SOC 206 Lecture Notes - Lecture 98: Victimless Crime, The Burning Bed, Gun Violence
10 Dec 2016
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CHAPTER 6
Norms, law, and crime
o Norms are rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its
members
o Law is a or forall reased through a soiet’s politial sste.
Civil law defines legal rights and relationships involving individuals and
businesses. (lower burden of proof)
Criminal law defies eeroe’s resposiilit to uphold puli order.
(higher burden of proof)
o Crime is the violation of a criminal law enacted by the federal, state, or local
government.
Misdemeanor: a less serious crime punishable by less than a year in
prison
Felony: a more serious crime punishable by at least one year in prison
o 55% of people i the U.“. thik dealig ith rie is a top priorit for our
society.
Fear of crime is itself a social problem because it limits the things people
do and the places they go.
Crime statistics
o Crime against property is crime that involves theft of property belonging to
others.
Burglary, larceny-theft, motor-vehicle theft, arson
o Crime against persons is crime that involves violence or the threat of violence
against others.
Murder, manslaughter, aggravated assault, forcible rape, robbery
Violent crime: patterns and trends
o Violent crimes
12% of all serious offenses
Increased quickly from 1960 until the early 1990s
o Why a recent drop in violent crime?
Strong economy
Drop in use of crack cocaine
Hiring of more police
Tougher sentencing
Violent crime: murder
o Rate has fallen since 1993
o Murder victims
78% male
51% African American
46% white
o Arrests are made in 63% of all murders.
o 78% of all murder victims knew the offender; in 23% of cases, they were related.
o Many cases of homicide include a history of the killer stalking the victim.
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Stalking is defined as repeated efforts by someone to establish or
reestablish a relationship against the will of the victim.
75% of stalking victims ***37****
White-collar crime
o Illegal activities committed by people of high social position during the course of
their employment or regular business activities
o Edwin Southerland (1940)
White-collar crimes are more common than people imagine.
They often receive little public attention.
Cases are usually heard in a civil court, and if convicted, offenders rarely
go to jail.
Corporate crime
o Unlawful act committed by a corporation or by persons acting on its behalf
o Gross negligence: knowingly producing a faulty or dangerous product
o The cost of white-collar and corporate crime is far greater than the costs of all
property crimes in a year.
Organized crime and victimless crime
o Organized crime
A business operation that supplies illegal goods and services such as
gambling, sex, or drugs
Organized crime has become multinational.
o Victimless crime
Refers to offenses that directly harm no one but the person who commits
them, such as gambling and prostitution
They can, and do, cause harm
Ripple effect
Mass media and violence
o Most researhers agree that athig iolee a…
Encourage people to be more violent
Desensitize people to violence
The copycat phenomenon
o Imitation of exact behaviors depicted in the media
The Burning Bed (1984)
An estranged housewife murdering her husband while he slept
Research studies
o The causal link between viewing violence and behaving aggressively
o BUT these studies have nothing to say about how the violence may be affecting
people.
o Content ≠ effect
o Humans react differently to media messages.
Impossible to control extraneous factors
Research studies (cont.)
o Alert Badura’s soial learig theor
Emphasized the importance of rewards and punishments
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find more resources at oneclass.com
2 groups of children watched 2 different videos
o Video 1: Leading character acted aggressively and received
rewards for actions
o Video 2: Leading character acted aggressively and received
punishments for actions
o Children played in room and actions were monitored
2 findings
o Children who saw aggressive behavior rewarded were
more likely to imitate aggression.
o The effects emerged most strongly for boys
(predispositions behave more aggressively).
But, not every child who saw aggressive behaviors being rewarded
behaved aggressively after the video.
Research studies (cont.)
o Leoard Ero ad Roell Huesa’s log-term studies
Studied over 800 children under the age of 10 during the 1960s
Tendency for children who watched higher levels of TV violence to
have higher scores on the ratings of aggressive behavior
But, there is no way to tell which came first – the TV viewing or the
aggressive behavior?
Research studies (cont.)
o “eour Feshah’s atharsis hpothesis
Viewing TV violence could be therapeutic for a person filled with anger.
Catharsis: to cleanse or purge; to get rid of
Media violence was actually a positive thing.
Youth gangs and violence
o Youth gangs are groups of young people who identify with one another and with
a particular territory.
o Youth gags a e…
Nonviolent groups
Those who sometimes clash over turf
All-out criminal organizations
o Tpial iolet gag eers…
Come from poor, single-parent families
Are from neighborhoods characterized by high crime rates, drug abuse,
and limited job opportunities
Guns and violence
o Many people blame the problem of crime on the easy availability of guns.
34% of households have at least one gun.
37% of these weapons are handguns.
o Gun violence is the leading cause of death for African Americans and Latino
males ages 15 to 34.
o Firearms are used in 2/3 of all murder.
o Handguns are involved in almost as many killings as all other weapons combined.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Norms, law, and crime: norms are rules and expectations by which a society guides the behavior of its members, law is a (cid:374)or(cid:373) for(cid:373)all(cid:455) (cid:272)reased through a so(cid:272)iet(cid:455)"s politi(cid:272)al s(cid:455)ste(cid:373). Civil law defines legal rights and relationships involving individuals and businesses. (lower burden of proof) Criminal law defi(cid:374)es e(cid:448)er(cid:455)o(cid:374)e"s respo(cid:374)si(cid:271)ilit(cid:455) to uphold pu(cid:271)li(cid:272) order. (higher burden of proof: crime is the violation of a criminal law enacted by the federal, state, or local government. Misdemeanor: a less serious crime punishable by less than a year in prison. Felony: a more serious crime punishable by at least one year in prison: 55% of people i(cid:374) the u. thi(cid:374)k deali(cid:374)g (cid:449)ith (cid:272)ri(cid:373)e is a (cid:862)top priorit(cid:455)(cid:863) for our society. Fear of crime is itself a social problem because it limits the things people. Crime statistics do and the places they go: crime against property is crime that involves theft of property belonging to others.
