EXCERPTED FROM

Crime, Justice, and Society:

An Introduction to Criminology
SECOND EDITION

Ronald J. Berger
Marvin D. Free Jr.
Patricia Searles

Copyright © 2005
ISBNs: 1-58826-258-8 pb

1800 30th Street, Ste. 314

Boulder, CO 80301
USA
telephone 303.444.6684
fax 303.444.0824

This excerpt was downloaded from the

Lynne Rienner Publishers website
www.rienner.com

i
 Contents

List of Tables and Figures xi

Preface xiii

1 Perspectives on the Problem of Crime 1

Media Constructions of Crime and Crime Fighting, 3
The News and Entertainment Media, 3 • Crime
Waves and Moral Panics, 8 • Drug Scares, 11
The Politics of Crime Control, 13
Liberals and Conservatives, 14 • The Reagan-Bush Years, 15 •
The Clinton Years, 16 • Bush II, 18
Criminology and the Sociological Imagination, 20
Cultivating a Sociological Imagination, 21 • Challenges to
the Legalistic Definition of Crime, 22 • Inequality, Power,
and Crime, 25

Part 1 Methods and Theories

2 Crime Data and Methods of Research 37

Counting Crime: The Uniform Crime Reports, 38
Underreporting by Citizens, 41 • The Organizational
Production of Crime Data, 42 • Clearance Rates and Arrest
Data, 45 • The Declining Crime Rate in the 1990s, 48
Other Counts of Crime, 50
The National Crime Victimization Survey, 50 • Self-Report
Surveys, 53 • The Problem of White-Collar Crime, 58
Other Research Methods, 59
Experimental and Evaluation Research, 59 • Observational
Field Research and In-Depth Interviewing, 65 • Historical and
Comparative Criminology, 71

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3 Individualistic Explanations of Criminal Behavior 79

Supernatural Explanations, 81
Classical and Neoclassical Criminology, 82
Deterrence and the Rational Criminal, 83 • Contemporary
Deterrence Research, 84
Positivist Criminology: Biological and
Psychological Approaches, 88
Social Darwinism and Early Biological Criminology, 89 •
Contemporary Biological Research, 91 • Freudian
Psychology, 101 • Personality and Crime, 103 • Applications
of Psychological Theories, 106

4 Sociological Explanations of Criminal Behavior 113

Early European Contributions, 114
Social Disorganization and the Social Ecology of Crime, 118
The Contributions of Shaw and McKay, 118 • The Decline
and Revival of Social Disorganization Theory, 121 • Routine
Activities and Crime, 123
Crime and the American Dream: Anomie/Strain Theory, 126
Adaptations to Strain, 127 • A Decade of Liberal Reform,
132 • Gender and Strain, 135 • General Strain Theory, 136
Social Learning and Symbolic Interaction, 137
Edwin Sutherland and the Theory of Differential
Association, 137 • Social Learning Theory, 139 • Techniques
of Neutralization, 141 • Labeling Theory, 142
Social Control and the Life Course, 145
Travis Hirschi’s Social Control Theory, 145 • Gender and
Social Control, 149 • Social Bonds Across the Life Course, 150

5 Conflict Theory and Critical Criminology 153

Group and Class Conflict, 154
Culture Conflict and Crime, 154 • Racial Conflict, Social Protest,
and Collective Violence, 155 • Class Conflict and Left Realism, 158
Feminist Criminology, 160
Gender and Crime, 160 • The Criminalization of Gay and
Lesbian Sex, 161
Peacemaking Criminology, 166
The Way of Peace, 166 • Deescalating the War on Drugs, 167 •
The Regulation of Guns, 173
Postmodern Currents in Criminology, 177
Postmodernity as a Stage of Society, 178 • Postmodernism
as Social Criticism, 182
 Contents vii

Part 2 Patterns of Criminality and Victimization

6 Corporate and Organized Crime 187

Business Concentration and Corporate Crime, 190
Antitrust Law and the Decline of Moral Indignation, 191 •
Criminogenic Market Structures, 193 • Corporate Culture and
the (Mis)management of Power, 195 • Regulatory Law and the
Deregulation Movement, 198
The Economic and Physical Costs of Corporate Crime, 203
Costs to Workers, 204 • Costs to Consumers, 207 • Costs to the
General Public, 210
The Business of Organized Crime, 219
The Interdependence of Organized and Corporate Crime, 221 •
The Structure of Organized Crime Networks, 225

7 Street Crime 229

The Economic Context of Urban Street Crime, 230
Unemployment and Crime, 234 • Homelessness and Crime, 236
Racial/Ethnic Status and Street Crime, 238
The Color of Crime Data: Patterns of Offending and
Victimization, 239 • Drug Prohibition: A Design for Discrimination,
247 • Explaining Minority Involvement in Street Crime, 251
Adolescent Subcultures and Law-Violating Youth Groups, 258
Middle-Class Delinquency: Renegade Kids and Suburban
Outlaws, 260 • Urban Street Gangs, 263

