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Figures, Tables, and Boxes vii
Boxes
Crime in Context
Box 1.2 9 Box 5.3 118 Box 9.1 203

Box 2.1 31 Box 6.1 132 Box 10.2 253
Box 3.1 49 Box 7.1 152
Box 4.1 84 Box 8.3 192
Case in Point
Box 1.3 14 Box 5.1 110 Box 9.3 213

Box 2.3 36 Box 6.2 136 Box 10.1 248
Box 3.3 54 Box 7.2 166
Box 4.3 94 Box 8.1 181
Theory in Current Research
Box 1.1 8 Box 5.2 113 Box 9.2 211

Box 2.2 36 Box 6.3 142 Box 10.3 256
Box 3.2 53 Box 7.3 169
Box 4.2 92 Box 8.2 190
Preface
I t is with great pleasure that we present the third Canadian edition of Crime and
Criminology. As each year passes, it is clear that change is fundamental to what is hap-
pening in contemporary global society and that this, too, needs to be reflected in a book of
this nature. Furthermore, we are aware that the relevance of any particular theory or per-
spective will vary according to current developments in both the world of academia and
the world outside of the academy. In light of this, we have modified the text once again,
in ways that attempt to make new analytical connections, summarize present trends in
criminological theory, and be of general interest to the reader. Specifically, in this edition
we have updated the discussions of crime measurement, public criminology, restorative
justice, critical race theory and intersectionality, critical criminology, and green crim-
inology. We have also added new “Theory in Current Research” boxes to illustrate the
interconnectedness of theoretical analysis and contemporary criminological research.
Additionally, we have added new material incorporated into “Case in Point” and “Crime
in Context” boxes to facilitate discussion on current issues. Finally, we have added more
terms to the glossary.
We believe that we have provided a comprehensive yet concise introduction to the
major theories and perspectives in criminology. We hope that you find the book of use and
interest as you explore the wide variety of explanations for many different types of crime
and social harm.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to many people for their assistance in the development and further revi-
sion of this book. Special thanks go to my colleagues in the Department of Criminology,
faculty, staff, and graduate students who helped to shape and mould the ways in which
the material was developed for teaching purposes. Thank you to Oxford University Press,
most expressly Amy Gordon, for the support and encouragement. I must express my sin-
cere thank you to my research assistants, Caitlin Elliot, Jessica Harney, and Anna Theuer,
for their dedication, talent, professionalism, and ability to meet timelines. Finally, I want
to say thank you to John Lortie for his unwavering love and support—and his occasional
insistence that I leave the office and seek sunshine and fresh air.
—Lauren Eisler
1 The Study of Crime
Objectives
This chapter will help you develop an understanding of the
• main concepts and explanations of criminology;
• social construction of crime;
• impact of media on our understanding of the types and incident rates of crimes
committed;
• three major strands within criminology that deal with measurement of crime
issues; and
• different levels of analysis and the different political orientations that shape
criminology.
Introduction
This book is about the myriad ways in which the causes of crime have been defined within
the field of criminology. More specifically, it describes the diverse and at times competing
perspectives within criminology and their attempts to explain why certain types of people
engage in certain types of behaviour that have been identified as criminal in nature.
The aim of this chapter is to introduce the reader to the main concepts and explana-
tions of criminology and, in doing so, to explore a series of issues relating to the definition
and measurement of crime. A major part of this chapter describes the criteria that serve to
differentiate the many perspectives on crime. In particular, we will explore the different
levels of analysis used to explain crime and the different political perspectives that impinge
on criminological analysis. Thus, one purpose of this chapter is to provide a sense of how
we can distinguish between different theoretical perspectives by looking at similarities and
differences in broad approaches.
Criminology as a Field of Study

Before we discuss the nature of crime, it is useful to first say a few words about criminology
as a field of study. As we shall see, criminology, like crime, is not a monolith; it contains
2 Crime and Criminology
varied and competing perspectives. This variety of perspectives should be considered in

light of the social context of the production of intellectual knowledge.
For instance, the production of knowledge is itself a social and material process. When
any kind of knowledge is produced, we must ask who has control over this process—
not only the production of knowledge itself, but also the ownership and use of the results
of research and scholarship. In a similar vein, specific types of “knowledge” or “truth” are
not always recognized or visible in the public domain. This can happen for a variety of
reasons—because there is no market for it, because of publishing rivalries, or because the
“knowledge” is not deemed to conform to particular academic standards or mainstream
political agendas.
Knowledge also has distinctive international dimensions. For example, in the field
of criminology each country has its own unique social concerns, intellectual milieux,
political traditions, historical development, and, therefore, its own theoretical emphases
and biases. In the United Kingdom, for example, debates over policing and anti-social
behaviour have been prominent in recent years, but in the United States concerns have
focused more on marginalized neighbourhoods, unemployment, and the social prospects
of the huge numbers of offenders re-entering the community after serving time in prison.
Debates in Canada have centred on changes to drug law enforcement, while at the same
time media treatment of criminal justice issues in Canada has featured extensive moral
panics over young offenders, youth violence, and youth gangs.
Cutting across all of these debates in each of the regions, however, has been a series
of general issues relating to the nature and social control of crime. Invariably, analysis of
specific issues has employed abstract concepts that are designed to explain why partic-
ular phenomena should be dealt with in any particular way. Major themes of this book
include exploring the nature of the more generalized statements regarding crime, exam-
ining the broad social and historical context within which certain theories and concepts
have emerged, and demonstrating the application of these theoretical understandings to
selected issues and criminal justice reform.
Vocational versus Critical Theories
While “theory” informs everything that criminologists do, not every criminologist is a
theorist. So what should criminologists actually do, and why is theory relevant to their
practice? To answer these questions we need to appreciate the dual nature of much contem-
porary criminology. On the one hand, many people adopt what could be called a vocational
or professional approach to criminology, in which the role of criminology is tied to improv-
ing the immediate practices of the criminal justice system. This approach seeks to study,
analyze, and research alternative theories to institute reform of some kind. Generally, it is
directed at making some aspect of the criminal justice system “better” at some level, be it
a program, an institution, or a strategy. Often this approach is linked to attempts to solve a
“social problem” or an administrative difficulty within the existing system.
1 The Study of Crime 3
On the other hand, there is a strand of criminology in which the emphasis is on

