Shadowing Practice: Ch 1 Intro to Crim - Learn English Speaking with Video

This is chapter one, Introduction to Criminology.

So in this chapter, it's basically going to set up the scope of pretty much everything that the textbook covers.

So that means this lecture is like a really brief snapshot of a lot of stuff

that we're going to go into much more in depth later.

But really the chapter is kind of setting up the idea of, you know, what is crime, how it has various definitions,

you know, that there's a big difference between criminology and just what is, you know, criminal justice, which is different as a system.

And then of course, you know, it'll talk a little bit about theories, and then of victimology.

So all of those things we are going to explore more in depth later in subsequent chapters

so if you don't get it all right now that's totally fine we're gonna jump into it later

so anyway this is your little tip of the iceberg

introduction chapter okay

so some of the key concepts in understanding criminology is crime right there are various definitions of crime

so there's some that are legalistic approaches, which is basically that crime is a violation of law, right?

And, you know, as this is a sociology course, you know, what is law, if not just the norms we have in society,

or the values that we have, that are then codified into our systems of laws, right?

So you violate a norm or an expectation of how someone should behave, you know, that's so like,

let's say, you wear sandals out when it's raining right

that kind of violates a norm

but the fashion police aren't going to lock you up

and put you in jail right

but a crime is specific to violating an established law right

so stealing or you know killing a person or something like

that because our value systems say that you shouldn't do

that they've been codified into law and therefore you know

so anyway basically you can define crime as breaking the law

right um you can define it in sometimes as you know as what they call mala

and say or just an act is inherently or essentially evil right

so the kind of immorality that can be connected to some forms of crime right

so it's really that's more about it being just a bad thing

or you know somehow like an evil person sometimes we'll talk

about this in regards to uh people like serial killers right they'll say like oh they're evil right um

or you know that basically again just the value system

or the understanding of the crime is outside of whether

or not it violates a specific law

and then mala prohibita is more about you know something

that is not inherently immoral but it becomes so because it's expressively forbidden by positive law. And then there's deviance.

So deviance is something we talk about a lot when it comes to criminology or a sociological approach to crime,

is sometimes deviance isn't about something that's, you know, specifically against the law, but maybe just things that are considered wrong,

or not normative, going against what's considered appropriate, right?

So sometimes deviance isn't really even about it being illegal it's more about it just not being normal right

or being different than what's expected so other acts of deviance are not necessarily immoral

but are considered you know just strange right doing something just being kind of a weirdo right like

if you look at like the west memphis three they got

looped into this whole situation where they got accused of a crime they didn't commit

and put in jail for many many years why because they were kind of weirdo kids that listened to metal.

So there was this whole idea that they were just satanic killers, right?

When it was really just, they just had long hair and listened to metal and that's what made them deviant.

They weren't breaking a law.

They weren't doing anything wrong.

They were just doing something that wasn't considered normal.

But deviants and crime can be connected as some acts kind of move from being deemed deviant to being deemed illegal,

or Whereas sometimes things that were considered illegal in the past are just considered kind of deviant now.

So we can see how our moralistic

or value systems of a culture really impact the ways in which we understand what's considered right and wrong.

And that's what then motivates what we consider deviant or not.

So of course, deviance is something we will literally talk about through the entire class.

So if you're not 100 % what I'm talking about right now, no worries, we'll get there.

okay so moving on to what is criminology and what is criminal justice so criminology is the scientific study of crime Right.

And this is something that's been developed, you know, for many, basically since the late 1800s,

you've had a pretty rigorous kind of scientific understanding of crime.

And actually, when I say rigorous, we'll talk about some of those theories in future lectures.

You'll see what I mean.

Some of them are really weird where they were like, hey, you can look at someone and be like, you're a criminal.

Right.

Because they got a weird nose or whatever.

Or some of them were like, well, if we measure the shape and size of someone's head, then we can determine if they're criminal.

Right.

So not all of this quote unquote science was super sciency at the beginning, especially a lot of it was very racist.

