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9 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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The Fascination with Crime
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- Crime is popular topic for newspapers, TV shows, books and movies
- There is little relationship b/w crime news and actual amount of crime - Media focus primarily on violent crimes, even though such crimes only form small part of all criminal activity - Appears as though police solve more crimes and arrest more criminals than they do in real life |
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The Dramatic Fallacy
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- To keep ratings high, media seek strange/violent incidents to report/create dramas around
- Murder makes up less than 1% of all crime yet from watching TV, or reading the papers, seems like commonplace events |
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The Cops-And-Courts Fallacy
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- Police work made to look more dangerous and challenging than it really is
- Increased policing found to be of limited value - Most crimes aren't reported, most crimes that are reported aren't solved by police - Very few elaborate court trials (charges dropped, plea bargaining, guilty plea) |
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The Innocent Youth Fallacy
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- Tendency to view younger people as being "pure" or "innocent"
- In reality, teen years most active years fro criminal activity - Majority of crimes committed by younger offenders and are often more dangerous than older offenders |
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Crime Myths and Realities (Myth vs. Reality)
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Myth
- Most criminals are dangerous and clever - Most criminals are pathological individuals who kill at random - Police investigators are clever and effective Reality - Most criminals resemble their victims - Most crimes are routine, mundane, and often trivial - Most crimes go undetected or unreported; most go unsolved |
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Conceptualizations of Crime
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- Crime as a legal construct
- Crime as a violation of social norms - Debate b/w consensus vs. conflict models |
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The Legal Construct Model (Sacco & Kennedy)
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- Dominant way of thinking about crime is in legal terms
- Crime is conceptualized relative to the concept of law - CRIME IS BREAKING THE LAW - Because committing a criminal act amounts to breaking the law, it's subject to prosecution & punishment |
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Mala in Se
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"something bad or evil in itself"
- Laws that criminalize acts most societies and cultures agree are inherently wrong EX: Murder and Incest |
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Mala Prohibita
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"something deemed to be wrong/criminal only because it's prohibited (against the law)"
- Acts where there might be considerable disagreement from society to society regarding their legality EX: Marijuana use |
