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The Two Most Common Types of Law in America.

● Criminal Law - deals with public peace and safety. A violation is against society (the
state). All criminal law is written down.
● Civil Law - deals with the relationship between people or groups. Civil law need not be
written.

Mens Rea - The Guilty Mind.

● Every crime requires “men's rea” a guilty mind. No one can be guilty of a crime unless
they act with the knowledge of doing something wrong.
● It is implicit in the concept of crime that the perpetrator knows the wrongfulness of the
act.

Insanity.
● A legal defense to determine if a person’s state of mental balance negates criminal
responsibility.
● Insanity is a legal term, not one coined by medicine.

Insanity: M’Naughten Rule.

● Basis of the rule was that the defendant “...didn’t know what he was doing or didn’t know
it was wrong”.
● Level of proof varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
● Iowa uses this rule.

Insanity: Substantial Capacity Test.

● “A person is not responsible for criminal conduct if, at the time of such conduct as a
result of mental disease or defect, he lacks substantial capacity whether to appreciate
his criminality (wrongfulness) of his conduct or to conform his conduct to the
requirements of law.” (ALI [Test] Model Penal Code).

A Theory.
● It is a set of principles that explain how two or more things, items or phenomena are
related.
● In science, facts must be distinguished from theories.

Facts and Theories.

● Facts.
○ dispute theories.
○ are observed.
● Theory.
○ what is known and what is needed to be known.
○ provides an explanation.
Collecting Data.
● Survey.
● Experiments.
● Observation (participant and nonparticipant).
● Case Study.

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The Measurement and Extent of Crime.
● First, to explain crime.
● Second, to prevent crime.
● Third, to operate agencies that deal with crime.
● Fourth, to test and analyze theories about crime.

The Prevalence and Incidence of Crime

● Question: Why do you need to know how much crime there is?
● Answer:

Prevalence of Criminal Behavior

● Has to do with how many people are involved in offending (participating in crime).
● Because of accuracy, we can’t with complete certainty tell what the prevalence of crime
is.
○ Do some criminal acts go unnoticed?

Incidence of Criminal Behavior.

● Has to do with the number of criminal acts committed.

The Objectives
● Measure the extent, fluctuations, distribution, and nature of Part I and II crimes in the
U.S.
● Measure the total volume of reported crime in the U.S.
● To show the activity and coverage of law enforcement agencies through arrest counts
and police employee strength data.

UCR Parts I and II.

● Part I.
○ Known as “Index Crimes.”
○ Include murder, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft,
motor vehicle theft, and arson.
● Part II.
○ Less serious crimes.
○ Includes 21 offenses. Examples: vandalism, running away, curfew violations,
(included are “juvenile crimes”), etc.
Crime Index
● Collectively, Part I offenses are called Index Crimes. The crime index is important
because crime can be compared over time and from one location to another.
● The crime index is figured: total crime/population x 100,000 = rate

Victimization Surveys
● First one completed in 1965. Entitled “National Survey of Crime Victimization.”
● Indicated crime in the U.S. was 4 to 10 times higher than reported in the UCR.
● Victimization survey collected by Bureau census

National Crime Victimization Survey

● The Bureau of Justice Statistics along with the Census Bureau conducts the National
Crime Victimization Survey.
● These surveys focus on victims and their recollections of crimes, their circumstances,
and the offenders.
● Victimization surveys ask, “have you ever been?” On average, the NCVS reports 22.8
million crimes a year in the U.S.
○ 17.5 million property crimes
○ 5.3 million crimes of violence.

Victimization Observations• Approximately 20% of all households in the U.S. are victimized by a
crime in a year.
● Young people are more likely to be victims of crime. (12-17)+(18-24) age groups as
defined by BJS.
● Victims are more often men (strangers victimized) than women (knew the offenders).
● Violent crime: Teens and blacks most vulnerable. Lower-income <$25,000 were
victimized the most.
● 46% of the time, victims believed their assailant was under the influence of drugs or
alcohol.
● The NCVS estimates your chances of becoming a victim of a violent crime in any given
year is 3.8%.
● A victim of a property crime in any given year is 22%.
● Weapons (gun, knife) are used in 20% of victimizations.

Limitations
● Information on some offenses is not included. Victimless crimes not reported.
● Victims may give inaccurate information (called telescoping).
● Inadequate questions.
● White-collar crime is not surveyed.
Self-Report Surveys
● Are designed to obtain information about offenders and their violations of the law.
● Self-reports indicate criminal behavior is far more common than is officially reported.
● Self-reports ask, “have you ever?”
● First self-report study was completed in 1940.

Results• Nearly everyone has broken the law at some time.

● Most offenders are multi-violators.
● The more times a person violates the law, the more likely that person is to commit a
serious crime.
● Self-reports indicate a wide discrepancy between official and self-report crime data.

