1
Q
What is Criminology?
A
Complex, interdisciplinary study of crime, influenced by medico-legal science, psychiatry, psychology, sociology, and social reform movements.
2
Q
Name two historical streams that shaped criminology.
A
- Governmental project: empirical studies of justice, prisons, police, crime measurement. * Lombrosian project: biological and social studies of criminals vs. non-criminals.
3
Q
What disciplines does criminology draw from?
A
- Psychology * Sociology * Law * History * Political science * Geography
4
Q
What is the tension between criminology and criminal justice studies?
A
Criminology focuses on causes, theories, and social context, while criminal justice studies focus on institutional responses.
5
Q
What are the four roles of a criminologist?
A
- Scientific Expert * Policy Advisor * Social Movement Activist * Social Theorist
6
Q
According to Sutherland, what does criminology study?
A
Making laws, breaking laws, and society’s reaction.
7
Q
What is the goal of criminology?
A
To develop principles and verified knowledge about crime, law, and prevention.
8
Q
What is critical criminology?
A
Challenges the focus on ‘crime’ and asserts that crime is context-dependent and socially constructed.
9
Q
What is the legal definition of crime?
A
Violation of criminal law, which varies historically and culturally.
10
Q
What does the social constructionist view state about crime?
A
Crime is a label applied through social processes and power relations.
11
Q
What was the first criminology lecture in Britain focused on?
A
Initially psychiatric focus.
12
Q
What does the crime funnel model indicate?
A
The actual total quantity of crime is much higher than the decreasing proportion that is detected, reported, and punished.
13
Q
What is the most underreported crime in Canada?
A
Sexual assault.
14
Q
What is the Crime Severity Index (CSI)?
A
Weights crimes by sentencing severity to measure seriousness and volume.
15
Q
What are the strengths of self-report surveys?
A
- Avoid non-reporting problems * Provide insight into offender motivations * Reveal levels of involvement in crime
16
Q
What is a limitation of official crime statistics?
A
Only cover a limited range of crimes and may be manipulated.
17
Q
What do victimization surveys reveal?
A
The ‘dark figure of crime’ which includes unreported crimes.
18
Q
What is the role of the Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics (CCJS)?
A
Oversees national statistics on crime and criminal justice.
19
Q
What does data integrity in police reports refer to?
A
The risk of manipulation and accuracy in reporting crime statistics.
20
Q
How many police officers were there in Canada in 2020?
A
70,114 police officers.
21
Q
What percentage of police officers in Canada are women?
A
22%.
22
Q
What is the largest police force in Canada?
A
Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).
23
Q
What type of policing does the OPP provide?
A
Provincial policing services in Ontario.
24
Q
What does the term ‘administrative criminology’ refer to?
A
Shift from studying offenders to focusing on criminal justice administration.
25
What does OPP stand for in Canadian law enforcement?
Ontario Provincial Police
## Footnote
The OPP is the second largest police force in Canada.
26
How many uniformed officers were in the OPP in 2020?
6,200 officers
27
What are the main responsibilities of the OPP?
* Responsible for all provincial highways
* Investigates major crimes
* Protects provincial buildings and officials
* Provides front-line municipal police services
28
Which municipal police service is the largest in Canada?
Toronto Police Service
29
What is the role of municipal police?
Provide law enforcement and policing services in municipal jurisdictions
30
When was the First Nations policing program created?
1991
31
What is the purpose of the First Nations policing program?
Allows first nations communities to negotiate policing agreements with governments
32
How many First Nations independent police forces were there in 2018?
36 forces
33
What are the three levels of provincial courts in Canada?
* Provincial/Territorial Court
* Superior Court
* Court of Appeal
34
What type of cases does the provincial court handle?
Less serious criminal and civil matters
35
What is the maximum punishment a provincial court can impose?
Max. punishment of $5,000 or two years less a day in jail
36
What does the superior court handle?
More serious cases and appeals from the provincial court
37
What is the main role of the courts in Canada?
