SOC*1500: Lecture 3: Correlates of Crime, Fall 2024 PDF

LECTURE 3: CORRELATES OF CRIME SOC*1500: CRIME & CRIMINAL JUSTICE Fall 2024 | Section 01 LECTURE OUTLINE  What do we mean by a “correlate” of crime?  Critical perspectives on common correlates of crime: 1) Age 2) Gender...

LECTURE 3: CORRELATES OF CRIME SOC*1500: CRIME & CRIMINAL JUSTICE Fall 2024 | Section 01 LECTURE OUTLINE  What do we mean by a “correlate” of crime?  Critical perspectives on common correlates of crime: 1) Age 2) Gender 3) Socioeconomic status (SES) 4) Race/ethnicity 5) Location 2 “CORRELATES” OF CRIME?  Correlate = a factor that is associated with an outcome of interest  Various factors can be associated with changes in crime rates without having causal or deterministic implications (correlation ≠ causation)  It is important to critically examine whether there are alternative explanations for the observed patterns between these factors and criminal outcomes  A critical lens is needed to challenge arguments about inherent criminality among people of certain backgrounds 3 CORRELATE #1: AGE  Observed pattern: Participation in crime and frequency of delinquent behaviour generally decline with age  Age range associated with most offending = 15-19 years old  Peak arrest age for property crimes (16) and violent crimes (18)  Criminal behaviour tends to decline after age 20 4 CORRELATE #1: AGE  What is going on here? Possible explanations: 1. Age-crime relationship may be impacted by our data and methods  Measurement of youth crime rates is sensitive to legal, police, and media influence  ‘Youthful’ types of crime may just be more visible or targeted by the CJS 2. Young people have less social power and fewer resources to avoid criminal processing and to resist deviant labels Is there an overrepresentation of young people in crime statistics? 5 Age-crime curve = curvilinear relationship in which crime intensifies in adolescence, peaks in young adulthood, and then declines thereafter Pattern of “aging out” of crime (desistance after young adulthood) Demonstrates the importance of considering the entire life course, including childhood experiences 6 United States, Canada, 2010s England, 1950s 2000s The age-crime curve is a robust and consistent empirical pattern across time and place 7 CORRELATE #1: AGE  What might explain “aging out” of crime? Possible explanations: 1. Decline in health and physical fitness (weak empirical support) 2. Social changes that encourage conformity as you get older: employment, relationships, parenthood, etc. 3. Fewer criminal opportunities for adults 4. Adolescence is a transitional life period in which there is more fluidity in one’s sense of self 8 CORRELATE #2: GENDER  Observed pattern: Men commit more crimes than women (“gender gap” in offending)  Gender is the strongest demographic predictor of criminal behaviour  Men make up over 80% of all arrests in the United States since 2000  Higher crime rate among men tends to be universal (across time/place)  Gender differences in crime rates depend on the type of crime  Research suggests that pathways toward crime are gendered with different common trajectories for men vs. women 9 CORRELATE #2: GENDER  What explains the “gender gap”? Possible explanations: 1. Biological differences between men and women  High levels of testosterone are associated with more aggression, risk- taking, and criminal behaviours among men (weak empirical support) 2. Gender role socialization and reinforcement of traditional gender roles  Crime is compatible with masculinity, but incompatible with femininity  Boys learn more violent definitions of appropriate behaviour that are reinforced with parental discipline 3. State paternalism “protects” female offenders and skews our perceptions of gendered criminality 1 CORRELATE #2: GENDER  What explains the closing of the “gender gap” in offending?  Increase in egalitarian social values in modern Western societies leads to more criminal opportunities for women  “Role convergence hypothesis” = as women increasingly join the paid workforce and take on similar work roles as men, there will be an increase in female crime  Over time, criminal behaviour may be reducing among men, while it is simultaneously increasing among women 1  CORRELATE #3: SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS Observed pattern: Higher crime rates among those with low SES  Pattern may be skewed by the limitations of official UCR crime data  Proposed bimodal distribution of crime rates based on levels of SES  Conclusion: Lower class individuals may be overrepresented in the CJS Model 1: Model 2: Linear Bimodal 1 CORRELATE #4: RACE  Observed pattern: Racial and ethnic differences in crime rates  Overrepresentation of Black and Latinx Americans and Indigenous Canadians in our respective criminal justice systems (CJS)  Racial differences are explained in numerous ways by criminologists 1. Differential offending hypothesis vs. Differential treatment hypothesis 2. Historical legacy of slavery and oppression 3. “Trauma transmission model” 1 CORRELATE #4: RACE  Differential offending hypothesis  Actual differences in offending patterns between racial groups  Differential treatment hypothesis  Observed differences in CJS outcomes for racialized groups are a function of structural inequalities in the administration of justice:  Police pay more attention to racial minorities  Police may be influenced by race in the exercise of their discretion and authority  CJS may be influenced by race in the course of law-making and sentencing  Racialized neighbourhoods are subject to greater police surveillance 1 CORRELATE #4: RACE  Historical legacy of slavery and oppression  Various social institutions in the U.S. serve to enforce racial hierarchies, placing a disproportionate generational burden on Black Americans  CJS is part of a lineage of punitive “peculiar” institutions that enforce the racial hierarchy: Slavery > Jim Crow laws > ghettos > mass incarceration (Wacquant)  Argument that racial differences in crime rates are a product of “institutional racism” (critical race theory) 1 CORRELATE #4: RACE  Trauma transmission model  There are intergenerational psychological harms associated with historical oppression  Experiences of colonialism or cultural genocide contribute to “learned helplessness” and subsequent self-blame, low self-esteem, and (sometimes) hostility  Traumatic memories are passed between generations via inherited predispositions to PTSD, intergenerational violence/abuse, storytelling  Often used to explain “victimless” crimes like substance abuse 1 CORRELATE #5: LOCATION  Observed pattern: Crime Regional Variation in Crime Rates: United States, 2016 rates differ by geographic regions  UCR data indicates more crime in urban areas with rates increasing as the size of the community increases  Community characteristics may impact crime rates  Increased police scrutiny in “high-risk” neighbourhoods 1  A NOTE ABOUT INTERSECTIONALITY Intersectionality = complex combinations of age, gender, race, Age and SES that produce unique outcomes and experiences with crime and the CJS Race Gende  Considers the existence of cumulative r disadvantages within the CJS  Considers the relationship between identity and social power SES  Important concept for critical criminologists 1  NEXT TIME LECTURE 4: THEORIES I – EARLY EXPLANATIONS  Supernatural explanations of crime  Classical and neoclassical theories  Positivist trait theories  Readings: 1  Textbook – Chapter 3 9