Crime theories

G. Geis and E. Stotland (eds.). White Collar Crime Theory atul Research, Beveriy Hills, Calif. Sage. 

Trace Evidence. Trace evidence (23) refers to minute, sometimes microscopic material found during the examination of a crime scene or a victim s or suspect s clothing (see Trace AND residue analysis). Trace evidence often helps poHce investigators (24) develop connections between suspect and victim and the crime scene. The theory behind trace evidence was first articulated by a French forensic scientist the Locard Exchange Principle notes that it is not possible to enter a location, such as a room, without changing the environment. An individual brings trace materials into the area and takes trace materials away. The challenge to the forensic scientist is to locate, collect, preserve, and characterize the trace evidence. 

The value placed on efficiency and predictability, and the institutional pressures for cost-containment, accountability and measurability are enhancing the appeal of reductionist theories. They fit with the tendency to locate social problems in individual pathology. They suit the actuarial mentality that places faith in statistical information as a means to predict and minimize future risk.7 Genetic and evolutionary explanations have become a way to address the issues that trouble society - the perceived decline of the family, the problems of crime and persistent poverty, changes in the ethnic structure of the population, and the pressures on public schools. 

Murder is a crime in every country in the world, but it s no crime in the world-at-large because the Second Circuit Court of Appeals never said so. Ask Senator Taft. He never took the trouble to call it murder before anyway, so now he says How can you call it murder after the war is over The charges are very badly drafted, Joe. We should have charged excusable larceny and justified, premeditated killing. That s the kind of theory they ll be happy with."... 

When the statistieally sophisticated psychologists realized what I was doing, they had a field day pointing out my failings unjustified assumptions, violations of statistical theory and other mathematical crimes. They talked about ordinal scales versus ratio scales and scolded me for not using analysis of variance instead of Chi-square and Student s T tests of significance. 

The broken window theory was originally developed to explain how minor acts of vandalism or disrespect can quickly escalate to crimes and atti-... 

Why do we punish those who commit crimes (2) There are two main theories of punishment retribution and deterrence. (3) The first, retribution, argues that people who commit crimes deserve to be punished and that the punishment should fit the crime. (4) In other words, it is an eye for an eye philosophy. (5) Deterrence theory, on the other hand, posits that punishing offenders will help prevent future crimes. 

In that article I covered a number of salient theories—steppingstone to heroin, amotivational syndrome, brain damage, chromosome damage (i.e., birth defects), immune responses, psychosis, incitement to crime, general health hazard and sex impairment. None of this research proved that use of marijuana caused problems. 

Hemphill JE, Templeman R, Wong S, Hare RD. 1998. Psychopathy and crime Recidivism and criminal careers. Psychopathy Theory, Research and Implications for... 

Here the research statistics got fuzzy and perhaps a little creative to demonstrate the hypothesis that psilocybin therapy was effective in reducing the crime rate. In their paper published in Psychotherapy Theory, Research and Practice (Leary et al. 1965), the researchers broke the numbers down into types of return due to parole violations and due to new crimes. They found that, compared to a 50/50 incidence in the prison population as a whole, only 7% of project participants were returned for new crimes, with 52% returned for parole violations. One and one half years after termination of the program the rate of new crimes has been reduced from 28% to 7%, although if parole violations are counted the overall return rate has not changed. It is proposed that these results warrant further research into the potentials of the methods used, especially since no other method of reducing the crime rate exists. (Leary et al. 1965 Doblin 1998). 

A second passage is more ambiguous. Some would say that it was written with tongue in cheek and does not provide evidence for any predilection for functional explanation. This is the long digression on crime and productive labour in Theories of Surplus-Value, from which a few passages are excerpted ... 

H. Kury (2008) Fear of Crime - Punitivity New Developments in Theory and Research (Bochum Brockmeyer). 

Chris Baerveldt, et qL, Assessing a Moral Panic Relating to Crime and Drugs Policy in the Netherlands towards a testable theory , Crime,Law and Social Change 29/1 (1998). 

The search for meaning and causes is of course not always spurious, simple-minded or mythical. Public opinion, social scientific theories and poetic imagination s had to strain themselves to make sense of such an event. But during moral panics and media frenzies the atypical case is compressed into general categories of crime control (such as juvenile violence ). The explanatory theory is based on too few cases injustice results by targeting too many cases. 

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