Pre-Lecture
Chapter 10
Crimes of Violence
Pre-Lecture
You Are the Criminologist
Time: 5–10 minutes
Discussion
Note: Facilitate the review of this lesson’s major topics by using the review questions as direct questions or PowerPoint slides. Answers are found throughout this lesson plan and at the end of the chapter.
This activity focuses students on the realities of being a criminologist.
Purpose
This exercise creates dialogue for students to apply concepts learned in this chapter to real world events.
Instructor Directions
1. Direct students to read the “You Are the Criminologist” scenario at the beginning of Chapter 10 (page 272).
2. You might wish to assign students to a partner or a group. Direct them to review the discussion questions at the end of the scenario and prepare a response to each question. Facilitate a class dialogue centered on the discussion questions.
3. You may also use this as an individual activity and ask students to turn in their comments on a separate piece of paper, noting how they came to their conclusions.
Lecture
Time: Two 50-minute sessions
Slides: 1–47 (first session), 48–64 (second session)
Introduction
1 Greatest impact on the public’s perception of crime in general
2 Public fear of violent crime, even though it is uncommon
Violent Crime Trends in the United States
1 Violent crime declining
2 Violent crime index: 466 violent crimes per 100,000 citizens
3 Important questions
1 Why has violent crime declined across the nation?
2 Why, in contrast to other countries, does the United States experience stubbornly high levels of homicide?
Homicide
1 Definition: the unlawful taking of life by another human
2 Generally considered the most serious offense in the United States
3 Homicide classification
1 Justifiable homicide
1 Example: homicide committed in self-defense
2 Death of the other person is unavoidable or warranted
3 No malice or negligence involved
4 Any prudent and socially aware person would have acted the same under similar circumstances
2 First-degree murder
1 Malice aforethought (manifestation of a deliberate intention to take a person’s life)
2 Premeditated (consciously considered beforehand)
3 Deliberated (planned beforehand)
3 Second-degree murder
1 Malice aforethought
2 No premeditation or deliberation (impulsive or spontaneous)
4 Voluntary manslaughter
1 No malice aforethought
2 Emotional circumstances cloud the offender’s judgment
5 Involuntary manslaughter
1 No premeditation or deliberation
2 Death the result of negligent behavior
4 Murder levels and trends
1 Lowest U.S. homicide rates since the 1960s
2 Still substantially higher than most other industrialized nations
3 World Health Organization report
1 1998 U.S. murder rate was 11 per 100,000 citizens
2 Ten times higher than most other industrialized nations
4 Southern region of United States has higher homicide rates
5 Urban areas have higher homicide rates than rural areas
6 Wide variation of homicide rates in different metropolitan areas
5 Weapons: 70% of homicides involve firearms (UCR)
6 Circumstances leading to homicide
1 Victim precipitated homicide (victim was the first to use physical force, Marvin Wolfgang)
2 UCR data
1 Argument-invoked (44%)
2 Felony murder (20%) (offender was engaged in a separate felony offense, e.g., rape, robbery, arson)
3 Bar brawls (2%)
4 Juvenile gang killings (6%)
7 Offender and victim characteristics
1 Statistics
1 90% of individuals arrested for murder are male
2 80% of homicide victims are male
3 33% of homicide offenders and victims are young adults (18–34)
4 Nearly 50% of homicide offenders and victims are African-American
5 85–95% of homicide is intraracial
6 66% of homicides involve offenders and victims who are known to each other
2 Intimate partner homicide
1 Between current or former intimate partners
2 Correlation between intimate partner homicide and intimate partner abuse
3 Policy implications: develop risk assessment tools to enable criminal justice personnel to intervene in cases most likely to escalate into intimate partner homicide
