Social Problems: A Down-to-Earth Guide, 11e James M. Henslin

Chapter 6Crime and Criminal Justice

Learning Objectives 6.1 Explain what crime is, why crime is relative, and how something becomes a crime.

 

6.2 Explain why both crime and the criminal justice system are social problems and why crime is universal.

 

6.3 Explain how symbols (labels) affected the lives of the Saints and the Roughnecks, their role in police discretion, and why this makes us cautious about crime statistics.

 

6.4 Explain how core social values produce crime and how crime is related to the “opportunity structure”.

 

6.5 Explain how power and social class are related to social inequality in the legal system.

 

6.6 Explain how juvenile delinquency developed, the extent of juvenile crime, the delinquent career, neutralization techniques, and how education is related to delinquency.

Learning Objectives

6.7 Be familiar with criminogenic cultures, lethal white collar crime, embezzlement, theft, and the relationship of gender and social class to white collar crime.

 6.8 Know what professional crime is and how professional criminals maintain their

secrecy and values. 6.9 Know what organized crime is and reasons for the Mafia’s success. 6.10 Explain why plea bargaining, bias, recidivism, the death penalty, and the prison

experience are part of the criminal justice system as a social problem. 6.11 Discuss retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, and incapacitation as goals of social

policy. 6.12 Explain the likely future of crime and criminal justice

The Problem in Sociological Perspective

• 6.1 What is Crime?– The Essential Nature of Crime: The Law– The Relativity of Crime– Making Something Criminal: A Political

Process

The Essential Nature of Crime: The Law

• No activity is criminal in and of itself.

• Crime is the violation of law.

The Relativity of Crime

• Crime is culturally relative– This surprises travelers– Crime becomes virtue– Aid to humanity

Making Something Criminal: A Political Process

• Determining which behavior is criminal is a political process – Power influences the political process

• We need to ask:– Whose interests do laws protect?

The Scope of the Problem

6.2 Crime as a Social Problem• Why Is Crime a Social Problem? • Why Is Crime Universal?

Why Is Crime a Social Problem?

• Objective Conditions– Crime rates have dropped in the last 20 years

• Subjective Concerns– Media influences fear of crime– Women express greater fear

Why Is Crime Universal?

• Crime rates vary, but no society is free of crime.

• Why?– Durkheim pointed to the nature of crime– Laws don’t eliminate behavior, just identify it – Where there are laws, there will be criminals

Looking at the Problem Theoretically

6.3 Symbolic Interactionism

6.4 Functionalism

6.5 Conflict Theory• Power and Social Class: Inequality in the Legal

System.

6.3 - Symbolic Interactionism

• The Saints and the Roughnecks: Social Class and Labeling

• Police Discretion

• Caution About Crime Statistics

The Saints and the Roughnecks: Social Class and Labeling• Adolescent law breakers at the same high

school• “Saints”

– Promising young men…– Among the most delinquent– No arrests

• “Roughnecks”– headed for serious trouble– Fewer delinquent acts– Always in trouble with the police

A common perception is that bias in the criminal justice system works only against African Americans and Latinos. Sociological studies, however, indicate that this bias also favors these groups. (See pages 172–173.) Have you had experiences with the police that you know were biased?

Caution About Crime Statistics

• Sociologists approach crime stats with caution

• “Facts” are produced in a social context– Labeling and police discretion impact “facts”

6.4 - Functionalism

• Crime and Society’s Core Values

• Social Class and Illegitimate Opportunities.

Crime and Society’s Core Values

• Crime is a natural part of society– It can reflect our core value of success

• What if you can’t achieve success in the approved way?– Strain Theory

Social Class and Illegitimate Opportunities.

• Middle-class schools don’t provide the opportunity structure for lower-class students

• Illegitimate Opportunity Structures

• Middle and upper class are not free from crime– Ponzi Scheme

The cartoonist indicates an essential principle that is highlighted by functionalists—that crime is functional for individuals and society.

White-collar criminals generally receive light sentences. Allen Stanford, shown here, is an exception. His $7 billion Ponzi scheme netted him a 110-year prison sentence.