8 Gender and Crime 271

Doing Gender, 273
Gendered Patterns of Criminality: An Overview, 276
The Gender Composition of Arrests, 276 • Has Female Criminality
Increased? 279 • The Masculinity-Liberation Hypothesis, 281
Intersections of Gender, Race/Ethnicity, Class, and Crime, 282
Girls in Urban Gangs, 283 • Gender and Street Robbery, 289 •
Gender and the Drug Trade, 292 • Women in Prostitution,
295 • Women as “Fetal Abusers,” 305 • Women Who Kill, 308

9 Sexual Violence 315

The Problem of Sexual Violence, 316
The Sexual Violence Continuum, 316 • The Gendered Politics
of Sexual Murder, 318 • The Problem of Pornography, 323
Rape and Sexual Assault, 331
viii Contents

Sexual Scripts and Rape Myths, 331 • Rape Law and Its Reform,
335 • Personal Resistance Strategies, 338
The Sexual Abuse of Children, 339
The Frequency and Experience of Abuse, 340 • The Abuse of
Boys, 343 • Women and Abuse, 345 • Adult Survivors of Abuse, 347
The Battering of Women, 350
The Experience of Battering, 351 • Partner Abuse in Gay
and Lesbian Relationships, 357 • Dealing with Battering, 358

10 Political and Governmental Crime 361

Crime and Political Rebellion, 363
Collective Rebellion in U.S. History, 363 • Terrorism, 366
Hate Crimes and Hate Groups, 374
Data on Hate Crimes, 377 • Organized Hate Groups, 380
Governmental Crime and Presidential Scandals, 382
Watergate, 384 • The Secret Government, 386 • The Iran-Contra
Scandal, 389 • Iraqgate, 394 • Sex, Lies, and Real Estate, 395 •
The Degradation of Democracy, 398

Part 3 Criminal Justice and the Search for Solutions

11 The Police and the Courts 409

The Modern Police Force, 411
Historical Background, 411 • Organizational Styles of Policing, 413
Police Culture and Doing Police Work, 418
Racial Profiling, 420 • Minorities in Policing, 422 • Doing Gender
in Policing, 424 • Police Corruption and Other Malfeasance, 426
Prosecuting and Defending the Accused, 433
Initial Screening, 433 • Negotiating Justice in an Adversary
System, 435 • The Trial, 437
Sentencing the Convicted, 443
Types of Sentences, 443 • Discrimination in Sentencing, 446

12 Punishment and Prisons 451

The Death Penalty, 453
Legal Lethality, 453 • Gender and the Death Penalty, 456 •
Juveniles and the Death Penalty, 458
The Modern Penitentiary, 459
Historical Background, 459 • The Incarceration Boom, 462 •
Privatization of Prisons, 465
Living and Working in Prison, 467
The Society of Captives, 467 • Convict Labor and Prison Industries,
476 • The Work of Correctional Officers, 478
 Contents ix

13 Community Corrections and Alternative Solutions 483

Community Corrections, 484
Probation: Conventional and Alternative Approaches, 485 •
Parole and the Problem of Prisoner Reentry, 489 • The
Restorative Justice Movement, 491
In Search of Social Justice, 495
Focus on Prevention, 495 • The Problem of White-Collar
Crime, 499 • Winning the Peace, 501

References 503
Index 569
About the Book 585
 Preface

Most criminology textbooks are rather similar in their organization and

content. They have an encyclopedic quality and lack a unified storyline or
central theme. As sociologists, we’ve often been disappointed with these
texts because the sociological perspective tends to get lost in all the detail.
In contrast, Crime, Justice, and Society is explicitly sociological in orienta-
tion and is designed to help students cultivate a sociological imagination
that can guide their thinking about crime and criminal justice. As C. Wright
Mills (1959) noted, a sociological imagination allows us to see how person-
al or private troubles are related to public issues. It helps us understand the
social forces that shape our lives, that define and constrain our choices and
opportunities, our sense of the possible, our very sense of ourselves. A soci-
ological imagination helps us recognize how personal biographies intersect
with both broader historical and social conditions and the relationships we
have with one another.
In developing this book we have been inspired by the innovative think-
ing about crime that has emerged from what has been loosely described as
critical criminology. Although we do not think it is necessary to expose stu-
dents to all the nuances of critical social theory and political thought, we do
believe that sophisticated sociological thinking about crime requires us to
step outside of conventional understandings and analyze issues from a criti-
cal standpoint.
A critical perspective places questions of social inequality and power
at the center of criminological inquiry. It views class, race/ethnicity, and
gender as pivotal organizing principles of social life—as prisms through
which we come to know ourselves and our social world and as central
mechanisms by which social relationships are patterned. Our class back-
ground, for example, affects not only our income and wealth but our entire
experience of life—from the neighborhood we grow up in and the quality
of schools we attend to our occupational choices and career paths. Class

xiii
xiv Preface

affects our incentives and disincentives to engage in criminal behavior, as

well as the resources we have for committing certain types of crime and
avoiding official sanctions for our actions.
Race and ethnicity also define our position in society, as social
resources and privileges are unequally distributed on the basis of these
characteristics. Racial and ethnic status, like class, creates incentives and
disincentives for crime and affects our experiences with the criminal justice
system. Gender, too, reflects social relations of inequality and power, and
gender norms and expectations influence patterns of criminality and victim-
ization. Males, for instance, commit the overwhelming majority of crimes,
particularly crimes of violence, and they are the primary victims of crime
by men. Women, on the other hand, disproportionately experience sexual
victimization, especially by males they know.

