Understanding Crime and Sociology: Key Concepts and Theories, Exams of Sociology

Download Understanding Crime and Sociology: Key Concepts and Theories and more Exams Sociology in PDF only on Docsity! CRJ 102 crime and sociology sociological imagination - "the awareness of the relationship between personal experience and the wider society" as defined by C Wright Mills private troubles - values cherished by an individual are felt by him to be threatened' by individual public troubles - issues have to do with 'matters that transcend these local environments of the individual and the limited range of his life American Individualism - bootstrap theory and manifest destiny Media and Crime - less concerned with conflict contest, shapes public perception Ideology - A set of beliefs or values that all of us develop, usually unconsciously, about the way the world is or ought to be. Effects structure of criminal policy Dominant Ideology - society thinks that criminals are rational and in control of their actions, do not care about the root cause of crime. Critical Criminology - Rejects state definitions of crime, asking why relatively powerless wrongdoers are so much more subject to criminalization than are powerful ones. View that crime is a product of capitalist system Positivism - Forces beyond the control of individuals, rather than rational decisions, determine criminal behavior. Rational Choice - Focusing on how to deter people from committing the legitimate identified crimes is a priority. Achieving the goal of deterrence is possible because people are RATIONAL and able to MAKE DECISIONS ABOUT THEIR OWN BEHAVIOR. Also focus on punishment/sanctions for behavior Interaction-ism - Acts become deviant only because the reactions of others so label them. Integration - Optimal explanations of crime can be derived from combinations of two or more theoretical perspectives rather than by exclusive use of a single one, and does not imply any particular definitional orientation to crime. Guilt vs Innocence - A person can be guilty of a crime but innocent based on how evidence was gather Social Construction of reality - the process by which people creatively shape reality through social interaction Relativity of crime - Movement in and out of the 'criminal' end of the continuum of social desirability. Norms - rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members Sanctions - rewards or punishments that encourage conformity to social norms variation of crimes across time and space - when public opinion/ interest of certain groups change. consensuses perspective - This model of criminology views criminal law as reflecting the interest of the public Incorporates a utilitarian perspective - public policy decisions should generally maximize pleasure and minimize pain. Emilie Durkheim - An important scholar argued that criminals and their punishment are a function in society, help to define norms and expectations for conformity Conflict perspective - According to this model of criminology, criminal law serves the interests of the elite and powerful at the expense of the majority of society Rooted in traditional Marxism Karl Marx - Father of Communism Actus Reus - A guilty (prohibited) act. The physical element in a crime, comprises conduct that is prohibited or of failure to act in a manner required by the criminal law. Mens Rea - guilty mind Civil Law -