6.5 – Conflict Theory

• Power and Social Class: Inequality in the Legal System

• Ruling class vs. working class

• In the working class– Upper-level managers/professionals– Stable working class– Marginal working class

• Who actually gets punished in this system?

Types of Crime

6.6 Juvenile Delinquency

6.7 White-Collar Crime

6.8 Professional Crime

6.9 Organized Crime

Video: The U.S. Criminal Justice System: Juvenile Corrections

http://media.pearsoncmg.com/ph/hss/SSA_SHARED_MEDIA_1/sociology/videos/MSocL_ABC2008/Juvenile-Corrections.html

6.6 – Juvenile Delinquency

• The Origin of Juvenile Delinquency: A Perceptual Shift

• Extent of Juvenile Crime

• The “Delinquent Career”

• Neutralizing Deviance

• Delinquent Subcultures

• Education and Delinquency

The Origin of Juvenile Delinquency: A Perceptual Shift

• Historically, children who committed crimes were treated the same as adults.– Often severely

• Crimes committed under age 18.

The “Delinquent Career”

• After their first arrest, most youths (59 percent) never return to juvenile court.

• Second arrest before 16.

• Violent crimes preceded by other crimes.

• Age at first charge.

• Type of crime.

• Girls are less likely to be rearrested than boys.

The rate of women’s involvement in both whitecollar and street crime is increasing. This woman in prison garb in Philadelphia is charged with murder.

Neutralizing Deviance

• Techniques of Neutralization– Denial of Responsibility– Denial of Injury– Denial of a Victim– Condemnation of the Condemners– Appeal to Higher Authorities

What techniques of neutralization do you think these individuals are using? They are serving on the nation’s only chain gang for juveniles, in Maricopa County, Arizona.

Delinquent Subcultures

• Not all delinquents need to neutralize their behavior.

• Some subcultural norms support crime and teach techniques

Jankowski looked beyond the fierce exterior to get the inside story of gang members. This photo is from Los Encinos, Texas.

Education and Delinquency

• Those who graduate high school are less likely to commit crimes.– Common sense and sociology agree on the

benefit of education.

6.7 - White-Collar Crime

• Criminogenic Subcultures

• White-Collar Crimes That Kill

• Embezzlement

• Employee Theft

• Social Class and Crime

• Gender in White-Collar Crime

Criminogenic Subcultures

• White-Collar Crime– Committed by people of respectable and high

social status in the course of their occupation

• Some corporate work encourages crime– “ethical numbness”

White-Collar Crimes That Kill

• Corporations calculate the cost/benefit of their decisions.– Even at the risk of human life

• Serial manslaughter

The top photo shows a 1973 Pinto that exploded when tested by Ford. At the bottom is the 1973 Ford Pinto in which three girls died after it was rear-ended.

Embezzlement

• Embezzlers feel that they have an “unsharable financial problem.” – overdue taxes, college expenses, a sick child,

or gambling losses– Neutralize their actions

Employee Theft

• Takes many forms– Company product– Secrets– Manufacturing ideas– Formulas

Social Class and Crime

• When arrested, white- collar criminals are: – More likely to have their cases dismissed by

the prosecutor– Less likely to have to put up bail.

• If convicted, white-collar criminals are:– More likely to get probation rather than jail– More likely to get shorter sentences.

As women enter positions of power formerly held by men, they confront the same opportunities to misuse that power. Shown here is the first woman to become mayor of Baltimore, who resigned after being convicted of stealing from funds for the poor.

6.8 – Professional Crime

• Crime as Work

• People who consider crime their occupation are professional criminals.– “work” like anyone else– Not troubled by criminality

A “chop shop” in Missouri mysteriously burns after the police raided it earlier in the day. The gasoline can in the foreground could have something to do with it.

6.9 – Organized Crime

• The Mafia: Origins and Characteristics

• Reasons for the Mafia’s Success

The Mafia: Origins and Characteristics

• Originated in Sicily – Weak government– Locals joined together to protect families– Became a private government

• Organized crime in the U.S. still flourishes

The Godfather, one of the most successful movies of all time, has become the basis for a stereotype of the Sicilian Mafia. As the text explains, there are other mafias as well, and various forms of organized crime.