a critical or analytical approach. Unlike the vocational approach, this tends not to be
a nuts-and-bolts view of the criminal justice system, particularly in respect to making
minor changes within the existing institutional frameworks of criminal justice. Instead,
this approach suggests that one must stand back from policy decisions and ask bigger
questions, such as “What if . . . ?” This approach delves into the deeper philosophical
issues of the day; for example, why do we continue to have and use institutions such
as prisons when they demonstrably do not work to prevent offending or reoffending?
The critical, or analytical, approach does not suggest improvements to the existing penal
system, but questions whether it is valid, or even viable, to begin with. Indeed, an in-
formed opinion might simply advocate for the abolition of such institutions in their pres-
ent shape and form.
It is essential to note, however, that often there are strong links between these two
approaches. The variability in criminological perspectives in general is due in part to the
nature of the relationship between the practical, vocational orientation (with a focus on
what can be done here and how to improve the system) and its critical, analytical counter-
part (with a focus on why things ought to be done in one way or another). We must also
be aware of the uncertainties of knowledge. For instance, whatever area of criminology we
may concentrate on, there are almost always unintended consequences that emerge from
the knowledge we acquire and the reforms we put forward. Knowledge is a guide to the
future—it does not fix the future on a single pathway.
Three Areas of Focus
Generally speaking, criminology focuses on three main areas:
• the sociology of law, which examines social aspects and the institutions of law
• theories of crime causation, which is sometimes referred to as criminogenesis
• the study of social responses to crime, which examine in more depth the formal insti-
tutions of criminal justice, such as the police, courts, and corrections
As pointed out earlier, the main theme of this book is the theories that relate to the
causes of crime. As will be seen, however, the other domains of criminology often overlap
and are inseparable parts of any review of causal theories.
Defining Crime
What is crime? There is no straightforward answer to this question, as there are con-
stantly changing ideas, perceptions, and conceptions regarding what constitutes crim-
inal behaviour. To a certain extent, both crime and criminology are uncertain in the
sense that one’s definition of crime is dependent upon one’s particular interests and
particular worldview. This becomes clearer when we discuss the various definitions put
forward for crime.
There are competing views of crime. Crime is always socially defined. This, of course,
can lead to debate: Should crime always be defined by law? Could or should it instead be
based on moral and social conceptions, such as social harm? To illustrate the difficulties
surrounding different definitions of crime, we might consider the film Schindler’s List. In
the movie (and in real life) Oskar Schindler broke Nazi law to assist Jewish people. What
about cases today where people may actively break the law in the name of social justice?
There are unjust systems in the world, and it may well be the case that many legal defini-
tions are built on highly contentious, unjust, or unfair propositions.
Legal and Sociological Definitions of Crime
There are many diverse conceptions of crime, each of which reflects different scientific and
ideological viewpoints. Hagan (1987), for example, identifies seven different approaches to
the definition of crime, ranging from a “legal consensus” definition to a “human rights”
definition. For present purposes, we can summarize broad definitional differences in the
following way:
• A formal legal definition says that crime is whatever the state identifies as a crime; that
is, if something is written into the criminal law and is subject to state sanction in the
form of a specific penalty, then that activity is a crime.
• A social harm conception of crime says that crime involves both criminal offences
(e.g., assault) and civil offences (e.g., negligence), in that each type of action or inaction
brings with it some type of harm. Each should therefore attract some kind of penalty.
• A cross-cultural universal norm argument states that crime, in essence, does not vary
across cultural norms. Thus, murder is murder regardless of the society, and we can
postulate norms of conduct that cut across diverse cultural backgrounds.
• A labelling approach to the definition of crime argues that crime only really exists
when there has been a social response to a particular activity that labels that activity
as criminal. If there is no label there is, in effect, no crime.
• A human rights approach says that crime occurs whenever a human right has been
violated, regardless of the legality of the action. Such a conception also expands the
definition of crime to include oppressive practices such as racism, sexism, and class-
based exploitation.
• A human diversity approach defines crime in terms of the manner in which deviance
represents a normal response to oppressive or unequal circumstances. A major focus
here is on power relations and the attempts by dominant groups to restrict human
diversity of experience, language, and culture.
Our intention here is not to fully explain each type of definition of crime, nor to
evaluate the explanatory or practical usefulness of each definition (instead, see Nettler,
1984; Hagan, 1987). Rather, we wish to alert the reader to the fact that there are important
differences in how people conceive of crime.
Further to these differences, the variation in definition often has real consequences
for how different types of behaviours are dealt with at a practical level. For example, we
might consider the issue of violence:
In the home, parents hit children; on the playing field, sportsmen assault each
other; at work, industrial “accidents” occur; in our community, dangerous chem-
icals are dumped; our governments turn a blind eye to the practices of some
police officers; and our governments are responsible for the mass violence of war.
(Alder, 1991, p. 61)
How violence is perceived and responded to by criminal justice institutions depends

very much on a range of political and social factors. Crime is not inherent in an activ-
ity: It is defined under particular material circumstances and in relation to specific social
processes.
Historical Construction of Crime

While criminologists may argue about the definitions of crime, ultimately it is the legal
definition of crime that determines how we, as a society, respond to certain acts deemed
to be wrongful. But we might ask: Who actually makes the laws, and why are they made?
Whose interests are reflected in those laws, and how are they enforced? In line with the
broad theme of the variability of definitions of crime, it is also useful to acknowledge
that legal definitions of crime themselves change over time. The law is thus socially pro-
duced and is not static. As it changes, so too does the definition of crime. In this sense
we can say that morality itself is a variable, at least insofar as it is reflected in the laws
of a country.
What is legally defined as crime varies according to social and historical contexts.
This is shown in the following examples.
• As of 1530 in England there existed the crime of being a vagabond, which in effect
meant that a person was unemployed and idle. Any person so identified could be
branded a criminal—figuratively and literally (through burning of the gristle of
the right ear with a hot iron). Vagabonds over the age of 18 could be hanged if they
did not obtain suitable employment for two years. Revived in 1743, the Vagrancy
Act expanded the types of individuals liable for prosecution to include a wide vari-
ety of homeless and poor people (see Chambliss, 1975). This crime no longer exists,
a lthough one could be tempted to draw similarities with the negative status accorded
to the young unemployed today.
• Prior to 1929, women were not considered legal persons under Canadian law. This
meant that the rape of a woman was, in effect, a property offence against the owner,
who was either the father of an unmarried woman or the husband of a married one.
This sense of “women as property” is evidenced in the rape laws prior to 1983; rape
was defined as the “sexual penetration of a woman’s vagina with a man’s penis with-
out the woman’s consent, outside of marriage” (emphasis added). This meant that
a man could not be raped, nor could a husband rape his wife. Lobbying efforts by
women’s groups led to the introduction of Bill C-127, which became law on 4 Janu-
ary 1983, making changes to the laws of rape, attempted rape, and indecent assault.
These laws were replaced with three levels of sexual assault in an attempt to remove
gender bias from the law and to improve conditions for victims of sexual assault.
For example, spousal assault is now included in the laws and there is no longer any
reference to gender, meaning that in the eyes of the law, a man can be the victim of
a sexual assault.
Crime is thus an offence of the time. In European history it was, for a while, inti-
mately linked to moral prescriptions as defined by religious bodies. One reason for this
was that in the 1400s to 1600s, the church was the body that had access to the tools of jus-
tice administration. This was because literacy tended to be the preserve of the clergy, who
therefore were in a position to construct the laws. Later on it was the preserve of the state
to determine laws. Accordingly, crime became defined as a transgression against the state,
not against God. Even today, however, there are vestiges of conflict between the secular
and nonsecular laws, as indicated in legal action taken over the ordination of women in
some Christian denominations.
Popular Media Images of Crime

