Introduction to Criminology Concepts

This is chapter 1, Introduction to Criminology. So in this chapter, it's basically going to set up the scope of pretty much everything that the textbook covers. So that means this lecture is like a really brief snapshot of a lot of stuff that we're going to go into much more in depth later. But really, the chapter is kind of setting up the idea of, you know, what is crime, how it has various definitions, you know, that there's a big difference between criminology and crime. and just what is criminal justice, which is different as a system. And then, of course, it'll talk a little bit about theories and then victimology. So all of those things we are going to explore more in depth later in subsequent chapters. So if you don't get it all right now, that's totally fine. We're going to jump into it later. So anyway, this is your little tip of the iceberg introduction chapter. Okay, so some of the key concepts in understanding criminology is crime, right? There are various definitions of crime. So there's some that are legalistic approaches, which is basically that crime is a violation of law, right? And, you know, as this is a sociology course, you know, what is law if not just the norms we have in society or the values? that we have that are then codified into our systems of laws right so you violate a norm or an expectation of how someone should behave you know that's so like let's say you wear sandals out when it's raining right that kind of violates a norm but the fashion police aren't going to lock you up and put you in jail right but a crime is specific to violating an established law right so stealing or you know killing a person or something like that because our value systems say that you shouldn't do that. They've been codified into law and therefore, you know, so anyway, basically you can define crime as breaking the law, right? You can define it in sometimes as, you know, as what they call mala and say, or just an act as inherently or essentially evil, right? So the kind of immorality that can be connected to some forms of crime. right so it's really that's more about it being just a bad thing or you know somehow like an evil person sometimes we'll talk about this in regards to uh people like serial killers right they'll say like oh they're evil right um or you know that basically again just the value system or the understanding of the crime is outside of whether or not it violates a specific law and then mala prohibitor is more about you know something that is not inherently immoral, but it becomes so because it's expressively forbidden by positive law. And then there's deviance. So deviance is something we talk about a lot when it comes to criminology or a sociological approach to crime. Sometimes deviance isn't about something that's specifically against the law, but maybe just things that are considered wrong. or not normative, going against what's considered appropriate, right? So sometimes deviance isn't really even about it being illegal. It's more about it just not being normal, right? Or being different than what's expected. So other acts of deviance are not necessarily immoral, but are considered, you know, just strange, right? Doing something, just being kind of a weirdo, right? Like if you look at like the West Memphis Three. They got looped into this whole situation where they got accused of a crime they didn't commit and put in jail for many, many years. Why? Because they were kind of weirdo kids that listened to metal. So there was this whole idea that they were just satanic killers, right? When it was really just, they just had long hair and listened to metal and that's what made them deviant. They weren't breaking a law. They weren't doing anything wrong. They were just doing something that wasn't considered normal. But deviance and crime can be connected as some acts kind of move from being deemed deviant to being deemed illegal or sometimes things that were considered illegal in the past are just considered kind of deviant now. So we can see that see how our moralistic or value systems of a culture really impact the ways in which we understand what's considered right and wrong. And that's what then motivates what we consider deviant or not. So of course, deviance is something we will literally talk about through the entire class. So if you're not 100% what I'm talking about right now, no worries, we'll get there. Okay, so moving on to what is Criminology and what is criminal justice? So criminology is the scientific study of crime, right? And this is something that's been developed, you know, for many, basically, since the late 1800s, you've had a pretty rigorous kind of scientific understanding of crime. And actually, when I say rigorous, we'll talk about some of those theories in future lectures, you'll see what I mean. Some of them are really weird. where they were like, hey, you can look at someone and be like, you're a criminal, right? Because they got a weird nose or whatever. Or some of them were like, well, if we measure the shape and size of someone's head, then we can determine if they're criminal, right? So not all of this quote unquote science was super sciencey at the beginning, especially a lot of it was very racist. But anyway, we'll get to that later. So, but just to understand that this was kind of when it was, you know, criminology first came about as a discipline. really to try to hopefully apply a scientific study to the understandings of crime. Why do people commit it? What are the patterns involved? How can we then mitigate crime? How can we reduce it? So we'll talk much more about that. And then, of course, criminal justice itself is a large system that is used in society to enforce the standards of conduct that we consider that we basically need to protect people in communities, right? So how do we enforce the laws? How do we make sure that the things that we consider illegal are then monitored or punished or, you know, any of that prevented? So the criminal justice system is complicated. We'll talk about it a bunch. There's a whole bunch of different levels. But in a nutshell, right, they're basically there to apprehend, prosecute, convict, and sentence people who violate basic rules or basic laws, right, that govern group existence, right? So how in a society can we function appropriately? Well, part of that mechanism can often be making sure people adhere to kind of a code of conduct, right? So having a value system, a morality. to say it's bad to kill people. Sure, that can be good and we can all agree to that. But then how do you make sure people actually don't kill other people? Right? So that's kind of where the criminal justice system has come from. The goal is really to control crime, prevent crime, and provide and maintain justice. So it has a couple different components which we'll talk about in a moment. But before we jump into all the specific layers of the criminal justice system, It's also important to really understand the different perspectives of crime, which we're going to obviously jump much more into later. There's kind of just in a nutshell the consensus perspective. So this views the formal system of laws and the enforcement of law as incorporating the norms in society to a broad consensus, meaning the laws are the way they are because it helps the most people. It's really a reflection of what people think and their values. And this is coming from some, you know, late 19th century and early 20th century sociologists, which we'll talk about later, like Durkheim, obviously Durkheim, Weber, Ross, and Sumner. And it's assumed that, you know, most people, it's kind of like a logic-based thing. So we're going to talk about a whole bunch of different theories of crime later, and we'll kind of break this down, right? Is a person rational? Are they not? All this kind of fun stuff. So it's assumed from this kind of consensus perspective that most of us understand what right and wrong is, right? And we understand what the laws are and what will happen if we violate them, right? Like if you speed on the freeway, you know there's a chance you can then get a ticket, right? And you're gonna have to pay that ticket or all sorts of other consequences happen, right? So the idea is that people obey laws because they've internalized the societal norms. It's not about being positive. punished. It's not about, you know, the deviance of being bad. It's really about wanting to adhere to the social norms of the group, right? We'll talk about Durkheim later. That dude was all about that stuff, right? He was really interested in how societies function and, you know, this kind of solidarity that develops in society. So he looked at religion, he looked at a whole bunch of other crap, but basically he, you know, tried to understand how Again, we'll talk about it later, but this idea of mechanical solidarity, organic solidarity, that different kinds of societies have different kinds of solidarity. And it's going to depend on the kind of... how complicated the lifestyle or the organization of that society is and how that complexity or non-complexity affects how people kind of then come to a cohesive agreement. So in a more primitive society where everybody pretty much has this very similar lifestyle, right? They have the same religious beliefs, they have the same kind of daily life, right? Like let's say you're looking at someone who subsistence farming, right? Like There's a whole society of folks that they have the same religious belief system. Basically, their life is like we grow and eat