Lecture Outlines

Criminology (CR302)

What follows are broad "skeleton" outlines for the lectures planned for Criminology. These are intended as guides for rewriting your notes, studying your notes for tests, etc. These outlines are not designed nor intended to take the place of your note taking.

For ease in getting directly to the lectures, use the highlighted lecture titles below:

Lecture One: Defining Criminology

Lecture Two: Crime and Criminal Law

Lecture Three: Measuring Crime

Lecture Four: Correlates of Crime

Lecture Five: Victims and Victimization

Lecture Six: Criminological Theory

Lecture Seven: Supernatural Theory

Lecture Eight: Classical Theory

Lecture Nine: Biological Theory

Lecture Ten: Psychological Theory

Lecture Eleven: Social Structural Theory

Lecture Twelve: Social Process Theory

Lecture Thirteen: Societal Reaction Theory

Lecture Fourteen: Violent and Personal Crime

Lecture Fifteen: Public Order Crime

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LECTURE ONE:

INTRODUCING THE FIELD OF CRIMINOLOGY

• Defining Crime: Problems of Definition
  
• Why Define Crime?
  
• Perspectives Guiding Definitions of Crime
  
• Natural Law Perspective
• Cultural Determinism Model
• Societal Definition Model
  

• Defining the Academic Field of Criminology
  
• The Inter-Disciplinary Nature of Criminology
• The Subject Matter of Criminology
• History of the Field of Criminology

LECTURE TWO:

CRIME AND CRIMINAL LAW

• Relation of Crime to Law
  
• Defining Criminal Law
  

• Law as Social Control
• Elements of Criminal Law
  

• Substantive vs. Procedural Law
• Substantive Law
• Functions of Substantive Law
• Felonies vs. Misdemeanors
• Actus Reus vs. Mens Rea
• Defenses against Mens Rea
• Procedural Law
• Functions of Procedural Law
• The Nature of Evidence
• Rules of Evidence
• Rules Governing Interrogations etc.
  
• Statutory vs. Case Law
  

• Theoretical Interest in the Study of Law
  
• Early Sociology and the Law
• The 1960's and Labelling and Conflict Theory

LECTURE THREE:

MEASURING CRIME

• Why Measure Crime?
  

• Evaluation of Policy
• Value in decision-making by practitioners
• Discovering root causes of crime

• History of Crime Measurement

• Official Statistics



• Uniform Crime Reports
• Other Types of Official Statistics
• Criticisms of Official Statistics

• Self Reports



• Victim Surveys

LECTURE FOUR:

CORRELATES OF CRIME

• Introduction



• Overall Extensiveness of Crime



• Trends in Crime Across Time



• Variations Across Social Categories

• Social Class
• Ethnicity
• Age
• Gender

• Career of "Chronic" Offenders

LECTURE FIVE:

VICTIMS AND VICTIMIZATION

• Who are the Victims?



• Patterns of Victimization

• Geographical and Temporal Patterns
• Variation by Gender
• Variation by Race
• Variation by Social Class
• Variation by Ethnicity
• Variation by Age

• The Victim-Offender Relationship



• Explaining Victimization

• Lifestyle and Routine Activities Theory
• Physical Proximity
• Victim Precipitation

• Costs and Consequences of Victimization

• Economic Costs
• Psychological Costs
• Social Costs

LECTURE SIX:

WHAT IS CRIMINOLOGICAL THEORY

• Theory Defined



• Classifying Theories

• Supernatural vs. Natural Theories
• Classical vs. Positivist Theories
• Biological vs. Psychological vs. Sociological Theories
• Structural vs. Process vs. Societal Reaction Theories

LECTURE SEVEN:

SUPERNATURAL THEORIES

• General Description of Supernatural Theories



• Relationship between Supernatural and Natural (Positivist) Theories



• Characteristics of Supernatural Theories

• Image of Human Nature
• Image of Social Nature

• Implications for Societal Reaction

LECTURE EIGHT:

