Assignment about What are Criminology?

Assignment 4

1Running head: CRIMINOLOGY
Criminology
Author’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Author Note

2CRIMINOLOGY
Criminology (Assignment 4)
Part A
1. Neutralization
Neutralization is known as rationalization as well, which is defined as the excuses or
the justifications that can be presented by a person for showing deviant behavior. This aspect
has been mostly considered while explaining behaviors, for instance, embezzlement and
fraud. Hence, with growing importance, Sykes and Matza (1957) were the first scholars who
investigated this concept (Kaptein & van Helvoort, 2019). Sykes and Matza in the year 1957
identified five neutralization techniques, which involved ‘denial of the victim’, ‘denial of
responsibility’, ‘appeal to higher loyalties’, ‘condemnation of the condemners’, and ‘denial of
injury’ (Kaptein & van Helvoort, 2019).
An instance of ‘denial of the victim’ is exemplified when an offender accuses that it
was the fault of the child (victim). On the other hand, if the offender states that the offense
occurred when the situation was not in control or stated that it was not their fault, then it is
termed as the ‘denial of responsibility’ (Walters, 2002). Another neutralization technique is
the ‘appeal to higher loyalties’ wherein an offender gives an excuse that he or she had
committed the offense to protect the near ones. Besides, ‘Condemnation of the condemners’
is when an offender insists that other people do not have any right to condemn violations may
be because they are worse than him/her. Lastly, ‘denial of injury’ is when an offender gives
excuses that the victims have got so much that they will not realize any loss (Lilly, Cullen, &
Ball, 2018).
4. Crime
The logic behind “opportunistic crimes” is that, the offender or the criminals do not
strategize their attack in a detailed manner. This is because these types of offenders seek

3CRIMINOLOGY
opportunities to commit crimes and are found to be volatile during their execution (Zhang,
Gholami, Kar, Sinha, Jain, Goyal, … & Tambe, 2016). For instance, stealing a Ute (Nolan,
2013). On the other hand, calculated crimes are those offenses that are strategized from
before such as drug or property offenses and are done for attaining profit. These types of
crimes are expected to reoccur when restrictive interventions are not present (Lin, 2007).
When it is compared to that of calculated crimes it can be said that ‘opportunistic crimes’
occur when there is opportunity given to the offender to violate the law whereas calculated
ones are those that are well-planned such as fraud and terrorist attacks (Zhang et al., 2016;
CBC, 2019).
The significance of this distinction is that the police authorities can control the
opportunistic crimes through regular patrolling in not only the crime-prone areas but also
other less likely regions. On the other hand, police department can easily track the calculated
crimes because it is likely to be repeated and, hence, they can concentrate on catching the
offender while executing the next offense (Zhang et al., 2016; CBC, 2019).

4CRIMINOLOGY
Part B
3. NCR: Not Criminally Responsible Case
There are several formal measures that are generally undertaken by the responsible
authorities to control the individuals who were found to be NCR for their act of committing
crime. In this regard, Department of Justice (2015) states that people offenders who are
proved to be mentally ill are either considered as unfit to stand trial (UST) or not criminally
responsible on account of mental disorder (NCRMD) as in the case of R. v. Winko
(Department of Justice, 2015). Taking the documentary into consideration, it was found that
the offender (Sean Clifton) was reported to stab a 22-year-old woman named (Julie) 6 times
in a crowded place. In this case, the offender was first taken into custody since the police
officers found him in the place of crime itself wherein he was staring just like he was in a
trance. Thereafter, the offender was interrogated by a psychiatrist in a polite manner thereby
asking him certain questions related to the case. Considering his answers to the questions
asked while interrogating the psychiatrist felt that the offender did not have an operating
mind or the intentional to commit the violent crime. He was then sent to a forensic
psychiatric unit wherein the people having criminal charges with mental illness were
accommodated and treated. In the case of Sean, he was first treated with anti-psychotic
medication (Kastner, 2013).
The intended consequence of taking the offender into custody and interrogating him is
to understand the motive behind his act of violence. After the psychiatrist understood that the
offender was mentally ill, the authorities declared him to be an NCR. However, he was sent
to the psychiatric facility so that his mental condition could be improved and rehabilitation
could be provided to the patient. The initial measure that Sean was given was medication,
which was prescribed to him in order to improve the mental health of the offenders so that
their act of violence may be controlled. The offender of the case into concern was prescribed