Perceptions
The media have a significant influence on the general portrayal of crime in society.
The images that permeate popular consciousness of crime are mainly generated by and
reflected in electronic and print media (Callanan, 2012; Collins, 2014; Dixon, 2008;
Faucher, 2009; Greer, 2012; Peelo, 2006; Schissel, 2006; Simmons, 2012; Wayne, Hen-
derson, Murray, & Petley, 2008). For example, let’s examine the results of a Canadian
research project by Chantal Faucher in 2007 to explore how youth are represented in the
media and the potential outcomes of such representations. A sample of 1,937 news items
featuring young people and crime were taken from three of Canada’s largest newspapers
between 1990 and 2000. The participating newspapers were the Province from Vancou-
ver, the Toronto Star, and La Presse from Montreal. Faucher examined these articles to
determine whether there were specific ways in which youth were portrayed and what the
potential impact of this portrayal might be on how youth are perceived in society. Her
findings point to several consistent narratives about youth crime found throughout the
three newspapers. The most evident was the use of sensationalist language to create fear.
Newspaper articles on youth crime used such words as “epidemic” and “outbreak,” which
likens crime to disease, or words such as “crime waves” or “deluge” when describing the
occurrence of crime. Youth crime is presented in the media as increasing in frequency,
becoming more random and widespread and affecting ever-greater numbers of people,
and increasing in seriousness. When these factors are considered it is easy to understand
why some people who have never had any contact with youth crime may develop the fear
that “it could happen to me.”
The “Other” Identity
Faucher’s research also asserts that narratives found within crime news articles have the
effect of oversimplifying youth involved in crime and creating the identity of “other”
through the use of attributes such as race, class, and offence history (2007, p. 445).
This process occurs when language is used that strips the youth of an identity, such
as replacing identifiers like “son,” “daughter,” or “student,” with “offender,” “thief,”
“murderer,” or “assailant.” The narrative of criminal as “other” is created and rein-
forced through the continued use of language that distances the reader from the young
person who is in the news. The removal of any positive attributes and the substitution
of other, more pejorative attributes work to dehumanize the offender by tying his or her
entire identity to the activity that has led to the involvement with the criminal justice
system.
Race and class may also play a role in the way crime stories are portrayed in news-
papers. Research on racial and class representations in news coverage has found that in
some cases there is an overrepresentation of lower-status offenders and racial minorities
in the news (Dixon, 2008; James, 2008; Wortley, 2002, 2003) and an underrepresenta-
tion of racial minorities as victims of crime (Callanan, 2012; Collins, 2014; Dixon, 2008;
Dowler, Fleming, & Muzzatti, 2006; Gorham, 2006). Other research has found that there
tends to be extensive coverage of crimes that involve a racial minority offender and a white
victim (Dowler et al., 2006).
Personalization of Crime
According to the media, in both fictional and factual types of programs and reportage,
crime tends to be defined primarily as “street crime.” Such crime is thus associated with
personal terror and fear, and violence is seen as central. Crime is sensationalized, with
important implications for the fear of crime among certain sections of the population.
This fear is heightened by the way in which crime is seen to be random in nature, with
anyone and everyone a possible target for victimization. Consider the number of popular
television shows in recent years that deal with crime. Shows such as CSI and Law & Order
(and all of their various permutations and spinoffs) contribute to a distorted view of both
the types and frequencies of crimes committed against, and the threat to, the average indi-
vidual. These shows, for the most part, portray criminal events as violent and random—no
one is safe and everyone is a potential victim.
Box 1.1 Theory in Current Research
Aaron Doyle (2011) examined Thomas Mathiesen’s 1997 article, “The Viewer Society,”
wherein he examined the interconnected roles of the panopticon and the synopticon and
how they are expressed through the modern uses of surveillance and the mass media.
Mathiesen put forth a concept of the synopticon in which the mass media create an environ-
ment in which the greater society watch the “other” that is in contrast, yet complementary,
to the panopticon, in which a great number of people can be observed by few observers.
He focused on the mass media as a form of social control, emphasizing crime reporting
in which the media highlight violent crime, creating a fear of crime and the “other.” This
fear makes the push toward surveillance technologies and a focus on crime control within
media discourse easier for the general public to accept. Mathiesen constructed the view-
ing audience as passively absorbing media content, and he suggested that organizational
constructs and ideologies shape news construction, and viewers simply absorb these views
and ideologies without hesitation or critical thought.
While Doyle acknowledged Mathiesen’s contribution to the literature, he highlighted
some oversights on Mathiesen’s part. The main critique Doyle addressed was Mathiesen’s
cursory acknowledgement of forms of resistance. Doyle cited media research outlining an
increase in viewer skepticism in regard to the news media. This skepticism has been linked
to a guarded view of organizations and institutions in general. Further, perhaps because
of the date the article was published, Mathiesen did not address the role of the Internet
in regard to resistance to the synopticon. The Internet has made it increasingly easier for
counter-discourses to emerge; media consumers are therefore exposed to differing opin-
ions and views, as opposed to news media that uphold and reinforce the status quo.
George Gerbner’s cultivation theory explores this issue and claims that heavy exposure
to media—television in particular—may result in the creation of a vision of society that is
more influenced by what is seen on television than by what actually exists. This leads to
assumptions being made about types of people, violence, places, and other media-created
events that do not accurately reflect real-life experiences and events.
Morality and Crime
As well, there is often the idea that crime is related to morality, and specifically to the
decline of morality. What is “wrong” is plain for all to see. Furthermore, the “criminal”
is distinctive and identifiably different from everyone else in society. Overall, the idea
created is that there is a continuing law-and-order problem in society, and things are con-
stantly getting worse. Against this tide of disorder and lawlessness, the police and other
crime fighters are generally portrayed as infallible “superheroes” who use violence legiti-
mately to counter the violence of the streets.
The media are important not only in shaping our definitions of crime and crime con-
trol, but in producing legal changes and reinforcing particular types of policing strategies.
For example, the “moral panic” generated by the media about problems such as “youth
gangs” may lead to changes in laws (e.g., introducing youth curfews, school dress codes,
and zero tolerance policies) and the adoption of certain police methods (e.g., increasing
the use of “name checks” in particular locales, and the use of dogs in random searches for
drugs and weapons in schools). The term “moral panic”—used by Marshall McLuhan in
his work Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man (1964) and built upon by Stanley
Box 1.2 Crime in Context
As you read the following case, consider the following issues:
• What words are used to describe the event, and how do these words shape your
understanding of what happened?
• What kinds of surveillance techniques are used?
Three people, Laylin Delorme, 24, Colton Steinhauer, 27, and a 13-year-old boy who cannot
be named, have been charged with first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of two
Mac’s convenience store employees. All three of the accused have had previous run-ins
with the police and have prior criminal records.
The victims are Ricky Massin Cenabre, 41, originally from the Philippines, and Karanpul
Singh Bhangu, 35, originally from India. Both of the victims and their families were recent
immigrants to Canada from their countries of origin, having come here in search of a better
life. Both were shot and killed during two separate robberies of two Mac’s convenience
store locations in Edmonton. The victims did not fight back and were compliant with the
requests of the robbers, but were executed anyway, which both the police and the public
agree was unnecessary, heinous violence.
The Alberta Federation of Labour president, Gil McGowan, says there should be
tougher legislation to protect vulnerable night-shift workers, especially in 24-hour retail
locations. He is concerned as many of these overnight workers are alone for the majority of
their shifts, leaving them highly vulnerable to such attacks.
The Mac’s locations have panic alarms installed, along with video surveillance, but
neither was enough to save the victims of these robbery-homicides. Mac’s also employs an
additional crime-fighting measure, though it is only effective after the fact. The chain uses
a social media program launched three years ago that it calls Mac’s Crime Busters, which
shares information, photos, and video clips to social media outlets regarding suspects in
crimes against the stores. Tips come in directly and through CrimeStoppers based on these
posts.
Sources: CBC News (2015); Maimann (2015); Pruden & Zabiek (2015).
Cohen (1972) to describe a panic or overreaction to forms of deviance or wrongdoing