sweet potatoes all day, right? That the shared solidarity comes from having the same experiences and understanding each other, right? Versus organic solidarity, which we'll talk about much more in depth later, is this idea in a more complicated society like our own, where lots of people have varying, different, specialized jobs, right? As technology has developed and There's so many more kind of nuances to society. Like I need there to be doctors, veterinarians, mechanics, grocery store workers, or as we saw through the pandemic, right? You needed essential workers to be manning their stations so that the rest of society can continue to function. So he calls that organic solidarity. The idea that the kind of solidarity we have in more complicated societies comes from the fact that we need each other, right? Like we rely upon. all those other people doing their jobs so that we can kind of function correctly, right? So anyway, basically, that was a very dominant perspective from kind of a criminological understanding for a long time, but it hasn't really been super popular as a theory since about the 1950s, and we'll talk about why, hint, social changes. But anyway, and then there's the conflict perspective, which absolutely we'll talk a lot about. And this is the idea of, you know, kind of, you know, we'll talk about it in somewhat of a Marxian way as well, but the idea that when there's conflicts in society between various groups, that can mean that they have different interests, right? So in the classic Karl Marx conflict, you're talking about social class and those who have and those who don't, right? But some of this is going to be specifically applied to um when it comes to material conditions within neighborhoods or within society as a whole, right, that conflict is often resolved when a group in power can then achieve control. So we'll have a lot of different theorists we'll talk about, like obviously, I mean, Marx is the big guy, but, you know, Quinney, Chambliss, Turk, a few of these folks that they specifically focus on how do we understand criminal behavior through this conflict perspective, right, that We need to kind of understand this, this really what are the mechanisms causing this in the first place, right? Is it the chicken or the egg kind of situation? Meaning, let's say people have very few legitimate opportunities to financial success in American society. And as those financial opportunities are getting harder and harder to get, i.e. you have to get a college degree, you have to you know, find a specific career that pays a lot of money, and even then it's going to be very difficult sometimes to get a, you know, to have a decent standard of living. So how then does that contribute to crime, right? As we have a handful of people in this country have more wealth than over 90% of the other people in this country, right? That's how are those material conditions affecting the ways in which crime... happens, right? So we'll talk more about that as well. But again, just kind of dipping our toe in at this point. Okay, so going a little bit more into that criminal justice system. And again, we'll talk about it more later. And I'm sure you've heard of it. You're not taking a a criminology course and you're like what's the criminal justice system but anyway just in case you were totally in the dark right like i said before the goals are to control crime prevent crime and provide and maintain justice so there's three different components there right you got law enforcement courts and corrections of course there are different levels of law enforcement right you got federal law enforcement and these are established to enforce specific statutes that are just federal laws right um so these are usually highly specialized units that have specialized training and resources so when you think of federal law you think of stuff like the fbi right the federal bureau of investigation or maybe the dea the drug enforcement administration secret service u.s marshals right groups like that the atf right um so anyway Or, you know, as we call it, DHS, the Department of Homeland Security. So any of those kind of like bigger federal agencies are typically like, if you think about like ATF, aka eventually Homeland Security, they're looking at different stuff than the DEA, than the FBI, than the Secret Service. Like they're kind of... specialized in what it is they actually cover, right? Versus state level law enforcement, these are usually going to be two different models. You got state police, and then you typically have highway patrols as well. well. So state police have general police powers to enforce state laws and they usually have routine patrol and traffic that they're really focusing on. But then they also have within state police you have specialized units that look at things like major crimes or drugs or maybe they have you know like crime lab folks they have juvenile units all that kind of fun stuff. And then highway patrol they their primary focus is to enforce enforce the laws of the road. Right? So all the vehicle codes, like making sure like the cars are functioning the way they are, like your brake light isn't out, all that kind of crap. That you're going at safe speed or driving conditions are safe, all that kind of fun stuff. And they can also investigate crimes that occur in specific locations that are under their jurisdiction. Like places that are state property or under a highway or things like that that aren't necessarily like specifically a federal or a local territory. And then local law enforcement is really divided into counties and municipalities. So this is the most like when you think of police, it's pretty much local police you're thinking of. Right. So this is the primary law enforcement for most counties or county sheriff's office. And what's interesting about that is it does have an influence on, obviously like the local residents have an influence on these departments in the ways that sheriffs are often elected officials or positions. So, you know, kind of local residents can have some say in the kind of policing that they want to take place in their area. So the majority of local police officers are employed by municipalities, right, like cities or things like that. And so local agencies are responsible for the nuts and bolts of law enforcement responsibilities, the kind of calls to your house, all that kind of, you know, day to day stuff that takes place. Okay, moving on to courts, a whole nother complicated thing. Super fun stuff. So anyway, courts, you got federal courts. Oh, so you got basically 52 different systems. You have one for each state, you have the District of Columbia, and then you have the federal government. So it's just an interesting situation where we have this kind of our federal courts have a three tiered model. You have the district courts, which are basically the trial courts and other specialized ones. Then you have the court of appeals. So the district courts are the ones you go to with your court case. You're like, hey, I'm suing this or I'm getting sued, whatever it is. That's like where you go to court. And then the appeals is when, you know, obviously you're appealing a decision from a lower court. And then the Supreme Court is going to be the ultimate say in any of those kind of things. So even though we're talking about federal courts. you can see here that we have supreme court at the federal level supreme court at the state level so it's a similar kind of level right where you have kind of checks from the next level above on the lower one so for instance the federal supreme court they only take x amount of cases but a lot of cases are kind of funneled up that direction and in recent years uh sometimes for more political reasons so we'll get into that later okay um state courts are um also kind of tiered so you have lower courts are kind of like smaller deals or not as um complicated then you have trial courts where you know that's the kind of ones you're thinking of when you have to go to like do jury duty or something like that then appellate courts a similar thing with federal right that's where you're going to be kind of um maybe challenging the ruling from one of those trial courts and then Each state has their own state Supreme Court as well. So jurisdiction is really about how before you can actually bring a case to a court, you have to figure out who has jurisdiction, right? So who's basically in charge of the people or the areas that are involved within those cases? So, you know, there's different categories for this. The lower courts are often very limited in their jurisdiction. They don't have power that extends to those. overall administration of justice so lower courts do not try felony cases and they don't have appellate authority versus you know um that you look at the jurisdiction for you know major trial courts is pretty general right so they have the power and authority to try and decide any case including appeals from a lower court and then the appellate or appeals courts are limited in jurisdiction on matters of appeal from lower court so they're not going to look at any case they're only going to look at the ones that are being challenged from a lower court case right didn't i say this would be really exciting anyway sorry okay we'll get through it i swear i swear this will all make sense eventually all right corrections is like you've been charged you've been convicted you've been sentenced right so now you are in the correctional system. So this means someone can be put on probation or incarcerated