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CRIMINOLOGISTS OFTEN REGARD OFFENDERS AS VICTIMS OF CONDITIONS BEYOND THEIR CONTROL OR AS 'POLITICAL PRISONERS' PUNISHED FOR THE 'INEVITABLE CONSEQUENCES' OF THEIR SES. HOWEVER, OFFENDERS DO NOT BECOME 'POLITICAL PRISONERS' UNLESS THEIR OFFENSES WERE ADDRESSED TO THE SOCIOPOLITICAL SYSTEM. NOR DO CRIMES 'INEVITABLY' ARISE FROM POVERTY ANYMORE THAN CORRUPTION INEVITABLY ARISES FROM POWER. NEITHER POVERTY NOR POWER ARE LEGAL EXCUSES. CRIMINAL LAW ALWAYS IS MEANT TO PERPETUATE THE EXISTING ORDER, ALTHOUGH RICHARD QUINNEY (CRITIQUE OF LEGAL ORDER: CRIME CONTROL IN A CAPITALIST SOCIETY, BOSTON, MASS: LITTLE, BROWN & CO, 1974) OBJECTS BECAUSE THE BURDEN OF LEGAL RESTRAINT FALLS MOST HEAVILY ON THE DISADVANTAGED WHO ARE MOST TEMPTED TO DISRUPT THE LEGAL ORDER. YET THE CRIMINAL LAW IS MEANT TO RESTRAIN THOSE TEMPTED TO VIOLATE IT. QUINNEY'S VIEW THAT SOCIALISM WILL SOLVE THE 'CRIME PROBLEM' APPEARS BEREFT OF EVIDENCE. THE COMPARATIVE CRIME RATES OF BLACKS & WHITES ARE ANALYZED & THE PUNITIVE & SOCIAL REFORM APPROACHES COMPARED. THEY ARE FOUND TO BE NOT ALTERNATIVE BUT CUMULATIVE. MODIFIED HA.

Since most crime is committed not by recidivists, but by first-time offenders (or unconvicted multiple offenders), efforts to reduce the crime rate through rehabilitative measures are misdirected. Persons who engage in any occupation, legitimate or not, will continue to do so as long as the perceived comparative net advantage remains unchanged, with new practitioners replacing those removed from the field. Crimes such as mugging or rape that occur independently of a market for their proceeds are exceptional in that there must be an increase in net advantage & decrease in estimated cost to attract more perpetrators. Reduction in the crime rate will occur not through economic or social reforms, eg, work-release, probation, parole, indeterminate sentencing, or other rehabilitative measures, but through deterrence, both "preclusive" (personal security measures) & "minatory" (guaranteed punishment), which will reduce the expected net advantage of crime by increasing the cost. K. Hyatt.

Today's organized crime in New England, as it has developed during the last 30 yrs, with attendant influence on pol & law enforcement, was forecast in a 1933 Mass Special Crime Commission report. Its findings went unheeded. Corruption has increased. The studies by the US Senate Crime Committees & legislative crime commissions in Calif, Ill, NY, & Mass reveal the pattern & extent of organized crime based on illegal gambling as its major but not exclusive activity. Makers & enforcers of law have opposed strengthening of the laws. They have blocked proposals for coordinated efforts to deal with this new private gov of crime. The participating public has accepted illegal gambling as harmless. The public which is not part of organized crime cannot be labeled as apathetic, as is so easily done, for it is usually unaware of the activity & resultant problems & the costs to individuals & society as a whole. An aroused public has the ability to act more effectively, & consistently, through independent citizens' crime commissions. But the public does not become aroused except through shock from exposure to the facts -something today's criminal leaders & their advisors fear & work to avoid at all costs. The Yankee pattern of organized crime may be said to be diff from that found elsewhere: It is more refined. Nevertheless, it exists & requires constant attention from all thoughtful & concerned citizens. AAAPSS.

