Transcript Trends and crime

Trends and crime
Historical and Current Forces
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Historical trends
Little systematic data until the 20th
century
 High in early 19th, decreased,
increased in mid 20th century,
“flattening” now
 What historical forces might affect crime
rates?
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Trends
Industrialization
Need for skilled labor
Lack of unskilled jobs
Increased availability of goods
 Urbanization
Anonymity, opportunity
Breakdown of informal controls,
crowding
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Trends
Increased amount of goods available
 Egalitarianism--feeling of equality, less
deference to the wealthy
 Age structure: as young increase,
crime increases. Related to: lower
infant morality. More children to be
socialized is a problem if there are not
enough adults to supervise
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Trends
Time horizon: are people more present
oriented? Easy lives, TV, credit, etc.
 Wars
 Increase in survival of low birth weight
babies (LBW). LBW can be caused by
poor nutrition, teenage pregnancies,
drug usage. At risk for LD, ADHD, etc.,
school problems, and delinquency
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Trends
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Family practices
Divorces--although they may have
negative effects, do not account for the
increase in crime
Absent fathers,Lack of extended family
Mobility
Working mothers--depends on amount
of supervision, not work per se
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Trends
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Effectiveness of the CJS
May appear to lead to higher crime
rates, better reporting and processing
Effect most noticeable at the extremes
(no CJS--chaos; very strict--low crime)
In-between, debatable
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Trends
Improved medical services: Aggravated
assaults:murder used to be 9:1, now
28:1 because of better medical care.
 Social disorganization: less religion,
less family, more mobility, less informal
control, etc.
 Legitimization of violence (Media)
 Growth of personal freedom
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Trends
Lack of jobs for youth: fewer rural jobs,
need for technological skills, more
service jobs rather than manufacturing
 Changes in educational system
 Social upheaval
 Gangs
 Drug use
 Television
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Drug use and crime
Psychoactive drugs: alter conscious
awareness or perception
 Psychological dependency: person
craves a drug
 Physiological addiction: body becomes
biochemically dependent on a drug
 Tolerance: greater doses are necessary
to produce the same effect
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Drugs & crime
Withdrawal: physical and psychological
symptoms which develop in an addicted
person when he or she abruptly stops or
reduces intake of a drug
 Central nervous system depressants:
remove social inhibitions, relieve
anxiety, impair judgment. Include
alcohol, barbiturates and minor
tranquilizers
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Drugs and crime:
Pharmacological classification
Central nervous system stimulants:
addiction possible, stimulates alertness,
wakefulness, euphoria; includes
amphetamines, caffeine, nicotine and
cocaine and its derivatives (crack, ice)
 Hallucinogens: non-addicting; effects
include hallucinations, sense of
timelessness & mystical insights; LSD,
mescaline, psilocybin
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Drugs and crime
Narcotics: highly addicting, acts as an
analgesic, euphoria; includes morphine,
heroin, codeine and Demerol
 Phencyclidine (PCP): not addicting;
causes mental confusion, unfocused
aggression, pain relief
 Marijuana: not addicting, dose
dependent effects
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Legal classification of drugs
Drugs classified from Schedule I Drugs
to Schedule V, with I the most restricted
and V the least restricted
 Classified based on: (1) medical usage;
and (2) potential for abuse
 Note that alcohol is not included, yet if it
were to be classified, it should be a
Schedule I drug
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Substance abuse and criminality
Clear link between drug use and
criminality
 Alcohol
 Prison inmates 3 times as likely as other
males the same age to drink 2+ oz. of
liquor per day
 25% indicated they had got drunk and
hurt someone during last 3 years
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Drugs and crime
Alcohol involved in 2/3 of homicides in a
Philadelphia study, about 40% of rape
cases
 about 75% of arrestees have traces of
illegal drugs in their systems (DUF
studies)
 In a study of CA inmates, over 40%
reported using “heavy drugs” in the last
3 years
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Drugs and crime
Heroin and crack have been most
associated with chronic serious
offenders
 Hypotheses
 1. Psychopharmacological: drugs
contribute to crime by reducing
inhibitions (alcohol) or stimulating
aggressive behavior (stimulants)
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Drugs and Crime
Economic Compulsivity hypothesis:
Addiction to substances contribute to
crime to support a habit.
 Studies of junkies have indicated that
many commit crimes to obtain drugs
 Lifestyle hypothesis: Offenders both
use drugs and commit crimes as part of
a lifestyle
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Drugs and crime
Studies have found that some
individuals commit crimes after
becoming addicted (economic)
 Studies have also found that many
abusers were committing crimes before
beginning drug usage. During periods
of addiction, crimes tended to increase
considerably, referred to as “on a run.”
