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Criminology
Formal
- Official stats, research studies, administrative data
Informal
- Personal experience, experience of relatives and friends, media
Inconsistencies between official research and media portrayal
- Formal mechanism of social control only in cases where informal agencies have
inadequately socialised people
Crime News
Volume of crime news varies over time and place and is influenced on how crime is defined
- If crime defined narrowly, less crime news
- If crime defined broadly, more crime news
Media is the primary source of indirect knowledge
- The way crime is reported influences the perception of crime
- Selectivity of media
Crime news is for profit
- Government media: SBS, ABC
- Community media: channel 31 (funded by government and content by unpaid
volunteers)
- Commercial media: Murdoch (newspapers), Fairfax (newspapers and radio), Kerry Stokes
(channel 7), Packer (Channel 9 and 10) and Gordons (regional TV stations)
Selectivity
Newsworthiness
Focus on certain types of crime and portray as a greater threat
Agenda Setting: presenting crime to increase urgency in policy makers
Moral Panic: condition, person or group of people emerge as defined threat to societal
values and interest
Newsworthiness
Media Influence
- View media as powerful institution of social control (shapes social views and reinforce
community attitudes)
Framing: set point of views and assist in presenting news stories in a limited time/space
- Organising a news story
- Define problem, diagnose cause, make moral judgement and suggest remedies
- Easy to understand view of the problem
Faulty Criminal Justice frame: people commit crime due to an ineffective CJS, lenient CJS or
the CJS is too focussed on offenders rights
Blocked opportunities: crime result of people not being able to participate in society due to a
lack of opportunities
Social Breakdown: crime result in a breakdown of social and moral values
Racist system: crime result of racial/ethnic discrimination
Violent media: crime result of consuming violent media
- Represented along other frames
What is Crime?
Categories of Crime
Hierarchy
- Indictable: serious
- Non indictable: less serious (Summary offence)
Regulatory/administrative offences
- Enforced by police: traffic, drugs
- Enforced by other agencies: tax, environment, corporate, copyright
Private offences
- Car accident, negligence, trespass
Criminalisation
Over criminalisation
- Street crime, public order offences, process offences
- Anti-bikie laws
- Anti-terrorism
Under criminalisation
- DV
- White collar
- Environmental
Harms
Administrative Data
Alternative Sources
Victim surveys: how many people victims, repeat victimisation and whether they reported
Offender self-report: quantifying unreported/undetected offences
Population survey: how many people commit crime, type and frequency and characteristics
of offender
Observational study: observing crime under investigation in a natural setting
Module 4: Prevalence
History
Violent Crime
Property Crime
International Rates
Comparison is difficult
- Different definitions, counting rules and victim reporting rates
- Changes of law
Homicide
- Mexico (highest): 18 per 100 000
- Iceland (lowest)
- Australia (middle): 1.2 per 100 000
- Mean: 4 per 100 000
Rape
- Australia (highest): 90 per 100 000
- Japan (lowest)
Burglary
- Denmark (highest)
- Estonia (lowest)
- Australia (highish): 1000 per 100 000
Financial Costs
Offender Characteristics
Drug
- 61% detained for violent offences tested pos for drugs
- 81% for property offences
Race
- Minorities more likely to be incarcerated
- Indigenous Aus. over represented in the criminal justice system: public offences and
assault
- Colonisation, desperation and declining cultural heritage
Class
- 50% prisoners were unemployed at time of offence
- Prisoner education lower than general population
- Low SES: street offences and property offences
Youth
- Most offending in mid-late adolescents and subside early adulthood
- Rebelliousness and mischief
- Between 12-18 parental influence wanes and peer influence increases
- Occur in public places (street crime) and not serious
- Persistence offenders (rare): more serious
- Young people also more likely to be victims as engage in risky behaviours
Victim Characteristics
Street Crime
Violent Crime
Domestic Homicide
Prevalence
- 23% of all homicides (Aus.); 14% of all homicides (worldwide)
- 7.9% victims male; 45.6% victims female
Risk Factors (Partner)
- History of domestic violence: increasing in severity and/or frequency
- Criminal history
- Alcohol and substance abuse
- Jealousy
- Controlling
- Suicide threat
Risk factors (Victim)
- Isolated (no social support)
- Fear
- Actual/pending separation (child custody issues)
Risk assessment: assess degree of harm likely to ensue
- Improve protection and intervention
- Predictive validity: accuracy with which a test predicts a particular outcome
- Predicted outcome vs actual outcome
Definitions
Elite deviance: difference between crime committed by the powerful and upper class
opposed to street crime
Can breach criminal and regulatory law
Types
- Occupational
- Corporate
- State
- Financial
- Environmental
- Workplace safety
- Computer and tech
- Consumer scams
Based on three things
1. Legitimate occupation
2. Financial/status gain
3. No direct violence
Extent
Hard to determine
- Invisible crime
- No single agency responsible for collecting and reporting data
- Many forms not classified as a crime