■ Organization of the Book

Crime, Justice, and Society is appropriate for use as an undergraduate text
in criminology courses taught in both sociology and criminal justice pro-
grams. It offers instructors and students an approach that is interesting and
innovative yet organized to fit into conventional course formats.
Given our desire to avoid an encyclopedic style, we do not cover every
theory that has ever been formulated, but examine the perspectives that we
consider most central to criminology. We also avoid the tendency to prolif-
erate chapter after chapter, cataloging every type of crime imaginable.
Rather, we present a comprehensive range of topics in a way that facilitates
critical and analytical thinking and helps students develop their sociologi-
cal imaginations.
In this second edition of the book, we have revised and updated materi-
al to reflect the changing economic and political realities of the new millen-
nium, from the multibillion-dollar scandals of Enron and other corrupt cor-
porations to the problem of terrorism and the U.S. government’s response
to it in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. We have also added a new
chapter on conflict theory and critical criminology that better integrates the
perspectives associated with this line of criminological thought.
Chapter 1, “Perspectives on the Problem of Crime,” begins the book by
encouraging students to reflect on popular media and political construc-
tions that may have influenced their own thinking about crime. Here we
review, among other things, constructionist accounts of the gang, drug, and
serial-murder problems. We then make the case for the value of a sociologi-
cal perspective and introduce students to the central themes of the book.
Part 1: Methods and Theories, opens with Chapter 2, “Crime Data
and Methods of Research,” where we critically examine official and unoffi-
cial sources of quantitative crime data. We also look at other methodologi-
 Preface xv

cal approaches, including experimental and evaluation research, observa-

tional methods, and historical and comparative criminology. In Chapters 3,
4, and 5—“Individualistic Explanations of Criminal Behavior,”
“Sociological Explanations of Criminal Behavior,” and “Conflict Theory
and Critical Criminology”—we avoid the tediousness that is typical of the-
ory chapters and make the material more relevant by interweaving the voic-
es of offenders and by highlighting the practical applications of various the-
oretical perspectives.
Part 2: Patterns of Criminality and Victimization, begins with
Chapter 6, “Corporate and Organized Crime,” where we address the crimes
of the powerful and highlight the interconnections between legal and illegal
enterprise. Here we consider the historical development and contemporary
manifestations of corporate law violation, the link between corporate and
organized crime, and the structure of organized crime networks.
Chapter 7, “Street Crime,” focuses on the class and racial/ethnic
dimensions of conventional crimes of violence, crimes against property,
drug crimes, gangs, and the like. We illuminate the economic context of
urban street crime and examine the questions of criminal justice bias and
differential involvement by race and ethnicity. We also discuss the problem
of law-violating youth groups and gangs in both urban and suburban com-
munities.
While issues of gender are integrated throughout the book, we believe
that the experiences of women and girls warrant special attention. In
Chapter 8, “Gender and Crime,” we explore how social constructions of
femininity and masculinity influence the nature of both female and male
criminality. Focusing especially on female offenders, we consider the ques-
tion of continuity versus change in traditional gender patterns of crime and
discuss how offenders “do gender” in urban gangs, street robbery, the drug
trade, prostitution, and murder. We also examine the ongoing controversy
regarding the criminalization of women as “fetal abusers.”
Chapter 9, “Sexual Violence,” opens with a discussion of sexual vio-
lence as a continuum of violations ranging from nonviolent sexual intimi-
dation to acts of severe brutality. We also take a critical look at the role that
pornography plays in promoting a cultural climate that sanctions and pro-
motes such violence, and we explore in detail the problems of rape and sex-
ual assault, child sexual abuse, and the battering of women. Although we
present two separate chapters that focus on females, we recognize that
women and girls do not always fit neatly into the categories of offender or
victim/survivor. Our analysis thus reflects and elucidates these blurred
boundaries.
Part 2 concludes with Chapter 10, “Political and Governmental
Crime,” where we cover often-neglected criminological topics such as col-
lective violence, civil disobedience, terrorism, and hate crimes. We also
xvi Preface

discuss, among other subjects, the major presidential scandals from

Watergate to the controversial George W. Bush administration.
Part 3: Criminal Justice and the Search for Solutions, includes two
chapters that critically analyze the operation of the criminal justice system
in the United States: Chapter 11, “The Police and the Courts,” and Chapter
12, “Punishment and Prisons.” Chapter 13, “Community Corrections and
Alternative Solutions,” examines community alternatives to prison and var-
ious preventative measures that chart a more progressive course for dealing
with the problem of crime.

* * *

We would like to thank Lynne Rienner for her helpful suggestions, as well
as Lesli Athanasoulis, Lisa Tulchin, Jason Cook, and the rest of the staff at
Lynne Rienner Publishers for their support and assistance with this project.