I. Crime,
Criminal Law, and Epidemiology
Introduction to the Course
The Nature of Crime and Criminal Law
Winfree and Abadinsky, Understanding Crime:
Theory and Practice, chapter 1, pp.
16-21. See especially sections on Human Nature, Government, and Public Policy,
and the section on The Nature of Laws and Crimes.
Criminal Justice Timeline on Wadsworth Criminal
Justice Website http://www.wadsworth.com/criminaljustice_d/special_features/ext/timeline/wadsworth.htm
Siegel, Criminology, chapters 1 and
2. These chapters are not required, but
serve as good references for the origins, types, definitions of crime and of
the behavior that constitutes crime.
The Salem Witch Trials http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/salem/salem.htm
The
Epidemiology of Crime and Extent of Victimization by Crime
Researching Crime; The distribution of crime in time, space, and social structure
Bureau of Justice
Statistics website (http://www.fedstats.gov)
Compare Uniform Crime
Reports and National Crime Victimization Survey. Study crime trends on the BJS Website.
Take notes and write
out and be prepared to discuss crime trends, and patterns of victimization and
offending.
II. Theories of Crime
Winfree and Abadinsky, ch. 1, Theory and the
Study of Crime
Deterrence and Opportunity Theories of Crime
Winfree and Abadinsky, ch. 2
Outline theories of crime
TEST 1
Biological and
Psychological Theories of Crime
Biological theories
Winfree and Abadinsky, ch. 3, 64-66, 68-75, 91-97
Early Biological Theories. How do Social Darwinism, Lombroso’s genetic throwbacks, and Sheldon’s somatotypes explain crime?
Chemicals and human behavior. In what ways do chemicals affect human actions? What are the possibilities and limitations of chemicals for understanding criminal behavior? How are drugs and alcohol related or not related to crime?
Psychological Functioning and Crime
Winfree and Abadinsky, ch. 4, pp. 98-104; 112-113
.
What is the difference between psychiatry and psychology? What are psychoses and neuroses?
Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. What is the importance of the unconscious, stages of development, and unresolved conflicts at earlier stages; What are Freud’s components of personality? What are the functions of the id, the ego, and the superego? How does the development and functioning of the superego help to explain crime and deviance? What are defense mechanisms? What do denial, displacement, repression, reaction formation, projection, and sublimation do to help the individual adapt to the blockage of psychic drives?
Ellis’s arousal theory. How do Ellis’s arousal theory and other arousal researchers account for crime?
Personality tests. What are the uses and limitations of personality tests? How are they used in criminal justice?
Psychological Learning
and Developmental Theories
Winfree and Abadinsky, ch. 5, pp. 136-143;
Intelligence and Crime. What are the most likely explanations of the relationship between low intelligence, crime, and incarceration?
Behaviorism and Learning Theory.
What is operant conditioning? How does it explain crime and deviance?
Cognitive learning
theory.
What does cognitive behavior theory add to learning theories of crime?
What is Rotter’s expectancy theory, and how does it explain crime?
Psychological Modeling Theory. How does Bandura’s observational learning/modeling theory account for aggression?
Behaviorism and Policy. What are the current uses and implications of behaviorism for public policy and for criminal justice practices?
Social Process
Learning Theories of Crime
Sutherland’s Differential Association Theory. (M Oct. 6, W Oct.8)
Winfree and Abadinsky, ch. 7, pp. 191-195
In what historical/intellectual context did Sutherland first propose his theory of crime?
What are the key principles that he mapped out in his differential association theory? What is learned and how is it learned? How do definitions of the situation as favorable or unfavorable to crime come about? What are some examples of differential techniques, attitudes, and motives? What difference do frequency, duration, priority, and intensity make?
What is Glaser’s main question about Sutherland’s differential association theory? What does Glaser’s differential anticipation (differential identification/differential expectations) theory add to Sutherland’s differential association theory of crime? What are three sources of expectations for gratification or and expectations of unfavorable outcomes arise?
Akers’s Social Learning Theory (W Oct. 8)
Winfree and Abadinsky, ch. 7, pp. 195-204
What does Akers add to Sutherland’s differential association theory?
What, according to Akers, is instrumental conditioning?
How does learning take place, or how does Akers explain the effects of (1) imitation/modeling and (2) differential reinforcement?
What is the learned, or what is the content or the content of learning, according to Akers?
How do an individual’s personal definitions evolve and change?
What is the importance of feedback?
Film: Boyz N the Hood (F Oct. 10)
Which theories and ideas of the course best explain the situations and events in the film? What examples of theories and course materials are shown in the characters, story, neighborhood, lives, relationships, problems, and situations in the film?
Social Structure/Social Organization Theories of Crime
Ecological Theories (M Oct. 13)
Winfree and Abadinsky, pp. 154-159; 161 (Macro- Level Studies) to 164.
Shaw and McKay’s Studies of Chicago. How did Shaw and McKay study delinquency in Chicago? What was their social disorganization theory of crime? How did they describe the neighborhoods and their effects on the lives of the people who lived there? What are recent ecological theories of neighborhoods? What did Williams Julius Wilson find?
Crime and Social Structure (W, F, M Oct. 15, 17, 20)