or maybe put in a community-based corrections facility. So just obviously most of this stuff I'm assuming you know what it is but we're just going to touch upon it briefly. So probation is just an arrangement between the sentencing authorities and an offender. And this involves an offender complying with certain terms for a specified amount of time in order to return to the community. So let's say probation could be, OK, you have to do 100 hours community service and you're able to return to this community. Right. Or once you've done this, this court ordered therapy or maybe once you've done this anger management course or. you know, this parental training course or whatever it might be, then you're able to return to the community. Right. And so there's some conditions involved in probation. The general conditions are usually about reporting to a supervising officer, meaning your probation officer. You have to continue to obey the laws. There's certain things you lose, like your Fourth Amendment protections against unlawful search and seizure. Meaning when you're on probation, there is no Fourth Amendment protection. Basically, you're already suspect. So they can just submit you to searches whenever they want, right? You can't have drugs when you're on probation. Makes sense. Or be in possession of firearms if you're on probation. So there's certain general conditions. And then the specific conditions. are going to be specific to that individual and the kind of crime or the kind of issue that they're talking about so this could be like let's say you know it's about a drug issue something like going to a methadone clinic or getting drug tested right that would be a specific condition or it could be something like being on house arrest or you know um again having to go to a certain kind of court ordered training or something of that nature or maybe psychological or psychiatric treatment. And then correction facilities themselves, you got jails, you got prisons. So the difference there is jail is typically for people convicted of minor crimes. And you're really just used to house people that are awaiting trial often. While prisons are often people who are convicted of much more serious crimes with longer sentences. So it's not always exactly this rule, but basically think of it as under a year jail, over a year prison. Right. It's not always that, but it's it's. It's, you know, similar, I'd say. It means that, you know, sometimes people can be in jail for a while awaiting their trial or, you know, going through that kind of whole process. But, you know, prison, you're typically there because you've gotten, you know, maybe a felony sentence or a longer sentence. So there's different types of prisons depending on the security concerns, right? So we know there's like the minimum security prisons, you know, like the white. collar criminals get to go to these prisons where they like, I don't know, get to like play golf and like just do stuff where you're like, is that prison? You got medium securities, maximum securities, and then of course the infamous super max facilities for people that we consider, you know, very violent or dangerous criminals. And of course there are a lot of alternatives to traditional incarceration, which we will discuss. Such as going to halfway houses, work study releases, again, house arrest, or, you know, electronic monitoring. They put like a, you know, a ankle monitor on you or something like that. or just centers where you show up each day and report to instead of being incarcerated why is that important we'll talk about it a whole bunch later but the the nutshell idea here is that when you still feel connected to the community there's more likelihood of you reforming right but the more we cut the individual off from their community and from society, the less motivation there really is to reform. So we'll talk about that later. Okay, moving on to comparative criminology. So comparative criminology is the study of the nature and the extent of crime and criminal justice systems across societies. So this should address questions like, why do some societies have lower crime rates than others? Right. What are the differences and similarities in crime definitions and control across social and cultural frontiers? And how do theoretical models relating to crime actually translates to cultures? And as we talk about different theories throughout this class, you'll see some of them are pretty interesting, but some of them are very difficult to apply to real people and real circumstances. versus others are very applicable. Parsimony. So, okay, side note, I teach research methods in criminal justice at Cal State Fullerton, and we get all into this. So I'm trying to like, how do I make this not super complicated? Okay, basically, you know, the whole Occam's razor thing, where it's like, if it seems like the most likely thing, it's that, right? It's kind of like in a lot of criminal cases, they'll say, oh well the wife was killed then the first suspect is the husband right that kind of idea that it's kind of explaining a phenomenon like criminal activity in the simplest way possible meaning the simpler theory the better typically um unlike the q anon madness folks uh where they're like oh this person said this and this the their last name had seven letters or you know and that the number seven represents this and And that's a sign that's a code for this other thing that means this. And therefore, JFK Jr., who died in the 1990s, is going to come back from the dead and run with Donald Trump for the presidency in 2024. Like these kind of bizarre. I don't understand how they're putting this all together. Um, yeah, that's not how theories really work. Typically, theories have to be pretty applicable and straightforward. And the more complicated and tenuous and weird and just having weird shifty explanations for things... they go around the less and less scientific it becomes right so this is why testability is important right how much can we test a theory empirically how can we scientifically test something and say is that true or not right um you know and really what's the scope of the theory how big of a thing is it trying to understand right is it very limited in a very specific offender or is it something very very general the larger in general you get the harder it is to really encapsulate the really nuanced differences between different groups and different time periods. And so as sociologists, we talk about these things as being socially constructed. The idea that our time period is going to impact who we are and what we do in some in a lot of ways, and really how we understand the world. So, you know, typically with the scopes of certain theories, if it's very, very narrow scope of a theory, it's not going to be applicable to all. a lot of situations. So oftentimes, there is a goal of a larger scope of a theory, though the larger it gets, the more it can miss those nuances. But theories also have to have logical consistency. So does it like make sense? Like that QAnon crap just does not make sense. You know what I mean? Like at all, if something has to be a signal for something, it doesn't make sense. Like that's not anyway. And then part of testability is empirical validity. It's being able to test. something and measure it and say can i actually prove this like for instance you know um for the second question here what are the differences and similarities in crime definitions and control across social and cultural frontiers so look at you know what's the differences between the amount of for instance mass shootings as a crime that happen in the u.s versus happen in other countries right you can see there's definitely a cultural impact there that is not something that that happens like in mass in the way that it does in the u.s pretty much every year in the last many years we've had more mass shootings than days of the year while most other industrialized similar countries have had you know maybe a couple tops so um it shows that there's there might be something culturally or socially happening there like the gun worship and nra stuff and all that fun stuff that's a affecting our perspective about how to deal with those kinds of crimes, right? Or even just that motivates the offenders to commit those kinds of crimes. So that's something that in criminological thought we're really trying to understand is like unpack the offender, unpack the social and material conditions around that offender as well. But to do so in a way that makes sense, that's not like wacky and actually can be tested in some sort of way, right? Okay, so later we'll talk about determine causality or correlation and spuriousness and all that kind of fun stuff but not right now Okay, and then theory also informs policies and programs. So criminological theory isn't just about like, let me pat myself on the back and be like, hey, look at this. I know there's crime. Good for me. But like, what can we then do with that information to reduce crime, to make the community safer, to make, you know, to lessen the likelihood of people being victimized? Right? So anyway, we'll talk more about that. So victimology is interesting. Victimology is basically the scientific study of victims. victimology is a relatively new area of criminology, which is strange, right? Because as long as there's been crime, there's been victims. But really, the ways in which we understand, you know, how crime happens and who becomes a victim is also something that's really important. So, you know, we have ways to try to understand