But anyway, we'll get to that later so um

but just to understand that this was kind of

when it was you know criminology first came about as a

discipline um really to try to hopefully apply a scientific study

um to the understandings of crime why do people commit it

right what are the patterns involved how can we then mitigate crime how can we reduce it right

so we'll talk much more about that and then of course, you know, criminal justice itself is a large system,

right, that is used in society to enforce the standards of conduct

that we consider that we basically need to protect people in communities, right?

So how do we enforce the laws?

How do we make sure that the things

that we consider illegal are then monitored or punished

or you know any of that prevented

so the criminal justice system is complicated we'll talk about it a bunch there's a whole bunch of different levels

but in a nutshell right they're basically there to apprehend prosecute convict and sentence people who violate basic rules or basic laws,

right, that govern group existence, right?

So how in a society can we function appropriately?

Well, part of that mechanism can often be making sure people adhere to kind of a code of conduct, right?

So having a value system, a morality to say it's bad to kill people, sure, that can be good and we can all agree to that.

But then how do you make sure people actually don't kill other people, right?

So that's kind of where the criminal justice system has come from.

The goal is really to control crime, prevent crime, and provide and maintain justice.

So it has a couple different components, which we'll talk about in a moment.

But before we jump into all the specific layers of the criminal justice system,

it's also important to really understand the different perspectives of crime, which we're going to obviously jump much more into later,

there's kind of just in a nutshell, the consensus perspective.

So this views the formal system of laws

and the enforcement of law as incorporating the norms in society to a broad consensus, meaning the laws are the way they are,

because it helps the most people.

It's really a reflection of what people think and their values.

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And this is coming from some, you know, late 19th century and early 20th century sociologists, which we'll talk about later,

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like Durkheim, obviously Durkheim, Weber, Ross, and Sumner.

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And it's assumed that, you know, most people, it's kind of like a logic based thing.

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So we're going to talk about a whole bunch of different theories of crime later.

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And we'll kind of break this down, right?

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Is a person rational?

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Are they not all this kind of fun stuff

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so it's assumed from this kind of consensus perspective

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that most of us understand what right and wrong is right

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and we understand what the laws are and what will happen

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if we violate them right like

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if you speed on the freeway you know there's a chance you can then get a ticket right

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and you're gonna have to pay that ticket

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or all sorts of other consequences happen right so the idea is

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that people obey laws because they've internalized the societal norms It's not about being punished.

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It's not about, you know, the deviance of being bad.

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It's really about wanting to adhere to the social norms of the group.

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Right.

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We'll talk about Durkheim later.

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That dude was all about that stuff.

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He was really interested in how societies function and, you know, this kind of solidarity that develops in society.

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So he looked at religion, he looked at a whole bunch of other crap, but basically he, you know, tried to understand how, again, we'll talk about it later,

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but this idea of mechanical solidarity, organic solidarity, that different kinds of societies have different kinds of solidarity, and it's going to depend on the kind of,

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how complicated the lifestyle or the organization of that society is, and how that complexity or non -complexity affects how people.

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kind of then come to a cohesive agreement.

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So in a more primitive society, where everybody pretty much has this very similar lifestyle, right?

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They have the same religious beliefs, they have the same kind of daily life, right?

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Like, let's say you're looking at someone who's subsistence farming, right?

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Like, there's a whole society of folks that they have the same religious belief system.

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Basically, their life is like, we grow and eat sweet potatoes all day, right that the shared solidarity comes from having the same experiences

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and understanding each other right versus organic solidarity

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which we'll talk about much more in depth later is this

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idea in a more complicated society like our own where lots

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of people have varying different specialized jobs right as technology has developed and there's so many more kind of nuances to society.

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Like I need there to be doctors, veterinarians, mechanics, grocery store workers, or as we saw through the pandemic, right?

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You needed essential workers to be manning their stations so that the rest of society can continue to function.

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So he calls that organic solidarity.

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The idea that the kind of solidarity we have in more complicated societies comes from the fact

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that we need each other, right?

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Like we rely upon all those other people doing their jobs so that we can kind of function correctly, right?

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So anyway, basically, that was a very dominant perspective from kind of a criminological understanding for a long time.

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But it hasn't really been super popular as a theory since about the 1950s.

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And we'll talk about why hint social changes.