perceived to threaten the moral order—describes a situation in which the media creates a
perception of panic, and community groups or leaders whose goals are to change laws or
practices then lead the panic to achieve their own aims.
Images versus Realities of Crime
It has been demonstrated that the interests of the police and the media are entwined; they
have a symbiotic relationship in that the media rely upon the police for much of their
information, and the police use the media to portray certain images relating to their work.
The media, therefore, convey a sensationalized image of crime and a protective view of the
police and policing practices—and they make unusual events usual events in our lives.
As Grabosky and Wilson (1989) comment, “The most common types of crime according
to official statistics, crimes against property, receive relatively little media attention. By
contrast, crimes of violence, which are very uncommon in actuarial terms, are accorded
much greater coverage” (p. 11).
Similarly, there is a skewed focus on “street crime” and bizarre events. Meanwhile, the
destruction of the environment, domestic violence, white-collar crimes, and occupational
health and safety crimes tend not to receive the same type of coverage or treatment by the
mainstream media outlets.
With regard to crime control, the usual implication is that once a crime has been
brought to the attention of the authorities, investigation will generally lead to detection
and capture of the offender. This is a far cry from the reality of much police work, and in
specific cases of serious street crimes a significant proportion of cases do not get to the
prosecution stage. In fictional accounts of crime-fighting, the police are usually endowed
with special qualities (e.g., big guns, martial arts abilities), and violence is both central
and always justified because of the nature of the “criminals” at hand. The nature of actual
policing is once again misconstrued and the mundane aspects—interviewing, looking
over file material, conducting research, regulating traffic, and so on—are generally absent.
Another facet of fictional accounts is that the police are not accountable to anyone; they
can even step outside the bounds of the law, because we all know they are on “our” side.
Thus, the police are always honest and incorruptible, even though evidence in real life,
such as the Fitzgerald inquiry into police in Queensland, Australia (Fitzgerald, 1989), or
the recent inquiries into the interior workings of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
(RCMP) in Canada, reveal widespread and systemic corruption.
As a result, it is important to separate the images and realities of crime in society. The
media shape our perceptions of crime, and in the process they define crime in particular
ways. One aspect of this process is that the media often portray crime in terms of distinct
crime waves. “Crime wave” is a term used to refer to the way in which increased report-
ing of particular types of crime (usually street crimes such as assault, rape, or homicide)
increases the public awareness of this crime. It is significant to point out that there need
not have been an actual increase in the crime for a crime wave to occur—the increase, or
wave, exists only in public perception.
Nevertheless, crime waves can and do have real consequences, regardless of factual
basis. For example, extensive media coverage of child abuse may lead to changes in the
law, such as the introduction of mandatory reporting of suspected incidents. Or the fear
generated by press coverage of assaults on elderly people may lead to calls for more police,
tougher sentences, greater police power, and so on. Given the close relationship between
the police and the media, major questions can be asked as to who benefits from the selec-
tive reporting of specific crimes, especially around budget time.
Measuring Crime
Given the limitations and problems of relying on media definitions and treatment of
crime, it is reasonable to accept that any statement made about crime should be tested by
referring to the “facts” about crime. This usually means that we need to confirm particu-
lar crime trends and consider official data on criminal activity. However, even here there
are difficulties with how crime is defined. What we “measure” depends on how we define
crime and how we view the criminalization process.
In Canada, crime rates are measured by Statistics Canada through the Uniform
Crime Reporting Survey (UCR). It is an annual collection of data from police services
across the country. The crime rates and descriptions of types of crimes come from reports
substantiated by police and are not necessarily reflective of actual crime rates. The differ-
ence between the actual crime rate and that which is reported to and by police is com-
monly referred to as the dark figure of crime. Recent research has demonstrated just how
sensitive the dark figure can be to police discretion; for example, a change in reporting
practices by Montreal police officers led to a dramatic change in the official crime rates for
certain types of offences during a given period, despite there being no significant change
in the number of reports of such crimes received by police. This shows just one way in
which police-reported crime statistics do not always accurately reflect actual crime rates.
However, since many crimes are never, and likely will never, be reported to police at a rate
of 100 per cent, the UCR at least allows for a moderately consistent measure of crime in
Canada. The information reported not only includes the number of incidences of a partic-
ular crime in a year, but also breaks that number down by location, by clearance status, by
victim and offender information, and by certain other characteristics of the crime.
Over time, the UCR has been updated to include new types of crimes and new ele-
ments of existing crimes that were previously not distinguished in the report. Because of
these changes, comparing data over time can sometimes yield skewed results. In addition,
incidents in which multiple crimes occur together are typically reported as only one crime,
the most serious of those committed, so less serious offences tend to get undercounted.
Instead, more serious offences are tallied more accurately, and the overall crime rate is not
artificially inflated by double-counting single incidents. Data collected in the UCR are used
for a variety of purposes, ranging from governmental program development, resource

planning, legislative changes, and police staffing, to education and research in academia.
Criminologists are not united in their approach to crime and crime statistics
(see Jupp, 1989; Nettler, 1984). For present purposes, we can identify three broad strands
within criminology that deal with measurement issues:
• The realist approach adopts the view that crime exists “out there” in society and that
the “dark figure of crime” needs to be uncovered and recorded. There are limita-
tions to the gathering of official statistics (such as relying solely on police records of
reported offences) and the role of criminology is to supplement official statistics (those
generated by the police, courts, and prison authorities) through a range of informal
or alternative measures. The emphasis is on the problem of omission—to uncover the
true or real extent of crime by methods such as victim surveys, self-report surveys,
test situations, hidden cameras, and so on.
• The institutionalist approach adopts the view that crime is a “social process,” and it
rejects the notion that we can unproblematically gain a sense of the real extent of
crime by improving our measuring devices and techniques. This approach instead
concentrates on the manner in which official institutions of crime control actually
process suspects and thus define certain individuals and certain types of behaviour as
being “criminal.” The emphasis is on the problem of bias—to show how the criminal
justice system designates some people and events as being criminal but not others.
• The critical realist approach argues that crime measurement can be characterized as
having elements of both social process and a grounded reality. The task of measure-
ment from this perspective is to uncover the processes whereby the crimes against the
most vulnerable and least powerful sections of the population have been ignored or
underrepresented. The emphasis is on the problem of victimization—to demonstrate
empirically how certain groups are especially vulnerable to both crime and the fear
of crime, and conceptually to criticize the agencies of crime control for their lack of
action in protecting these groups.
Clearly, there are debates within criminology over how and what to measure, and these
debates ultimately reflect basic divisions within the field regarding the definition of crime
itself. The study of crime is fraught with a wide range of competing viewpoints and per-
spectives, and it is useful to develop an analytical framework that can make sense of these
differences as the basis for different points of view on crime and crime control.
Criminological Perspectives
The style of questions you ask necessarily determines the answers you receive. As we have
indicated, there are competing definitions of crime that produce competing answers or
explanations of the causes of crime, which, in turn, produce different kinds of responses
to crime.
Building Theory
Criminological theory can be presented in abstract fashion as being made up of a series

of separate perspectives or approaches. Each approach, or paradigm, attempts to under-
stand a particular phenomenon by asking certain types of questions, using certain con-
cepts, and constructing a particular framework of analysis and explanation. In practice,
it is rare to find government departments or academic criminologists who rely solely or
exclusively on any one particular criminological framework or approach. Often a wide
range of ideas and concepts are combined in different ways in the course of developing
policy or in the study of a specific empirical problem.
For the sake of presentation, it is nevertheless useful to present ideal types of the
various theoretical strands within criminology. The use of ideal types provides a means
by which we can clarify main ideas and identify important differences between the broad
approaches adopted in the field. An ideal type does not exist in the real world. The inten-
tion behind the construction of an ideal type is to abstract the key elements or components
of a particular theory or social institution from concrete situations and to exaggerate these
elements, if need be, to highlight the general tendency or themes of the particular perspec-
tive (see Freund, 1969). An ideal type is an analytical tool—it is not a moral statement of
what ought to be. It refers to a process of identifying different aspects of social phenomena
and combining them into a “typical” model or example. For instance, an ideal type of
bureaucracy would include such things as impartial and impersonal merit and promotion
structures, following prescribed rules and regulations, a hierarchical chain of command,
and so on. We know, however, that people who work in bureaucracies are not always pro-
moted on the basis of their qualifications, nor is decision making always rational. But by
constructing an exaggerated “typical” model of bureaucracy we are able to compare the
structure of different organizations and how they actually work in the real world.
If we are to construct ideal types in relation to criminological theory, it is useful
first to identify the central focus of the theory, and in particular the level of analysis and
explanation at which the theory is pitched. There are three broad levels of criminological
explanation: individualist, situational, and structural. Different theories within criminol-
ogy tend to locate their main explanation for criminal behaviour or criminality at one of
these levels. Occasionally, a theory may attempt to combine all three levels to provide a
more sophisticated and comprehensive picture of crime and criminality.
Levels of Analysis
• Individual. The main focus of an individual level of analysis is on the personal or in-
dividual characteristics of the offender or victim, such as the influence of appearance,
dress, and public image of the nature of crime causation or victimization (e.g., tattoos
or piercings as indicators of a “criminal” attitude in men). This level of analysis tends
to look to psychological or biological factors that are said to have an important role
in determining why certain individuals engage in criminal activity. The key concern
is to explain crime or deviant behaviour in terms of the choices or characteristics of