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Drugs and crime
For the latter group, decrease in
substance abuse was associated with a
decrease, but not stopping, criminal
activity
 For a number of offenders, then,
stopping drug use will not stop their
criminal behavior, although crimes may
decrease
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Mass media and crime:
Television
99% of American households have at
least one television
 Average American: watches 4
hours/day
 Average child: 35 hours/week
 May see 9.5 violent acts/hour in prime
time, 25/hour in cartoons
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TV and aggression
By age 18, a typical child will have seen
33,000 murders or attempted murders
 Is there a relationship between viewing
violence and subsequent aggression?
 The answer is still disputed
 The consensus is that violence on TV
does lead to aggressive behavior by
those who watch the programs
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TV and aggression
Experimental results
 Those who view violent vs. nonviolent
episodes more likely to act aggressive
(hit Bobo dolls, administer more electric
shocks); however, this is artificial
 Correlational studies: people with
histories of violence typically prefer
violent shows (which came first?)
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TV and aggression
Hypotheses
 People become aroused by the
excitement of violence
 Triggering of violence-related ideas
 Erosion of inhibitions
 Imitations of others’ violent behavior
(note: the more similar the model, the
more likely imitation)
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TV and aggression
Desensitizes people to violence, might
become indifferent to it.
 Distorts perception of reality: may think
violence is more common than it
actually is, that it is accepted behavior
 People end up spending less time in
other productive activities which might
lead them from crime (reading,
homework)
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TV and crime
TV appears to have differing effects on
individuals
 Only a few imitate acts on TV
 People might be affected differently
depending on personality characteristics
 Children who were cooperative were
more affected by Mr. Rogers than were
aggressive children
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TV
Little is known about the potential
positive effects of TV
 What are the effects of TV on property
crime?
 If someone is punished, does that affect
viewers?
 Does TV create envy and thus lead to
crime?
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Pornography and Sex Crimes
Pornography: sexually explicit material
intended to create sexual arousal
 1970-President’s Commission on
Obscenity and Pornography concluded
that men exposed to pornography are
not likely to commit sexual aggression
 Sex offenders viewed less pornography
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Pornography
Heavy viewing was not addicting--many
became bored with it
 Denmark-allowed it, rates of most sex
crimes did not increase
 1985 Commission on Pornography
condlued that exposure to pornography
may cause aggression against women
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Pornography and sex crimes
Why the difference?
 The nature of pornography changed:
“hard” pornography vs. “soft”
pornography. Key appears to be
aggression
 Conclusions
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Pornography and sex crimes
Pornography that portrays sexual
aggression as pleasurable for the victim
increases the acceptance of coercion in
sex
 In laboratory studies measuring shortterm effects, exposure to violent
pornography increases punitive
behavior toward women
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Pornography and sex crimes
Little evidence to support that
nonviolent pornography causes sexual
aggression against women
 Pornography using children has longterm negative effects on its participants
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Comparative Criminology
Different countries have different crimes
and differing frequency of crimes
 Method of agreement: identify common
factors across cultures which account
for high or low crime rates
 Method of difference: find a country
that does not fit what is expected and
try to figure out why
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Methodological problems
Countries do not gather crime statistics
in the same way
 Some countries may not record crimes
formally
 Countries have differing attitudes
toward particular crimes, and
emphasize some and de-emphasize
others (Netherlands, bicycle theft,
developing--begging)
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Frequency of crime world-wide
1. Theft
2. Assault
 3. Fraud
4. Robbery
 5. Drug abuse
6. sex crimes
 7. Drug trafficking 8. homicide
 9. Kidnapping
 Property offenses account for greatest
proportion
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Trends worldwide
Developing vs. developed countries
 Developing countries
 Increase in the number of laws
 Increase in youths, (population
explosion) migration to cities,
unemployment
 Developed: rise in crime, better
reporting
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U.N. study of Factors & Crime
Homicide is associated with a low GNP
and high proportion in agriculture
 Property crime is associated with a high
GNP and low proportion in agriculture
 Low crime rates associated with:
Strong kinship bonds
Strong informal controls
Homogeneity of the population
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U.N. study
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High crime rates associated with
Industrialization
Migration
Dislocation
Instability
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How crime is handled
In all countries, the bulk of funds goes
toward law enforcement
 Developed countries put a larger share
in courts and corrections
 CJS is replacing informal group control
in most parts of the world
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Japan
Low crime rate
 Characteristics that would make it high
risk: Rapid industrialization,
urbanization, very rapid social change
 Protective: no ethnic diversity, common
tradition, group-oriented, self-restraint
valued
 Conflict and Durkheimian perspectives
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Example: Switzerland
Low crime rate
 Risk factors: industrialization, urban,
three distinct ethnic groups
 Protective: affluence, high degree of
local governance
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Specific example: Israel
Expected a low crime rate: Jews
throughout the world have a low rate
 Migration of two groups (after 1948)
 European--highly educated, Western
 Arabic
 Prison population is mostly Arabic Jews
(who had been law-abiding in Arabic
countries)
Conflict explanation
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