- A lot goes unreported
Impact
Response
History
- White collar largely ignored
- Past 30 yrs. increase in public protection and addressing white collar crime
Smart Regulation
- Strategies to identify and stop white collar crime
- Agency performance evaluated
- Increase in powers to detect, prevent and deter: public prosecution, proactive auditing
and providing assistance and advice
Issues
Internet Crime
Types
- Computer focuses: only can commit crimes due to existence of internet (hacking,
viruses)
- Computer enabled: internet assists crimes which can be done with or without computers
(fraud, theft)
- Online version of old crimes
Policing
- Crimes don’t fit traditional definitions
- Internet changes quickly so laws can’t keep up
- Need specialised areas
- Cross jurisdictional boundaries
Reporting
- Most goes unreported
- Victims don’t realise, embarrassment or don’t know who to report to
- Aus. cybercrime Survey 2015: 45% didn’t report (60% no benefit, 22% person wouldn’t
get caught and 22% didn’t want negative reporting)
Reporting Agencies
- AFP and state police
- CERT
- ACCC – scams
- Aus. cybercrime security centre: raise awareness of cyber security, nature and extent of
cyber threats, encourage reporting, analyse cyber threats
- Aus. cybercrime online reporting network: collate all data together
Cost
- $234mill of self-reported financial loss by victims of cybercrime in Aus.
- Global: $375b - $575b annually
- Aus.: $1.2b annually in DIRECT costs
Extent
- 2013: 5mill Aus. victims of cybercrime in 12 months
- 2014: 57% of Aus. businesses (2nd most common economic crime)
- 2015: 50% businesses recorded at least one incident in 12 months and 5% reported
more than 10 incidents
Scams
- Dating and romance (number 1): $27m (41% lose money)
- False websites: $2m (65.4% lose money)
Victim characteristics
- No gender variance
- Age: 20-39 (40%) and 40-59 (40%)
- People under 20 lost most money; people 20-29 lost least
Offender characteristics
- Largest threat overseas
- Increase in Australian based criminals
Prevention
Rule of Theory
Theory types
History
Psychology
Biological Theories
Behavioural Theories
Situational Theory
Mental Disorders
People with mental illness more at risk of being a victim than offender
- More likely risk to themselves than others
Psychopathy: behavioural and personality features
- Behavioural: antisocial, pathological lying, parasitic
- Personality: callous, lack empathy, lack remorse
Feminist Theory
Symbolic Interactionism
Integration theory
Integration approaches: more than 2 theories account for greater amount of criminal
behaviour
Agnew: combine structural strain, social control theory and social learning theory to explain
why offending occurs at adolescence
Module 9: Policing
History
Purpose
Deter crime
Alternative to military
Gatekeepers for the CJS
Roles
Attend disturbances
Patrol
Traffic control
Crime investigation
Maintain public relation
Discretion
Decision making: professional autonomy to make decisions about the right course of action
Conflicting views
- Necessary fairness and justice
- Bias, unfairness and inconsistencies
Occupational culture
Long process of socialisation before and after joining the service – anticipatory socialisation
On the job influences
Adapting to work: stress, deal with people and unclear boundaries
Making sense of operational style
Cope with adjustment to pressure and tensions
Portrayal
Hero
Lover
Social and ideological truths
Political Volatility
Models of Policing
- Utilising research evidence to analyse the problem and develop evidence based
strategies
Intelligence led policing
- Effective intelligence gathering to identify high risk people and places
- Risk based models: police resources directed at riskiest people
Specialist agencies
Private: security
- Number of security greater than police
- Same power as general citizens and power derived from property owner
- Licences, training and history checks
- Financial goals
Public: police
- Additional powers
- State government recruits
Police Misconduct
Greater in policing due to extensive powers and potential for corruption and abuse of power
Criticism for failing
- Neglect victims of DV, discriminatory, over policing subgroups
Function
Hierarchy
Processing Offenders
Sentencing purposes
Powers
Adversarial process
Research
Penalties
Fines, good behaviour bond, community service, probation, intensive correction, suspended
sentence and imprisonment (punishment is lack of freedom)
Penalties and Sentencing Act
Administration
- QLD corrective services: governs policies and procedures
- Corrective services act 2006 (QLD)
- Probation and parole
- Custodial Operation
Penalties not checked up on
- Suspended sentence
- Good behaviour bond
Community Corrections
Prison Statistics
Between 1984 to 2013, twice as many people have been sent to prison
2003-2013 has increased by 9.3%
Increased imprisonment rates function of increased punitiveness
Sex
- Men (92%) – 12X female
- Male imprisoned for violent offences
- Imprisonment of women increasing at a rate greater than men (drug offences)
Age
- 20-44 (77%)
- Number of prisoners aged over 50 increasing (entering prison later in life, serving longer
sentences)
Indigenous
- 28% prison population
- 2.5% general population
- 14X higher than non-indigenous
- Socially and economically marginalised
Low level education and employment skills
History of drug use and health problems
Women: history of abuse
¼ prisoners un-sentenced
- On remand
- Awaiting conviction
Length
- 1-5 yrs.