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But anyway, and then there's the conflict perspective, which absolutely we'll talk a lot about

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and this is the idea of you know kind of uh

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you know we'll talk about it in somewhat of a marxian way as well

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but the idea that when there's conflicts in society between various groups

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that can mean that they have different interests right

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so in the classic karl marx conflict you're talking about social class

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and those who have and those who don't right

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but some of this is going to be specifically applied to um

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when it comes to material conditions within neighborhoods

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or within society as a whole right that conflict is often resolved

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when a group in power can then achieve control

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so we'll have a lot of different theorists we'll talk about like obviously i mean marx is the big guy

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but you know quinney chambliss uh turk a few of these folks

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that they specifically focus on how do we understand criminal behavior through this conflicts perspective right

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that we need to kind of understand this this really what

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it what are what are the mechanisms causing this in the first place right is it the chicken

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or the egg kind of situation meaning let's say people have

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very few legitimate opportunities to financial success in American society

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and as those financial opportunities are getting harder

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and harder to get i .e you have to get a

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college degree you have to you know find a specific career

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that pays a lot of money

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and even then it's going to be very difficult sometimes to

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get a you know to have a decent standard of living

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so how then does

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that contribute to crime right as we have a handful of

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people in this country have more wealth than over 90 of the other people in this country

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right that's how are those material conditions affecting the ways in

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which crime happens right so we'll talk more about that as well

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but again just kind of dipping our toe in at this point

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okay so going a little bit more into that criminal justice system

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and again we'll talk about it more later

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and i'm sure you've heard of it right you're not taking a intro to criminology course

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and you're like what's the criminal justice system but anyway just in case you were totally in the dark

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Like I said before, the goals are to control crime, prevent crime, and provide and maintain justice.

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So there's three different components there.

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You got law enforcement, courts, and corrections.

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Of course, there are different levels of law enforcement.

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You got federal law enforcement, and these are established to enforce specific statutes

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that are just federal laws right um so these are usually highly specialized units

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that have specialized training and resources so

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when you think of federal law enforcement you think of stuff like the fbi right the federal bureau of investigation

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or maybe the dea the drug enforcement administration secret service u .s marshals right groups like

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that the atf right um so anyway or you know as as we call it

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DHS the Department of Homeland Security so any of those kind of like bigger federal

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agencies are typically like

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if you think about like like uh um atf aka eventually

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homeland security they're looking at different stuff than the dea than

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the fbi than the secret service like they're kind of specialized

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in what it is they actually cover right um versus state

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level law enforcement these are usually going to be um in two different models you got state police

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and then you typically have highway patrols as well

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so state police have general police powers to enforce state laws

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and they usually have routine patrol and traffic that they're really focusing on

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and but then they also have within state police you have specialized units

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that look at things like major crimes or drugs

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or maybe they have you know like crime lab folks they have juvenile units all

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that kind of fun stuff

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and then highway patrol they their primary focus is to enforce the laws of the road right

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so all the vehicle codes like making sure like the cars

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are functioning the way they are like your brake light isn't out all

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that kind of crap um that you're going at safe speed

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or driving conditions are safe all that kind of fun stuff

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and they can also investigate crimes that occur in specific locations

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that are under their jurisdiction like places that are state property

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or under a highway or things like that

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that aren't necessarily like specifically a federal or a local territory

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and then local law enforcement is really divided into counties

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and municipalities so this is the most like

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when you think of police it's pretty much local police you're thinking of right

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so this is the primary law enforcement for most counties or county sheriff's office.

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And what's interesting about that is it does have an influence on,

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obviously, like the local residents have an influence on these departments in the ways that sheriffs are often elected officials or positions.

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So, you know, kind of local residents can have some say in the kind of policing

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that they want to take place in their area.

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So the majority of local police officers are employed by municipalities, right, like cities or things like that and

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so local agencies are responsible for the nuts

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and bolts of law enforcement responsibilities the kind of calls to your house all

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that kind of you know day -to -day stuff

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that takes place okay moving on to courts a whole nother complicated thing super fun stuff

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so anyway um courts you got federal courts oh

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so you got basically uh 52 different systems you have one for each state you have the district of columbia

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and then you have the federal government

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so it's just an interesting situation where we have this kind

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of our federal courts have a three -tiered model you have the district courts

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which are basically the trial courts

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and other specialized ones then you have the court of appeals

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so the district courts are the ones you go to with your court case you're like hey i'm suing this

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or i'm getting sued whatever it is.