8 Explaining America’s homicide rate
1 Firearm availability
1 Strong predictor of homicide rates
2 Statistics
1 Household handgun ownership rate in the United States: ~30%
2 Rate in most other industrialized nations: 1–14%
3 Nongun homicide rate in United States: 2.5 times higher than other industrialized nations
4 Gun-related homicide in United States: more than 7.5 times higher
3 The gun control debate
1 No clear empirical evidence that gun control affects rates of violent crimes
2 Different forms of legislation at local, state, and federal levels
3 Federal Gun Control Act
1 Requires firearms dealers to be licensed
2 Requires dealers to carefully document each sale
3 Requires dealers to refrain from selling guns to prohibited buyers (e.g., minors, felons)
4 Brady Bill
1 Mandatory five-day waiting period
2 Mandatory background checks
3 No evidence that it reduces homicides
5 Why these laws are ineffective (James Jacobs)
1 Criminals tend not to buy guns directly from licensed dealers (use a third party with a clean record).
2 Secondary guns market (e.g., gun shows, classified ads) is completely unregulated.
3 Firearms can be purchased illegally.
4 Firearms may be stolen or borrowed.
6 Conceal-and-carry legislation: local authorities grant citizens who meet certain criteria permits to carry concealed firearms
2 Economic inequality
1 High level of economic inequality
2 Low level of social support
1 No national health care
2 No national child care
3 Unemployment support
3 Institutional anomie theory and Elliott Currie’s “market society” (this combination breeds violence)
4 Unclear why American homicide rates (and not all violent crime) are uniquely affected by these factors
3 American history
1 Sociocultural tradition of violence
1 American Revolution
2 Slavery
3 Civil War
4 Treatment of Native Americans
2 Many other nations have a cultural history of violence, low homicide rates (e.g., Germany, Scotland, Japan)
9 Explaining homicide rates in the South
1 Southern subculture of violence
2 Norms conducive to violence
1 Independence
2 Exaggerated sense of honor
3 Frontier mentality
3 Greater firearm availability
4 Greater economic inequality
Rape and Sexual Assault
1 History: recognized as a crime in earliest written legal codes
2 Definitions
1 Rape
1 Historically limited and narrow (gender, marital status, form of penetration)
2 Unlawful sexual intercourse by force or without legal or factual consent
2 Initial consent rape
1 After consensual sex is initiated, the victim requests that the encounter end, but the partner does not comply.
2 This is not considered rape according to many jurisdictions.
3 Sexual assault: any forced or coerced sexual intimacy (unwanted touching with no consent)
3 Rape incidence, prevalence, and trends
1 One of the most underreported crimes
2 Reasons victims are unwilling to report sexual assaults
1 They do not want anyone to find out.
2 They do not define what happened to them as rape (particularly in date or marital rape situations.
3 They blame themselves.
4 They do not want their friend, boyfriend, or husband to get in trouble.
5 They fear how criminal justice personnel will treat them.
6 They think nothing can be done.
7 They just want to forget it and get on with their life.
3 Definitions impact estimates (completed or attempted)
4 Certain types of rape disproportionately reported (stranger rapes)
5 Statistics
1 UCR: 2004 rape rate 63 per 100,000 women in the United States
2 National Violence Against Women survey: 18% of women and 3% of men experienced completed or attempted rape
3 20% to 25% of women at higher education institutions experience rape
4 Rape most likely perpetrated by nonstrangers
1 Boyfriends (ex-boyfriends)
2 Classmates
3 Coworkers
4 Friends
5 Acquaintances
4 Date rape
1 Takes place in the context of a legitimate dating arrangement
2 One of the most underreported types of rape
3 Largely unrecognized until the 1980s
4 Similarity with stranger rape: rapists report stereotypical views of women and narrow definitions of masculinity
5 Date-rape drugs
1 Examples: GHB, Rohypnol, and Ketamine
2 Render the victim physically helpless (thus unable to refuse the assault)
3 May make the victim unable to remember the attack
4 Protective measures
1 Don’t accept drinks from other people except trusted friends.
2 Open containers yourself.