- 3% serving life
Effectiveness
Privatisation of Prisons
Non-custodial penalty
- Self-regulated: good behaviour bond
- Financial: fines, restitution, compensation
- Supervisory (most common): probation, community service, home detention
De-carciration theory
- Increase use of community based correction will decrease use of custodial sentences
- Desire for tough penalties at lower cost
- All states more frequent (except WA)
- Prison population still increasing (community based order in addition to imprisonment)
Victimology
Extent, nature and causes of victimisation and its consequences for victims and reactions of
society
Focus attention onto victim
- Victims role
- Prevent victimisation
- Typologies
- Repeat victimisation
- Impact and effect on victim
Levels of Victimisation
- Primary: suffer direct affect
- Secondary: financially and emotionally dependant on victim
- Tertiary: bear cost of crime or lifestyle impacted by fear
Victim definition
- Decrease in wellbeing
- Violation of criminal law resulting in harm
Support
- Family, friends, police and victim services
- Practical help: legal, financial and medical assistance
- Service referral maze: impede readjustment and ability to cope
History
History
- 60s: victim movement and civil rights
- 70s: feminist movement (woman and children)
- 80s-90s: victim orientated legislation
Private prosecutions made available
- Private injury/public wrong (Kings Peace)
Development of professional CCJ isolate victim
Aus. inherited the English CCJ model which doesn’t focus on victims
Victim rights
Victims in CJS
Police
- Initially satisfied in response
- Police keep informed with progress in CJS
- Support services
- Not sympathetic enough – assault, DV, hate crimes
Prosecution
- Majority satisfied
- Most jurisdictions have witness service to be kept informed
- Don’t get to participate in pleas
Court
- Victim dissatisfied/distressed by what happens in court
- Lack of safe waiting areas and facilities separating accused and defence witnesses
- Resent waiting time to give evidence
- Difficulty following court proceedings due to insufficient info
- More victims make victim impact statement than testify
- Victim participation threaten due process
- Victim feel sentence to lenient
- Court can order compensation but not mandatory (eligibility criteria and max payments)
Corrections
- Right to know offender classification, escape, release date, patrol application and return
to custody
Symbolic Interactionalism
Restorative Justice
Parties with a stake in the offence collectively resolve how to deal with the aftermath of
offence and implications for the future
- Victim and offender discuss offence, impact and how harm is repaired
- Victims involve in the process and collective negotiation and resolution
- More time to address (90min)
- All participants negotiate outcome
- Offender actively engaged – focus of offender fixing wrong
Forms
- Sentencing circles
- Mediation
- Transformative justice
- Victim offender conferencing – AUST and NZ
Youth Justice Conferencing
- Legislative in all states
- Impartial convenor, police (reads details of offence), offender and their support persons
and victim and their support persons
Phases
- Introduction: reorientate participants and roles, what’s to be achieved, legal weight and
respectful dialogue
- Storytelling: offender tells why they did they offence and their feelings and motivations;
victims explains impact (learning experience for both)
- Negotiate: agreement on what offender can do to repair harm
Aims
- Meet needs for victims (not involved in court process)
- Hold offender accountable (offender must admit to offence to be eligible)
- Reparation: repair relationships
- Restoration: victim restore security and offender restores self-worth
- Crime reduction: if it meets 4 above it should theoretically have a positive outcome
Developments
- Growth of family group conferencing (NZ children, young persons and families act 1989)
- 1991: first trial in Aus. – police run
- 1993: Young Offenders Act – adopt NZ model (not police run)
- RJ legislature in all states and most run NZ model (except ACT, Tas and NT)
- Conferencing in QLD can be referred to be police or youth court – Jan 2013 amendments
to Youth Justice Act 2006 removed court as referral
Success
- Sincere apologies: vast majority apologetic
- Forgiveness: victims accepts apology
- Information on progress on agreement
- Cost effective
- Offender and victims satisfied
- Reduced recidivism – mixed evidence
Developmental
Community
Situational
- Identify problem, analyse to understand, select and implement measure to address and
monitor (modify if required)
Outcomes
- Displacement: shift of crime to another target
- Diffusion: benefits of intervention spread
- Successfully reduced repeat victimisation
Criminal Justice