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That's like where you go to court.

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And then the appeals is when, you know, obviously you're appealing a decision from a lower court.

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And then the Supreme Court is going to be the ultimate say in any of those kind of things.

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So even though we're talking about federal courts, you can see here that we have Supreme Court at the federal level, Supreme Court at the state level.

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So it's a similar kind of level, right, where you have kind of checks from the next level above on the lower one.

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So for instance, the federal Supreme Court, they only take X amount of cases, but a lot of cases are kind of funneled up that direction.

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And in recent years, sometimes for more political reasons.

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So we'll get into that later.

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Okay.

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State courts are also kind of tiered.

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So you have lower courts are kind of like smaller deals or not as complicated.

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Then you have trial courts where you know that's the kind of ones you're thinking of

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when you have to go to like do jury duty

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or something like

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that then appellate courts a similar thing with federal right that's

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where you're going to be kind of maybe challenging the ruling from one of those trial courts

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and then each state has their own state supreme court as well

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so jurisdiction is really about how before you can actually bring

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a case to a court you have to figure out who has jurisdiction right

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so who's basically in charge of the people or the areas with

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that are involved within those cases

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so um you know it's it there's different categories for this

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so lower courts are often very limited in their jurisdiction they don't have power

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that extends to the overall administration of justice

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so lower courts do not try felony cases and they don't have appellate authority versus, you know, um,

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that you look at the jurisdiction for you know major trial courts is pretty general right

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so they have the power and authority to try

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and decide any case including appeals from a lower court

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and then the appellate

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or appeals courts are limited in jurisdiction on matters of appeal from lower courts

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so they're not going to look at any case they're only going to look at the ones

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that are being challenged from a lower court case right didn't

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i say this would be really exciting anyway sorry okay we'll

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get through it i swear it's where this will all make

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sense eventually all right corrections is like you've been charged you've been convicted you've been sentenced right

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so now you are in the correctional system

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so this means someone can be put on probation or incarcerated or maybe put in a community -based corrections facility

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so um just obviously most of this stuff i'm assuming you know what it is

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but we're just going to touch upon it briefly.

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So probation is just an arrangement between the sentencing authorities and an offender.

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And this involves an offender complying with certain terms for a specified amount of time in order to return to the community.

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So let's say probation could be, okay, you have to do a hundred hours community service and you're able to return to this community, right?

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Or once you've done this, this court ordered therapy, or maybe once you've done this anger management course

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or you know this parental training course

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or whatever it might be then you're able to return to the community right and

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so there's some um conditions involved in probation the general conditions

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are usually about reporting to a supervising officer meaning your probation

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officer you have to continue to obey the laws there's certain

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things you lose like your fourth amendment protections against unlawful search

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and seizure meaning when you're on probation there is no fourth amendment protection basically you're already suspect

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so they can just submit you to searches whenever they want right um you can't have uh drugs

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when you're on probation makes sense um or be in possession of firearms

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if you're on probation so there's certain general conditions

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and then the specific conditions are going to be specific to

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that individual and the kind of crime or the kind of issue that they're talking about.

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So this could be like, let's say, you know, it's about a drug issue, something like going to a methadone clinic,

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or getting drug tested, right, that would be a specific condition,

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or it could be something like being on house arrest,

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or, you know, again, having to go to a certain kind of court ordered training or something of that nature,

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or maybe psychological or psychiatric treatment.

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And then correction facilities themselves, you got jails, you got prisons.

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So the difference there is jail is typically for people convicted of minor crimes, and you're really just used to house people that are awaiting trial often.

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While prisons are often people who are convicted of much more serious crimes with longer sentences.

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So it's not always exactly this rule

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but basically think of it as under a year jail over a year prison right it's not always

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that but it's it's it's you know similar and say it means

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that you know sometimes people can be in jail for a

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while awaiting their trial or you know going through

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that kind of whole process but you know president you're typically there

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because you've gotten you know maybe a felony sentence or a longer sentence.