CLASSICAL THEORIES

• General Concerns of Classical Theory



• Historical Background to Classical Theory



• Underlying Assumptions of Classical Theory

• Regarding Human Nature
• Regarding Crime
• Regarding Social Nature

• Two Pioneers of Classical Theory

• Cesare Beccaria
• Jeremy Bentham

• Neo-Classical Revisions

• Historical Circumstances
• Substance of Revisions

• Contemporary Expressions of Classical Theory

• Rational Choice Theory
• Routine Activities Theory

• Assessment of Classical Theory: Does the Law Deter?

LECTURE NINE:

BIOLOGICAL THEORIES

• "Pre-scientific Biological Theories

• Physiognamy
• Phrenology

• Cesare Lombroso: The Father of Biological Positivism

• Lombroso's main ideas
• Contemporaries of Lombroso

• Body Build Theories

• Ernst Kretschmer
• William Sheldon

• Modern Sociobiology

• Key principles of sociobiology
• Biochemical explanations
• Neurophysiological explanations
• Genetic explanations
• Evaluation of sociobiology

LECTURE TEN:

PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES

• General Focus of Psychological Theories



• Sigmund Freud: Father of Psychoanalysis



• Cognitive and Developmental Theory



• Typological Theories



• Evaluation of Psychological Theories

• Methodological Evaluation
• Empirical Evaluation
• Theoretical Evaluation
• Ideological Evaluation

LECTURE ELEVEN:

SOCIAL STRUCTURAL THEORIES

• Characteristic Features of Structural Theories



• Historical Foundations of Structural Theories



• Strain Theories



• Merton's Strain Theory
• Cloward and Ohlin's Differential Opportunity Theory
• Albert Cohen's Subcultural Strain Theory



• Cultural Deviance Theories



• University of Chicago Roots
• Shaw and McKay's Social Disorganization Theory
• Miller's Lower Class Focal Concerns
• Sellin's Culture Conflict Theory

LECTURE TWELVE:

SOCIAL PROCESS THEORIES

• Background and General Orientation of Social Process Theories



• Social Learning Theories

• General Characteristics
• Tarde's Theory of Imitation
• Sutherland's Differential Association Theory
• Aker's Differential Reinforcement Theory
• Sykes and Matza's Neutralization Theory

• Social Control Theories

• General Characteristics
• Reckless' Containment Theory
• Glaser's Differential Anticipation Theory
• Hirschi's Social Bond Theory

LECTURE THIRTEEN:

SOCIETAL REACTION THEORIES

• General Characteristics of Societal Reaction Theory



• Labeling Theory

• The broad mosaic of labeling theory
• Three orienting questions of labelling theory



• Why are some acts defined as criminal?
• Why are some individuals defined as criminal?
• What is the effect of the label?

• Conflict Theory

• Marxian Background



• Marx's theory of economic relations
• Marx's inattention to crime



• Early Marxist Criminologists



• Frederich Engels
• Willem Bonger



• Modern Marxist Theory
  
• Instrumental Marxism
• Structural Marxism



• Non-Marxist Conflict Theory
  
• General characteristics
• Dahrendorf's Class and Class Conflict
• Vold's Theoretical Criminology

LECTURE FOURTEEN:

VIOLENT AND PERSONAL CRIME

• Defining Personal Crime

• Homicide

• Legal Considerations
• Correlates of Homicide
• Geographical Location of Homicide
• Situational Context of Homicide
• Causes of Homicide

• Rape

• Definitional and Legal Considerations
• Correlates of Rape
• Dynamics of Rape

LECTURE FIFTEEN:

PUBLIC ORDER CRIME: DRUG USE

• Taxonomy of Drugs of Abuse

• Narcotics
• Depressants
• Stimulants
• Hallucinogens
• Marijuana

• Drug use and Crime

• Popular Conceptions
• Models for Drug use and Crime
• A Career Perspective