CRIME AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

By: Brandon Motley and Keely Holloway

Chapter Objective 1

Social Definition-is a behavior that violates the norms of society-or, more simply, antisocial behavior.

Legal Definition- an intentional violation of the criminal law or penal code, committed without defense or excuse and penalized by the state.

Non-enforcement: the failure to routinely enforce prohibitions against certain behaviors.

Social Definition Problems

First, norms vary from group to group within a single society. There is no uniform definition of antisocial behavior.

Second, Norms are always subjected to interpretations.

Third, Norms change from time to time and place to place.

Legal Definition Problems

First, behaviors is prohibited by the criminal law arguably should not be, this is known as overcriminalization.

Second, a legal definition of crime is that for some behaviors prohibited by criminal law is not routinely enforced. Nonenforement is common for many white- collar and government crimes.

Legal Definition Problems cont.

Third, legal definition of crime is the problem of under- criminalization.

*Under-criminalization: the failure to prohibit some behaviors that arguably should be prohibited.

Chapter Objective 2

Technically and ideally, a crime has not been committed unless all seven of the following elements are present

1. Harm 2. Legality 3. Actus Reus 4. Mens rea 5. Causation 6. Concurrence 7. Punishment

Chapter Objective 2 cont.

Harm: the external consequence required to make an action a crime.

Legality: the requirement (1) that a harm just be legally forbidden for the behavior to be ac rime and (2) that the law must not be retroactive.

Definitions

Ex Post facto law: a law that (1) declares criminal an act that was not illegal when it was committed, (2) increases the punishment for a crime after it is committed, or (3) alters the rules of evidence in a particular case after the crime is committed.

Negligence: the failure to take reasonable precautions to prevent harm.

Definitions cont.

Duress: force or coercion as an excuse for committing a crime.

Juvenile Delinquency: a special category of offense created for young offenders, usually those between 7 and 18 years of age.

Insanity: mental or psychological impairment or retardation as a defense against a criminal charge.

Objective 2 cont.

Actus Reus: criminal conduct- specifically, intentional or criminally, negligent (reckless) action or inaction that causes harm.

Mens Rea: criminal intent; a guilty state of mind.

Objective 2 cont.

Causation: causal relationship between the legally forbidden harm and the actus reus. In other words, the criminial act must lead directly to the harm without a long delay.

Concurrence: The criminal conduct and the criminal intent must occur together.

Objective 2 cont.

Punishment: for a behavior to be considered a crime, there must be a statutory provision for punishment or at least the threat of punishment. Without the threat of punishment, a law is unenforceable and is therefore not a criminal law.

Chapter 2 Objective 3

Legal defenses or legal excuses for criminal responsibility in the United States are these:

1. Acted under duress-

2. Was underage-

3. was insane-

4. acted in self-defense or in defense of a third party-

5. was entrapped-

6. acted out of necessity-

Definitions

Entrapment: a legal defense against criminal responsibility when a person, who was not already predisposed to it, is induced into committing a crime by a law enforcement officer or by his or her agent.

Necessity Defense: a legal defense against criminal responsibility used when a crime has been committed to prevent a more serious crime.

Definitions cont.

Mala in se: wrong in themselves; a description applied to crimes that are characterized by universality and timelessness.

Mala prohibita: offenses that are illegal because laws define them as such; they lack universality and timelessness.

Chapter 2 Objective 4

Dark Figure of crime: the number of crimes not officially recorded by the police.

Crime index: an estimate of crimes committed.

Crime Statistics

The difficulty in relying on crime statistics to measure the prevalence of crime is that “statistics about crime and delinquency are probably the most unreliable and most difficult of all social statistics”

Crime Statistics Cont.

In other words, “it is impossible to determine with accuracy the amount of crime (or delinquency) in any given jurisdiction at any particular time.”

Chapter 2 Objective 4 cont.