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So there's different types of prisons depending on the security concerns, right?

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So we know there's like the minimum security prisons, you know, like the white collar criminals get to go to these prisons where they like,

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I don't know, get to like play golf and just do stuff where you're like, is that prison?

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You got medium securities, maximum securities, and then of course, the infamous super max facilities for people

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that we consider you know very violent or dangerous criminals um

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and of course there are a lot of alternatives to traditional incarceration

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which we will discuss such as uh going to halfway houses um work study releases um again house arrest

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or you know electronic monitoring they put like a you know a ankle monitor on you

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or something like that or just centers where you show up each day

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and report to instead of being incarcerated why is

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that important we'll talk about it a whole bunch later

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but the the nutshell idea here is that

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when you still feel connected to the community there's more likelihood of you reforming right

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but the more we cut the individual off from their community

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and from society the less motivation there really is to reform so we'll talk about that later.

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Okay, moving on to comparative criminology.

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So comparative criminology is the study of the nature and the extent of crime and criminal justice systems across societies.

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So this should address questions like, why do some societies have lower crime rates than others?

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What are the differences and similarities in crime definitions and control across social and cultural frontiers?

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And how do theoretical models relating to crime actually translate to cultures?

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And well, as we talk about different theories throughout this class, you'll see some of them are pretty interesting,

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but some of them are very difficult to apply to real people in real circumstances versus others are very applicable.

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Parsimony.

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So, OK, side note, I teach research methods in criminal justice at Cal State Fullerton,

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and we get all into this.

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So I'm trying to like, how do I make this not super complicated?

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Okay, basically, um, you know, the whole Occam's razor thing, where it's like, if it seems like the most likely thing, it's that, right?

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It's kind of like in a lot of criminal cases, they'll say, Oh, well, the wife was killed, then the first suspect is the husband, right?

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That kind of idea that it's kind of explaining a phenomenon like criminal activity in the simplest way possible.

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Meaning the simpler theory the better typically um unlike the QAnon

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madness folks uh where they're like oh this person said this

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and this the their last name had seven letters or you know

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and that the number seven represents this

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and that's a sign that's a code for this other thing that means this and therefore

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JFK Jr. who died in the 1990s is going to come back from the dead

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and run with Donald Trump for the presidency in 2024.

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Like these kind of bizarre, I don't understand how they're putting this all together.

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Yeah, that's not how theories really work.

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Typically, theories have to be pretty applicable and straightforward.

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And the more complicated and tenuous and weird and just having weird shifty explanations for things that go around,

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the less and less scientific it becomes, right?

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So this is why testability is important, right?

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How much can we test a theory?

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Empirically, how can we scientifically test something and say, is that true or not?

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Right?

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You know, and really, what's the scope of the theory?

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How big of a thing is it trying to understand?

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Right?

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Is it very limited in a very specific offender?

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Or is it something very, very general?

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The larger in general you get, the harder it is to really encapsulate the really nuanced differences between different groups and different time periods.

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And so as sociologists, we talk about these things as being socially constructed.

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The idea that our time period is going to impact who we are and what we do in a lot of ways, and really how we understand the world.

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So, you know, typically with the scopes of certain theories, if it's very, very narrow scope of a theory, it's not going to be applicable to a lot of situations.

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So oftentimes, there is a goal of a larger scope of a theory, though the larger it gets, the more it can miss those nuances.

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But theories also have to have logical consistency.

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So does it like make sense?

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Like that QAnon crap just does not make sense.

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You know what I mean?

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Like at all.

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If something has to be a signal for something, it doesn't make sense.

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Like that's not...

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Anyway, and then part of testability is empirical validity it's being able to test something

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and measure it

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and say can I actually prove this like for instance you

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know um for the second question here what are the differences

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and similarities in crime definitions and control across social and cultural frontiers

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so look at you know what's the differences between the amount of for instance mass shootings as a crime

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that happen in the U .S versus happen in other countries

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right you can see there's definitely a cultural impact there

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that is not something that happens like in mass in the way

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that it does in the u .s pretty much every year

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in the last many years we've had more mass shootings than days of the year

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while most other industrialized similar countries have had you know maybe a couple tops

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so um it shows that there might be something culturally or socially happening there,

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like the gun worship and NRA stuff and all

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that fun stuff that's affecting our perspective about how to deal with those kinds of crimes, right?

