Nonviolent Crime and Criminals

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Transcript Nonviolent Crime and Criminals

Nonviolent Crime and
Criminals
Chapter 6
Substance Related Crimes and
Criminals
Introduction
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Crimes committed to gain access to narcotics
Crimes committed to resolve drug related
disputes
Behavioral reaction to mind altering influence
of drugs
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Loss of control
Increased sense of grandiosity
Uncontrollable conduct stimulated
Drug Related Crimes and Criminals
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Definition of substance abuse
Risk Factors affecting connection between drug use
and crime
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Pharmacological effects
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Economic effects
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Violence associated with drug use
Drugs effect brain function and perception
Violent and nonviolent crimes committed to obtain illegal
substances
Crimes committed to maintain dependence and avoid
withdrawal
Systematic connection
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One involved in selling drugs seeks justice for unpaid debts
Drug Related Crimes and Criminals
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Drug crime relationship explanations and treatment
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Non causal, epiphenomenal
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Unidirectional
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Drugs don’t cause crime and crime doesn’t cause drug use
Treat through psychoanalytic/behavioral therapy
Crime caused drug use and drug use causes crime
Treat through twelve step programs
Bi-directional
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Drugs and crime are causes and effects of one another
Treat by establishing therapeutic communities
Drug Related Crimes and Criminals
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Walter’s integrated model
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Incentive and opportunity
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Established through fear – fear of rejection by drug
using peer group
Fear manifests when exposure to drug culture is great
Associations with others
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Drawn to life of crime/drug use through
dispositional/situational factors
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Personality characteristics of individual
Individual expectations of drug use
Quality of associations in drug culture
Drug Related Crimes and Criminals
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Walter’s integrated model cont.
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Initiation and maintenance of criminal lifestyle
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Predisposing variables – already at risk for drug
involvement
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Precipitating variables – introduction to drug use lifestyle
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Family history of drug use
Pre-existing tendency to act impulsively/aggressively
Peer or intimate introduction
Experience with economic rewards
Maintenance variable – encouragement of sustained
involvement
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Ready source of income and/or recreational activity
Alcohol Related Crimes and Criminals
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Personality traits correlated to criminal behavior while intoxicated
 Sensation seekers
 Risk takers
 Impulsivity
 Low self esteem
 Low self efficacy
 aggression
Alcohol intoxication and behavioral changes
 Increased aggression
 Higher risk taking – especially in men
 Willingness to drive while intoxicated
 Engagement in property damage
 Gambling
 High risk sexual behavior
Drug Dealing
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Highest arrest rates
Harshest penalties
Neighborhood characteristics
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Central location of community
Physical deterioration
Social disorganization
Predicting drug use
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Low income of community residents
Low status of residents occupations
Drug Dealing
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Drug dealer profile
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Sell as alternative to low paying job or
unemployment
Overwhelmingly African-American/minorities
Drug arrest practices
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Arrests in socially disorganized areas more
accessible
Arrest practices in mid and upper class
neighborhoods more difficult
Police patrol disorganized neighborhoods more
frequently and intensely
Drug and Crime Involved Women
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Female drug offenders tend to come from
families where drug dependence and criminal
behavior are common
Positive non criminal and non drug using
relationships help females in rehabilitation to
discontinue drug use
Females who enter drug treatment become
dependent on social and family support
Legal Aspects of Substance Related Crime
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Debate over whether alcohol/drug addictions
are disabling illnesses or deliberate acts of
misconduct
Diminished mental capacity not appropriate
defense when intoxication is voluntary
Involuntary intoxication – one can rely on
diminished capacity defense
Substance induced disorders can be claimed
as diminished capacity in face of criminal
charges
Treatment Opportunities
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Some states offer treatment programs for
addicts
Small percentage of drug users receive
needed treatment/rehabilitation
Organized Crime
Money Laundering
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Evolving universal definition of money laundering
Current wide ranging definitions
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Concealing the existence of income, then disguising it to
make it appear legitimate
Process of taking proceeds of criminal activity and making
them appear legal
Goal of making funds derived from illicit activity appear
legitimate
Major participants
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Illegal drug traffickers
Illegal arms dealers
Money Laundering
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Essential activities to money laundering
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Placement
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Layering
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Changing illicitly derived money into a non illicit form and
then placing that money into a legitimate financial
system
Movement of these funds to conceal illicit funds
Integration
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Reintroduction of the money into a legitimate financial
economy
Gambling/Loan Sharking/Numbers
