Expanded Key Terms

A behavior defined as illegal by legislatures and other governing agencies, decided by both power and morality.

Crime is any behavior in society that deviates from the social norms considered acceptable in society. Crime and criminal behavior are decided upon by individuals with power who execute and decide laws, regulations, and rules. Additionally, morality affects the way laws, regulations, and rules are carried out in efforts to enact morality in society to eradicate crime and deviant behavior. Criminal behavior is seen as more and more deviant and unacceptable, or immoral, as the social norms and mores being broken increase in intensity and enter categories of taboo for different cultures.

Illegal activities of large business organizations, their executives, and top-level managers acting on their behalf. It involves violations of laws, statutes, and regulatory standards affecting corporations for corporate profit and not for the sake of personal gain by an individual or individuals working for the corporation.

Corporate crime shares the same violation of norms and mores that general/traditional crime does but exists within areas of industry and large corporations through business interactions, transactions, and finances. Corporate crime largely differentiates itself from other forms of crime in the fact that it is committed within a business setting and by a business professional; therefore, the norms and mores being broken are considered normal and acceptable within the specific business society that the corporate crime occurs in.

A crime event that is not limited to a single country.

Transnational crime shares the same violation of norms and mores that general/traditional crime does but is specifically a crime that occurs in multiple countries. Transnational crime can be any type of specific crime (I.E. traditional crime, corporate crime, etc.) but must take place or occur within more than one country. Therefore, a crime committed in California that also happens in Texas would NOT be considered a transnational crime; however, a crime that occurs in California and Mexico CAN BE considered a transnational crime.

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A behavior that violates social norms and arouses strong social disapproval.

Deviance, or deviant behaviors, are any actions that violate norms and mores within a society that position the individual committing the actions within a view from the larger society as being socially unacceptable. Deviance is subjective according to the individual and/or culture within a society that is judging an action; however, many actions and ideologies are pre-determined using moral judgment and utilitarianism by government organizations and community leaders and solidified within laws, regulations, and rules. As norms shift in society so does societyu2019s understanding of what is deviant and considered to be deviance, and what is not.

A program that compiles all official U.S. data on crime.

The uniform crime report is an official government program that collects reliable and statistically accurate data regarding criminal behavior and occurrences within the United States and has operated since 1930. The use of data collected through the program is for use by law enforcement officials as well as study by criminal justice students. The data is available for both public and private use by researchers and media alike. The uniform crime report is divided into eight categories for crime.

The conditional release of an offender who, for a specific period and subject to certain conditions, remains under court supervision in the community.

Probation reflects the restorative aspect of criminal justice systems, where individuals who show behavioral, ideological, and mental reform are rewarded with early release from incarceration under specific limitations and conditions. Probation is a process that involves multiple people working in many different roles to ensure the individual on probation is a beneficial member of society (I.E. acting in alignment with the social norms and mores considered acceptable) and their specific community. Many stereotypes surround probation and individuals on probation including ideas of violence, lack of trust, and more.

A theory of crime that includes gender in its analysis

Feminist criminology is the application of gender to criminal analysis to criminal understand actions and deviant behavior to understand how gender identity intersects and affects each. Feminist criminology is similar in concept to feminist theory in the sense that both apply gender to a larger, more generalized means of analysis to understand how gender as a specific factor changes variables, actions, and ideas.

The unreported crime that goes on in the United States

The dark figures of crime are the unknown statistics that represent the criminal actions in the United States that go unnoticed, underreported, or not reported at all. Some of the criminal actions that most commonly comprise the dark figures of crime include the following: tax evasion, illegal drug use, illegal gambling, traffic violations, domestic assault, and more. The general concept of these dark figures of crime exists to remind and represent the idea and fact that not all deviant behavior can be identified and/or stopped, and therefore in society deviant behavior will continue to exist in quantities that law enforcement officials and even the general public do not recognize and/or report.

Financially motivated, nonviolent, or non-direct violent crime committed by individuals, businesses, and government professionals.

White-collar crime shares the same violation of norms and mores that general/traditional crime does but is specifically motivated by financial desires, is generally non-violent, and can occur in a non-direct manner. White-collar crime can be a corporate crime as well, but white-collar crime occurs in economic and industry sectors that are more profitable than manual labor and other lower-paying economic sectors. Singular individuals, whether in a public or private business or government entity, as well as entire businesses can be held accountable and charged with committing white-collar crimes. Some white-collar crimes on smaller scales can go unnoticed for years.

Dishonest and/or immoral conduct by those that have power.

Corruption, or corrupt behavior, is any action that is viewed by another individual in society or the entirety of society and deemed in violation of social norms and mores. Additionally, corrupt behavior generally is deemed dishonest through the use of lies, cover-ups, and other tactics to divert the truth from coming to light and continue getting away with the deviant behavior. Corrupt individuals are also generally associated with the collapse of internal social morals and the alignment of actions with harmful, destructive ideological beliefs for the larger whole of society.

The bond between individuals and the social order that constrains some individuals from violating social norms.

A social bond is a connection between two or more individuals that creates an emotional, non-tangible sense of unity and meaning between the two. Social bonds help establish shared senses of identity and meaning which inevitably help shape the acceptable and normalized behaviors and ideologies in a given society. Social bonds can also be formed through alignments with different social norms among individuals, and social bonds are subject to change over time. Social bonds can both enforce the following social bonds in society, or they can reinforce the behavior to break social norms in society — all depending on what ideas and actions are being reinforced in that specific social bond.

The killing of one individual by another

Homicide is a specific form of deviant criminal behavior where an individual kills another individual, whether on purpose or by accident. Homicide aligns itself with the taboo of most societies that surrounds the death of another individual at the hands of a person. Homicide is deemed one of the most extreme violations of social norms possible.

Any violation of the law in which a computer is the target or means of criminal activity.

Computer crime, or cybercrime, shares the same violation of norms and mores that general/traditional crime does but occurs online and targets computers, and computer programs, and exists in a digital form. The rise of cybercrime follows suit with the major societal advances in technology and the increase in technological tools used throughout all aspects of human life. Cybercrime is particularly dangerous in modern society due to 1) its difficulty to be identified consistently and traced to the aggressor, and 2) its significant underreporting that results in a decreased level of deemed social threat by the general public. Cybercrimes can occur to individual people on personal computers or devices or can be targeted towards large enterprises and companies to gather information and data regarding their customers.

The delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes.

Criminal justice is the enforcement of morality into action in society to effectively right any wrongs that have occurred due to deviant, criminal behavior. Criminal justice and criminal justice systems are designed to provide corrective consequences to assure society that peace and stability will be upheld, and the scale of the consequences in intensity per the intensity of deviance that occurs in each criminal action. Criminal justice systems operate to uphold the social good and enforce behaviors and ideological beliefs that benefit society as a whole.