Overview of Typologies and Patterns of Crime

1. Thinking About Crime: Classification and Typologies

In a previous lesson, we discussed how crime is an act that may be prosecuted by the state and is punishable by law. Before we examine crime patterns, we must first consider the social nature of crime and the law. While many people take definitions of crime for granted, it is important to remember that crime is essentially a social construct. In other words, through various social processes—such as voting, political action, cultural practices, and media debates—society collectively decides which types of behavior are considered harmful or criminal.

Definitions of crime and criminal law change over time in response to things like shifting cultural attitudes, significant events, and even technological progress.

EXAMPLE

In the United States, there have been several changes in the past decade affecting the legality of same-sex marriage, cannabis use, cyberbullying, and hate speech.

Finally, criminal law is also influenced by politics and ideology. Given this, some acts that are quite harmful to society (e.g., the credit default swaps that caused the 2008 financial crisis) are perfectly legal, while other acts that cause minor harm (e.g., occasional drug use) are considered criminal offenses.

Although there are disagreements and changing public attitudes about some laws, most people agree that certain acts should be illegal.

EXAMPLE

Murder is viewed as a crime with a few exceptions—no one wants to live in a world where people can randomly kill each other and get away with it. Similarly, most people agree that there should be laws that protect against theft of property and assault.

Agreement about these values is referred to as consensus, which you might recall from an earlier lesson. Given that criminal law is a socially constructed political entity, it is wise to take a critical thinking approach when examining patterns of crime. We must always consider how forms of behavior become defined as a crime, and how the frequency and severity of crime are measured when we are studying phenomena such as the changing rates, seriousness, or nature of criminal activity in a society.

term to know

Consensus

Societal agreement on shared values and norms.

2. Crime Patterns

Crime can be conceptualized in several ways. The most common way people view crime is as harmful acts that are “against the law.” However, many criminologists take a more complex view of the matter and caution that it is unwise to simply see crime as a violation of the law (Beirne & Messerschmidt, 2011). As explained above, the law is technically a social construct, and many acts that cause significant harm are legal, while other acts that cause minimal harm are criminalized.

hint

If criminologists only focus on acts that are violations of criminal law, they miss harms that fall outside of the law, and they risk viewing relatively harmless behavior as a problem simply because it is illegal.

To address these gaps, some criminologists suggest that we view crime as a violation of conduct norms. In other words, it is important to consider what a culture or group deems to be normal or deviant behavior, as this may vary based on geographic location, history, and a variety of other factors. Thus, deviance refers to behaviors that depart from or violate social norms. These behaviors are not necessarily deviant in the literal sense and may not even be criminalized, but these acts may be criminalized in the future due to cultural changes.

EXAMPLE

Adultery (or “cheating on someone”) is considered a deviant act in cultures where monogamy is the norm, but it is rarely criminalized.

Thinking about the relationship between crime and deviance can shed light on why some acts were criminalized in the first place. We can see, then, that the definitions of crime and deviance change over time and differ from culture to culture. To apply a more systematic and objective (i.e., “scientific”) approach to the study of crime, criminologists have developed typologies and other classification systems to organize their thinking about criminal acts.

terms to know

Conduct Norms

Specifications of proper and appropriate behavior generally supported and shared by members of a group. Societies contain different groups whose conduct norms are to some extent divergent.

Deviance

Behavior that departs from or violates social norms.

3. Typologies of Crime Patterns

The National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) has a typology, or special system, for classifying different types of crime:

• Violent crime
• Property crime
• Other crime
• Traffic offenses
• Federal drug offenses
• Other federal law violations

While these classification systems are clearly useful, most typologies fail to capture all types of crime and conceptualize them in a way that is helpful to students new to criminal justice. To address these concerns, this section will review crimes that receive the most attention from criminologists.

We will use the following system of classification throughout the course:

The following lessons will review the definitions of the types of crime listed in the table above and the ways they are considered to have different levels of severity. In addition, some observations will be made about the situations in which these types of crimes occur and any patterns that can be identified.

term to know

Typology

A system of classification.

REFERENCES

Beirne, P., & Messerschmidt, J. W. (2011). Criminology: A sociological approach (5th ed.). Oxford University Press.