Running
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Monetary proceeds received second only to illegal
drug sale and distribution
Bookmaking
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Loan Sharking
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Taking bets on sporting events – bookies get interest on
losses
Bookies lend money to gambler with high interest rates
Numbers Running
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Similar to “daily number” of state lotteries
Cheaper and better pay offs
Caters to and facilitated by poor urbanites
Racketeering
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Definition
 Includes but not limited to murder, kidnapping, gambling, arson,
embezzlement, bribery
 Don’t have to commit to be charged (co-conspirator)
Labor racketeering
 Illegal infiltration into labor unions for personal
 Victims are members of labor unions
Skimming
 Money taken off the top of cash transactions
 Unreported, tax free income
Bankruptcy fraud
 Partner with legitimate business establishments to commit fraud
 Organized crime syndicates obtain money/merchandise without
the bank’s knowledge and legitimate business files bankruptcy
White Collar Crime
Defining White Collar Crime
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Edwin Sutherland
 Crime committed by respectable person of high social status in
the course of their occupation
 Too general
Donald Gibbons
 Violation of business rules to benefit legitimate enterprises
 Does not account for fraud and embezzlement
Clinnard & Quinney
 Occupational crime
 Non violent infractions of legal codes within an otherwise
legitimate enterprise
US Congressional Subcommittee on Crime
 Illegal act committed by nonphysical means and concealment to
obtain money/property or personal/business advantage
Embezzlement
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Definition
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Criminal profiles
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Theft of goods that one had been entrusted with by another
Often highly educated
Known to the person from whom they are stealing
Tend to be the model employee
Manipulative and scheming
Triggers
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Economic hardship
Manufactured economic needs
To compensate for health care or treatment needs
SEC Violations – Insider Trading
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Misperception of insider trading definition
Insiders with trading restrictions
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Illegal insider trading
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Directors/owners/officers that have decision
making authority affecting the entire organization
Information not made public used for personal
profit
No clear definition of what comprises insider
information
SEC Violations – Securities Fraud
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Securities and commodities fraud
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The sale, transfer, or purchase of securities or
money interests in business activities of others
“Boiler-room” operations
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Used to promote sales of fraudulent securities or
to acquire charitable donations from unknowing
donators
Fraud
Internet Fraud
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Five general types
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Acts to prevent spammers
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Auction and retail schemes
Business opportunity schemes
Identity theft and fraud
Investment schemes
Credit card schemes
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
Communications Privacy Act
Legal consequences
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Imprisonment
Serious fines
Telemarketing Fraud
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False promises made offering goods or services, requesting
investments or asking for charitable donations
Differentiating fraud from legitimate enterprises
 Goals of illegitimate enterprises
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Reloading
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Make the scheme seem to be a charitable cause worthy of payment
Obtaining immediate payment – before victim can inspect value
Devising a perception of validity
Fraudulent operations re approaches those victims it has been
successful in scheming in the past
Geographical location
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Less likely that tracking will occur if the victim and the illegitimate
business are in separate states.
Telemarketing Fraud
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Varying telemarketing schemes
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Charity schemes
Credit card schemes
Lottery schemes
Magazine/prize promotion
Credit repair and loan schemes
Investment/business opportunity schemes
Identity Theft and Identity Fraud
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Loose definition
Purpose
Personal information obtained and used by
offenders
Methods
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Shoulder surfing
Dumpster diving
1998 law – Identity Theft and Assumption
Deterrence Act
Other types of Fraud
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Health care fraud
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Submission of false claims
Payment or receipt of bribes
Self referrals
Offenders and Victims
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Victim characteristics
 Anyone – especially if careless
 Elderly more vulnerable to financial fraud
 Victims of internet fraud
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Victims of identity theft and fraud
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Extremely trusting
Disclose personal information to others (known and unknown)
Victims of telemarketing fraud
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Careless in disclosing personal data while online
Agree to pay advance fees
Victims of fraudulent behavior in past
Names purchased from lead brokers
Offenders
 Motivated by money
 Low recidivism rate
Internet Crime
Electronically Generated Child
Pornography
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Definition of crime
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Knowingly mailing/transporting any child
pornography
Child pornography prevention act (1996)
What computer generated child pornography
can lead to
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Pedophiles use images to whet deviant appetites
and lure children into sexually explicit activities
Desensitizes viewers into a pathology of sexual
abuse/exploitation of children
Cyberstalking
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Use of the internet to harass victims
Practices
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Search chat rooms for vulnerable individuals
Spy on a person’s online activities anonymously
Stalking
Background Information