5CRIMINOLOGY
with anti-psychotic medication so that his violent act of aggression, delusion, and agitation
could be controlled. Besides, it was found that his case of mental illness was the most severe
one among the patients in the facility especially the obsessive compulsive disorder (Kastner,
2013).
The prescription of medication was to some extent working in the case of Sean but it
was totally upon him to free himself from the mental illness for which it took 8 years for him
to control his mental instability and lead a normal life. In response to this case, it has been
found that at the end, Sean was seen to send an apology letter to the victim and her family
thereby understanding the offense he had done and in return Julie also accepted his apology
(Kastner, 2013). Besides, an NCR assessment was ordered by the court wherein the offender
needs to be sent to a psychiatric facility (Legal Aid Ontario, n.d.). However, it can be found
that the Canadian justice system was a bit lenient on the violent criminals who were found to
be NCR for their violent acts. This is because once the person is released from the
rehabilitation; he might be in a vulnerable state once again to commit similar types of crime.
Nevertheless, the offenders must also be given an opportunity to live a normal life in the
community. For instance, in case of Sean, after being released from the assessment, he lived
with another person whom he met at the facility itself. Hence, it can be suggested to the
concerned authorities that the rules of letting the offender to lead a renewed life must be
stricter and they must also maintain regular contact with the latter parties so that any kind of
criminal acts can be avoided and society can remain safe and sound.

6CRIMINOLOGY
Part C
Topic 1: Criminological Concepts: Privileged Crime vs. Underprivileged Crime
The criminal concept that has been considered is privileged vs. underprivileged
crimes. ‘Privileged crime’ is that kind of misdeed, which is done by the privileged person in
society and is found to be highly profitable in nature. Correspondingly, ‘privileged person’
can involve an individual who is well-educated, powerful or relatively wealthy. On the other
hand, ‘underprivileged crime’ is referred to as those offenses that are committed by
considerably poor people or those who are from powerless backgrounds (Thio, Calhoun &
Conyers, 2010). This reveals a clear difference between the underprivileged and privileged
crimes that is found to be occurring in society in terms of wealth and power. These aspects
are found to be a part of criminological theory. However, considering their usage, the
criminal justice systems are found to focus more on underprivileged crimes rather than the
privileged ones. This has caused a severe issue that is widely evident in society i.e. those
offenders who are privileged can protect them from criminal victimization but those who are
underprivileged will not be able to do so (Newburn, 2016). An example of privileged crime is
a fraud that has been committed by famous well to do individuals in society such as ‘family
violence’, ‘hate crimes’, and racist offenses. Corporate crimes such as financial fraud, tax
violation, embezzlement, and workplace theft can also be considered as ‘privileged crime’.
Apart from corporate crimes, state crimes are also included in these kinds including
corruption and genocide, which is also, classed white-collar crimes (The Open University,
2019). On the contrary, violent crimes are generally committed by underprivileged criminals
such as robbery (HUD User, 2016).

7CRIMINOLOGY
Topic 2: Criminological Topics in the Canadian Society (Changes in Crime Statistics:
Decrease in Homicide Rates in Canada)
In Canada, it has been reported by CTV news that crime rate has increased to 2% for
the consecutive fourth year in 2018 thereby amounting to a total of 2 million cases. This
depicts that per 100,000 people, 5,488 incidents were found to occur in Canada. According to
the Crime Severity Index as well, the severity rate increased to 2% in the same year.
However, when these statistics are compared to that of 2008, the crime rate and the severity
index both were found to be substantially lower. Nevertheless, hate crimes were reported to
continuously increase in Canada since 2009 (CTV news, 2019). All these show that crime
statistics do change frequently in Canada as evident since 2008 to 2018. Among all these
crimes, homicide will be particularly taken into consideration. According to Statistics Canada
(2015), a homicide is a term used for the crime when a person ‘by any means’ becomes the
reason for another person’s death. This kind of criminal offense can either be culpable such
as in case of infanticide and murder or it may be non-culpable. Homicide is found to involve
‘manslaughter’, ‘first-degree murder’, infanticide, and ‘second-degree murder’ (Statistics
Canada, 2015). Under the Canadian law, a deliberate and planned homicide is known as the
‘1st-degree murder’ such as in case of contract killing. On the other hand, ‘2nd-degree
murder’ is that kind of homicide wherein deliberate killing is observed, which is not planned
at all. The third type of homicide is ‘manslaughter’, which is termed for that of sort of
homicide wherein people are killed without having any intent although the criminals may
have the intention to harm other. This can be sub-divided into two types, criminal negligence
and unlawful act (CBC News, 2019).
One of the key aspects that has been evident to be positively changed is the rate of
homicide wherein 15 cases of homicide was lesser in 2018 when compared with 2017. This
showed 4% decrease in the rate of homicide than the last year (Paas-Lang, 2019).

