Crim Unit 2

• Norms


  The normal way of behaving in society. All laws are norms (such as not killing someone) but not all norms are laws (such as coming to college with your homework). Someone who breaks a norm is considered deviant.
• Deviance


  Deviance is any behaviour that differs from normal. In other words, it is behaviour that is unusual, uncommon or out of the ordinary in some way. It could be unusual in one of the three different ways:

  - Behaviour that is unusual and good, such as heroically risking one's own life to save someone else

  - Behaviour that is unusual and eccentric or bizarre, such as talking to the trees in the park, or hoarding huge quantities of old newspapers

  - Behaviour that is unusual and bad or disapproved of, such as physically attacking someone for no reason.

  The final definition is the most relevant to criminologists. This type of deviance involves breaking a rule or norm of some kind.

  This rule-breaking leads to a critical, hostile or disapproving reaction from others.
• Values


  Specific cultural goals. Norms follow these values. A norm prescribes the actual behaviour and a value justifies that behaviour. Values are the reason why some actions are approved of more than others.
• Norms and Values Example


  Going to work.

  Value = earn money to provide for family.

  Norm = going to work.

  Criminal norm = nefarious acts such as theft or fraud.
• Sanctions


  Punishments against someone who breaks laws/norms and they depend on the severity of the act.
• Informal Sanctions


  When people are punished for not following social norms in an informal setting. An example is a parent grounding their child.
• Formal Sanctions


  When social norms are being enforced at a legal level (breaking the law.) An example is imprisonment after committing a crime.
• Examples of formal negative sanctions


  - recieveing a prison sentence

  - being ordered to pay a fine

  - community service
• Examples of informal negative sanctions


  - a friend telling you off for speeding

  - parents grounding a teenager for smoking underage
• Social Construction


  A view that things such as crime have no 'objective reality' and are instead constructed by society. What constitutes a crime tends to alter according to time, culture and circumstances. Norms are the products of social construction. Behaviour can vary in being normal or abnormal depending on the situation, time and place. Therefore, both crime and deviance is relative.
• How laws change from culture to culture


  Different cultures have different expectations of appropriate behaviour. What is a crime in one culture is not in another. Particular difficulties can arise when a person who has their origins in cultural background live in a different culture, but prefer to retain their own cultural ideas of what is right or wrong
• Examples of different laws between cultures


  - Female Genital Mutilation

  - Bigamy

  - Euthanasia

  - Smacking children

  - Drugs such as alcohol or cannabis

  - Homosexuality

  - Same-sex marriage

  - Abortion
• Culturally different laws which are legal in the UK


  - Smacking children

  - Homosexuality

  - Same-sex marriage

  - Abortion
• Culturally different laws which are illegal in the UK


  - Female Genital Mutilation

  - Bigamy

  - Euthanasia

  - Drugs such as cannabis
• How laws change over time


  The definition of crime changes to reflect society's changing norms and values. We can gain insight into the socially constructed nature of crime by looking at how the treatment of certain behaviours varies over time. The 1960s in Britain are often refered to as the 'permissive age'. This was intended to convey what was perceived to be the general loosening of moral codes in the period. It was also a time when a series of liberalising laws were passed.
• Examples of criminalisation in the UK


  - It was illegal to take heroin up until the first world war (around 1920). After this the use was restricted but it could still be prescribed by a doctor until the 1960's.

  - It used to be legal to smoke in UK pubs and clubs. However, the law was changed in 2007.

  - Incest was not regarded as a crime until 1908.
• Examples of decriminalisation in the UK


  - The abortion act 1967 made it possible for women to have a pregnancy terminated. Prior to 1967 abortion was illegal.

  - Attempted suicide was regarded as a criminal offence until 1961.

  - UNtil 1967 any male homosexual behaviour was considered to be a criminal act punishable by imprisonment. However, the age of consent was set at 21 years. The age of consent was lowered to 18 in 1979. In 2000, this was lowered to 16 years, in line with the heterosexual age of consent.

  - In the USA the National prohibition act was passed in 1919 and stayed in place until 1933. This banned the production and sale of alcohol.
• How laws are applied differently according to circumstances in which actions occur

  Place - The location or situation of the offence

  Specific circumstances: crime should involve conscious rule-breaking.

  Age: if a person is below the age of criminal responsibility an act would not be considered a crime.

  Mental Health: Those suffering from some forms of mental illness are considered incapable of conscious intention.
• Age


  If a person is below the age of criminal responsibility (10 years in England) then a law which is broken by that person cannot be considered to be a crime. E.G. if a 3-year-old child walks out of a shop without paying for some sweets then this is not a crime. This is because they are not at a level where they can understand the difference between right and wrong.
• Mental Health


  Individuals are deemed to have committed a criminal act only if they can be shown to have had the intention of doing so. Those suffering from forms of psychiatric (mental) illness are considered incapable of this aspect of criminal behaviour. They will usually still be convicted of the crime, but will often spend time in a psychiatric institute rather than a prison.
• Cesaro Lombroso (1876)