this stuff. And sometimes this is coming from, we'll talk about official data sources later, but we have like reported crimes. And then sometimes we have un- unreported crimes or what we call, you know, the dark figure of crime or the unknown figures of crime. And sometimes things like victimization surveys can really fill in the gaps. So we have something called the NCVS, the National Crime Victimization Survey. It's basically this thing they send out to representative households and have asked people like, have you been the victim of these particular crimes in the last six months? And it's a self-reported survey, so people can kind of answer it without... someone standing there and asking them that question, largely because think about the sensitivity of that, you know? And then of course it really asks people, did you report this crime to the police? And what they find is a lot of filling in the gaps of people that were victimized but did not report it to the police. And there's many reasons why they may not, right? It might be maybe their own discomfort towards police or maybe living in a marginalized community that feels hyper-policed or maybe living in an immigrant community that feels hyper-policed. Um, you know, that can be a reason or it can be the idea that sometimes victims think that they will be blamed for what happened. Um, you know, especially when it comes to things like sexual violence, it's like, well, what were you wearing? Why did you go with this person? Have you slept with them before? Blah, blah, blah. Which we really don't do with other crimes. We're not like, are you sure you were carjacked? Are you sure you didn't just be like, here, take my car, right? It's a he said, she said, right? We don't really do that with other crimes. We're. really do that with women's bodies we'll talk about that later but anyway um so we really want to understand you know this kind of victimology of like how do people pick certain people as as you know their victims and also just how do we then figure out who's most likely to be victimized so we can protect them right so um victim precipitation is when an individual does or does not do something that increases the risk that they will to be victimized. So we'll talk about theories about this later, like lifestyle perspective that basically say like, let's say you are walking out at night with like a lot of money in your pocket, right? Alone in some, you know, kind of major industrial area, no one's around. Potentially that could affect your likelihood of being victimized, right? Versus, you know, you look at someone like the elderly. the kinds of crimes that they experience are often more about targeting them specifically for their age like scammers or things like that that'll like pretend their grandson was kidnapped and scam them for money or you know scam them in all sorts of ways but it's not often that they're just like beaten up on the street at like two in the morning after going to the bar because that's more of like what happens to younger folks who are out in those spaces at those times so you know who that person is is going to you know affect it like how high risk is their lifestyle and how much is that going to affect the victimology right so some people that are harming others are going to look for more high-risk victims like let's say people who are you know unhoused or people who are you know sex workers or things like that that might make them more vulnerable in those situations so anyway um part of what we're doing in you know criminological thought is trying to you know basically reduce the probability that people are going to be harmed or offended against. So when looking at the incidence or prevalence of victimization, each type of individual, you know, we really want to know like which who's most likely to be harmed for whichever kinds of crimes we're looking at. So for instance, younger people are more likely to be victims in a lot of crimes because they're not as psychologically adept or they don't have as much power and control in their lives. Intra-racial violence is more frequent, meaning oftentimes violence happens within racial groups more so than between. Violent crimes, particularly homicide, has actually dropped like dramatically since the 1990s, though that's not like what you see on TV. We'll talk about that later. And, you know, you have things like child abuse and neglect that has decreased a lot in the last few decades, but really just because we've changed the way that we deal with this. And again, you're going to get that sprinkled in, unfortunately. I also teach a class called Family Violence at Cal State Fullerton, and we really talk about the kind of issues that were happening in the past where so many people were being abused that it wasn't getting acknowledged because doctors didn't feel comfortable reporting these things. teachers weren't backed up. So now we have these kind of mandatory reporting laws, right? Like if you see a kid and there's something kind of fishy about that bruise that they have or the way that, you know, the interactions happening between parents, then, you know, or if they show up at the ER with certain kinds of things, oftentimes they'll get reported at this point to this kind of mandatory reporting system just to make sure, you know, because the worst thing that happens to a parent where that's happening, where that's not the case is. They get called upon by someone from, you know, CPS, Child Protective Services, just to like double check. But what happens to those kids who aren't caught through that net, right? A lot of them can suffer in horrible situations of abuse. So really in many ways, it was the training and the ways in which we've involved those kind of frontline folks that deal with kids the most, whether it be doctors or teachers. to help be invested in preventing and really reporting these crimes early on when they happen so they don't, you know, often result in as many deaths as they used to. So anyway, you know, like any other type of violent crime, you know, there are databases trying to understand this stuff and, you know, there are ways in which agencies have been really created just to promote awareness of what rights kids have and what protections and services are offered to them if they need help. Okay, then looking at compensation or restitution. So the main distinction between victim compensation versus restitution is that compensation is given by the state or the government itself, and restitution is given by the offender, typically as part of a sentence that they're given, like as part of their punishment. So victim compensation programs are typically handled by victim services unit at local counties or offices. And restitution is more about when an offender, if that's part of their sentence, then they'll have to pay some sort of restitution often. But the likelihood that a victim gets it is not as high. Because think about it this way. Does the state have the money to help you? Yes. Does the federal government? Yes. Does this offender? Maybe not. You know, oftentimes victims don't get, don't fare as well in getting that kind of compensation. Most offenders end up being unemployed or broke. So, um, victims never get that money. Think about it. This person deals with a trauma or something that could have then taken them away from their livelihood, their ability to work, maybe permanently disabled them, you know, all sorts of things that can really have financial consequences as well as other social consequences. So having some sort of way to help them is important. And then, you know, victim impact statements is another thing to talk about briefly in the chapter. So this is when a victim or often a family member. of a victim reports to the court about how an offender affected their life so victim impact statements are still accepted under the law during post-verdict guilty sentencing phases so basically like the jury goes in they're like yeah that dude's guilty he killed so and so and then like the family of the person who was killed can come in after the guilty has been you know read but before the judge gives the final kind of say and you know um or the final sentence and say, okay, here's how this affected my life. This person was amazing and they took them away or whatever it is. I'm sure if you've watched any true crime, anything, you've seen a victim impact statement or just, you know, some TV versions like the law and order kind of stuff. So victim impact statements are only given during the sentencing phase, not when the jury is determining the verdict. Obviously that would be prejudicial and problematic, right? So there's also victim's rights awareness. meaning just getting more attention to victims. And this has to do with, you know, some, well, first of all, there was a Victims of Crime Act that was passed in 1984, which established a federal crime victims fund to support state compensation funds. And again, because oftentimes, you know, victims don't realize that there are mechanisms in place to try to help support them through the processes of, you know, experiencing crime and being a victim of crime. crime. So anyway, that's just like a nutshell version of some of the stuff we'll be talking about. We basically went through A through Z there of pretty much all that this textbook is going to go through. So we're going to go way more in depth into this and talk much more about the specific theories and ideas that have you know, from the past to the now defined our understanding of crime and criminological thought.