8CRIMINOLOGY
Furthermore, it must be noted that homicide rate not only decreased since 2017 but also since
the peak time i.e. 1975 as evident in the figure below (Statistics Canada, 2018). This implies
that the rate of crime has been constantly reducing in Canada since several years.
Figure 1: Showing the Reduced Homicide an Attempted Murder Rate in Canada since
its Peak Year i.e. 1975
Source: (Statistics Canada, 2018)

9CRIMINOLOGY
References
CBC. (2019). What's the difference between 1st-degree murder, 2nd-degree murder and
manslaughter?. Retrieved November 08, 2019, from
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/what-s-the-difference-between-1st-degree-murder-
2nd-degree-murder-and-manslaughter-1.5068520
CBC. (2019). Yellowknife woman jailed for forging work cheques. Retrieved November 08,
2019, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/yellowknife-woman-jailed-for-
forging-work-cheques-1.989975
CTV news. (2019). Crime rate rose in 2018 but country still safer than a decade ago,
StatCan says. Retrieved November 08, 2019, from
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/crime-rate-rose-in-2018-but-country-still-safer-than-a-
decade-ago-statcan-says-1.4518026
Department of Justice. (2015). The review board systems in Canada: An overview of results
from the mentally disordered accused data collection study. Retrieved November 08,
2019, from https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/csj-sjc/jsp-sjp/rr06_1/p1.html
HUD User. (2016). Neighborhoods and violent crime. Retrieved November 08, 2019, from
https://www.huduser.gov/portal/periodicals/em/summer16/highlight2.html
Kaptein, M., & van Helvoort, M. (2019). A model of neutralization techniques. Deviant
Behavior, 40(10), 1260-1285.
Kastner, J. (2013). NCR: Not criminally responsible. Retrieved November 08, 2019, from
https://www-nfb-ca.ezproxy.tru.ca/film/ncr_not_criminally_responsible_short/
Legal Aid Ontario. (n.d.). Not criminally responsible assessments. Retrieved November 08,
2019, from http://lawfacts.ca/mental-health/assessments
Lilly, J. R., Cullen, F. T., & Ball, R. A. (2018). Criminological theory: Context and
consequences. California: Sage publications.

10CRIMINOLOGY
Lin, J. (2007). Exploring the impact of institutional placement on the recidivism of delinquent
youth. New York University, 1-222.
Newburn, T. (2016). Social disadvantage, crime and punishment. LSE Research Online, 1-16.
Nolan, P. (2013, February 20). Man jailed for stealing Ute: ‘Classic example’ of opportunistic
theft. Retrieved November 08, 2019, from
https://www.thecourier.com.au/story/1316118/man-jailed-for-stealing-ute-classic-
example-of-opportunistic-theft/
Paas-Lang, C. (2019). Crime up, homicide down: Five things to know about the 2018 crime
statistics. Retrieved November 08, 2019, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/crime-
statistics-canada-2018-1.5221011
Statistics Canada. (2015). Definitions. Retrieved November 08, 2019, from
https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/85-002-x/2014001/definitions-eng.htm
Statistics Canada. (2018). Canada's crime rate: Two decades of decline. Retrieved November
08, 2019, from https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/11-630-x/11-630-x2015001-
eng.htm
The Open University. (2019). Crimes of the powerful. Retrieved November 08, 2019, from
https://www.open.edu/openlearn/people-politics-law/crimes-the-powerful/content-
section-2
Thiou, A., Calhoun, T. C., Conyers, A., & Copelton, D. A. (2010). Readings in deviant
behavior. 6th edition. Boston: Pearson.
Walters, G. D. (2002). Criminal belief systems: An integrated-interactive theory of lifestyles:
An integrated-interactive theory of lifestyles. Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing
Group.

11CRIMINOLOGY
Zhang, C., Gholami, S., Kar, D., Sinha, A., Jain, M., Goyal, R.,… & Tambe, M. (2016).
Keeping pace with criminals: An extended study of designing patrol allocation against
adaptive opportunistic criminals. Games, 7(3), 1-27.