FOR ALMOST 2 CENTURIES US FICTION HAS FEATURED CRIME, BUT ITS TREATMENT IN POPULAR LITERATURE, WHICH STROKES THE NORMS OF A MASS AUDIENCE, HAS BEEN QUITE DIFFERENT FROM THAT IN HIGH ART, WHICH EXAMINES CRITICALLY THE ASSUMPTIONS & VALUES OF SOCIETY. A STUDY OF SERIOUS FICTION CAN PROBE FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES: (1) THE DEFINITION OF CRIME, (2) DIFFERENTIATIONS BETWEEN THE MASS & THE STATUTORY DEFINITIONS OF CRIME, (3) PERCEPTIONS OF THE CRIMINAL'S CIRCUMSTANCES & MOTIVATIONS, (4) PERCEPTIONS OF CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY, (5) THE ROLE OF THE VICTIM, (6) APPREHENSION OF THE CRIMINAL, (7) PERCEPTION OF LEGAL PROFESSIONALS, JURIES, & INSANITY DEFENSE, & (8) RANKING OF CRIMINAL PUNISHMENT. FROM ANALYSIS OF FICTIONAL LITERATURE, TENTATIVE ANSWERS CAN BE FORMULATED, BUT GREATER VALUE LIES IN THE HEURISTICS WHICH FORCE RECONSIDERATION OF GENERALLY ACCEPTED HYPOTHESES. MODIFIED HA.

The lack of adequate statistical compilations in the US makes it very difficult to assess trends in aggressive crime or other types of criminal offenses. An examination of the UNIFORM CRIME REPORT data for the past 17 yrs indicates much lower increases in aggressive crime rates than in property-crime rates. At the same time there was no increase in the murder rates. Calif statistical data show similar diff's between the crimes of personal violence & property crimes, the former rising at a much slower rate than the latter. The fact that there is no breakdown of general-offense groupings which will disclose the degrees of seriousness within the offenses reported is a grave handicap toward assessing the real crime situation. It is suggested that a good part of the rise in crime rates may be the result of the increased reporting of offenses at the lower end of the serious scale in all types of criminal offenses. The fact that murder rates had not increased further supports this hyp. Until there is developed a complete information system of criminal justice within each state which will accurately account for & describe offenses, offenders, each step in the process of the administration of justice, & the areas of correctional treatment, there will never be available the needed basis for determining with any degree of exactness what are the real trends in the various kinds of criminal offenses. HA.

Compared are police, newspaper, TV, & public images of crime trends for the 7 US Federal Bureau of Investigation index crimes (homicide, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, & motor vehicle theft) during a 3-month period in 1978, the relative occurrence f of these offenses, & characteristics of persons committing them. Media presentations of crime trends are found generally unrelated to trends in police statistics. Newspaper presentation of the relative distribution of crimes approximates police figures more closely than does TV presentation. Public views of the relative distribution of crimes but not of crime trends more closely approximate media presentations than police presentations. Possible reasons for these findings & their implications for crime news reporting are discussed. 3 Tables. Modified HA.

BIOLOGY, PSYCHOLOGY, & SOCIOLOGY HAVE SUCCESSIVELY DOMINATED US CRIMINOLOGY OVER THE LAST 100 YEARS. BIOLOGICAL & PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACHES WERE ORIENTED TOWARD THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE OFFENDER & WERE EASY TO TEST IN PRINCIPLE; THEIR EVENTUAL DECLINE IS NOW INTERPRETED AS A CONSEQUENCE OF THEIR FAILURE TO SURVIVE EMPIRICAL TESTS. WITH THE RISE OF THE SOCIOLOGICAL VIEW, THERE WAS A CORRESPONDING DECLINE IN TESTABILITY, ESPECIALLY WITH REFERENCE TO THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE OFFENDER; THERE FOLLOWED A LENGTHY PERIOD OF THEORETICAL DEVELOPMENT VIRTUALLY INDEPENDENT OF RESEARCH. THE SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES PROMINENT DURING THIS PERIOD STRESSED THE MULTIPLICITY OF CULTURES IN AMERICAN LIFE, & THE DIFFERENTIAL DISTRIBUTION OF OPPORTUNITY TO ACHIEVE COMMON GOALS. WITH THE RISE OF LARGE-SCALE RESEARCH CONDUCTED BY SOCIOLOGISTS, THESE THEORIES WERE THEMSELVES SUBJECT TO TEST, & THEORIES MORE CLOSELY GROUNDED ON THE RESULTS OF RESEARCH BECAME POSSIBLE. AT THE MOMENT, SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIZING FOCUSES ON THE EFFECTS OF THE PROCESSING OF OFFENDERS BY AGENCIES OF SOCIAL CONTROL. MODIFIED HA.

