criminal is socially negotiated • “It is not act itself, but the reactions to the act, that make something deviant” (Howard Becker, 1966)

33. Example • Imagine that a young male of 18 is walking home late one night through the city streets singing at the top of his lungs and weaving about in the road • The police are called and the young man is taken to the police station • When he gets there he explains that earlier that day he has been accepted for a place at Cambridge University and he had been out with his friends to celebrate

34. Example • He has no previous police record. His father is the local GP (General Practitioner) • The police call his father who arrives looking rather embarrassed. He apologizes to the police and they have a little joke together about young men and ‘boys will be boys’ • The young man is sent home with a mild warning and the suggestion that he won't feel very well in the morning.

35. Another Scenario • A young male of 18 is walking home late one night through the city streets singing at the top of his lungs • The police are called and the young man is taken to the police station • When he gets there he explains that earlier that day he has been out with his friends to celebrate birthday • He has no previous police record • When asked for his address and telephone number the police realize that he lives in a notorious housing estate that has a high rate of criminal activity. • The police call his father who arrives looking not very embarrassed. He apologizes to the police but they are unimpressed • The boy is charged with breach of the peace

36. Relativity of crime • Space • Time • Social context

37. Adultery is crime Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the Sudan, and some of the northern states of Nigeria practice a very strict form of Sharia law Sharia law requires that married or divorced persons found guilty of Zina (adultery) be executed by stoning

38. Prostitution • Prostitution legalized in Netherlands from October 1, 2000 • Prostitutes have the right to hygienic working conditions and security in the workplace • They must pay taxes • Can have social insurance, be paid sick leave, and receive a pension if they work for a brothel or own a company

39. Prostitutions in the USA • A federal law against prostitution concentrate on the prohibition of crossing state or international boundaries for the purpose of engaging in sex for pay • In selected counties in Nevada prostitution is not criminalized

40. The vocabulary of Homicide • Murder is the name for legally unjustified, intentional homicide (legal and moral meanings) • Execution is the name forjustified homicide (when terrorists kill their enemies) • Journalist Ambrose Bierce: “Homicide is the slaying of one human being by another. There are four kinds of homicide: felonious, excusable, justifiable, and praiseworthy, but it makes no great difference -the classification is for the purposes of the lawyers”.

41. Vocabulary of homicide • Debate about abortion • Those who oppose call it murder • Those who favor legal access to abortion speak of “terminating pregnancy” or “removing tissue” • Different moralities-different vocabularies • Crime is socially constructed?

42. What is deviance? • Deviance involves the violation of group norms which may or may not be formalized into law • Some examples: criminals, alcoholics, people with tattoos, compulsive gamblers, and the mentally ill

43. Deviance is commonplace • We are all deviant from time to time • Each of us violates common social norms in certain situations • Being late for class is categorized as deviant act • Dressing too casually for a formal wedding

44. Deviance • Deviation from norm is not always negative: • A member of an exclusive club who speaks out against its traditional policy of excluding women, or poor people • Police officer who speaks against corruption within the department

45. Deviance • Deviant behavior is human activity that is statistically different from the average • Deviance and crime are concepts that do not always easily mesh • Some forms of deviance are not violations of the criminal law and the reverse is true as well

46. Relationship between crime and deviance

47. Nike Sweatshops: Behind the Swoosh • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M5uYCWVfuPQ&feature=related