Reasons for the Mafia’s Success

• Organized crime is organized. The Mafia has a bureaucracy.

• Organized crime offers illegal services in high demand.

• Organized crime wields influence through political corruption.

• Organized crime uses violence and intimidation for control.

6.10 – The Criminal Justice System

• Plea Bargaining

• Bias in the Criminal Justice System

• Recidivism

• The Death Penalty

• The Prison Experience

Plea Bargaining

• Problems in the Criminal Justice System:– Money matters.– Defense attorneys encourage plea

bargaining, whether or not the individual is guilty.

– Prosecutors use threats of longer sentences to get guilty pleas.

– Judges dislike “unnecessary trials”

• What is wrong with plea bargaining?

The woman on the right is meeting her public defense attorney for the first time. How do you think her poverty might affect her chances of conviction?

Bias in the Criminal Justice System

• African Americans are 13% of the U.S. population and 45% of prison inmates.– Unclear why.

• Bias may work in multiple ways.– There are sentencing differences depending

on the crime.

Explore: The Justice System: Stereotypes of Crime and Justice

http://www.socialexplorer.com/SpiceMap/?v=0f2847d409244e22

Recidivism

• Former prisoners committing more crimes– Women, whites, and older former prisoners

are less likely to recidivate.– The more times in prison, the greater chances

of returning.

• Prisons are socializing agents for criminal behavior.

The Death Penalty

• Capital Punishment

• Race– Furman v. Georgia (1972)

• Gender– Since 1976, 1,222 men have been executed,

and only 12 women.

Throughout history, many methods of execution have been used, such as stoning, suffocating, bleeding, firing squads, gas chambers, electrocution, and lethal injection. Shown here is “Black Jack” Ketchum in 1901, who is about to be hanged in Clayton, New Mexico.

The Prison Experience

• The Zimbardo Experiment– Paid volunteers– Randomly assigned to guard or prisoner– Prisoners felt loss of power and identity– Guards felt an increase in power and status– Stopped after 6 days of inhumane treatment

Shaming is an old method of punishment, intended to humiliate violators so they conform. This 1910 photo is from China.

Retribution

• Paying for the Crime – Punishment and restitution

• Punishment should fit the crime.

Deterrence

• Fear of punishment stops crime.– Assumes crime is a rational act

• Fast and certain penalty– Uniform sentencing

• “Scared Straight”

An inmate in a Pennsylvania prison tells teenaged boys what they can expect when they get to prison. “Scared Straight” had unexpected consequences.

Rehabilitation

• Types of rehabilitation:– Probation– Imprisonment– Honor farms– Furloughs– Parole– Halfway houses

• Diversion

Closely supervising parolees is one attempt to reduce recidivism. This man in Texas is meeting with his parole officer.

Incapacitation

• Nothing else works, so keep the offenders off the streets.

• The Debate:– Added incapacitation– Better rehabilitation

• Extreme incapacitation– The dead don’t commit more crimes.

This New York woman was arrested for drunk driving. The monitoring device on her ankle not only lets authorities know where she is, but it also reports her blood alcohol level.

Goals and Principles of Sound Social Policy

• Suggestions for reform of criminal justice system:– Swift justice based on evidence– More rehabilitation programs– Added incapacitation– Prison reform

WILLIAM CHAMBLISS, professor ofsociology at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., became interested in criminology during his junior year in high school. That summer, he and a friend hitchhiked from Los Angeles to Walla Walla, Washington, where they worked with convicts picking peas. As Chambliss got to know the men, he was fascinated to discover what the bank robbers, drug dealers, burglars, and thieves were planning to do when they were released from prison—commit more crimes. Here is what he wrote for you.

6.12 - The Future of the Problem

• Changes in Crime

• The Criminal Justice System

• Need for Fundamental Change

Changes in Crime

• Crime has been decreasing for 20 years

• Women

• White-collar

• Organized crime

The Criminal Justice System

• The judicial system changes slowly– Maintain focus on street crime

• Rise of private prisons

Need for Fundamental Change

• To stop street crime we need doors to open for the poor for legitimate ways of achieving success.

Question for Discussion

Discuss the sources of bias in the criminal justice system.