To decide sentencing
38
What are the objectives of criminal sentencing as per Section 718?
* Denounce unlawful conduct
* Deter the offender and others
* Separate offenders from society
* Assist in rehabilitation
* Provide reparations for harm
39
List some sentencing options available to judges.
* Absolute or conditional discharge
* Fine
* Probation
* Imprisonment
* Life Sentence
40
How many federal and provincial correctional institutions are in Canada?
More than 200 institutions
41
What was the total number of adult offenders incarcerated in Canadian facilities in 2018-19?
37,854 offenders
42
What is the annual cost to keep a male prisoner incarcerated in Canada?
Around $116,000
43
What is a key assumption of Classicism in criminology?
Humans are rational, free-willed actors
44
Who is considered the father of modern criminology?
Cesare Lombroso
45
What is the focus of Classicism in criminology?
The offence
46
What is the focus of Positivism in criminology?
The offender
47
What principle did Jeremy Bentham develop?
Utilitarianism
48
What is a key critique of Positivism?
* Determinism
* Individualism
49
What is Cesare Lombroso's classification of criminals?
* Born criminals
* Insane criminals
* Epileptic criminals
* Occasional criminals
50
What did Enrico Ferri emphasize in his theories?
Social and environmental causes of crime
51
What are the core assumptions of Positivism?
* Crime is caused, not chosen
* Focus on biological, psychological, or social forces
52
What did Raffaele Garofalo propose?
Concept of 'natural crime' - violations of pity and probity
53
Fill in the blank: Classicism assumes that criminals are _______.
normal but rationally choosing
54
Fill in the blank: Positivism assumes that criminals are _______.
abnormal, pathological
55
What did Charles Goring argue about criminals?
They are biologically and mentally inferior
56
What does the pleasure-pain principle relate to?
Utilitarianism and crime
57
What is a critique of Classicism?
Ignores mental illness, immaturity, and social inequality
58
What is the impact of Positivism on modern criminology?
Introduced scientific methods and focus on causes beyond free will
59
What is the role of the courts in sentencing?
Make a reasoned decision on punishment
60
True or False: Judges have limited sentencing options available to them.
False
61
What is the difference in views of the criminal in Classicism vs. Positivism
Classicism : Normal but rationally choosing
Positivism : Abnormal and pathological
62
3 assumptions regarding positivism
1. Methods of natural science can study society.
2. Knowledge should be based on observation (facts, not values).
3. Causes of crime lie beyond free will—biological, psychological, or social forces.
63
Aim of Positivism
Aim: not just reduce punishments (as in classicism) but reduce crime itself through science. Critics argue positivism is deterministic, ignores human choice, and can stigmatize offenders as pathological.
64
What is the general impact of classicism and the impact it has on criminological thought
a) Major influence on modern criminal justice: proportional punishments, due process, prison as central institution.
b) Contemporary ‘ neo- classical’ theories that view offenders as rational actors:
Rational choice theory
Routine activities theory
Situational crime prevention
65
Punishments were arbitrary, cruel, and based on torture and revenge. Crime was seen as the product of evil, not rational decision-making.
Pre-Enlightenment Europe
66
shifted focus to reason, individual rights, and rational systems of justice. This created the foundations of criminology.
The Enlightenment
67
What were Cesare Beccaria's 3 ideas highlighted in Crime and Punishment?
- Certainty (how likely punishment is to occur)
- Swiftness (How quickly ….),
- Severity (how much ‘pain’ is inflicted
68
Why do many prisoners have worse Health then the average Canadian?
- Usually experience childhood trauma (sexual, physical, emotional)
- Substance abuse problems (66% prisoners are smokers)
- Communicable diseases from HEP C, HPV, HIV
- Homelessness
- Low employment
- Mortality suicide and homicide.
