CRCJ 1000 Study Guide - Fall 2018, Comprehensive Midterm Notes - Canada, Criminal Justice, White-Collar Crime
12 Oct 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
CRCJ 1000
MIDTERM EXAM
STUDY GUIDE
Fall 2018
Criminology
Chapter 1: Crime, Criminals, and Criminology
• What is criminology?
o The od of koledge regardig rie as a soial pheoeo
▪ A sociological approach
o Aspects of making laws, breaking laws, and reacting to breaking laws
▪ Why are some laws made and others not?
▪ Why do laws change over time?
▪ Consequences of breaking laws—criminal vs offender
o Goal is scientific; develop general and verified principles and knowledge regarding law,
crime, and treatment
• Why study crime?
o Identify themes and patterns in committing crime
o Reduce it
o Affects everyone (tax payers funds fund system)
▪ Most are affected by it at some point in their life
o What tpe of puishet or treatet orks est ad hat does’t
▪ Evidence based intervention—scientific research in what works best
o To understand motives and intentions of criminals
o Study behaviours of criminals after they have been incarcerated
▪ Rehabilitation effects vs punishment
▪ Goal is to have criminals come out better than they went in
• Discipline of Criminology (6 major areas)
o The definition of crime and criminals
▪ How we define crime and criminals
o The origins and role of the law
▪ How does law evolve and how does something become lawful
▪ If there is no law, there is no crime
▪ White ollar rie did’t eist as a soial prolem→ it was not treated as a
criminal crime
o Social distribution of crime
▪ Trends of people who commit crimes
• Geographically (cities)
▪ Types of crime committed by different people
o Causation of crime
▪ Why do some commit crimes and others not
▪ What backgrounds do they come from
o Patterns of crim behavior
▪ Who are the offenders, victims
▪ Under certain circumstances who become offender vs victim
▪ Balance between offender rights and victim rights
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
▪ How we talk about offenders vs victim is significant
o Societal reactions to crime
▪ Crime is mainly run with state run criminal justice systems
• How do we know about crime?
o Where: Media (news, social media, TV, radio, peers)
o How does this impact our knowledge of crime?
• Crime and the media
o Most people learn crime through media
o Media often misrepresents crime to attract viewers
▪ Those thigs do’t happe eer da→ a’t tur aa
• Many Canadians believed that violent crime has been rising in the past
10 years// it has been decreasing
• Media representation and political motives effect how people perceive
crime
▪ Things that happen in our own community affect us more than what we hear in
the media
▪ If it bleeds, it leads
o Fictional accounts of crime are very distorted
▪ TV shows→ C“I Effet
• Refers to effect that crime shows have on citizens and jury and how
they think about crime
o Think there is more forensic evidence than possible
o 45 days on average to get a DNA result
▪ In shows it is much faster and more concise
o Study by Moeder and Corbett
▪ Mock trials→ put students on trial
▪ Students who thought crime shows were realistic felt
DNA was more reliable
• Very simplistic view on crime
o Forgets social factors
o Good people vs bad people
• Rules and Laws: Regulation of Behavior
o All groups have rules→important for society to function
▪ Driving: speed limits, road rules
o We conform to the norms created in society
▪ We must learn most rules so well that we follow them without thinking about
them at all
▪ Blindly following
o We often turn social norms into laws
• What is a Crime?
o Harmful behaviors were dealt with as private matters historically
▪ Now it is anything but private→ crime against state
o Gradually harmful acts became defined as criminal
▪ Crime is against state not individual
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
