Criminology: Definitions, Perspectives, and Elements

• Criminology is an interdisciplinary field, drawing on academic disciplines to study crime.
• There are varying definitions of crime, with no single, universal definition.
• Definitions of crime can vary based on circumstances.
• Homicide is generally viewed as the most serious form of crime, but it is not always criminal.
• Circumstances can lead to rethinking whether a killing is truly a crime
• There exists a lack of agreement among criminological experts on the definition of crime.
• There are consensus, constructionist, and conflict perspectives on crime which share differences and similarities.
• Crime is a moving target.
• Crime differs from deviance.
• An integrated definition of crime encompasses the three perspectives.
• Common law crimes (mala in se) and statutory crimes (mala prohibita) exist.
• Felonies and misdemeanors are distinct.
• Mens rea (guilty mind) and actus reus (guilty act) are elements of crime, but not all crimes require both.
• "Criminality" is distinct from "crime".
• Criminology can be considered a "science".
• Theory and methodology play specific roles in criminology.
• "Conceptualization" and "measurement" are key aspects.
• There exist descriptive, exploratory, explanatory, and evaluation research objectives.
• Criminological research can be guided by deductive or inductive reasoning.
• The "scientific methods" approach is more consistent with research steps and often used in the natural sciences.

Measuring Crime & Crime Distributions

• Three major data sources provide national-level information on criminal offending and victimization, differing from one another.
• The Uniform Crime Report (UCR) is collected and compiled.
• UCR data goes back a certain number of years.
• The crime rate is calculated and serves a purpose.
• Chicago's homicide rate in 2018 was less than half of the two cities with the highest homicide rates in the U.S.
• The UCR includes 8 "index crimes" or "Part I" offenses, one of is often omitted from discussions.
• The UCR has a "Part II" crimes section.
• Clearance rate is important where Part I/Index crimes has the highest clearance rate where the clearance rate varies.
• A crime can be "cleared by exceptional means".
• Non-reporting of violent crime exists.
• Police crime recording practices can affect crime trends observed in the UCR data.
• The decline in homicide rates observed in New York City during the 1990s was due to an intentional recording error.
• The hierarchy rule affects UCR crime data.
• Some important crimes are not included in the UCR data.
• The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) will improve the collection of "official" crime data and replace the standard UCR.
• NCVS data is collected and reported by specific entities.
• The NCVS provides missed information in the UCR.
• Measurement issues exist in the NCVS data.
• The NCVS data gives different estimates about how much exists in the U.S.

Self-Report Crime Surveys

• Self-report crime surveys exist and differ from the NCVS survey.
• Problems may limit the accuracy of self-report crime survey data.
• The "dark figure of crime exists.
• Narrative data on crime has strengths and weaknesses.
• Property and violent crime trends in the United States since the 1930s.
• The "superpredators" were predicted to have an expected effect.
• Crime experts are usually unsuccessful in predicting future trends in crime.
• Changes in the age structure of America contributed to the crime drop with specific amount.
• Research argues that specified factors are related to the crime drop and several factors that are not related to the crime drop.
• The "lead theory” explains recent trends in U.S. crime.
• A relationship exists between crime rates (violent. and property) and the degree of urbanization of a place.
• A specific region of the United States has a long history of having the highest rates of assaultive violence
• The "law of crime concentration" has a main takeaway.
• Sex/gender differences exist in crime where the gender varies by crime type and the highest male/female arrest ratio.
• The racial distribution of crime exists, where there is disproportionate involvement by specific groups in violent index crimes.
• Evidence of race differences in criminal offending differs for self-report data compared to the UCR data where the highest evidence of racial difference exists.
• The age distribution of crime exists, where violent and property crime peak at determined ages with a possible age curve of crime.
• Gottfredson and Hirschi make main arguments about the age-crime curve.

Crime Variation

• Hirschi and Gottfredson discussed the degree of variation in the relationship between Age and Crime across societies, time periods, and what explains the facts where longitudinal research is important.
• Different "types" of criminal offenders exist.
• A study informed criminologists about the prevalence of the two criminal types.

Victimology

• Victimology emerged as a subfield of criminology at a certain time.
• Sources of crime data contributed to the development of victimology as subfield of study.
• The distinction between victim and offender is often blurred, with victim-offender overlap exists.
• Theories emerged in the late 1970s, in part as explanations of victimization patterns.
• NCVS data shows how common non-reporting of crime exists, with greatest and the lowest non-reporting.
• There exists the profile of the most likely crime victim.
• Victim precipitation theory exists, which informs certain types of victimization.
• Lifestyles theory exists with specific patterns created to explain.
• Routine activities theory exists with specific patterns/trends it was created to explain.
• Recent victimization data shows how the rates of property and violent crime for determined the year compared to another.
• Trends in workplace violence differ from trends in U.S. society across time
• Rates of nonfatal workplace violence can is different for employees in specified time periods.
• Workplace violence tends to be more common among certain occupations.
• Level of workplace violence compared to the level on non-workplace violence, and the differences between both exist.
• Most workplace homicides are committed by a certain group of people.
• Specific methods of killing are most common in workplace homicide, which compare to the prevalence of other methods in society.
• The patterns/trends of violent death in schools show reflection of school violence.
• Data from SAVD-SS tell about recent trends in single-victim youth homicide.
• Data from SAVD-SS tell about recent trends in multiple-victim youth homicide.
• Comparing victimization rates between people of certain ages shows how the rates differ between in and out of school.
• Recent trends found from victimization show whether there is a correlation between violent and property crime in schools.
• According to certain data, being threatened or injured with a weapon on school property remains most prevalent among specific groups.
• Prevailing factors can determine higher rates per group.
• The prevalence of teachers being threatened by students varies.
• The prevalence of “lifetime contact sexual violence” for males and females differs.
• Stalking consists of specified behaviors.
• Human trafficking happens in certain places, where people are most commonly taken from and trafficked to.
• Two possible explanations exist for the fact that some individuals seem predisposed to repeated victimization experiences.
• Two major consequences/costs of victimization exist.

Criminological Schools of Thought

• The classical school of criminology emerged as a reaction to the system of “justice" that preceded and sought to implement changes.
• There existed a role of “judicial discretion” in the classical school, where punishments for crime were determined by classical theorists
• Jeremy Bentham's made contributions to current U.S. criminal justice practices.
• The classical school has certain core principles.
• In theory, certain conditions are required to be effective deterrents against crime and why the theory breaks down in practice.
• There is a difference between specific and general deterrence.
• With regard to general deterrence, there is a relationship between specific deterrence.
• "Punishment avoidance” factors in the deterrence theory.
• The positivist school of criminology differs from the classical school.
• There are ways in which criminals and non-criminals are able to differ according to the positivists.
• Positivists aim to establish a purpose for punishment.
• This differs from classical theorists.
• Atavism refers to a positivist theory of crime.
• According to post-positivist school of criminology, crime emerges from a specific place. where post positivist perspective differs from the positivist school.

Explore criminology's interdisciplinary nature and varying crime definitions. Examine consensus, constructionist, and conflict perspectives, along with common law and statutory crimes. Understand mens rea and actus reus elements, distinguishing crime from deviance.