69
Section 718 states that sentences should have one or more of the following objectives:
1. Denounce the unlawful conduct and harm to the victim
2. Deter the offender and others from committing such crimes
3. Separate offenders from society when necessary.
4. Assist in rehabilitation with the offender
5. Provide reparations for harm done to the victim and the community
70
5 options judges have while sentencing
1. Absolute or conditional discharge
2. Fine
3. Probation
4. Imprisonment
5. Life Sentence
71
Criminology is a _____ of knowledge
Body
72
3 Sub-studies of criminology
Study of crime. (“Making laws”)
Study of criminals/offenders. (“Breaking laws”)
Study of criminal justice/penal systems. (“Reaction of society to breaking laws”)
73
What is Garland's view on Criminology (general)
More high level historical approach
74
(Garland's project) Empirical studies of the administration of justice, charting patterns, monitoring law enforcement practice, seeking the use of science in the service of management and control.
The Governmental Project
75
(Garland Project) Studies which aim to develop an etiological, explanatory science, based on the premise that criminals can somehow be scientifically differentiated from non- criminals. Science of causes of crime.
Lombrosian Project
76
Complicates definitions with international crimes, human rights, and war crimes.
Globalization
77
Crime as defined by the criminal law does not capture the range of harms generated by nation-states and corporations. Criminologists should focus on all conduct that causes social harm whether or not such conduct is officially defined as criminal.
Harm Based Definition
78
What are the 3 steps in crime
1. Person must recognize the event as a crime
2. Decision to call police
3. Police response
79
Rejected Lombroso’s “criminal type,” but argued criminals were biologically and mentally inferior (linked to eugenics).
Charles Goring
80
Proposed concept of “natural crime”, violations of pity (causing suffering) and probity (violating property). Classified offenders, Reflected positivist commitment to science but still retained elements of deterrence and proportionality.
Raffaele Garofalo
81
Expanded Lombroso’s work but stressed social and environmental causes (poverty, education, environment). Denied free will: crime results from personality + environment. Advocated crime prevention policies.
Enrico Ferri
82
The body is Loboroso’s object of analysis in three ways
1. The Criminal Body
2. The Punishable body
3. The Social Body
83
- Interested in corporal signs of atavism. Criminality could be read off the body
- Used autopsies of criminal bodies to ‘scientifically prove’ criminality and dangerousness
The Criminal Body
84
- Punishments should be equal to the dangerousness of the offender
- Punishments incapacitation or death for born criminals
- Manual labour for criminals of less danger
The Punishable Body
85
- Worried criminal bodies would infiltrate and infect the social body
- “......” the idea that there are moral boundaries that need to be protected from threats and strengthened to guarantee a group integrity
- Concerned to protect the social body by managing eradicating criminal bodies
The Social Body
86
Sought to test his thesis by comparing the bodies of 400 Italian prisoners with the bodies of a group of soldiers, each measures for evidence for physical anomalies
Criminal Man, 1978; Cesare Lombroso
87
Criminology isn't a stagnant subject, it is better described as a ___________ subject
Rendez-vous
88
(1) Many crimes are both ______ and _______
Petty and victimless
89
Explain the rings (5) of the CJS funnel
- Only a portion of crimes get recorded by police
- Only a portion of recorded incidents result in suspects identified.
- Only a portion of suspects are charged
- Only some get convicted of those charged
- And all convicted only some end up in jail
90
What institutions came into existence after WWII while Criminological studies were growing?
1950: British Journal of Delinquency → British Journal of Criminology (1960).
Cambridge Institute of Criminology (1959, Leon Radzinowicz).
Home Office Research Unit (1957).
British Society of Criminology (BSC) established.
National Deviancy Conference (1968) promoted radical sociology.
91
Property crime rates are consistently ______than violent crime rates.
Higher
92
3 Types of Statistics
Crime & criminals
Criminal justice system responses
Perceptions of crime & justice
93
Define Utilitarianism
- the idea that laws and punishments should be designed to create the greatest good for the greatest number of people
'Punish crime only if it prevents more harm and makes society safer.'
CRM1300
flashcards
Decks in class (2)
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