Question | Answer |
mala in se | offenses that are wrong by their very nature |
mala prohibita | offenses prohibited by law but not wrong in themselves |
visible crime | an offense against persons of property, committed primarily by members of the lower class; aka "street crime" or "ordinary crime" |
What offense is the one most upsetting to the public? | visible crime |
occupational crimes | criminal offenses committed thru opportunities created in a legal business or occupation |
organized crime | a framework for the perpetuation of criminal acts (gambling, drugs & prostitution) providing illegal services that are in great demand |
money laundering | moving the proceeds of criminal activities thru a maze of businesses, banks, & brokerage accounts so as to disguise their origin |
crimes w/o victims | offenses involving a willing & private exchange of illegal goods or services that are in strong demand |
political crime | an act, usually done for ideological purposes, that constitutes a threat against the state |
cyber crimes | offenses that involve the use of one or more computers |
dark figure of crime | a metaphor that emphasizes the dangerous dimension of crimes that are never reported to the police |
Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) | an annually published statistical summary of crimes reported to the police, based on voluntary reports to the FBI by local, state, & federal law enforcement agencies |
National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) | a reporting system in which the police describe each offense in a crime incident, together with data describing the offender, victim & property |
National Crime Victimization Surveys (NCVS) | interviews of samples of the U.S. population conducted by the Bureau of Justice Statistics to determine the number & types of criminal victimizations & thus the extent of unreported as well as reported crime |
victimology | a field of criminology that examines the role of the victim plays in precipitating a criminal incident & also examines the impact of crimes on victims |
classical criminology | a school of criminology that views behavior as stemming from free will, demands responsibility & accountability of all perpetrators, & stresses the need for punishments severe enough to deter others |
positivist criminology | a school of criminology that views behavior as stemming from social, biological, & psychological factors; argues that punishment should be tailored to the individual needs of the offender |
criminogenic | having factors thought to bring about criminal behavior in an individual |
biological explanations | explanations of crime that emphasize physiological & neurological factors that may predispose a person to commit crimes |
psychological explanations | explanations of crime that emphasize mental processes & behavior |
sociological explanations | explanations of crime that emphasize as causes of criminal behavior the social conditions that bear on the individual |
social structure theories | theories that blame crime on the existence of a powerless lower class that lives with poverty & deprivation & often turns to crime in response |
anomie | a breakdown or disappearance of the rules of social behavior |
social process theories | theories that see criminality as normal behavior; everyone has the potential to become a criminal, depending on the influences that impel one toward or away from crime & how one is regarded by others |
learning theories | theories that see criminal behavior as learned, just as legal behavior is learned |
theory of differential association | people become criminals because they encounter more influences that view criminal behavior as normal & acceptable than influences that are hostile to criminal behavior |
control theories | theories holding that criminal behavior occurs when the bonds that tie an individual to society are broken or weakened |
labeling theories | theories emphasizing that the causes of criminal behavior are not found in the individual but in the social process that labels certain acts as deviant or criminal |
critical criminology | theories that assume criminal law & the criminal justice system are primarily a means of the controlling the lower classes, women, & minorities |
social conflict theories | theories that view crime as the result of conflict in society, such as conflict between economic classes caused by elites using law as a means to maintain power |
feminist theories | theories that criticize existing theories for ignoring or undervaluing women's experiences as offenders, victims, & peoples subjected to decision making by criminal justice officials |
life course theories | theories that identify factors affecting the start, duration, nature & end of criminal behavior over the life of an offender |
integrated theories | theories that combine differing theoretical perspectives into a larger model |