But really, the chapter is kind of setting up the idea of, you know, what is crime, how it has various definitions, you know, that there's a big difference between criminology and crime. and just what is criminal justice, which is different as a system. And then, of course, it'll talk a little bit about theories and then victimology. So all of those things we are going to explore more in depth later in subsequent chapters.

So if you don't get it all right now, that's totally fine. We're going to jump into it later. So anyway, this is your little tip of the iceberg introduction chapter.

Okay, so some of the key concepts in understanding criminology is crime, right? There are various definitions of crime. So there's some that are legalistic approaches, which is basically that crime is a violation of law, right? And, you know, as this is a sociology course, you know, what is law if not just the norms we have in society or the values?

that we have that are then codified into our systems of laws right so you violate a norm or an expectation of how someone should behave you know that's so like let's say you wear sandals out when it's raining right that kind of violates a norm but the fashion police aren't going to lock you up and put you in jail right but a crime is specific to violating an established law right so stealing or you know killing a person or something like that because our value systems say that you shouldn't do that. They've been codified into law and therefore, you know, so anyway, basically you can define crime as breaking the law, right? You can define it in sometimes as, you know, as what they call mala and say, or just an act as inherently or essentially evil, right? So the kind of immorality that can be connected to some forms of crime.

right so it's really that's more about it being just a bad thing or you know somehow like an evil person sometimes we'll talk about this in regards to uh people like serial killers right they'll say like oh they're evil right um or you know that basically again just the value system or the understanding of the crime is outside of whether or not it violates a specific law and then mala prohibitor is more about you know something that is not inherently immoral, but it becomes so because it's expressively forbidden by positive law. And then there's deviance. So deviance is something we talk about a lot when it comes to criminology or a sociological approach to crime.

Sometimes deviance isn't about something that's specifically against the law, but maybe just things that are considered wrong. or not normative, going against what's considered appropriate, right? So sometimes deviance isn't really even about it being illegal. It's more about it just not being normal, right?

Or being different than what's expected. So other acts of deviance are not necessarily immoral, but are considered, you know, just strange, right? Doing something, just being kind of a weirdo, right? Like if you look at like the West Memphis Three. They got looped into this whole situation where they got accused of a crime they didn't commit and put in jail for many, many years.

Why? Because they were kind of weirdo kids that listened to metal. So there was this whole idea that they were just satanic killers, right?

When it was really just, they just had long hair and listened to metal and that's what made them deviant. They weren't breaking a law. They weren't doing anything wrong. They were just doing something that wasn't considered normal. But deviance and crime can be connected as some acts kind of move from being deemed deviant to being deemed illegal or sometimes things that were considered illegal in the past are just considered kind of deviant now.

So we can see that see how our moralistic or value systems of a culture really impact the ways in which we understand what's considered right and wrong. And that's what then motivates what we consider deviant or not. So of course, deviance is something we will literally talk about through the entire class. So if you're not 100% what I'm talking about right now, no worries, we'll get there.

Okay, so moving on to what is Criminology and what is criminal justice? So criminology is the scientific study of crime, right? And this is something that's been developed, you know, for many, basically, since the late 1800s, you've had a pretty rigorous kind of scientific understanding of crime.

And actually, when I say rigorous, we'll talk about some of those theories in future lectures, you'll see what I mean. Some of them are really weird. where they were like, hey, you can look at someone and be like, you're a criminal, right?

Because they got a weird nose or whatever. Or some of them were like, well, if we measure the shape and size of someone's head, then we can determine if they're criminal, right? So not all of this quote unquote science was super sciencey at the beginning, especially a lot of it was very racist. But anyway, we'll get to that later. So, but just to understand that this was kind of when it was, you know, criminology first came about as a discipline.

really to try to hopefully apply a scientific study to the understandings of crime. Why do people commit it? What are the patterns involved? How can we then mitigate crime?

How can we reduce it? So we'll talk much more about that. And then, of course, criminal justice itself is a large system that is used in society to enforce the standards of conduct that we consider that we basically need to protect people in communities, right? So how do we enforce the laws?

How do we make sure that the things that we consider illegal are then monitored or punished or, you know, any of that prevented? So the criminal justice system is complicated. We'll talk about it a bunch. There's a whole bunch of different levels.

But in a nutshell, right, they're basically there to apprehend, prosecute, convict, and sentence people who violate basic rules or basic laws, right, that govern group existence, right? So how in a society can we function appropriately? Well, part of that mechanism can often be making sure people adhere to kind of a code of conduct, right? So having a value system, a morality. to say it's bad to kill people.

Sure, that can be good and we can all agree to that. But then how do you make sure people actually don't kill other people? Right? So that's kind of where the criminal justice system has come from.

The goal is really to control crime, prevent crime, and provide and maintain justice. So it has a couple different components which we'll talk about in a moment. But before we jump into all the specific layers of the criminal justice system, It's also important to really understand the different perspectives of crime, which we're going to obviously jump much more into later. There's kind of just in a nutshell the consensus perspective.

So this views the formal system of laws and the enforcement of law as incorporating the norms in society to a broad consensus, meaning the laws are the way they are because it helps the most people. It's really a reflection of what people think and their values. And this is coming from some, you know, late 19th century and early 20th century sociologists, which we'll talk about later, like Durkheim, obviously Durkheim, Weber, Ross, and Sumner.

And it's assumed that, you know, most people, it's kind of like a logic-based thing. So we're going to talk about a whole bunch of different theories of crime later, and we'll kind of break this down, right? Is a person rational? Are they not?

All this kind of fun stuff. So it's assumed from this kind of consensus perspective that most of us understand what right and wrong is, right? And we understand what the laws are and what will happen if we violate them, right?

Like if you speed on the freeway, you know there's a chance you can then get a ticket, right? And you're gonna have to pay that ticket or all sorts of other consequences happen, right? So the idea is that people obey laws because they've internalized the societal norms.

It's not about being positive. punished. It's not about, you know, the deviance of being bad.

It's really about wanting to adhere to the social norms of the group, right? We'll talk about Durkheim later. That dude was all about that stuff, right? He was really interested in how societies function and, you know, this kind of solidarity that develops in society. So he looked at religion, he looked at a whole bunch of other crap, but basically he, you know, tried to understand how Again, we'll talk about it later, but this idea of mechanical solidarity, organic solidarity, that different kinds of societies have different kinds of solidarity.

And it's going to depend on the kind of... how complicated the lifestyle or the organization of that society is and how that complexity or non-complexity affects how people kind of then come to a cohesive agreement. So in a more primitive society where everybody pretty much has this very similar lifestyle, right? They have the same religious beliefs, they have the same kind of daily life, right? Like let's say you're looking at someone who subsistence farming, right?