Self-Report Surveys
● The most noted self-report surveys are:
○ Monitoring the Future. Mostly juvenile issues.
○ National Youth Survey

Crime Patterns and Characteristics

● Temporal
○ Day, Season, and Climate
○ Temperature
○ Population Density
○ Region of the U.S.
● Social
○ Social Class
○ Age
○ Gender
○ Race

What Do The Uniform Crime Reports Disclose?

● Indicate crime rates in inner-city, high-poverty areas are generally higher than in
suburban and rural.
● Victimizations are the highest in inner-city areas.

Age and Crime

● There is no debate over age and crime. Age is inversely related to crime.
● Every measure of crime indicates that people in their mid-teens to their mid-twenties
account for the greater percentage of Part I crimes.
● In any given year, half of all arrests are of individuals under the age of 25.
● After age 25, a decline in crime takes place due to the “aging out process.” Simply put
as one grows older, crime decreases.
Gender and Crime
● Gender is as strong a correlation as age is.
● Male crime rates are higher than those of females.
● Arrest rates indicate the male-female ratio is 3.5 male to 1 female offender. But, the gap
is narrowing. In the last 10 years, male arrest rates increased by 11% while females
increased by 40%.

Supernatural Theory
● Blames crimes on demons and other powers.
● This idea was popular during the Middle ages when people defined the world in terms of
absolute good and evil.
● Trial by ordeal
● Good was the work of God. Bad was the work of the devil.
● To rid the wrong-doer of demons, trial by battle was instituted by the church. The survivor
was declared innocent by God. There was a problem with this!
● Folk beliefs played a part in these ideas.
● Today, few take these ideas seriously because they can not be observed.
● We’ll examine theories that are of this world and can be observed.

The Classical School

● The first theories of crime that are of this world were developed in the 18th century by
members of the Classical School.
○ Insanity is not a defense to a crime
● The two individuals that are most responsible:
○ Cesare Beccaria
○ Jeremy Bentham
● Arose out of protest against the spiritual/supernatural explanations.
● Classical thinkers emphasized individualism, the use of reason, and scientific
explanation to explain.
● The Classical School offers suggestions on
○ how to punish
○ the rationality of the individual
● Argues that all people act according to the exercise of free will and reasoning.
Individuals act to accomplish some desired goal. We act according to rational
considerations of our acts; those that are both beneficial (law abiding) and those that are
harmful (illegal).

Cesare Beccaria (did not like the death penalty)

● The “father of the Classical School.” He believed that people are rational creatures who
exercise free will.
● People commit crimes because they imagine greater gains coming from crime than
conformity.
● Therefore, we can hold people responsible for their actions (they can be punished).
 ● The basis of the Classical School is his “On Crimes and Punishments.”

On Crimes and Punishment

● Can be analyzed by dividing the essay into two parts:
○ the first part examines Beccaria’s view (purposes) of law and the authority of
government.
○ the second part explores the purposes of punishment.

The Foundations of Law

● Human Nature
○ people are selfish and pursue their self-interest; they want to avoid pain and
increase their happiness.
○ People are rational [free to choose], capable of calculating what is in their
self-interest, and therefore can be considered to be free [willed].
● The Social Contract:
○ Beccaria suggests people will freely give up some of their freedom for their
overall security and happiness. Essentially, we make promises not to do things
and to do others.
○ These promises are laws

The Purposes of Law.

● Laws bind all equally:
○ law is blind to rank or class.
○ punishment is the same for all.
● Laws define violations of the social contract:
○ only actions, not intentions determine punishment.
○ only the state has the right to punish.
● Laws, not judges determine punishments:
○ laws are fixed; judges can only apply the law.
● Natural rights (human rights) can be distinguished from social rights created by laws:
○ Social rights come from common law (now known as common law).
○ natural laws are God-given and can’t be taken away.

The Purposes of Punishment

● Punishment should be guided by deterrence:
○ Specific.
○ General.
● Deterrence depends on two conditions:
○ proportionality - “fit the crime”.
○ public must have a clear and certain knowledge of the punishment.
● Punishment should be swift.
● Punishment must be certain.
● Punishment must be made public and visible:
 ○ servitude and public works

America’s Legal System

● John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and others were influenced by
Beccaria.
● Beccaria's ideas are firmly planted in the U.S. Constitution.

Jeremy Bentham.
● The other individual associated with Classical thought.
● He believed punishments ought to be based on deterrence and he offers a way to
“measure” punishment.
● Punishment should follow
○ Intensity.
○ Duration.
○ Certainty.
● His idea can be summed up as “punishment should fit the crime.”
● In favor of the death penalty.

Summary of Classical School• All people are rational.

● Individual is responsible for their actions.
● Lawbreaking behavior is the result of irrational acts.
● Punishment is to deter.
● Punishment is to be proportional.
● Punishment should not be in excess of the harm.
● Punishment should be consistently applied, with no mitigating circumstances or special
cases.