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Or even just that motivates the offenders to commit those kinds of crimes.

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So that's something that in criminological thought, we're really trying to understand is like unpack the offender,

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unpack the social and material conditions around that offender as well.

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but to do so in a way that makes sense that's not like wacky

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and actually can be tested in some sort of way right okay so later we'll talk about

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determining causality or correlation and spuriousness and all that kind of fun stuff

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but not right now okay and then theory also informs policies

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and programs so criminological theory isn't just about like let me pat myself on the back

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and be like hey look at this i know there's crime good for me

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but like what can we then do with

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that information to reduce crime to make the community safer to

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make you know um to lessen the likelihood of people being victimized right

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so anyway we'll talk more about that

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so um victimology is interesting victimology is basically the scientific study

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of victims victimology is a relatively new area of criminology

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which is strange right because as long as there's been crime there's been victims

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but really the ways in which we understand you know um how crime happens

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and who becomes a victim is also something that's really important

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so you know we have ways to try to understand this stuff

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and sometimes this is coming from we'll talk about official data sources later

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but we have like reported crimes and then sometimes we have unreported crimes or what we call, you know, the dark figure of crime or the unknown figures of crime.

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And sometimes things like victimization surveys can really fill in the gaps.

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So we have something called the NCVS, the National Crime Victimization Survey.

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It's basically this thing they send out to representative households and have asked people like,

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have you been the victim of these particular crimes in the last six months?

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and it's a self -reported survey

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so people can kind of answer it without someone standing there

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and asking them that question largely because think about the sensitivity of

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that you know

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and then of course it really asks people did you report this crime to the police

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and what they find is a lot of filling in the gaps of people

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that were victimized but did not report it to the police

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and there's many reasons why they may not right it might be maybe um their own discomfort towards police

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or maybe living in a marginalized community that feels hyper -policed

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or maybe living in an immigrant community that feels hyper -policed um you know

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that can be a reason or it can be the idea

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that sometimes victims think that they will be blamed for what happened um you know especially

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when it comes to things like sexual violence it's like well

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what were you wearing why did you go with this person have you slept with them before blah blah blah

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which we really don't do with other crimes we're not like

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are you sure you were carjacked are you sure you didn't

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just be like here take my car right it's a he said she said right we don't really do

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that with other crimes we really do that with women's bodies we'll talk about

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that later but anyway um

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so we really want to understand you know this kind of

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victimology of like how do people pick certain people as as you know they're victims

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and also just how do we then figure out who's most likely to be victimized

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so we can protect them right so um victim precipitation is

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when an individual does or does not do something

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that increases the risk that they will be victimized

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so we'll talk about theories about this later like lifestyles perspective

430

that basically say like let's say you are walking out at night with like a lot of money in your pocket, right?

431

Alone in some, you know, kind of major industrial area, no one's around.

432

Potentially that could affect your likelihood of being victimized, right?

433

Versus, you know, you look at someone like the elderly, the kinds of crimes

434

that they experience are often more about targeting them specifically for their age like scammers

435

or things like that that'll like pretend their grandson was kidnapped

436

and scam them for money or you know scam them in all sorts of ways

437

but it's not often

438

that they're just like beaten up on the street at like two in the morning after going to the bar

439

because that's more of like what happens to younger folks who are out in those spaces at those times

440

so you know who

441

that person is is going to you know affect it like how high risk is their lifestyle

442

and how much is that going to affect the victimology, right?

443

So some people that are harming others are going to look for more high risk victims, like let's say people who are,

444

you know, unhoused or people who are, you know, sex workers or things like that, that might make them more vulnerable in those situations.

445

So anyway, part of what we're doing in, you know, criminological thought is trying to,

446

you know, basically reduce the probability that people are going to be harmed or offended against.

447

So when looking at the incidence or prevalence of victimization, each type of individual...