  An Italian psychiatrist and military doctor who made many contribution to the criminology field and believed that the criminal is a separate sub-species which is between modern and primitive humans. He shifted the study of criminal behaviour from a moral basis to a scientific one and is regarded as the 'father of criminology'.
• Lombroso's Theory


  Lombroso believed that criminals are born and this scan be seen in the physical shape of the face and head. The concept is that criminality is heritable and Lombroso claimed that criminals were genetic throwbacks. They are a primitive subspecies somewhere between modern and primitive humans and they are biologically different from non-criminal and could not adapt to modern morality.
• Physiological Markers (Lombroso)


  The theory states that criminal types are distinguishable from the general population because they look different. Lombroso argued that the criminal subtype could be identified by particular physiological markers named atavistic characters.
• Atavistic Characteristics (Lombroso)


  Physiological markers which Lombroso argued were signs of criminality.

  - The principal markers of criminality were a strong jaw and heavy brow

  - High Cheekbones

  - Facial asymmetry

  - Large ears

  - Extra nipples/toes/fingers

  - An insensitivity to pain
• Crime-specific atavistic characteristics (Lombroso)


  Murderers = bloodshot eyes, long ears, curly hair

  Sex offenders = thick lips, glinting eyes, protruding ears

  Fraudsters = thin lips
• Cause and effect (Lombroso)


  His research was carried out amongst Italian prisons. Essentially he was studying the very poor people whose physical development had been affected by poverty and poor nutrition. Therefore, the physical characteristics that he identifies as being due to criminality also align with signs of malnutrition.
• Contradictory Evidence (Lombroso)


  He didnt use any non-criminal control groups to compare the groups and establish wheteher the features identified were confined to the criminal population. When the study was repeated the findings were not replicated. Goring (1913) compared the physical measurements of 3000 English convicts and 3000 non-convicts. There was nothing found to support the idea that offenders are a distinct group with unusual facial and cranial characteristics.
• Reductionism (Lombroso)


  Lombroso's theory is a reductionist because it only considers the biological factors of facial structure despite research finding that environmental factors have links to levels of criminality. In his later work, Lombroso took a less extreme stance where he acknowledged that criminals could be made due to a range of environmental facts and concluded that 40% of criminal acts could be accounted for atavistic characteristics.
• Reductionism definition


  Research found that the environment impacts criminal behaviour. Such as learning criminal behaviour from being exposed to criminal behaviour. An explanation is the diathesis-stress model which claims that all behaviour is a product of genetic vulnerability (diathesis) and an environmental trigger (Stress). Reductionism is when theories only consider one type of factor and not multiple types of factors. E.G. Lombroso only focuses on biological factors.
• Key Words - Evaluation


  Reductionist = only considers one possibility for the explanation

  Holistic = considers a number of factors as the explanation

  Deterministic = says everyone with this or born like this will become a criminal

  Environmental factors = family background, housing, poverty, etc

  Sample bias = if the studies are just of convicted criminals they're not representative.

  Gender bias = most research just focuses on biological men therefore it cannot necessarily explain female criminality

  Crime is a social construct = if crime varies over time/place etc, then how can we look for a universal explanation

  Diathesis-stress model = a combination of biological and environmental factors
• William Sheldon (1949) - "The Varieties of Delinquent Youth"


  Sheldon collected over 4000 photos of male students and Sheldon proposed three basic body builds (somatotypes). Ectomorph, Endomorph, Mesomorph. Sheldon believed body types were linked to personality. Pure somatotypes are rare, most people are a mixture of different types.
• Ectomorph


  Thin, introverted and restrained.
• Endomorph


  Fat, sociable and relaxed
• Mesomorph


  Muscular, aggressive and adventurous. Sheldon claimed that mesomorphs are more prone to criminal activities than the other two somatotypes and there was a relationship between how mesomorphic someone was and their level of criminality.
• Methods (Sheldon)


  He assessed the somatotypes of samples of 200 college students and 200 delinquents from photographs and rated each photo for mesomorphy from 1(low) to 7(high). The results were that the students average were 3.8 and the delinquents average were 4.6. This meant that the results supported Sheldons theory.
• Supporting evidence (Sheldon)


  Hart et al (1982) conducted a study and found that the most seriously delinquent people had a rating of 5, supporting Sheldon's theory. A number of other studies have supported the theory. There are multiple possibilities suggested as to why. One of these is that mesomorphic builds reflect high testosterone levels, which may result in an increase risk of criminal behaviour.
• Cause and Effect (Sheldon)


  Because of the stereotypes people hold about mesomorphs they may be drawn into delinquent activities by their peer groups. Alternately, the judicial system may treat them more harshly, increasing the likelihood that mesomorphs will be officially labelled as criminal.
• Reductionism (Sheldon)


  A weakness of Sheldon's theory is that it is reductionist because it only looks at body shape - a biological factor - whilst research has shown there are environmental factors which influence crime.
• Chromosomes


  Tightly coiled, condensed DNA molecules which contain up to thousands of genes. There are 46 chromosomes in two pairs. Sex is determined by the pattern of chromosomes. (XX AND XY).
• Genes


  Sections of DNA that code for a particular characteristic.