Neoclassical
● Beginning in the late 1970’s the Classical School began to enjoy revised popularity. The
“new” theories, which were based on Classical thought, were called Neoclassical.
● We’ll examine two:
○ Rational Choice
○ Routine Activities

Rational Choice
● This theory suggests that criminal behavior is predicated on reasoning and rational
considerations of choices.
● It is based on the principle of self-interest
● Crime is a function of opportunities and one chooses to commit crime because:
○ they are motivated by the thrill and benefits received
○ situational factors
Routine Activities
● This theory suggests that some people engage in regular or routine behavior
(activities) that increase their likelihood of victimization.
● According to Cohen and Felson, three concepts must be present for a crime to occur.

Three Concepts.
● The Offender.
○ who intends to commit the crime.
● Suitable target.
○ person or place.
● Lack of an individual to observe or prevent the crime - no one to see the crime, or to
deter the offender.
● When these three concepts come together, a crime occurs.

Summary
● Routine patterns of living affect the convergence of the three concepts - thus crime is
committed.
● Routine Activities theory can explain why certain items are more attractive targets than
others.
● Rational Choice suggests that people make decisions with a goal in mind and use free
will.

The Positive School

● The Positive School includes the biological theories of crime.
● There are basic determinants of human behavior, including criminality, that are
constitutionally or physiologically based and inherited.

The Assumptions of the Positive School

● The criminal is fundamentally different from the non-criminal. This is explained by
physical makeup or psychological impulses.
● The unique background of each individual explains criminal behavior.
● The existence of scientific determinism. Crime happens because of prior causes; it just
doesn’t happen.

Phrenology
● Focused on the shape of the skull.
● In 1791, Franz Joseph Gall reasoned that there were three major regions of the brain.
These regions governed behavior and personality.

Cesare Lombroso
● Often called the “father of criminology.” He began the scientific study of crime. He began
the “search for the causes of crime.”
 ● Lombroso was impressed with Charles Darwin’s work and believed criminals were
“atavists.”
Lombroso
● His work is contained in his book entitled, Criminal Man it was first published in 1876 and
was 252 pages in length, twenty years later the last edition was over 1,900 pages in
length.
● Criminal Man suggests that criminals have anomalies that are atavistic. Atavistism is a
reversion to a primitive or subhuman type of man. Atavistic men are most akin to apes
and lower primates
● Firm believer of the death penalty
● The atavistic criminal is known as “the born criminal.”
● Lombroso described two other categories of offenders:
○ Insane - mental and moral degenerates.
● They are criminals because of some change in their brains.
○ Criminaloids
■ were habitual criminals and criminals by (of) passion. Pulled into crime
because of environmental factors.

Lombroso and the Female Offender

● Was the first to consider the female offender. His views reflected the sexism of the time,
but he believed women were more atavists than men.
● In The Female Offender, he stated women commit crime because “for want of passion”,
“sexual coldness” and “underdeveloped intelligence.”

Body Typing
● Some of the more interesting attempts at relating criminal behavior to physical
appearance are the so-called body type theories.
● Body type theorists argue that there is a high degree of association between the physical
appearance of the body and criminal behavior.
● The best-known study was that by William Sheldon. He studied 200 delinquent boys and
developed (identified) three body types.
○ Endomorph.
■ soft, round, short, extrovert.
○ Ectomorph
■ bony, thin, delicate, introvert.
○ Mesomorph
■ muscular, large, active, aggressive

Inheritance and Crime

● In the late 19th century, researchers began examining the idea that criminal behavior is
an inherited trait.
● This idea assumed criminal behavior is transmitted, biologically, from parent to child.
● Early theories focused on family studies and IQ.
○ Low IQ is subnormal
 ○

The Jukes.
● Richard Dugdale’s study of the family he called the “Jukes.”
● He traced the lineage of the family back over 200 years.
● He found a history of “pauperism, prostitution, illegitimacy, and crime.”
● This study had a striking impact on the thinking of the time, but his analysis was flawed.

The Work of H.H. Goddard.

● Goddard studied family intelligence levels (IQs). Goddard was convinced IQ was “fixed”
and “inborn.”
● His primary purpose in studying intelligence was to separate the “subnormal” from the
“normal.” and prevent the “subnormal” from reproducing.
● One of his more famous “families” were the “Kallikaks’.”
● His “studies” were flawed.

Family History and IQ

● These ideas were so dominant, that the U.S. Supreme Court, in 1927, upheld the
sterilization laws of many states.

Contemporary Research on IQ
● Recent studies has indicated low IQ scores are associated with crime.
● According to Wilson and Herrnstein, a criminal’s IQ is 10 points lower than the
noncriminal

Modern Biological Theories

● Modern theories do not emphasize the “born criminal.” Modern theories rethink the idea
of the criminal being predisposed to violence or criminal behavior.
● We’ll examine genetics and criminality.