3 Keep your drink with you at all times, even when you go to the bathroom.
4 Don’t share drinks.
5 Don’t drink from punch bowls or other large, common, open containers.
6 Don’t drink anything that tastes or smells strange.
7 Have a nondrinking friend with you to make sure nothing happens.
5 Marital rape
1 Only recently legally recognized
2 Statistics
1 Greatly underreported
2 Estimates 8–23%
3 National Violence Against Women: 7.7% (includes former partners and noncohabitating spouses)
4 Diana Russell (survey of San Francisco women): 14%
3 Strong relationship between battering and marital rape (30–50% of battered women experience marital rape)
4 Typology of rapes
1 Battering rapes: occur in the context of physical and emotional intimate partner abuse
2 Nonbattering rapes: occur in relationships where there is little to no violence
3 Obsessive rapes: involve various sexual obsessions (largely perpetrated by men who consume large amounts of pornography)
5 Typology of marital rapists (Russell)
1 Husbands who prefer raping their wives than having consensual sex with them
2 Husbands who are able to enjoy both consensual sex and rape with their wives and are ambivalent to which it is
3 Husbands who prefer consensual sex with their wives but are willing to rape when their sexual advances are rejected
4 Husbands who would like to rape their wives, but do not
5 Husbands who do not want to rape their wives
6 Victims of rape
1 Characteristics
1 From all classes, races, genders, and age groups
2 Disproportionately young
3 Black females and Native Americans slightly more likely to be victims of rape or sexual assault
2 Effects of victimization
1 Physical injury
1 Direct injuries from the rape
2 Black eyes
3 Bruises
4 Broken bones
2 Sexually transmitted disease
3 Pregnancy
4 Psychological effects
1 Shame
2 Intense fear
3 Anxiety
4 Stress
5 Fatigue
5 Rape trauma syndrome (RTS)
1 Eating disorders
2 Suicidal feelings
3 Depression
4 Obsessive-compulsive disorders (especially washing rituals)
6 Secondary victims (those close to the sexual-assault victim)
1 Include
1 Spouses
2 Partners
3 Peers
4 Siblings
2 Must help the victim cope and recover
3 May become withdrawn or partially blame the victim
7 Explaining rape and sexual assault
1 Debate: motivation of the offender
1 Historically, most social scientists viewed rape as a sexually motivated crime.
2 Recently, scholars argue that rape is actually an act of violence in which sex is used as a weapon.
3 Feminist scholars discuss rape within the larger political/historical context of men’s oppression of women.
2 Psychological typologies of rapists
1 Power reassurance rapist
1 Socially and sexually inadequate
2 Rapes for sex, although sex is distorted
3 Rapes close to where he lives and works
4 Is often employed in menial jobs
5 Interested in pornography
6 Rapes periodically
2 Anger retaliation rapist
1 Overarching desire to hurt women
2 Uses rape as a weapon
3 Socially competent
4 Often married, but his wife is typically safe from his assaults
5 Sexually permissive
6 Quick and violent temper
7 Commits blitz attacks close to his home and injures his victims with his hands, fists, or other type of weapon
3 Power assertive rapist
1 Feels a sense of superiority simply because he is male
2 Views women as objects for his use, abuse, and disposal
3 Usually unhappy with his marriage
4 Dresses in a flashy manner
5 Frequents singles bars, where he finds his victims
4 Sadistic rapist
1 Most dangerous of rapists
2 Goal is to hurt, demean, and cause as much physical and psychological pain as possible
3 Potentially sociopath
4 Extremely aggressive
5 Considered to be a good family man and community asset
6 Connection between personal violence and sexual gratification
7 May become more violent over time
8 Could potentially murder his victims
3 Evolutionary perspective
1 Developed by Randy Thornhill and Craig Palmer
2 Rape as an adaptive strategy developed in human males to allow for more offspring
3 Ways to gain access to females
1 Possess certain traits that females prefer (e.g., physical attractiveness)
2 Win various forms of male-male competition or to attain influential status
3 Sexual coercion (rape, intimidation, harassment)
4 Points to consistency in the use of sexual coercion among humans and other species (e.g., insect and bird behavior), otherwise difficult to explain using social or cultural explanations of rape