448

Um, you know, we really want to know like which, who's most likely to be harmed for whichever kinds of crimes we're looking at.

449

So for instance, younger people are more likely to be victims in a lot of crimes

450

because they're not as psychologically adept or they don't have as much power and control in their lives.

451

Um, intra -racial violence is more frequent, meaning oftentimes violence happens within racial groups more so than between.

452

Um, violent crimes, particularly homicide has actually dropped like dramatically since the 1990s though

453

that's not like what you see on tv we'll talk about

454

that later and you know you have things like um child abuse

455

and neglect that has decreased a lot in the last few decades

456

but really just because we've changed the way that we deal with this

457

and again you're going to get that sprinkled in unfortunately I also teach a class called Family Violence at Cal State Fullerton,

458

and we really talk about the kind of issues

459

that were happening in the past where so many people were being abused

460

that it wasn't getting acknowledged because doctors didn't feel comfortable reporting these things, teachers weren't backed up.

461

So now we have these kind of mandatory reporting laws, right?

462

Like if you see a kid and there's something kind of fishy about that bruise that they have or the way that, you know, the interactions happening between parents,

463

then, you know, or if they show up at the ER with certain kinds of things, oftentimes they'll get reported at this point to this kind of mandatory reporting system just to make sure,

464

you know because the worst thing that happens to a parent where that's happening, where that's not the case is they get called upon by someone from, you know, CPS, Child Protective Services,

465

just to like double check.

466

But what happens to those kids who aren't caught through that net, right?

467

A lot of them can suffer in horrible situations of abuse.

468

So really, in many, you know, ways, it was the training and the ways in

469

which we've involved those kind of frontline folks

470

that deal with kids the most whether it be doctors

471

or teachers to help be invested in preventing

472

and really reporting these crimes early on when they happen

473

so they don't you know often result in as many deaths as they used to

474

so anyway um you know like any other type of violent

475

crime you know um there are databases trying to understand this stuff

476

and you know there are ways in

477

which um agencies have been really created just to promote awareness of what rights kids have

478

and what protections and services are offered to them if they need help.

479

Okay, then looking at compensation or restitution.

480

So the main distinction between victim compensation versus restitution is that compensation is given by the state or the government itself,

481

and restitution is given by the offender, typically as part of a sentence that they are given, like as part of their punishment.

482

So victim compensation programs are typically handled by victim services unit at local counties or offices.

483

And restitution is more about when an offender, if that's part of their sentence, then they'll have to pay some sort of restitution often.

484

But the likelihood that a victim gets it is not as high.

485

Because think about it this way.

486

Does the state have the money to help you?

487

Yes.

488

Does the federal government?

489

Yes.

490

Does this offender?

491

Maybe not.

492

You know, oftentimes victims don't get, don't fare as well in getting that kind of compensation.

493

Most offenders end up being unemployed or broke.

494

So victims never get that money.

495

Think about it.

496

This person deals with a trauma or something that could have then taken them away from their livelihood, their ability to work, maybe permanently disabled them,

497

you know, all sorts of things that can really have financial consequences as well as other social consequences.

498

So having some sort of way to help them is important.

499

And then, you know, victim impact statements is another thing they talk about briefly in the chapter.

500

So this is when a victim

501

or often a family member of a victim reports to the court about how an offender affected their life.

502

So victim impact statements are still accepted under the law during post verdict guilty sentencing phases

503

so basically like the jury goes in they're like yeah

504

that dude's guilty he killed so and so

505

and then like the family of the person who was killed

506

can come in after the guilty has been you know read

507

but before the judge gives the final kind of say

508

and you know um or the final sentence and say okay here's

509

here's how this affected my life this person was amazing

510

and they took them away or whatever it is I'm sure

511

if you've watched any true crime anything you've seen a victim impact statement

512

or just you know some uh tv versions like the law

513

and order kind of stuff

514

so victim impact statements are only given during the sentencing phase not

515

when the jury is determining the verdict obviously that would be prejudicial

516

and problematic right way um

517

so there's also victims rights awareness meaning just getting more attention to victims

518

and this has to do with you know some well first of all there was a victims of crime act

519

that was passed in 1984

520

which established a federal crime victims fund to support state compensation funds

521

and again because oftentimes you know victims don't realize

522

that there are mechanisms in place to try to help support them through the processes of you know experiencing crime

523

and being a victim of crime

524

so anyway that's just like a nutshell version of some of

525

the stuff we'll be talking about we basically went through a through z there of pretty much all

526

that this textbook is going to go through

527

so we're going to go way more in depth into this

528

and talk much more about the specific theories and ideas

529

that have you know from the past to the now defined our understanding of crime and criminological thought.