Like There's a whole society of folks that they have the same religious belief system. Basically, their life is like we grow and eat sweet potatoes all day, right? That the shared solidarity comes from having the same experiences and understanding each other, right? Versus organic solidarity, which we'll talk about much more in depth later, is this idea in a more complicated society like our own, where lots of people have varying, different, specialized jobs, right?

As technology has developed and There's so many more kind of nuances to society. Like I need there to be doctors, veterinarians, mechanics, grocery store workers, or as we saw through the pandemic, right? You needed essential workers to be manning their stations so that the rest of society can continue to function.

So he calls that organic solidarity. The idea that the kind of solidarity we have in more complicated societies comes from the fact that we need each other, right? Like we rely upon.

all those other people doing their jobs so that we can kind of function correctly, right? So anyway, basically, that was a very dominant perspective from kind of a criminological understanding for a long time, but it hasn't really been super popular as a theory since about the 1950s, and we'll talk about why, hint, social changes. But anyway, and then there's the conflict perspective, which absolutely we'll talk a lot about.

And this is the idea of, you know, kind of, you know, we'll talk about it in somewhat of a Marxian way as well, but the idea that when there's conflicts in society between various groups, that can mean that they have different interests, right? So in the classic Karl Marx conflict, you're talking about social class and those who have and those who don't, right? But some of this is going to be specifically applied to um when it comes to material conditions within neighborhoods or within society as a whole, right, that conflict is often resolved when a group in power can then achieve control.

So we'll have a lot of different theorists we'll talk about, like obviously, I mean, Marx is the big guy, but, you know, Quinney, Chambliss, Turk, a few of these folks that they specifically focus on how do we understand criminal behavior through this conflict perspective, right, that We need to kind of understand this, this really what are the mechanisms causing this in the first place, right? Is it the chicken or the egg kind of situation? Meaning, let's say people have very few legitimate opportunities to financial success in American society.

And as those financial opportunities are getting harder and harder to get, i.e. you have to get a college degree, you have to you know, find a specific career that pays a lot of money, and even then it's going to be very difficult sometimes to get a, you know, to have a decent standard of living. So how then does that contribute to crime, right? As we have a handful of people in this country have more wealth than over 90% of the other people in this country, right?

That's how are those material conditions affecting the ways in which crime... happens, right? So we'll talk more about that as well. But again, just kind of dipping our toe in at this point. Okay, so going a little bit more into that criminal justice system.

And again, we'll talk about it more later. And I'm sure you've heard of it. You're not taking a a criminology course and you're like what's the criminal justice system but anyway just in case you were totally in the dark right like i said before the goals are to control crime prevent crime and provide and maintain justice so there's three different components there right you got law enforcement courts and corrections of course there are different levels of law enforcement right you got federal law enforcement and these are established to enforce specific statutes that are just federal laws right um so these are usually highly specialized units that have specialized training and resources so when you think of federal law you think of stuff like the fbi right the federal bureau of investigation or maybe the dea the drug enforcement administration secret service u.s marshals right groups like that the atf right um so anyway Or, you know, as we call it, DHS, the Department of Homeland Security.

So any of those kind of like bigger federal agencies are typically like, if you think about like ATF, aka eventually Homeland Security, they're looking at different stuff than the DEA, than the FBI, than the Secret Service. Like they're kind of... specialized in what it is they actually cover, right? Versus state level law enforcement, these are usually going to be two different models. You got state police, and then you typically have highway patrols as well.

well. So state police have general police powers to enforce state laws and they usually have routine patrol and traffic that they're really focusing on. But then they also have within state police you have specialized units that look at things like major crimes or drugs or maybe they have you know like crime lab folks they have juvenile units all that kind of fun stuff. And then highway patrol they their primary focus is to enforce enforce the laws of the road.

Right? So all the vehicle codes, like making sure like the cars are functioning the way they are, like your brake light isn't out, all that kind of crap. That you're going at safe speed or driving conditions are safe, all that kind of fun stuff.

And they can also investigate crimes that occur in specific locations that are under their jurisdiction. Like places that are state property or under a highway or things like that that aren't necessarily like specifically a federal or a local territory. And then local law enforcement is really divided into counties and municipalities. So this is the most like when you think of police, it's pretty much local police you're thinking of. Right.

So this is the primary law enforcement for most counties or county sheriff's office. And what's interesting about that is it does have an influence on, obviously like the local residents have an influence on these departments in the ways that sheriffs are often elected officials or positions. So, you know, kind of local residents can have some say in the kind of policing that they want to take place in their area. So the majority of local police officers are employed by municipalities, right, like cities or things like that. And so local agencies are responsible for the nuts and bolts of law enforcement responsibilities, the kind of calls to your house, all that kind of, you know, day to day stuff that takes place.

Okay, moving on to courts, a whole nother complicated thing. Super fun stuff. So anyway, courts, you got federal courts. Oh, so you got basically 52 different systems. You have one for each state, you have the District of Columbia, and then you have the federal government.

So it's just an interesting situation where we have this kind of our federal courts have a three tiered model. You have the district courts, which are basically the trial courts and other specialized ones. Then you have the court of appeals. So the district courts are the ones you go to with your court case. You're like, hey, I'm suing this or I'm getting sued, whatever it is.

That's like where you go to court. And then the appeals is when, you know, obviously you're appealing a decision from a lower court. And then the Supreme Court is going to be the ultimate say in any of those kind of things. So even though we're talking about federal courts. you can see here that we have supreme court at the federal level supreme court at the state level so it's a similar kind of level right where you have kind of checks from the next level above on the lower one so for instance the federal supreme court they only take x amount of cases but a lot of cases are kind of funneled up that direction and in recent years uh sometimes for more political reasons so we'll get into that later okay um state courts are um also kind of tiered so you have lower courts are kind of like smaller deals or not as um complicated then you have trial courts where you know that's the kind of ones you're thinking of when you have to go to like do jury duty or something like that then appellate courts a similar thing with federal right that's where you're going to be kind of um maybe challenging the ruling from one of those trial courts and then Each state has their own state Supreme Court as well.

So jurisdiction is really about how before you can actually bring a case to a court, you have to figure out who has jurisdiction, right? So who's basically in charge of the people or the areas that are involved within those cases? So, you know, there's different categories for this. The lower courts are often very limited in their jurisdiction.

They don't have power that extends to those. overall administration of justice so lower courts do not try felony cases and they don't have appellate authority versus you know um that you look at the jurisdiction for you know major trial courts is pretty general right so they have the power and authority to try and decide any case including appeals from a lower court and then the appellate or appeals courts are limited in jurisdiction on matters of appeal from lower court so they're not going to look at any case they're only going to look at the ones that are being challenged from a lower court case right didn't i say this would be really exciting anyway sorry okay we'll get through it i swear i swear this will all make sense eventually all right corrections is like you've been charged you've been convicted you've been sentenced right so now you are in the correctional system. So this means someone can be put on probation or incarcerated or maybe put in a community-based corrections facility.