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Common elements
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Varying clinical definitions
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Unwanted behavioral intrusion
Implicit or explicit threat
Reasonable fear is experienced
Obsessional following
Treatment is relatively new
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Collection of stalking scarce until recently
Love obsessional stalker
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Celebrity stalking
Offender profiles
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Mental illness
Lack of successful intimate relationships
Socially maladjusted
Initiate correspondence with the victim and
when they do not receive a response –
frustration and anger
Erotomanic stalker
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Delusional thought patterns convince the
offender he/she is truly loved by the victim
Perpetrators are usually female and rarely act
in physically violent manner
Victims are typically men of high socioeconomic status or celebrity status
Stalker profile/motivations
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Antisocial personality disorder
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Borderline personality disorder
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Unrealistic sense of importance of relationship’s intensity
Stalks after being rejected after short term relationship
Histrionic personality disorder
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More violent stalkers
Emotionally dramatic stalkers
Considers relationships more intimate than they are
Narcissistic personality disorder
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Rely on stalking fantasies to fulfill their own psychological
emptiness
Predispositional Theories
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Disturbances in early attachment
relationships
Recent loss in adulthood acting as a
triggering factor
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Terminated marriage
Loss of a job
Messy divorce
Death of a parent
Sexual Harassment
Developments in the Law
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Not addressed until 1986
Two prong test to determine a hostile work
environment
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Reasonableness standard
Perception standard
Treating sexual harassment as outcome of a legal
test that takes into consideration totality of
circumstances in the workplace
Sexual Harassment: Types, Models and
Modalities
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Types
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Quid pro quo
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Hostile work environment
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Supervisor demanding sexual favors in exchange for
tangible job benefits
Employee is a victim of unwelcome sexual conduct
Broad based models
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Sex role spillover theory
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Tendency of men to invoke sex based stereotypes
Sexual harassment is the result of an encouraging
individual and situational factors
Modalities
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Verbal Harassment
Physical harassment
Visual hrassment
Mental health concerns
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Victims suffer from anger, depression, anxiety
and substance use/abuse
Poor coping mechanisms lead to more
serious psychopathologies
Females experience higher levels of
psychological distress than male victims
Property Crimes
Theft
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Larceny theft
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Burglary
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Unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or theft
Motivation
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Unlawful taking, carrying leading or riding away of property
from the possession of another
Results in more arrests for females and juveniles
Drug use
Offenders lifestyles
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Know others who engage in deviance
Exposure to criminal activities
Absence of capable guardians
Theft
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Unemployment has a positive impact on
commission of property crimes
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Unemployment
Property Crimes
Arson
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Willful and malicious burning of property
Essential components to designate an act as
arson
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Burning of property or actual destruction of a
target
Presence of intent
Condition of malice
Arson
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Types of arson
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Serial arsonist
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Spree arsonist
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Three or more fire setting incidents with cooling off
periods between
Unpredictable and most serious
Three or more fires at separate locations with no cooling
off period
Mass arsonist
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Three or more fires at same location within a limited
amount of time
Motivations – John Douglas
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Vandalism
Excitement
Revenge
Crime concealment
profit
Profiles – Holmes and Holmes
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White males
Between ages of 16 and 28
Poor academic adjustment
Criminal histories linked to delinquency
Repressed rage toward society
Feelings of inadequacy, inferiority and
reclusive-ness
Alcohol/drug use
Prostitution
Why women engage in prostitution
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No consistent profile
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To acquire money for drug habit
Financial provisions for minorities or those in
lower classes
Product of enduring childhood/life long patterns of
abuse by men
Product of enduring childhood sexual abuse
Product of literal or psychological abandonment
Product of run away behavior
Impact on Women’s Lives
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Emotional damage resulting from stigmatizing
factors such as
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Negative social attitudes
Loss of control over work situation
Harassment from clients and the police
Increased opportunities for violence against women
Organizations representing women in the sex
industry
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National Task Force on Prostitution - Women have right to
determine how they use their bodies
US Prostitutes’ Collective – sex work is a class isue
WHISPER – prostitutes are victims of a patriarchal
structure
Impact on Women’s Lives
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Financial independence
Sexual power
Self-reliance
Limitations of research