the individual person.
• Situational. The main site of situational analysis is the immediate circumstances, or
situation, within which criminal activity or deviant behaviour occurs. Attention is
directed to the specific factors that may contribute to an event occurring, such as how
the participants define the situation, how different people are labelled by others in
the criminal justice system, the opportunities available for the commission of certain
types of offences, and so on. Key concerns are the nature of the interaction between
different players within the system, the effect of local environmental factors on the
nature of this interaction, and the influence of group behaviour on social activity.
• Structural. This approach tends to look at crime in terms of the broad social rela-
tionships and the major social institutions of society as a whole. The analysis makes
reference to the relationship between classes, sexes, different ethnic and racial groups,
the employed and unemployed, and various other social divisions in society. It can
also involve investigation of the operation of specific institutions—such as education,
the family, work, and the legal system—in the construction of and social responses to
crime and deviant behaviour.
“Case in Point 3.1” provides you with an opportunity to consider how the three levels
of analysis can be used to examine a real-life issue.
Box 1.3 Case in Point
As you read the following case, please consider the following issues:
• How might you explore this issue through the implementation of an individual level of
analysis?
• How would you explain this case when employing a situational perspective for the
crimes?
• What challenges would you face when employing a structural perspective to this
case?
Recently, in Vancouver, three men, assumed to be Middle Eastern, were observed on surveil-
lance cameras taking photographs around a Vancouver mall. Internal communications began
among police and between police and the mall’s security staff, including an alert of potentially
suspicious behaviour and a description labelling the men “Middle Eastern,” along with commu-
nication indicating that police were interested in questioning the men. Somehow, these inter-
nal police communications were leaked to the public, causing a media frenzy around who the
men were and what they were doing. Within hours, the three men in the surveillance footage
had been located and had spoken with police. They were entirely co-operative and explained
their behaviour satisfactorily. Police were able to determine that their actions were completely
innocent and not worthy of any further concern.
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building. In this building, fifty store buildings from here west, are
operated and controlled; in our sister building the fifty buildings from
here east are operated."
Leading us to the escalator, he said, "Let us go up and see one of
the offices in action." In the office we visited, there was a personnel
of five; a chief and four assistants. They had complete operating
charge of an entire storage floor in a store building. Each one of
them was responsible for one-quarter space of it. They not only were
supposed to be experts in the special merchandise handled on that
floor, but they also had to do the ordering from the production point
and the inspecting of materials. They had to keep a full supply of
stock at all times.
Seated at their desks with an assortment of business machines,
including a television set, they could clearly see the floor under their
control. From their seats, they operated heavily loaded elevator
platforms to the appointed portions of their floor. Loading and
unloading, taking up and storing, and taking out units of merchandise
to near or distant destinations were done by them.
One operation attracted my particular attention. A large freight ship
was being unloaded under a store building. I could very clearly see it
on the television. The ship had just anchored directly beneath the
elevator shafts, following the orders of the clerk by whom we were
standing. A removable metal frame was being put together by the
ship's crew to fit into the up-going shaft, through the hatch, and right
down to the bottom of the hold.
Meanwhile, the clerk was manipulating an empty elevator platform in
the down-going shaft to the ship's deck. When the frame had been
securely placed in the up-going shaft, he guided the elevator into it
and down to the bottom of the ship. Then, propelling it out, from this
frame to a large loader of four units on the platform within the ship,
he skillfully loaded it on the elevator. The loaded elevator he now
moved back into the temporary frame, up the elevator shaft, and on
to its floor. He neatly unloaded it at its appointed place. All that
maneuvering was accomplished quickly without hitch or man power
by buttons and two-inch levers on the desk. The clerk certainly had
complete control of his elevator platforms.
I could not help calling out, "Bravo! Bravo!"
At the adjoining desk another clerk was loading an underground
subway freight car and speeding it to its distant destination.
Addressing myself to Mr. Amony, I asked, "These clerks seem to
have great responsibility. Do they have the authority to give their
orders to the producers or factories supplying the merchandise
under their control?"
"Of course," he answered. "Not only that, but the manager at the
factory has that floor where his goods are kept constantly under his
vision; therefore, he knows when the floor is under or overstocked.
After daily consultation, he and the clerks here on duty manage to
keep the supply sufficient. Samples of the merchandise in these
units are always mailed to this office for inspection before the
merchandise is shipped. We have only one factory for every
individual article, with its branches on all our continents. They work
together and compete with each other to produce the best of a single
material thing or article allotted them. Executives for our industries
are appointed solely for their experience, and efficiency, and not
through political or other influences. It is the same in personnel.
"This system of remote control, with few exceptions, is used by us on
vehicles, locomotives, passenger airplanes, and machines doing
heavy duty work, such as those you would call bulldozers, plows, or
other farm machinery. In fact, we use it for almost all laborious work
and engineering projects, on stationary and mobile engines, and on
machinery used on dry land, marshes, and on the fertile floors of the
sea."
Addressing Xora, he said, "Let us give our visitor a look into one of
our mechanical factories across the river. I will meet you outside
factory No. 100 in half an hour."
We landed in a large open parking ground where Mr. Amony was
waiting for us. As he guided us into a large building, he said, "I am
surprised you Earth men don't go in for similar manufacturing and
improvements and reforms. They have the idea, which we hope will
soon be also in operation. Look!" Meeting our sight was a
"Factory as clean, spacious, and continuously operating
as hydro-electric plant. The production floor is barren of
men. Only a few engineers, technicians, and operators
walk about on a balcony above, before a great wall of
master control panels, inserting and checking records,
watching and adjusting batteries of control instruments. All
else is automatic. Raw materials flow in by conveyor,
move through automatic inspection units, fabricating
machines, sub-assembly and assembly lines, all
controlled from the master panels, and arrive at the
automatic packaging machines a finished product."[19]
"We have machines that see better than eyes, calculate
more reliably than brains, communicate faster and farther
than the voice, record more accurately than memory, and
act faster and better than hands. These devices are not
subject to any human limitations. They do not mind
working around the clock. They never feel hunger or
fatigue. They are always satisfied with working
conditions."[20]
Now Xora interrupted, "I need a garment which is in the store
building of No. 1 east. Let us go there."
I found this store impressive. Mr. Amony explained that the other
ninety-nine stores were of similar size, but carried different articles.
They received, stored, delivered, and distributed all foods and
merchandise and other necessities and luxuries for all the
inhabitants of Amboria.
These buildings were sixty stories high. The first ten stories in each
of these hundred buildings were used for shopping, display,
individual ordering, and disposing of merchandise to shoppers. Each
floor had its own exclusive kind of merchandise.
Going up the moving stairway to the first floor, we landed in front of a
slowly moving, large, circular inside platform twenty-five feet wide,
which went on the floor around the full size of the building. On both
sides of this platform were plush rope rails with many openings and
provided with comfortable seats. An attendant at each opening
helped people off and on.
Alongside this moving platform was a stationary floor of twenty-five
feet in width for walkers. We sat on a seat for three on the moving
platform, and were taken around to see the beautiful displays on
dummies and on beautiful living models. Each side of the floor
showed its own special variety of displays. My feeling was that the
ladies on Mars were no different from ours insofar as feminine finery
was concerned.
From the moving platform to the show cases was a ten foot
stationary floor, where the distributors and recipients were sitting on
comfortable seats and were being shown different articles and
negotiating transfers. As we were nearing a special display, Xora left
us sitting, and lightly stepped off the platform. During her absence,
Mr. Amony gave me some information.
"The attendants in our merchandising department are called
merchandise distributors, not salespeople. We have no high
pressure employees. Our distributive system is more simple than
yours, which I have seen through television. We do not advertise.
We have no bargain sales or substituting. Our attendants are
courteous. The people they serve give them courtesy in return.
"We try not to strain the patience of our distributors. We provide
comfortable seats for them. Your salespeople spend hours on their
feet. The high pressure selling methods induce nervous tension and
fatigue. They become old before their time.
"After the day's work is over, our distributors are not worried whether
they have sold the day's quota or have made a commission. They