So just obviously most of this stuff I'm assuming you know what it is but we're just going to touch upon it briefly. So probation is just an arrangement between the sentencing authorities and an offender. And this involves an offender complying with certain terms for a specified amount of time in order to return to the community. So let's say probation could be, OK, you have to do 100 hours community service and you're able to return to this community.

Right. Or once you've done this, this court ordered therapy or maybe once you've done this anger management course or. you know, this parental training course or whatever it might be, then you're able to return to the community.

Right. And so there's some conditions involved in probation. The general conditions are usually about reporting to a supervising officer, meaning your probation officer. You have to continue to obey the laws. There's certain things you lose, like your Fourth Amendment protections against unlawful search and seizure.

Meaning when you're on probation, there is no Fourth Amendment protection. Basically, you're already suspect. So they can just submit you to searches whenever they want, right? You can't have drugs when you're on probation. Makes sense.

Or be in possession of firearms if you're on probation. So there's certain general conditions. And then the specific conditions.

are going to be specific to that individual and the kind of crime or the kind of issue that they're talking about so this could be like let's say you know it's about a drug issue something like going to a methadone clinic or getting drug tested right that would be a specific condition or it could be something like being on house arrest or you know um again having to go to a certain kind of court ordered training or something of that nature or maybe psychological or psychiatric treatment. And then correction facilities themselves, you got jails, you got prisons. So the difference there is jail is typically for people convicted of minor crimes.

And you're really just used to house people that are awaiting trial often. While prisons are often people who are convicted of much more serious crimes with longer sentences. So it's not always exactly this rule, but basically think of it as under a year jail, over a year prison.

Right. It's not always that, but it's it's. It's, you know, similar, I'd say. It means that, you know, sometimes people can be in jail for a while awaiting their trial or, you know, going through that kind of whole process. But, you know, prison, you're typically there because you've gotten, you know, maybe a felony sentence or a longer sentence.

So there's different types of prisons depending on the security concerns, right? So we know there's like the minimum security prisons, you know, like the white. collar criminals get to go to these prisons where they like, I don't know, get to like play golf and like just do stuff where you're like, is that prison? You got medium securities, maximum securities, and then of course the infamous super max facilities for people that we consider, you know, very violent or dangerous criminals.

And of course there are a lot of alternatives to traditional incarceration, which we will discuss. Such as going to halfway houses, work study releases, again, house arrest, or, you know, electronic monitoring. They put like a, you know, a ankle monitor on you or something like that.

or just centers where you show up each day and report to instead of being incarcerated why is that important we'll talk about it a whole bunch later but the the nutshell idea here is that when you still feel connected to the community there's more likelihood of you reforming right but the more we cut the individual off from their community and from society, the less motivation there really is to reform. So we'll talk about that later. Okay, moving on to comparative criminology.

So comparative criminology is the study of the nature and the extent of crime and criminal justice systems across societies. So this should address questions like, why do some societies have lower crime rates than others? Right.

What are the differences and similarities in crime definitions and control across social and cultural frontiers? And how do theoretical models relating to crime actually translates to cultures? And as we talk about different theories throughout this class, you'll see some of them are pretty interesting, but some of them are very difficult to apply to real people and real circumstances. versus others are very applicable. Parsimony.

So, okay, side note, I teach research methods in criminal justice at Cal State Fullerton, and we get all into this. So I'm trying to like, how do I make this not super complicated? Okay, basically, you know, the whole Occam's razor thing, where it's like, if it seems like the most likely thing, it's that, right?

It's kind of like in a lot of criminal cases, they'll say, oh well the wife was killed then the first suspect is the husband right that kind of idea that it's kind of explaining a phenomenon like criminal activity in the simplest way possible meaning the simpler theory the better typically um unlike the q anon madness folks uh where they're like oh this person said this and this the their last name had seven letters or you know and that the number seven represents this and And that's a sign that's a code for this other thing that means this. And therefore, JFK Jr., who died in the 1990s, is going to come back from the dead and run with Donald Trump for the presidency in 2024. Like these kind of bizarre. I don't understand how they're putting this all together.

Um, yeah, that's not how theories really work. Typically, theories have to be pretty applicable and straightforward. And the more complicated and tenuous and weird and just having weird shifty explanations for things... they go around the less and less scientific it becomes right so this is why testability is important right how much can we test a theory empirically how can we scientifically test something and say is that true or not right um you know and really what's the scope of the theory how big of a thing is it trying to understand right is it very limited in a very specific offender or is it something very very general the larger in general you get the harder it is to really encapsulate the really nuanced differences between different groups and different time periods.

And so as sociologists, we talk about these things as being socially constructed. The idea that our time period is going to impact who we are and what we do in some in a lot of ways, and really how we understand the world. So, you know, typically with the scopes of certain theories, if it's very, very narrow scope of a theory, it's not going to be applicable to all.

a lot of situations. So oftentimes, there is a goal of a larger scope of a theory, though the larger it gets, the more it can miss those nuances. But theories also have to have logical consistency.

So does it like make sense? Like that QAnon crap just does not make sense. You know what I mean?

Like at all, if something has to be a signal for something, it doesn't make sense. Like that's not anyway. And then part of testability is empirical validity. It's being able to test. something and measure it and say can i actually prove this like for instance you know um for the second question here what are the differences and similarities in crime definitions and control across social and cultural frontiers so look at you know what's the differences between the amount of for instance mass shootings as a crime that happen in the u.s versus happen in other countries right you can see there's definitely a cultural impact there that is not something that that happens like in mass in the way that it does in the u.s pretty much every year in the last many years we've had more mass shootings than days of the year while most other industrialized similar countries have had you know maybe a couple tops so um it shows that there's there might be something culturally or socially happening there like the gun worship and nra stuff and all that fun stuff that's a affecting our perspective about how to deal with those kinds of crimes, right?

Or even just that motivates the offenders to commit those kinds of crimes. So that's something that in criminological thought we're really trying to understand is like unpack the offender, unpack the social and material conditions around that offender as well. But to do so in a way that makes sense, that's not like wacky and actually can be tested in some sort of way, right?

Okay, so later we'll talk about determine causality or correlation and spuriousness and all that kind of fun stuff but not right now Okay, and then theory also informs policies and programs. So criminological theory isn't just about like, let me pat myself on the back and be like, hey, look at this. I know there's crime. Good for me. But like, what can we then do with that information to reduce crime, to make the community safer, to make, you know, to lessen the likelihood of people being victimized?

Right? So anyway, we'll talk more about that. So victimology is interesting.

Victimology is basically the scientific study of victims. victimology is a relatively new area of criminology, which is strange, right? Because as long as there's been crime, there's been victims. But really, the ways in which we understand, you know, how crime happens and who becomes a victim is also something that's really important.