1. Among the reasons why crime and delinquency statistics are unreliable are the following:

A. Some behaviors are labeled crime by one observer but not by another

B. A large proportion of crimes are undetected

C. Not all crimes are reported to the police

D. Not all crimes that are reported are officially recorded by the police

Chapter 2 Objective 5

Two major sources of crime statistics in the United States are: The uniform crime reports (UCR) and the national crime victimization surveys (NCV) compiled by the Bureau of Justice Statistics

Definitions of Chapter 2

Offenses known to the police: A crime index, reported in the FBI’s uniform crime reports, composed of crimes that are both reported to and recorded by the police.

Crime Rate: a measure of the incidence of crime expressed as the number of crimes per unit of population or some other base.

Uniform Crime Reports

Uniform Crime Reports: a collection of crime statistics and other law enforcement information gathered under a voluntary national program administered by the FBI.

The uniform crime reports included two major indexes: (1) offenses known to the police, discussed earlier, and (2) statistics about persons arrested.

Chapter 2 Objective 5 cont.

Eight Index Crimes: The part 1 offenses in the FBI’s uniform crime reports. They are (1) murder and non-negligent manslaughter, (2) forcible rape, (3) robbery, (4) aggravated assault, (5) burglary, (6) larceny/theft, (7) motor vehicle theft, and (8) arson, which was added in 1979.

National Crime Victims Surveys

- NCVS: a source of crime statistics based on interviews in which respondents are asked whether they have been victims of any of the FBI’s index offenses (except murder, non-negligent manslaughter, and arson) or other crimes during the past 6 months. If they have, they are asked to provide information about the experience.

NCVS cont.

Generally, the national crime victimization surveys produce different results from the FBI’s uniform crime reports. For nearly all offenses, the NCVS show more crimes being committed than the UCR do. This underestimation by the UCR may result from victims’ failure to report crimes to the police or from failure by the police to report to the FBI all the crimes they know about. The UCR count more of some kinds of offenses (such as assault) and count them differently.

Chapter 2 Objective 6

Describe the principal finding of the national crime victimization surveys.

- the national crime victimization surveys (NCVS) produce different results from the FBI’s uniform crime reports. (UCR)

Definitions

Status offense: an act that is illegal for a juvenile but would not be a crime if committed by an adult.

Crime index offenses cleared: the number of offenses for which at least one person has been arrested, charged with the commission of the offense, and turned over to the court for prosecution.

How does the NCVS differ from the UCR?

Generally, the national crime victimization surveys produce different results from the FBI’s uniform crime reports. For nearly all offenses, the NCVS show more crimes being committed than the UCR do.

How does the NCVS differ from the UCR cont.

This underestimation by the UCR may result from victims’ failure to report crimes to the police or from failure by the police to report to the FBI all the crimes they know about. The UCR count more of some kinds of offenses (such as assault) and count them differently.

How the NCVS differ from the UCR cont.

For example, the UCR count each report of a domestic assault at the same address separately; the NCVS count the repeated assaults as one victimization. The UCR count crimes reported by people and businesses that the NCVS don’t reach.

How the NCVS differ from the UCR cont.

Unlike the UCR, the NCVS rely on random samplings of victims and their memoires of things that may have happened months ago, both of which are subject to some degree of error. Other problems with the NCVS are interviewers who may be biased or who may cheat, and respondents who may lie or exaggerate, or may respond without understanding the questions.

Chapter 2 Objective 7

Self- report crime surveys ask selected subjects whether they have committed crimes. Self- report crime surveys, like all crime measures, are indexes of crime; they are not accurate measures of the true amount of crime. To date, most self- report crime surveys conducted in the United States have been administered to schoolchildren, especially high school students.

Objective 7 cont.

Some examples of such nationwide self-report crime survey efforts are the National Youth Survey, begun in 1975, and the effort to ascertain and gauge fluctuations in the levels of smoking, drinking, and illicit drug use among secondary school students, begun by the National Institute on Drug Abuse in 1975.

Objective 7 cont.