5 Criticism: does not explain the high rape rates among preadolescents
4 Feminist explanation
1 Focus on the patriarchal nature of society
2 Pseudosexual act
1 Sexual gratification not the primary motivation
2 Tool to maintain control and dominance over women
3 Consequence of deep-seated social tradition
1 Male dominance
2 Female exploitation
3 Influences male behavior
1 Cultural values/attitudes (myths/stereotypes)
1 Women secretly desire to be raped.
2 Women who dress or act seductively are asking to be raped.
3 When a woman says “no” to a sexual advance, she actually means “yes.”
2 Socialization practices
1 Defined, particular sex roles
2 Masculine sex role
1 Aggressive
2 Forceful
3 Avoid being empathetic
4 Not relationship oriented
4 Cross-cultural studies
1 International: women had more power in societies where rape was uncommon (Peggy Reeves Sanday)
2 Different U.S. states: confirmed relationship between gender inequality and rape.
3 Conflicting studies
1 As inequality between sexes diminishes, rape increases.
2 Feminist explanation: males are seeking to reestablish dominance through sexual coercion.
5 Social learning perspective
1 Sexual aggression (like other behaviors) learned
2 Behavior shaped by balance of
1 Role models
2 Reinforcement/punishment
3 Attitudes and values (cognitions)
1 Cognitive distortions or criminal thinking errors that excuse or justify rape
2 Negative reinforcements that eliminate noxious stimuli associated with rape
1 Guilt
2 Shame
3 Anxiety
3 Socialization toward a sex role
1 Hostile masculinity: controlling and adversarial male orientation toward females (central feature of sexual assault perpetrators)
2 Lack of cognitive and social skills (e.g., empathy, conversation skills) to express sexuality in a normative fashion
4 Overlap with feminist theories of rape
1 Importance of sex-role socialization and attitudes that justify rape (rape myths or cognitive distortions)
2 Motivation for rape is more ambiguous in social learning theory
1 Sexual aggression may be a means to dominate females
2 Sexual aggression may stem from a true desire to engage in sex
3 Pornography encourages sexual assault
1 Degrading to women
2 Reflection of patriarchy
3 Makes the inequality/submission of women sexy
4 Reinforces rape myths
5 Provides role modeling for sexual violence
1 Reinforces cognitive distortions
2 Desensitizes men to the pain and humiliation of sexual aggression
6 No clear evidence that pornography increases sexual aggression or violence
6 Integrating perspectives
1 Some evolutionary perspectives incorporate environmental and social factors
2 Larry Baron and Murray Straus
1 Integrated model of sexual violence
2 Gender inequality
3 Social disorganization
4 Cultural legitimization of violence
3 Incorporation of developmental experiences (i.e., learning), personality, and broad cultural views of sex roles
8 Rape and correctional intervention
1 Treatment models
1 Focus on sexual aspect of offending
1 Aversion therapy
2 Chemical castration (eliminating sexual drive)
2 Cognitive-behavioral programs
1 Eliminate cognitive distortions (justifications or rationalizations that allow offenders to sexually assault without experiencing guilt and anxiety)
