Nonviolent Crime and Criminals

1. Nonviolent Crime and Criminals Chapter 6

2. Substance Related Crimes and Criminals

3. Introduction • Crimes committed to gain access to narcotics • Crimes committed to resolve drug related disputes • Behavioral reaction to mind altering influence of drugs • Loss of control • Increased sense of grandiosity • Uncontrollable conduct stimulated

4. Drug Related Crimes and Criminals • Definition of substance abuse • Risk Factors affecting connection between drug use and crime • Pharmacological effects • Violence associated with drug use • Drugs effect brain function and perception • Economic effects • Violent and nonviolent crimes committed to obtain illegal substances • Crimes committed to maintain dependence and avoid withdrawal • Systematic connection • One involved in selling drugs seeks justice for unpaid debts

5. Drug Related Crimes and Criminals • Drug crime relationship explanations and treatment • Non causal, epiphenomenal • Drugs don’t cause crime and crime doesn’t cause drug use • Treat through psychoanalytic/behavioral therapy • Unidirectional • Crime caused drug use and drug use causes crime • Treat through twelve step programs • Bi-directional • Drugs and crime are causes and effects of one another • Treat by establishing therapeutic communities

6. Drug Related Crimes and Criminals • Walter’s integrated model • Incentive and opportunity • Established through fear – fear of rejection by drug using peer group • Fear manifests when exposure to drug culture is great • Associations with others • Drawn to life of crime/drug use through dispositional/situational factors • Personality characteristics of individual • Individual expectations of drug use • Quality of associations in drug culture

7. Drug Related Crimes and Criminals • Walter’s integrated model cont. • Initiation and maintenance of criminal lifestyle • Predisposing variables – already at risk for drug involvement • Family history of drug use • Pre-existing tendency to act impulsively/aggressively • Precipitating variables – introduction to drug use lifestyle • Peer or intimate introduction • Experience with economic rewards • Maintenance variable – encouragement of sustained involvement • Ready source of income and/or recreational activity

8. Alcohol Related Crimes and Criminals • Personality traits correlated to criminal behavior while intoxicated • Sensation seekers • Risk takers • Impulsivity • Low self esteem • Low self efficacy • aggression • Alcohol intoxication and behavioral changes • Increased aggression • Higher risk taking – especially in men • Willingness to drive while intoxicated • Engagement in property damage • Gambling • High risk sexual behavior

9. Drug Dealing • Highest arrest rates • Harshest penalties • Neighborhood characteristics • Central location of community • Physical deterioration • Social disorganization • Predicting drug use • Low income of community residents • Low status of residents occupations

10. Drug Dealing • Drug dealer profile • Sell as alternative to low paying job or unemployment • Overwhelmingly African-American/minorities • Drug arrest practices • Arrests in socially disorganized areas more accessible • Arrest practices in mid and upper class neighborhoods more difficult • Police patrol disorganized neighborhoods more frequently and intensely

11. Drug and Crime Involved Women • Female drug offenders tend to come from families where drug dependence and criminal behavior are common • Positive non criminal and non drug using relationships help females in rehabilitation to discontinue drug use • Females who enter drug treatment become dependent on social and family support

12. Legal Aspects of Substance Related Crime • Debate over whether alcohol/drug addictions are disabling illnesses or deliberate acts of misconduct • Diminished mental capacity not appropriate defense when intoxication is voluntary • Involuntary intoxication – one can rely on diminished capacity defense • Substance induced disorders can be claimed as diminished capacity in face of criminal charges

13. Treatment Opportunities • Some states offer treatment programs for addicts • Small percentage of drug users receive needed treatment/rehabilitation

14. Organized Crime

15. Money Laundering • Evolving universal definition of money laundering • Current wide ranging definitions • Concealing the existence of income, then disguising it to make it appear legitimate • Process of taking proceeds of criminal activity and making them appear legal • Goal of making funds derived from illicit activity appear legitimate • Major participants • Illegal drug traffickers • Illegal arms dealers

