Exam 1 Review Questions

• What is the difference between violence and criminal violence?

  Criminal violence attempts to create harm against another person, but animal violence etc does not.
• Three different ways criminal law is made?

  • What is right and wrong
  • Use of political and economic power to protect their interests
  • The social construction of violence
• What is meant by social construction of violence?

  We perceive violence differently as a result from interactions with others.
• Explain the important of the research on the "razor blade in the apple"

  No one says it is illegal to put a razor blade in Halloween candy, but it is not an appropriate thing to do.
• Criminology and criminal justice similarities

  • Justice refers to the system
  • Criminology focuses on the offenders and their behaviors
• What is meant by "clearing" an offense and how does that affect research on offenders?

  • Clearing means someone is arrested and taken to court
  • We only know the offenders of the cleared cases, not the unsolved ones.
• Video - crime measurement and limitations of official data

  • Only crimes reported to the police are in the system
• Video - why we should be cautious when looking at arrest data?

  • Someone can be arrested but that's not the person who committed the crime
  • Social class is not in data
• Video - how perceptions of crime and arrests are influenced by race?

  • Blacks are more likely to be perceived as criminals
  • 3.7 times more likely to get arrested
  • More likely to be pulled over for no reason
• UCR and NIBRS similarities

  • They both find similar levels of violent crime
  • Both uses the 4 crimes
  • Both are run by the FBI
• UCR and NIBRS differences

  • NIBRS do not use the hierarchy rule
  • The crime categories are different between the two
• UCR limitations

  • Reporting is voluntary
  • Crime is unfounded if not reported
  • Using the hierarchy rule: the worst crime gets recorded
  • Administrative issues
• NIBRS limitations

  • Some cities are still working on transitioning from old reporting system
• UCR limitations of official data?

  • Based on police reports
  • Only arrest data from part II crimes
  • Data is reported monthly
• NIBRS limitations on official data

  • ?
• NCVS strengths

  • Captures crimes not known to the police
  • Victim, household, offender characteristics
  • Provides incident details
• NCVS weaknesses

  • Limited range of crimes
  • Over-reporting
  • Social and interview effect could affect answers
  • Lies are possible
  • Interviewer cannot go to police after finding out about a crime
• What is clearance rate?

  • Refers to a person being arrested
• What are exceptional clearances?

  • Identified the offender
  • Gathered enough evidence to support an arrest
  • Identified exact location of offender
  • Identified something that made an arrest impossible
• Differences between crude and specific rates?

  • Crude rates
  • Total number of event divided by mid-year population
  • Specific rates
  • Real number
• Describe the historical trends of violence in the US as it relates to issues of race. 

  • Native people's displacement
  • Slavery and economy in the South
  • Civil war
  • Social banditry
  • Prohibition and organized crimes
• Why is it difficult to compare homicide rates over time and across countries?  What data are used to make historical? 

  • Limited details
  • Cultural and legal definition differences
  • Only data from developed countries
• Relationship between white and natives

  • Whites forced native people to relocate
• Trail of the Tears significance

  • Getting native people land until gold was discovered
  • Then forced out of their land on foot
• Violent nature of slavery

  • The need for cheap labor
  • Slaves were portraid as animals
  • Restrictions and fear of killing the white master
  • Gap between blacks and whites grew less clear after Civil war and violence increased
• Lynching, where and why?

  • Race relations changed
  • Blacks wanted to win back what they had lost in war
  • Occurred mostly in the southern US
• Violence in urban areas?

  • Higher rates of report
  • More inequalities with lots of people in the area
  • Rates are hard to tell because there is no data
• Impersonalization of homicide

  • Homicides back in time were more personal and the two people more likely knew each other
• Why did social banditry become popular?

  • Most people did not grow wealthy after industrial revolution
  • Increase of gangs because of young men trained in arms
  • Southern population was left to find their own way after war
• Prohibition

  • Transportation in secret because alcohol was illegal, lots of money involved
  • Other types of alcohol had to be found (and stolen)
  • Alcohol consumption declined but deaths increased
• Why is the homicide rate in the US so much higher than in other similar countries?

  • Access to firearms
  • More likely to use a firearm to harm another person
• Video - why were the Indian Nations forced from their lands?

  • Americans should be able to establish themselves on Indian lands
• Video - what was the ruling of the Supreme Court? 

  • The Georgia tribe was removed by force despite their efforts
• Video why is the forced march called the Trail of Tears? 

  • Food provided by the government was rotten
  • Many people died on the trails
  • Cold weather didn't make it easier
• Video - what happened at Sand Creek?

  • Gold was discovered in that land and white people wanted it
  • "Hostile" Indians were killed by volunteers, no soldiers to spare because of the Civil war
• Video - why does Burns say it so important the plaque reads massacre instead of battle?

  • It was a massacre because of racism
  • Fought by "federal soldiers" aka volunteers
• Video - what were the intended consequences of Prohibition? Were they reached?

  • Poverty and domestic violence should decrease
  • It was said that alcohol was the root of problems
  • A better social life was the hope
  • They were not reached
• Video - what were the unintended consequences of Prohibition?   

  • Organized crime increased - illegal selling and transporting
  • Increased consumption of illegal alcohol as well as increase in alcohol related deaths
• Video - how did prohibition encourage violence?

  • It encouraged organized crimes and gang violence
• What are the most common demographic characteristics of homicide offenders (e.g., sex, race, and age)?

  • Men age 18-24
  • White and black 50/50 (?)