2 Teach cognitive skills
1 Self-control
2 Problem solving
3 Anger management
2 Research
1 Treatment of sex offenders can be successful.
2 Most successful forms:
1 Chemical castration
2 Cognitive-behavioral programs
9 The criminal justice response to rape
1 May be difficult for the victim
2 Must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime occurred
1 Police officers
1 Must build a good case
2 Attempt to get thorough and clear statements may seem as interrogation
2 Prosecutors
1 Represent the state rather than the victim
2 More likely to dismiss or plea bargain rape cases
3 Try to find discrepancies in statements
4 Determine if the victim had ulterior motives
5 See if the victim fits the criteria for a typical victim
6 May require polygraph tests
7 Justify actions by noting that coercion is difficult to prove
3 Defense attorneys
1 Bound by an ethical code to vigorously advocate for their clients
2 Prohibit from bringing up the promiscuity or character of the victims by rape shield laws
3 Hospital key institution for rape investigation
1 Medical examination
2 Collection of physical evidence
3 Reluctant partner
1 Rape victims not viewed as real patients
2 Doctors reluctant o perform rape exams (long, intrusive)
3 Doctors reluctant to testify in court
4 Rape crisis center (Patricia Martin)
1 Should serve as primary interface between victims and other agencies
2 Sole focus on victim support
Robbery
1 Definition
1 “Taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or a control of a person or persons by force or threat of force or violence and/or by putting the victim in fear” (UCR)