16. Money Laundering • Essential activities to money laundering • Placement • Changing illicitly derived money into a non illicit form and then placing that money into a legitimate financial system • Layering • Movement of these funds to conceal illicit funds • Integration • Reintroduction of the money into a legitimate financial economy

17. Gambling/Loan Sharking/Numbers Running • Monetary proceeds received second only to illegal drug sale and distribution • Bookmaking • Taking bets on sporting events – bookies get interest on losses • Loan Sharking • Bookies lend money to gambler with high interest rates • Numbers Running • Similar to “daily number” of state lotteries • Cheaper and better pay offs • Caters to and facilitated by poor urbanites

18. Racketeering • Definition • Includes but not limited to murder, kidnapping, gambling, arson, embezzlement, bribery • Don’t have to commit to be charged (co-conspirator) • Labor racketeering • Illegal infiltration into labor unions for personal • Victims are members of labor unions • Skimming • Money taken off the top of cash transactions • Unreported, tax free income • Bankruptcy fraud • Partner with legitimate business establishments to commit fraud • Organized crime syndicates obtain money/merchandise without the bank’s knowledge and legitimate business files bankruptcy

19. White Collar Crime

20. Defining White Collar Crime • Edwin Sutherland • Crime committed by respectable person of high social status in the course of their occupation • Too general • Donald Gibbons • Violation of business rules to benefit legitimate enterprises • Does not account for fraud and embezzlement • Clinnard & Quinney • Occupational crime • Non violent infractions of legal codes within an otherwise legitimate enterprise • US Congressional Subcommittee on Crime • Illegal act committed by nonphysical means and concealment to obtain money/property or personal/business advantage

21. Embezzlement • Definition • Theft of goods that one had been entrusted with by another • Criminal profiles • Often highly educated • Known to the person from whom they are stealing • Tend to be the model employee • Manipulative and scheming • Triggers • Economic hardship • Manufactured economic needs • To compensate for health care or treatment needs

22. SEC Violations – Insider Trading • Misperception of insider trading definition • Insiders with trading restrictions • Directors/owners/officers that have decision making authority affecting the entire organization • Illegal insider trading • Information not made public used for personal profit • No clear definition of what comprises insider information

23. SEC Violations – Securities Fraud • Securities and commodities fraud • The sale, transfer, or purchase of securities or money interests in business activities of others • “Boiler-room” operations • Used to promote sales of fraudulent securities or to acquire charitable donations from unknowing donators

24. Fraud

25. Internet Fraud • Five general types • Auction and retail schemes • Business opportunity schemes • Identity theft and fraud • Investment schemes • Credit card schemes • Acts to prevent spammers • Computer Fraud and Abuse Act • Communications Privacy Act • Legal consequences • Imprisonment • Serious fines

26. Telemarketing Fraud • False promises made offering goods or services, requesting investments or asking for charitable donations • Differentiating fraud from legitimate enterprises • Goals of illegitimate enterprises • Make the scheme seem to be a charitable cause worthy of payment • Obtaining immediate payment – before victim can inspect value • Devising a perception of validity • Reloading • Fraudulent operations re approaches those victims it has been successful in scheming in the past • Geographical location • Less likely that tracking will occur if the victim and the illegitimate business are in separate states.

27. Telemarketing Fraud • Varying telemarketing schemes • Charity schemes • Credit card schemes • Lottery schemes • Magazine/prize promotion • Credit repair and loan schemes • Investment/business opportunity schemes

28. Identity Theft and Identity Fraud • Loose definition • Purpose • Personal information obtained and used by offenders • Methods • Shoulder surfing • Dumpster diving • 1998 law – Identity Theft and Assumption Deterrence Act

29. Other types of Fraud • Health care fraud • Submission of false claims • Payment or receipt of bribes • Self referrals