are not afraid of losing their jobs or having their salaries reduced,
because of a shortage in merchandise. We have no shoplifters or
detectives in our stores."
By this time Xora had returned from her shopping. We thanked Mr.
Amony for his kind services and departed. As we approached the
plane parking ground, I suggested that we fly to the center lake, as I
wanted very much to hear the symphony orchestra which was
playing about this time. At the same time, I took her hand and held it
firmly but very tenderly. She blushed deeply, but her return pressure
gave me my answer.
"Oh, yes," she said, "We can spend some time there and have our
afternoon tea." Hand in hand, we again took to the air. Soon we
landed in a secluded portion of the center parkway, near the center
lake.
We were served tea with a large assortment of dainty little
sandwiches, cakes, fruits, and candies. The sweet soft music
permeating the air exalted me, and we were both wrapped in the
exultation of our newly found love.
My deep love for her made me more happy than I had ever been in
my life. I could hardly express what I wanted to say. But she seemed
to understand. She listened attentively, and when I started
stammering, she pressed my hand to encourage me. I was
astonished that such a wonderful girl could have any interest in a
blundering person like me. When I had finished, she answered, "I
love you, too; I loved you the first time I saw you on Mars.
"You must know that I watched you in our television when
grandfather took possession of your plane," she continued, "and I
greatly admired your actions and the way you carried yourself. It
wasn't hard to grow to love you.
"You must understand that we have no sympathy with many of the
conditions on earth. I was deeply impressed when Grandfather told
me about the conference he had with you and your Earth friends,
and of the plan you boys have made. The news has been broadcast
all over Mars. Your success or even a partial one will be an
outstanding feat of our time.
"We all hope that our sincere admiration for you boys shall be an
inspiration for your success. We shall encourage you and take great
pride in your work. Even though you don't succeed fully, but only
plant among your people the seed of the way we live our life, I will be
just as proud of your achievement."
We spent the whole afternoon, until late in the evening, telling each
other of our love, and planning and hoping for our future.
We were in a deep embrace when her mother called her on the inter-
communicating instrument to come home.
That was the most momentous day of my life.
FOOTNOTES:
[19] Reprinted from the Nov. 1946 issue of Fortune Magazine.
Machines Without Men by E.W. Leaver and J.J. Brown, by special
permission from Editors, p. 165.
[20] Ibid., p. 204.
CHAPTER VI
Auri Sacra Fames
"The accursed thirst for Gold"
A week after our first meeting, we again met in Sun-Rank Banard's
library. Addressing Mr. Galoway, he said, "I am very sorry to hear
that you have failed to find the missing element for the proposed
radio transmitter. You certainly tried hard enough. But don't let this
discourage us. In a conference with several of our Supreme Council
members, we decided that it might be a good plan to take Lieutenant
Balmore back to Earth and let him parachute down right over his
home. He can disseminate the experiences he has had on our planet
and, at the same time, acquire an airplane with the best high
frequency radio transmitter. Then he can contact us on our airship at
a prearranged time and place.
"Before he leaves, it may be a good idea to take down in shorthand
notes and memorize a convincing lecture with illustrations which may
succeed in influencing and possibly converting terrestrial men to our
way. I am now going to show you television and moving pictures of
some of the gruesome happenings on Earth. I may find it necessary
to offend many of your people on Earth by exposing their grim way of
living and I will even have to exhort them; but I feel that my method
may be the best way to arouse serious attention. You will have to
steel yourselves against not only what I am going to tell you but what
you will see with your own eyes of the horrible ordeal on Earth in
both past and at present. These pictures were shown only to a few
Martians. I certainly would like to show them to your Earth peoples,
or at least to your ruling class. Your economic system is so strongly
entrenched that I doubt your living generations can or will even try to
take advantage of my findings or counsel. I will have made a start if
the coming ones will benefit. Our combined talks, and suggestions
will be recorded and translated into each of your different languages.
When the occasion arises, you may reach your people in your own
language.
"It will be important for each one of you to be able to give the history
of your adventures, the details of your landing experience. Vividly
contrast our way of living on Mars with the way of living on Earth;
then you may in your own way tell them of the lecture I shall give you
now.
"We have found that human beings here and on your Earth have
potentially the same physical and mental caliber. Nature implanted in
all of us the primitive instincts of selfishness, acquisitiveness, and
brutality. By some good fortune our primordial ancestors on Mars
started to cast off and definitely curb these instincts and aversions by
good judgment, reason and repression, and have forcibly continued
to do so until evolution has eliminated our undesirable traits.
"Our early progenitors ingrafted in us high ideals, thus developing in
us a high mentality; fortunately we have not inherited your instinct to
desire wealth and power for individual self. We, like yourselves,
require good health, love, happiness, good nourishment, warm and
fashionable clothing, sanitary, and comfortable homes, safety
against want and old age, dependence, medical care, luxuries, and
honors.
"On our globe we have intensified the production of natural
resources from our lands, seas, and air until now we can produce
more than we actually need. Every Martian gets his necessities free
as a matter of right and his expensive luxuries and honors according
to the merit of his achievements.
"Your forefathers, even though they were groping for the best way of
life, through ignorance, gradually drifted into the path of least
resistance. From time immemorial you have always desired the
acquisition of more wealth than you needed, to give you power over
your fellow man.
"We on Mars have been objective observers of your sick economic
system. We have carefully studied its functions. Although I do not
pretend to be an expert, I have consulted with our own experts, and
feel myself qualified to make suggestions. From the analysis we
have made, we call it moneyism which is the root of your economic
evils. Your whole existence centers around your desire for money,
and you are handicapped in that you must have money to live even a
comparatively normal existence.
"In nature, only living matter is productive. But contrary to natural
law, you have created money, interest and reproductivity into an
unnatural body, that has elements of the corrupt.
"I am not going into the detailed dogmas of your economists, nor will
I define them and their functions; but I will try to give you a summary
of the history of money, past and present.
"Money started in your ancient times, as a barter system.
"Beginning by gradual evolution in your stone age, you started with
living money like cattle, slaves, next came shells, colored fancy
stones, stone axes, and tools. Then your earth man discovered iron
ore, mining and smelting. At that time iron was scarce and became
the most valuable metal of the time. You forged it into lance points,
arrow points; then into axes, knives, swords, arm and leg bracelets,
using these articles as a medium of exchange.
"You afterward discovered silver, gold, other metals, and precious
stones. With your innate craving for self decoration, you forged
golden crowns, medals, belts, arm and leg bracelets for your leaders
or kings; and then earrings, necklace, finger, and nose rings, and
arm and ankle bracelets for your sweethearts, wives, and daughters.
Thus, the more scarce and rare the metals, the more valuable they
became, starting the medium of barter and exchange in metal bullion
and coins.
"You find an account in your Bible.
'In Genesis XX, 15, "And Abimelech said, Behold, my land
is before thee; dwell where it pleaseth thee." 16, And unto
Sarah he said, "Behold, I have given thy brother a
thousand pieces of silver; behold it is for thee a covering
of the eyes to all that are with thee, and to all others. Thus
she was reproved."'
"The American Indians and white settlers used wampum as money.
Tobacco government warehouse deposit certificates were also used
as money.
"In some of your Southern Pacific Islands your cannibal tribes used
compressed human heads and skulls to purchase their wives; in
Africa ivory elephant tusks were used and others of you have used a
great many other mediums of exchange.
"Mr. Norman Angell, one of your economists, in his book, The Story
of Money, gives a clear description of the uses of money. He says it
is used
"As a medium of exchange, a measure of value, a
standard of deferred payment, and as a store of value."[21]
"Mr. Victor L. Clark, one of your authors, in his book What is Money,
says that
"It is something with which we can buy goods and
services."[22]
He further writes:
"In the 16th century, 'a new aspect of credit appeared.'[23]
"deposit banking developed out of an ancient custom of
leaving money in safe keeping with responsible
merchants."[24]
"In the 16th century banking by check system was started in
Amsterdam by large Dutch Banking Companies, bringing into
existence your present system of moneyism. Later, London
goldsmiths began to create bank money by issuing receipts or other
paper instruments originating out of money in bullion of copper, silver
and gold by weight deposited with them, or loaned out by them, on
which they paid out or received interest.
"This practice of saving and getting interest on money started your
moneyism system, gradually developing into your present
stupendous one which holds in its power every one of you on Earth.
"Where the profit angle is concerned, you seem to forget and not to
adhere to traditional and religious custom and laws.
"It may be unknown by many of you, that the receiving or charging of
interest, was, and still is condemned in most of your religious
scriptures, as immoral, illegal, and sinful.