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376 sentences

Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This C1 speaking lesson is built on the video “Ch 1 Intro to Crim”. This video has 529 sentences and 6824 words to shadow. The speech runs for 41:15. The speaker talks at a natural 165 words per minute, close to everyday conversation. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
criminology noun		The study of crime and criminals, especially their behaviour.
offender noun	/əˈfen.dɚ/	One who gives or causes offense, or does something wrong.
probation noun	/ˌpɹoʊˈbeɪʃən/	A period of time when a person occupies a position only conditionally and may be removed if certain conditions are not met.
solidarity noun	/ˌsɑ.ləˈdæɹ.ə.ti/	A bond of unity or agreement between individuals, united around a common goal or against a common enemy, such as the unifying principle that defines the labor…
deviance noun	/ˈdiːvɪəns/	Actions or behaviors that violate formal and informal cultural norms such as laws and customs.
specialize verb	/ˈspɛʃəˌlaɪz/	To narrow in scope.
victimology noun	/ˌvɪktɪˈmɒləd͡ʒi/	The study of the victims of crime, and especially of the reasons some people are more prone to be victims.
norm noun	/nɔːm/	That which is normal or typical.
criminological adjective		Of or pertaining to criminology.
oftentimes adverb	/ˈɔf.ənˌtaɪmz/	Frequently; often.
restitution noun	/ˌɹɛstɪˈtuʃən/	A process of compensation for losses.
victimize verb	/ˈvɪktɪmaɪz/	To make (someone) a victim or sacrifice.
violate verb	/ˈvaɪəˌleɪt/	To break or disregard (a rule or convention).
enforce verb	/ɪnˈfoɹs/	To keep up, impose or bring into effect something, not necessarily by force.
deviant noun	/ˈdiː.vi.ənt/	A person who deviates, especially from norms of social behavior.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
go through verb		To travel from one end of something to the other.
figure out verb		To come to understand; to discover or find a solution; to deduce.
set up verb	/ˌsɛt ˈʌp/	To make ready for use.
back up verb		To move backwards, especially for a vehicle to do so.
come back from verb		To become successful, confident or effective again after an injury, setback, failure, embarrassment, etc.
end up verb		To bring to a conclusion.
get through verb	/ɡɛt ˈθɹu/	To overcome; to endure.
go around verb		To move or spread from person to person.

Sentences worth repeating

Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:

You'll see what I mean.
How much can we test a theory?
You know, and really, what's the scope of the theory?
You know what I mean?
Does the state have the money to help you?

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	they've been codified · has come · they've internalized
Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it	they've been codified · can be connected · are considered
Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing	justice, which is · approaches, which is · people who violate

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 145 contractions and reduced forms, such as we'll, you're, they're. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: probation /ˌpɹoʊˈbeɪʃən/, specialize /ˈspɛʃəˌlaɪz/, restitution /ˌɹɛstɪˈtuʃən/, nutshell /ˈnʌt.ʃɛl/, victimization /ˌvɪk.tɪ.maɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/
Long words — get the stress right: solidarity /ˌsɑ.ləˈdæɹ.ə.ti/, victimology /ˌvɪktɪˈmɒləd͡ʒi/, restitution /ˌɹɛstɪˈtuʃən/, victimization /ˌvɪk.tɪ.maɪˈzeɪ.ʃən/, incarcerate /ɪnˈkɑɹ.səˌɹeɪt/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Start at 0.75× speed, shadow it sentence by sentence, then go back to normal speed once it feels easy.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like criminology, offender, probation.

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

Key vocabulary in this video

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Sentences worth repeating

Grammar in this video

Pronunciation to watch

How to practise with this video

What is the Shadowing Technique?