Earlier self- report crime surveys of adults interestingly enough found an enormous amount of hidden crime in the United States. Those self- report crime surveys indicated that more than 90% of all Americans had committed crimes for which they could have been found guilty and imprisoned.

Objective 7 cont.

This is not to say that all Americans are murderers, thieves, or rapists, for they are not, but only that crime serious enough to warrant an individual’s imprisonment is more widespread among the U.S population that many people might think or imagine. The most commonly reported offenses in self- report surveys are larceny, indecency, and tax evasion.

Objective 7 cont.

One lesson that can be learned from the aforementioned survey findings is that people’s criminality is better described as a continuum, that is, as having committed more crime or less crime, rather than simply being described as criminal or noncriminal. In society, there are probably few angels, that is, people who have never committed a crime.

Objective 7 End.

Self-Report crime surveys show that the amount of hidden crime in the United States is enormous. Nearly more than 90% of all Americans have committed crimes for which they could have been imprisoned.

Objective 8

When all costs are totaled, it is estimated that crime costs about $450 billion annually (in the mid 1990’s)

According to the data from the NCVS, in 2007 the total economic loss to victims of crime in the United States was $18.4 billion.

Objective 8 cont.

Ton compensate for the deficiencies of the NCVS, a 1996 study was sponsored by the National Institute of Justice. In addition to the more standard cost estimates in the NCVS, the admittedly dated study estimated long term costs as well as the intangible costs of pain, suffering, and reduced quality of life.

Furthermore, although the study included only “street crimes” and “domestic crime,” it expanded on the crime categories and information included in the NCVS by (1) including crimes committed against people under the age of 12, (2) using better information on domestic violence and sexual assault (3) more fully accounting for repeat victimizations and (4) including child abuse and drunk driving.

The study estimated that the annual tangible cost of personal and property crime-included medical costs, lost earnings, and public program costs related to victim assistance- were $105 billion, or more than $400 per U.S. Resident. When the Tangible cost of pain, suffering, and reduced quality of life were added, the annual cost increased to an estimated $450 billion, or about $1,800 per

Violent Crime (including drunk driving and arson) accounted for $426 billion of the total, while property crime accounted for the remaining $24 billion. The study found that violence against children accounted for more than 20% of all tangible costs and more than 35% of all costs (including pain, suffering, and reduced quality of life).

Overall, crime in the U.S. has raised over the past decade. The costs of crime rises gradually each and everyday and raises due to the crime rate rising. Also, overall, the pain, suffering, and reduced quality of life tangible costs makes up about 90% of the costs of crime in the United States of America.

Chapter 2 Objective 9

There are many characteristics of people that fear crime daily. In general, those more likely to fear crime are females. Its normal for this, due to where a female isn’t use to having to protect herself constantly mostly because there is usually a man around who can protect them.

Objective 9 cont.

Those who fear crime more than others are listed as this: non-whites, people 18 to 20 years old, Westerners, high school graduates, Democrats, and people whose family income is less than $20,000.

Those whose income is less than $20,000 often fear of crime more due to the fact they may live in down homes or in rough neighborhoods. Most that makes this low are not able to afford expensive homes and have to worry about the crime rates around town.

46% worry about their homes being burglarized due to them not being home. This is fairly common, where when they aren’t home, it is easier for anyone to just break in and steal anything they like. All it takes is a bust through the glass and they can get what they need while family is at work.

43% worry about having their car stolen or broken into because its gotten a lot easier now to just break into a car and steal anything. Nowadays, a lot of people have learned the tricks of the trade to hot wire vehicles when people are away from the car. This is bad, but it is has caused a high percentage to worry of being burglarized.

37% worry about walking alone at night within a mile of where they live. This is common with females who worry and have the fear of being rape late at night when their by there self. It happens so much anymore, especially in rough neighborhoods or around towns that have people who make incomes less than $20,000 a year.

According to data form the 2005 and 2007 NCVS, the most likely victims of personal violent crimes are multiracial. Young(12-24 years old)