"During your Roman era, and even for some time afterwards among
your world nations interest charging was severely punished as a
crime.
"Interest charging, contrary to your religious precepts, is now not
only legal, but justified, and is the fundamental principle of your
moneyism.
"Every one of your nations and states legally permits a different
standard level of interest plus premiums, commissions, and other
charges. In some of them it has reached high usury proportions.
"Land and commercial moneyism, in existence for so long, brought
on your money and industrial financiering. Inasmuch as you
gentlemen come from the United States of America, the foremost
financial country of your world, we had better concentrate on it.
"Don't let us confuse your money system with your form of
government, or political economy with your political science. They
are two different, and distinct entities.
"Your founding fathers certainly originated a sound form of
government. You can be proud of your constitution, your three
branches of government, your bill of rights. We on Mars feel it is the
best government on your earth, outside of your economic system, in
many ways similar to ours. As your traditional and very ancient
custom for the benefit and protection of your citizens and for the
purpose of withholding its control from greedy, monopolistic or
dishonest individuals, as well as guarantee its uniform value, your
government was compelled then, as it is duty bound now, to assume
the many responsible and most important money functions, as well
as create, promulgate, and enforce its laws, developing the following
bureaus and departments. The bureaus of the mint, engraving, the
office of the treasurer, register of the treasury, controller of currency,
the farm loan bureau and the federal reserve system.
"Thus Congress, the Treasury, and the Federal Reserve, are the
fountain heads of your money and moneyism; your banks, its
multiplex reproduction incubators, and foster parents reproducing it
with lightning rapidity, through interest, compound interest,
dividends, bonuses, premiums, commissions, dues, rents, and
profits. Your commercial and investment banks and your trust
companies receive, pay out, finance foreign credits, underwrite and
distribute new securities, and buy government and state bonds.
There are more than 14,855 establishments, with arteries in more
than 20,000 large business savings and investments. National and
state banks and trust companies are located in all your large and
small cities. Many of them are members of the Federal Reserve
Banks. Your 300 large life insurance companies and all other lesser
ones, your great number of private bankers, your financial
investment, loan, and mortgage companies, your pawn and stock
brokers, and your many other financiers control the loans of money.
They loan it on stocks, bonds, notes, commercial paper, collateral
securities, on contracts of future deliveries of all staple commodities,
imports, exports, real estate mortgages; to nearly all of your
industrial, commercial houses and utility companies, transportation,
shipping, your farms, your business, your home, your furniture, your
food, your automobiles, trucks, your jewelry, your clothes, your tools,
your wages, and anything you possess of value. Even on your false
teeth. That money loaned to you is derived from your savings, dues,
and premiums.
"Bonus and other charges and loans to you are as high as the
companies can get. Some of them ask the highest usurious rates
allowed by your different legal state rates, and other charges are
added—as much as they can milk out of you. Note that:
"The civic agencies conducting the Dallas, Texas loan
shark fight found that interest as high as 1,131.4%, over
3% per day, was charged gullible victims. The lowest
interest rate was 120% per annum, and the average
271.68%."[25]
"Money circulation and interest are the most expensive operations in
your moneyism. Mr. Norman Angell in his book Story of Money calls
it 'Velocity Circulation.'[26] Money travels rapidly from hand to hand,
from one pocketbook to another, from bank to bank, to borrower or
drawer, in constant circulation.
"Has any one of your economists calculated how many times an
active one-dollar multiplies itself in a year from the time it is first
issued from the Treasury? How much does it earn in interest,
compound interest, commissions, bonuses, dividends, and profit
gain from constantly being shifted from person to person, bank to
bank, and loan to loan? Or how many times does the actively
circulated dollar change hands per day, month, or year? Your World
Almanac, 1950, page 716, gives the deposits for the year 1949 as
one hundred and fifty-five billion dollars, and on page 715, money in
circulation for 1948 of $28,224,000,000. Every one of these dollars
must have earned quite a lot in interest and must have multiplied
itself many times on its rapid velocity circulation.
"How about your floating currency, in safe deposit vaults,
pocketbooks, pockets, or hidden away underneath mattresses and in
hundreds of nooks? How much of it is in the hands of foreign holders
all over the world? And in their banks going through the same
interest-earning and loaning-out processes?
"For your convenience in receiving, withdrawing, and checking out
your money and for other services that your bank performs for you,
you are being charged in many ways. The banks do not allow your
money to lie idle. It must work and earn interest and other charges
over and over.
"Other powers in your moneyism are your Stock Exchanges and
Boards of Trade. Security trading has developed and perfected
these Stock Exchanges to the point where they are the main
financial markets in your United States as well as in all other
financial centers of your world. They are the mediums to help keep
securities at all times in a liquid and convertible state; they are the
main avenues where buyers and sellers can always transact a
purchase, or sale of stocks and bonds. The Boards of Trade are the
mediums or markets for transacting purchases and sales of your
staple commodities like wheat, corn, cotton, eggs, butter, coffee, and
other staples.
"The New York Stock Exchange with its 1,375 broker members and
members of your other exchanges and Boards of Trade in New York
and other cities are the agencies of purchases and sales from client
to client for cash or on margin for your stocks, bonds, and future
staple agricultural commodities. These brokers also do a sort of
banking business with their money and profits, and with money they
borrow on call from banks at 1% and 2% interest and charge their
customers 6%. They trade not only for their clients, but also among
themselves.
"The next power in your moneyism is rent: Payment for the use and
occupancy of property owned by another party as landlord. It is
another form of interest on invested money. Rent is nothing else but
a gain or interest on money. The rents paid for your homes,
apartments, shops, offices, business houses, farms, and equipment,
must be an enormous expense for you.
"Profit, another form of interest, is an expensive process of your
money system. The Romans had a saying, Caveat Emptor, 'Let the
buyer beware.' History shows that your industrial, and commercial
business, and services have always been based on hard bargaining.
The desire for more money gain was and is so deeply impregnated
in you that it has blunted and broken down your ethical standards.
You have always tried to get the most gain for the least value. Some
sellers take advantage by overcharging, underweighing,
substitutions. Others, through their open and secret control of
combinations, and cartels create price fixing pools. Some
manufacturers, retailers, contractors, and producers monopolize and
create a scarcity and a demand. The consumer through necessity is
compelled to purchase from them, or from cut-throat grey and black
markets.
"Your World Almanac of 1950, page 652, gives for 1945 as many as
250,881 manufacturing establishments, with wholesale value of
manufacturing at $74,425,825,000 on page 656 for 1948, and retail
sales at $130,000,000,000. Whatever you purchase has also an
added cost by billions of dollars for advertising, from your biggest
article down to your match or piece of chewing gum.
"Your credit sales and charge accounts have not only increased the
cost of your purchases, but have intensified the demand for luxuries
you do not need or can't afford. You buy these things on the
installment plan, even if you have to pay more, plus interest, to carry
your account.
"Commissions, and fee payments on your purchases, sales, and
rental collections to stock, bond, real estate, and commodity brokers
plus your attorneys' fees is another enormous and excessive drain
on your resources.
"The economic financial incubuses you have created now control
your lives, from the day of your conception, until long after your
death. With your money they directly control your most essential
industries; and indirectly hold ownership through their loans, and
mortgages, of your business, your homes, farms, stock, lands. They
are on the Board of Directors, guiding the policy and controlling all
your financial institutions and your most profitable enterprises taking
most of the profit for themselves by devious methods. To hide and
not openly show their large earnings, they often by subterfuge,
declare and cut 'melons' to their stockholders by exchanging three,
four or more shares of the same company for every one of their
shares. By this artifice, they endeavor to show a smaller dividend as
well as make the new issue of shares of a lower value, for
manipulative and trading purposes. They also continuously increase
their capitalizations or lower their par value sometimes for the same
purpose.
"They even control your new discoveries, and inventions, which they
get possession of, for mere pittances. They often suppress some of
them to suit their convenience. Through their financial power they
directly and indirectly control and influence the political status of your
land. They control operations of agriculture, commerce, industry,
transportation, utilities, shipping and all kinds of intercommunication,
your wineries, breweries, distilleries, and your tobacco industries,
from the smallest business to your largest enterprise. Ultimately
restricting your opportunities for economic advancement.
"All these are interrelated: your Banks, Trust Companies, Business
Banks, Savings Banks, Financial Companies, Loan Companies, Life
and other Insurance Companies, Stock Companies and Exchanges,