The degree of calculability which a theorist attributes to criminal & punitive behavior is closely bound up with his concept of utility & with his view of the relation between private interest & soc interest. A unidimensional concept of utility, while compatible with the norm of maximum calculation in adapting punishments to crimes, runs into conceptual anomalies, notably the discrepancy between formal rationality & substantive rationality. A multidimensional concept of utility, on the other hand, while resolving these anomalies, places limits on the degree of calculability which can be attributed to criminal & punitive behavior. AA.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE CONTEMPORARY WOMEN'S MOVEMENT, THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN CRIME, & THE CHANGING SE & POLITICAL STATUSES OF US WOMEN IS ANALYZED. STATISTICS ON F ARREST PATTERNS FOR DIFFERENT TYPES OF OFFENSES GOING BACK 4 DECADES ARE PRESENTED. THE CHANGES IN WOMEN'S PROPENSITIES FOR COMMITTING DIFFERENT TYPES OF CRIMES ARE DISCUSSED & EXPLANATIONS ABOUT WHY THESE CHANGES HAVE OCCURRED ARE OFFERED. ESPECIALLY SINCE 1967, F PARTICIPATION IN SERIOUS CRIME HAS INCREASED, MOST MARKEDLY IN CRIMES OF PROPERTY. F LARCENY, EMBEZZLEMENT, FRAUD, & FORGERY HAVE ESCALATED WHILE VIOLENT 'CRIMES OF PASSION' HAVE DECLINED. AS F'S GAIN WIDER ACCESS TO THE ECONOMIC SPHERE & GREATER PERSONAL INDEPENDENCE, THIS TREND WILL PROBABLY CONTINUE. F'S ARE MUCH LESS LIKELY TO BE VICTIMS OF OFFENSE THAN ARE M'S, ESPECIALLY YOUNG M'S, BUT IN INTERSEXUAL CRIMES, THE F IS MORE OFTEN THE VICTIM THAN IS THE M. STATISTICS DESCRIBING US WOMEN ARE COMPARED WITH F CRIME DATA AVAILABLE FOR 25 DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. US F'S RANK 1ST & 2ND FOR FINANCIAL & PROPERTY CRIMES & 6TH & 7TH FOR CRIMES OF VIOLENCE & DRUGS. 6 TABLES. MODIFIED HA.

Using traffic offenses & tax evasion as examples, an econ model of a crime is developed. The criminal is assumed to be a utility maximizer, & the soc instit's are assumed to be so designed as to control his behavior by offering an appropriate mixture of reinforcements for various types of behavior. AA.

There is a widespread belief among sociol'ts that punitive reactions do not deter crime. That belief reflects an inordinate concern with capital punishment. Regardless of res findings on the death penalty, they cannot be generalized justifiably to all forms of punitive reactions, & esp since the deterrent inefficacy of the death penalty has not been demonstrated conclusively. As a step in reconsidering the deterrence argument, the certainity & severity of imprisonment for criminal homicide were estimated for each of 48 US states. The 2 estimates were then related to variations in the criminal homicide rate among the states. A signif inverse relation was found to hold between estimated certainty of imprisonment & the criminal homicide rate. The relation is also inverse in the case of severity (time actually served on a homicide sentence), but it is not nearly as close as for certainity. AA.