2 Key elements
1 Taking of another person’s property
2 Possibility of force
3 Classified as a violent (rather than property) crime because violence is threatened or used
2 Statistics
1 Robbery rates decreasing since the early 1990s (UCR, NCVS)
2 Represent roughly 30% of all serious violent crimes recorded by police
3 Much more common than rape or homicide
3 Characteristics of robbery and robbers
1 Majority (56%) perpetrated by a stranger
2 More likely than other forms of violence to involve multiple offenders
3 More often interracial crime
4 Majority of robbers young, African-American, male
5 Common locations of robberies
1 Street (43%)
2 Restaurants/stores (15%)
3 Residences (14%)
6 Average financial loss greater for businesses than individuals
7 Some targets more lucrative than others (bank vs. convenience store)
4 Explaining robbery
1 Typology of robbers (John Conklin)
1 Professional robbers
1 Carefully plan for the “big score”
2 Treat robbery as their main livelihood
2 Addict/alcoholic robbers: rob in order to sustain substance use
2 Primary motivation—money and/or property
3 Secondary motivations (Jack Katz)
1 Maintain a street reputation of “bad ass”
2 Fuel participation in street culture
1 Gambling
2 Hard-drug use
3 Heavy drinking
3 Psychological thrill
4 Intimidation
5 Revenge
4 Robbery and rationality
1 Robbers generally take a rational approach to robbery.
2 Advantages of robbery:
1 Less time than alternatives (e.g., burglary or drug sales)
2 Yields cash rather than property
3 Avoid middlemen associated with other offenses
1 Pawn shops
2 Fences
3 Drug dealers
3 Prey on vulnerable victims:
1 Most vulnerable targets: those who are involved in crime
1 Drug dealers
2 Men who seek prostitutes
3 Both likely to carry cash and unlikely to report the robbery to the police
4 Policy implication: situational crime prevention
1 Target-hardening techniques (adding surveillance, multiple clerks on duty)
2 Avoid being vulnerable targets
1 Travel in groups
2 Avoid displaying cash in public places
3 Refrain from criminal activity
Assault
1 Types
1 Aggravated assault
1 Involves the “unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury”
2 Usually involves a weapon or other means likely to produce death or serious bodily harm
2 Simple assault
1 Does not involve a weapon
2 Does not result in serious injury to the victim
2 Reporting
1 Estimated 40–60% of assaults reported to police
2 Reasons for not reporting assault
1 Assault involves family members (reluctance to bring in outsiders to solve family problems)
2 Fear of reprisal
3 Failure to view the assault as serious
4 Desire to keep the matter private
3 Characteristics of assault
1 Perpetrators overwhelmingly young males
2 Similar patterns to homicide
General Explanations for Violent Crime
1 Versatility: offenders tend to engage in a variety of crime (including rape, robbery, assault, and homicide)
2 Neighborhood level explanation of violence
1 Violent crime more likely to occur in urban areas characterized by
1 Extreme poverty
2 Physical decay
3 Residential mobility
2 Social disorganization theory
1 Weak/absent neighborhood institutions and processes (i.e., informal control) that usually prevent crime
2 Cultural transmission of deviant values
3 Subculture of violence (Wolfgang and Ferracuti)
1 Norms and values support and legitimize the use of violence
2 Characteristics
1 High level of gun ownership
2 Stories or songs that glorify violence
3 Rituals that stress macho behavior
3 Individual level explanations of violence
1 Social learning theory
1 Violence learned
2 Primary learning mechanisms
1 Operant conditioning (e.g., parental discipline)
2 Vicarious learning
3 Violence in mass media
1 Some evidence that exposure may increase violent crime
2 Real role models more important than virtual role models
4 Intimate personal groups (Edwin Sutherland)
1 Family, peers
2 Strong correlation between experiencing/witnessing violence as a child and later violent behavior
3 Intergenerational transmission of violence
5 Feelings of isolation or rejection (bullying, school shootings)
2 Biological explanations
1 Some studies find a genetic relationship for property, but not violent offending.
2 Some biological correlates of crime also appear to specifically predict violence (e.g., testosterone).
4 Gender and violence
1 Quantitative difference: 90% of those arrested for robbery, rape, homicide, and assault are male
2 Qualitative difference: women murderers usually perceive themselves in life-threatening situations (Kirkpatrick and Humphrey)
3 Explanations
1 Masculine sex role socialization
1 Competitiveness
2 Aggressiveness
3 Lack of emotionality
4 Conducive to violence
5 Pressure for economic success
6 Need to demonstrate their masculinity
2 Biological differences
1 Physical (e.g., size, strength)
2 Physiological (e.g., testosterone levels)
Explaining the Drop in Violent Crime
1 Most forms of crime have been on the decline in the United States for over a decade.
2 Most dramatic reductions have been among violent crime.
3 Explanations:
1 Criminal justice policies
2 Police tactics (community-oriented and zero-tolerance policing)
3 Increase in prison populations
4 Economic conditions
5 Changes in demographics (fewer crime-prone youth, more elderly Americans)
6 Cultural shift (Richard Curtis)
1 Inner-city decay
1 Crack epidemic
2 Economic despair
3 Dysfunctional/multiproblem families
4 Crumbling social institutions
2 The generation growing up in the height of this decay witnessed the havoc wreaked upon their older siblings, parents, and peers and chose different path.
7 Role of illicit drugs
1 Bruce Johnson: drug cycles
1 1960s heroin injection era
2 1980s cocaine/crack era
3 1990s marijuana era (not generally associated with violent crime)
2 Al Blumstein
1 1980s increase in violence mostly black youth residing in inner-city areas
1 Increased availability of handguns
2 Crack cocaine epidemic
2 Control over the illicit distribution of crack stabilized
3 Violence decreased
Conclusion
1 Decline in crime: UCR and the NCVS reveal substantial declines for all four types of violent crime over the past 10 to 15 years.
2 Fear of violent crimes:
1 In most violent crime, the majority of perpetrators are known to the offender (robbery is the exception).
2 Victims may experience physical harm and/or long-term emotional trauma.
3 Americans fear violent crime more than any other type of criminal behavior.
3 Research seeks to uncover the causes of violence and develop effective public policy.
4 Policy implications:
1 Robbery (rational component): situational crime prevention
2 Rape: shield laws and the use of rape crisis centers
Post-Lecture
Lesson Review
Time: 5–10 minutes
Discussion
Note: Facilitate the review of this lesson’s major topics by using the review questions as direct questions or PowerPoint slides. Answers are found throughout this lesson plan and at the end of the chapter.
A. Review the “Chapter Spotlight” (page 296).
B. Have students discuss the questions in “Putting It All Together” (page 297).
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