Boards of Trade, and other exchanges. Stock brokers, real estate
brokers, pawn brokers, with numerous branches covering the best
locations in the United States, occupy many buildings and
establishments, and send their private wires over every section of
your nation and foreign countries. All of them are maintained at your
expense through your large deposit reservoir and your earnings.
"Your moneyism has weakened you mentally, physically, and morally
and has created in you an unquenchable desire for their acquisition;
from your poorest to purchase his bare necessities to your richest to
get richer, bringing on deficit spending, mounting debts, increasing
taxes, incessant relief and unemployment payments. All these with
no end in sight.
"Everywhere, everyone among you always has a demand, and you
create the demand for more and more money. You always have
need for more of it, for more financing, and there never seems to be
enough of it. But it is only your few who seem to get it and hold it."
FOOTNOTES:
[21] Story of Money, Norman Angell, Garden City, Publ. Co.,
1929. p. 72.
[22] What is Money, Victor L. Clark, Houghton Mifflin Co., p. 2.
[23] Ibid., p. 23.
[24] Ibid., p. 24.
[25] The Family Circle Inc., June 28, 1946, V. 28, No. 26, pp. 10-
11, by W.W. Wheatley.
[26] The Story of Money, Norman Angell, Garden City Publ.,
1929, p. 381.
CHAPTER VII
Octopus Colossus
Sun-Rank Banard remarked, "It's time for lunch, so let's adjourn to
the thought transmission-proof dining room. Our women folk are
away visiting, so we will be by ourselves, and we can informally and
freely converse."
During the meal we carried on an animated and pleasant
conversation in which Sun-Rank Banard very often joined. The gist
of it was mainly, at our earth men's lack of impression and perception
of earth conditions.
Our boys were astonished at the detailed information the Martians
had on our earth life. One said that he had never clearly thought
through its economic ills. He had merely accepted them. Although he
had heard and studied many of these points, they are beginning to
now take on a new significance. Another remarked that the
observers seem to be more impressed and are more retentive to
what takes place, than those who are within the actual performance
of the scenes of our life's functions.
Sun-Rank Banard said, "Now let's go back and continue the lecture.
"Nature on your earth has destined and caused man to come into
existence, and has provided him with parents to protect him during
his helpless infancy and childhood. During his growth, development,
and maturity, it endowed him with a mentality higher than that of
other animals. But in spite of his intelligence, he is often more cruel
than predatory jungle beasts, especially to his fellow men.
"Creation is prolific even prodigal in its overabundance of production
for your necessities and can produce and supply the needs of a
population more than twice your number, providing you all will work;
but many of you, for a life of ease, use this God-given intelligence
especially for acquisition, storing and hoarding as a means of power
over your fellow man.
"During the Stone Age, your each tribe lived together in caves
adjoining each other for protection, primitively tilling the soil, and
grazing your cattle around your habitations.
"It was then the survival of brute force. The bully domineered and
became the leader of his tribe, acquiring for himself the most wives
and food and the best shelter. The next best he bestowed upon his
gang.
"For defensive and offensive weapons against predatory animals
and tribes, you used stones and stone axes. Brute force gradually
lost its power when the more progressive one of the tribe became
adept and dexterous with his stone throwing sling, his lance, and his
bows and arrows. He then succeeded to the leadership.
"As your numbers increased, you expanded your land holdings. This
continued from generation to generation; from squatters you
graduated according to your own laws of possession until the time
came when you were encroaching on the lands of your neighboring
tribes, starting your process of forceful aggression and acquisition.
With the Iron Age started the evolution of your civilization, with sharp
iron-pointed lances, arrows, and axes, leading to the barbarous
Middle Ages.
"Laws of property ownership, and barter of land, slaves, cattle, furs,
clothes, utensils, ornaments, food, and offensive and defensive
weapons marked the beginning of this era. In its constant evolution,
property ownership law was continually and mercilessly improved
according to your standards, with the utter enslavement of weaker
tribes, and races who were a good source for procuring slaves and
extracting tribute.
"In the further property development during succeeding centuries
your ancestors continually improved, and increased their property
power so that now it is the dominant factor controlling the very life
and destiny of every one of you.
"You have defined and legalized property as everything on your
earth capable and possible of being possessed, and owned,
including intangibles. It even includes the waters of your rivers, your
seas, and the atmosphere over your earth surface, and you seem to
be disputing the ownership of the clouds. Sunshine and air, for the
time being, are still free and cannot be owned and claimed.
"Your Webster's Dictionary defines property as a thing owned,
exclusive right of possession.
"Your Amendments to your United States Constitution, Article V, also
gives assent to property. They say, 'Nor shall private property be
taken for public use without just compensation.'
"You have created it into and described it as wealth, or money. You
have advanced it from stage to stage and perfected and increased
its power to make it a fluid currency system without which no one
can obtain or purchase the necessities of life. You have outlawed
compulsory slavery, for a better system which compels you to
voluntarily hire yourself out.
"Those in power, to protect themselves, helped to pass strong laws
for property control. Not content with the ownership of basic raw
materials, real estate, financial affairs, transportation, utilities, and
food production and distribution, they systematically entered into
every sphere of industrial manufacturing—commercial fields,
transportation, shipping, in fact every necessity of your life's
existence—through individual ownership, partnership, companies,
corporations, holding companies, national and international cartels,
and chain company stores.
"To supply the labor they need in their enterprises, most of you,
through necessity, hire yourselves out to them either individually or
through union contracts.
"Their accumulative hoarding, cartel, and pool forming to control,
monopolize, and corner industry are such that you are forced to
purchase your necessities from them only, at the highest profit. Thus
you pay for products, which, without your labor, could not have been
created into value. Your ownership and lack of ownership of property,
wealth, and power are the main contributive causes for 98% of the
laws you make and have on your statute books.
"Your controlling class who largely contribute to political campaigns
influence your ruling class through political parties who openly or
secretly help to elect some of their representatives to your Congress,
or appoint former directors, and attorneys as members of important
key cabinet and diplomatic offices. Their numerous inside and
outside lobbyists and subservient newspapers influence the passing
and suppression of laws. They even volunteer as advisers to your
administrations. Most of your professional politicians 'kowtow' and
are servile to them.
"There is always great agitation going on in regard to labor. Next to
war, it is the most important problem to your government and most
exciting discussions and newspaper headliners.
"Your moneyism and labor struggles are an old, festering sore.
These struggles are the general cause of your poverty and
destitution. Your system is such that you have no cure in sight. No
matter how successful you may be in your unionized demands for
more remuneration, prices and values are bound to spiral upward,
increasing your living cost in proportion. You are infallibly moving in a
vicious circle which tends for the rich to get richer. Many among you
are born with pronounced natural aptitudes; some of you have
strongly developed these aptitudes and inclinations and constantly
use your full mentality and energy for accumulation and hoarding for
your own use. But you also use this proficiency especially to gain
power through the need of others. The school boy with the
accumulative instinct will spend most of his time training himself to
become an expert marble shooter in order to win those of his
schoolmates. Even though they should find his full bag of marbles
and divide them amongst themselves, or should he voluntarily give
them the marbles, there is no question that he is bound to always
win them back again.
"It is the same with your money and wealth; their division among all
of you would not heal your economic diseases, because it would be
only a question of a short time before most of you would lose yours

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Box 1.2 9 Box 5.3 118 Box 9.1 203

Box 1.3 14 Box 5.1 110 Box 9.3 213

Theory in Current Research

Box 1.1 8 Box 5.2 113 Box 9.2 211

Criminology as a Field of Study

varied and competing perspectives. This variety of perspectives should be considered in

Vocational versus Critical Theories

On the other hand, there is a strand of criminology in which the emphasis is on

Three Areas of Focus

Generally speaking, criminology focuses on three main areas:

Legal and Sociological Definitions of Crime

How violence is perceived and responded to by criminal justice institutions depends

Historical Construction of Crime

Popular Media Images of Crime

The “Other” Identity

Box 1.1 Theory in Current Research

Morality and Crime

Box 1.2 Crime in Context

As you read the following case, consider the following issues:

Cohen (1972) to describe a panic or overreaction to forms of deviance or wrongdoing

Images versus Realities of Crime

for a variety of purposes, ranging from governmental program ­development, resource

Criminological theory can be presented in abstract fashion as being made up of a series

is to explain crime or deviant behaviour in terms of the choices or characteristics of

Box 1.3 Case in Point

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for a variety of purposes, ranging from governmental program development, resource