So, you know, we have ways to try to understand this stuff. And sometimes this is coming from, we'll talk about official data sources later, but we have like reported crimes. And then sometimes we have un- unreported crimes or what we call, you know, the dark figure of crime or the unknown figures of crime.

And sometimes things like victimization surveys can really fill in the gaps. So we have something called the NCVS, the National Crime Victimization Survey. It's basically this thing they send out to representative households and have asked people like, have you been the victim of these particular crimes in the last six months? And it's a self-reported survey, so people can kind of answer it without... someone standing there and asking them that question, largely because think about the sensitivity of that, you know?

And then of course it really asks people, did you report this crime to the police? And what they find is a lot of filling in the gaps of people that were victimized but did not report it to the police. And there's many reasons why they may not, right?

It might be maybe their own discomfort towards police or maybe living in a marginalized community that feels hyper-policed or maybe living in an immigrant community that feels hyper-policed. Um, you know, that can be a reason or it can be the idea that sometimes victims think that they will be blamed for what happened. Um, you know, especially when it comes to things like sexual violence, it's like, well, what were you wearing? Why did you go with this person?

Have you slept with them before? Blah, blah, blah. Which we really don't do with other crimes.

We're not like, are you sure you were carjacked? Are you sure you didn't just be like, here, take my car, right? It's a he said, she said, right?

We don't really do that with other crimes. We're. really do that with women's bodies we'll talk about that later but anyway um so we really want to understand you know this kind of victimology of like how do people pick certain people as as you know their victims and also just how do we then figure out who's most likely to be victimized so we can protect them right so um victim precipitation is when an individual does or does not do something that increases the risk that they will to be victimized. So we'll talk about theories about this later, like lifestyle perspective that basically say like, let's say you are walking out at night with like a lot of money in your pocket, right?

Alone in some, you know, kind of major industrial area, no one's around. Potentially that could affect your likelihood of being victimized, right? Versus, you know, you look at someone like the elderly. the kinds of crimes that they experience are often more about targeting them specifically for their age like scammers or things like that that'll like pretend their grandson was kidnapped and scam them for money or you know scam them in all sorts of ways but it's not often that they're just like beaten up on the street at like two in the morning after going to the bar because that's more of like what happens to younger folks who are out in those spaces at those times so you know who that person is is going to you know affect it like how high risk is their lifestyle and how much is that going to affect the victimology right so some people that are harming others are going to look for more high-risk victims like let's say people who are you know unhoused or people who are you know sex workers or things like that that might make them more vulnerable in those situations so anyway um part of what we're doing in you know criminological thought is trying to you know basically reduce the probability that people are going to be harmed or offended against.

So when looking at the incidence or prevalence of victimization, each type of individual, you know, we really want to know like which who's most likely to be harmed for whichever kinds of crimes we're looking at. So for instance, younger people are more likely to be victims in a lot of crimes because they're not as psychologically adept or they don't have as much power and control in their lives. Intra-racial violence is more frequent, meaning oftentimes violence happens within racial groups more so than between. Violent crimes, particularly homicide, has actually dropped like dramatically since the 1990s, though that's not like what you see on TV.

We'll talk about that later. And, you know, you have things like child abuse and neglect that has decreased a lot in the last few decades, but really just because we've changed the way that we deal with this. And again, you're going to get that sprinkled in, unfortunately. I also teach a class called Family Violence at Cal State Fullerton, and we really talk about the kind of issues that were happening in the past where so many people were being abused that it wasn't getting acknowledged because doctors didn't feel comfortable reporting these things. teachers weren't backed up.

So now we have these kind of mandatory reporting laws, right? Like if you see a kid and there's something kind of fishy about that bruise that they have or the way that, you know, the interactions happening between parents, then, you know, or if they show up at the ER with certain kinds of things, oftentimes they'll get reported at this point to this kind of mandatory reporting system just to make sure, you know, because the worst thing that happens to a parent where that's happening, where that's not the case is. They get called upon by someone from, you know, CPS, Child Protective Services, just to like double check.

But what happens to those kids who aren't caught through that net, right? A lot of them can suffer in horrible situations of abuse. So really in many ways, it was the training and the ways in which we've involved those kind of frontline folks that deal with kids the most, whether it be doctors or teachers.

to help be invested in preventing and really reporting these crimes early on when they happen so they don't, you know, often result in as many deaths as they used to. So anyway, you know, like any other type of violent crime, you know, there are databases trying to understand this stuff and, you know, there are ways in which agencies have been really created just to promote awareness of what rights kids have and what protections and services are offered to them if they need help. Okay, then looking at compensation or restitution. So the main distinction between victim compensation versus restitution is that compensation is given by the state or the government itself, and restitution is given by the offender, typically as part of a sentence that they're given, like as part of their punishment. So victim compensation programs are typically handled by victim services unit at local counties or offices.

And restitution is more about when an offender, if that's part of their sentence, then they'll have to pay some sort of restitution often. But the likelihood that a victim gets it is not as high. Because think about it this way.

Does the state have the money to help you? Yes. Does the federal government? Yes.

Does this offender? Maybe not. You know, oftentimes victims don't get, don't fare as well in getting that kind of compensation. Most offenders end up being unemployed or broke. So, um, victims never get that money.

Think about it. This person deals with a trauma or something that could have then taken them away from their livelihood, their ability to work, maybe permanently disabled them, you know, all sorts of things that can really have financial consequences as well as other social consequences. So having some sort of way to help them is important. And then, you know, victim impact statements is another thing to talk about briefly in the chapter. So this is when a victim or often a family member.

of a victim reports to the court about how an offender affected their life so victim impact statements are still accepted under the law during post-verdict guilty sentencing phases so basically like the jury goes in they're like yeah that dude's guilty he killed so and so and then like the family of the person who was killed can come in after the guilty has been you know read but before the judge gives the final kind of say and you know um or the final sentence and say, okay, here's how this affected my life. This person was amazing and they took them away or whatever it is. I'm sure if you've watched any true crime, anything, you've seen a victim impact statement or just, you know, some TV versions like the law and order kind of stuff. So victim impact statements are only given during the sentencing phase, not when the jury is determining the verdict.

Obviously that would be prejudicial and problematic, right? So there's also victim's rights awareness. meaning just getting more attention to victims. And this has to do with, you know, some, well, first of all, there was a Victims of Crime Act that was passed in 1984, which established a federal crime victims fund to support state compensation funds. And again, because oftentimes, you know, victims don't realize that there are mechanisms in place to try to help support them through the processes of, you know, experiencing crime and being a victim of crime.

crime. So anyway, that's just like a nutshell version of some of the stuff we'll be talking about. We basically went through A through Z there of pretty much all that this textbook is going to go through.

So we're going to go way more in depth into this and talk much more about the specific theories and ideas that have you know, from the past to the now defined our understanding of crime and criminological thought.

Transcript for:Introduction to Criminology Concepts

Transcript for:
Introduction to Criminology Concepts