30. Offenders and Victims • Victim characteristics • Anyone – especially if careless • Elderly more vulnerable to financial fraud • Victims of internet fraud • Careless in disclosing personal data while online • Agree to pay advance fees • Victims of identity theft and fraud • Extremely trusting • Disclose personal information to others (known and unknown) • Victims of telemarketing fraud • Victims of fraudulent behavior in past • Names purchased from lead brokers • Offenders • Motivated by money • Low recidivism rate

31. Internet Crime

32. Electronically Generated Child Pornography • Definition of crime • Knowingly mailing/transporting any child pornography • Child pornography prevention act (1996) • What computer generated child pornography can lead to • Pedophiles use images to whet deviant appetites and lure children into sexually explicit activities • Desensitizes viewers into a pathology of sexual abuse/exploitation of children

33. Cyberstalking • Use of the internet to harass victims • Practices • Search chat rooms for vulnerable individuals • Spy on a person’s online activities anonymously

34. Stalking

35. Background Information • Common elements • Unwanted behavioral intrusion • Implicit or explicit threat • Reasonable fear is experienced • Varying clinical definitions • Obsessional following • Treatment is relatively new • Collection of stalking scarce until recently

36. Love obsessional stalker • Celebrity stalking • Offender profiles • Mental illness • Lack of successful intimate relationships • Socially maladjusted • Initiate correspondence with the victim and when they do not receive a response – frustration and anger

37. Erotomanic stalker • Delusional thought patterns convince the offender he/she is truly loved by the victim • Perpetrators are usually female and rarely act in physically violent manner • Victims are typically men of high socio-economic status or celebrity status

38. Stalker profile/motivations • Antisocial personality disorder • More violent stalkers • Borderline personality disorder • Unrealistic sense of importance of relationship’s intensity • Stalks after being rejected after short term relationship • Histrionic personality disorder • Emotionally dramatic stalkers • Considers relationships more intimate than they are • Narcissistic personality disorder • Rely on stalking fantasies to fulfill their own psychological emptiness

39. Predispositional Theories • Disturbances in early attachment relationships • Recent loss in adulthood acting as a triggering factor • Terminated marriage • Loss of a job • Messy divorce • Death of a parent

40. Sexual Harassment

41. Developments in the Law • Not addressed until 1986 • Two prong test to determine a hostile work environment • Reasonableness standard • Perception standard • Treating sexual harassment as outcome of a legal test that takes into consideration totality of circumstances in the workplace

42. Sexual Harassment: Types, Models and Modalities • Types • Quid pro quo • Supervisor demanding sexual favors in exchange for tangible job benefits • Hostile work environment • Employee is a victim of unwelcome sexual conduct • Broad based models • Sex role spillover theory • Tendency of men to invoke sex based stereotypes • Sexual harassment is the result of an encouraging individual and situational factors

43. Modalities • Verbal Harassment • Physical harassment • Visual hrassment

44. Mental health concerns • Victims suffer from anger, depression, anxiety and substance use/abuse • Poor coping mechanisms lead to more serious psychopathologies • Females experience higher levels of psychological distress than male victims

45. Property Crimes

46. Theft • Larceny theft • Unlawful taking, carrying leading or riding away of property from the possession of another • Results in more arrests for females and juveniles • Burglary • Unlawful entry of a structure to commit a felony or theft • Motivation • Drug use • Offenders lifestyles • Know others who engage in deviance • Exposure to criminal activities • Absence of capable guardians

47. Theft • Unemployment has a positive impact on commission of property crimes • Unemployment Property Crimes

48. Arson • Willful and malicious burning of property • Essential components to designate an act as arson • Burning of property or actual destruction of a target • Presence of intent • Condition of malice

49. Arson • Types of arson • Serial arsonist • Three or more fire setting incidents with cooling off periods between • Unpredictable and most serious • Spree arsonist • Three or more fires at separate locations with no cooling off period • Mass arsonist • Three or more fires at same location within a limited amount of time

50. Motivations – John Douglas • Vandalism • Excitement • Revenge • Crime concealment • profit