GLOSSARY

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P R S T U V W Z

D

dangerous classes    An idea in conflict theory, that personal characteristics (single, young, urban, male) linked to the so-called dangerous classes can result in harsher treatment in the criminal justice system.

dark figure of crime    Criminal activity that, for a variety of reasons, is not reported by crime victims and does not become known to the police.

date rape    A form of sexual assault that occurs between acquaintances; it has the lowest level of reporting.

day fines    Fines geared to the average daily income of the convicted offender in an effort to bring equity to the sentencing process.

day reporting centres    Nonresidential, community-based treatment programs.

deadly force    The ability of the police to kill suspects if they resist arrest or present a danger to an officer or the community. The police cannot use deadly force against an unarmed fleeing felon.

decarceration    A correctional philosophy that stresses the "least restrictive alternative possible" for removing as many people from secure detention as possible and making use of community alternatives.

deconstructionism    A modern approach which focuses on the critical analysis of communication and language in legal codes. Rules and regulations are analysed to determine whether they contain language and content that forces racism or sexism to become institutionalized.

decriminalization    Reducing the penalty for a criminal act but not actually legalizing it.

defeminization    The process by which policewomen become enculturated into the police profession at the expense of their feminine identity.

defence attorney    The counsel for the defendant in a criminal trial who represents the individual from arrest to final appeal.

defendant    The accused in criminal proceedings; he or she has the right to be present at each stage of the criminal justice process, except grand jury proceedings.

defensible space    The physical design of a place that may deter or attract an offender. See also crime prevention; deterrence; target hardening

definition-sensitive crimes    This is a category of crimes which are sensitive to legislative activity; gambling, for example, has steadily been decriminalized in the 20th century by a loosening of criminal sanctions around gaming.

degenerate anomalies    According to Lombroso, the primitive physical characteristics that make criminals animalistic and savage.

degradation    This form of shaming is an ongoing process of in which the offender is branded as an evil person and cast out of society. This is a practice of exclusion which is very ritualistic, and can occur at a school disciplinary hearing or a criminal court trial

deinstitutionalisation    The movement to remove as many offenders as possible from secure confinement and treat them in the community.

demeanor    The way in which a person outwardly manifests his or her personality.

demonstrated threat    The level of potential danger posed by a person confronted by police officers, generally in the form of weapons or levels of resistance.

demystification    The process by which conflict theorists unmask the true purpose of the capitalist system's rules and laws.

desert-based sentences    Sentences in which the length is based on the seriousness of the criminal act and not the personal characteristics of the defendant or the deterrent impact of the law; punishment is based on what people have done and not on what they or others may do in the future.

designer drugs    Chemical substances made and distributed in relatively small batches that induce mood-altering effects.

desistance phenomenon    The process in which crime rate declines with the perpetrator's age; synonymous with the aging-out process.

detective    The police personnel assigned to investigate crimes after they have been reported, to gather evidence, and to identify the perpetrator.

detention    Holding an offender in secure confinement before trial.

determinate sentence    A fixed term of incarceration, such as three years' imprisonment. Determinate sentences are felt by many to be too restrictive for rehabilitative purposes; the advantage is that offenders know how much time they have to serve-that is, when they will be released. See also indeterminate sentence.

deterrence    Theory of prevention in which the threat of punishment or retribution is expected to forestall some act from occurring.

attachment costs     The costs associated with the loss of weakened ties that may make an arrest a fearsome prospect.

commitment costs     The possibility that arrest may jeopardize people's investments in some legitimate activity.

general deterrence    The ways in which individuals, who see offenders receiving punishment, will be deterred from breaking the law themselves.

situational deterrence    The ways in which the offender's fear of apprehension is related to the specific circumstances of the criminal event.

specific/special deterrence    The ways that individuals are deterred from offending or re-offending by receiving punishment.

stigma of arrest    The belief that apprehension by the police may harm one's reputation.

developmental criminology    A branch of criminology that examines change in a criminal career over the life course.Developmental factors include biological, social, and psychological change. Among the topics of developmental criminology are desistance, resistance, escalation, and specialization.

deviant behaviour    Behaviour that departs from the social norm.

deviant place hypothesis    Otherwise known as the proximity hypothesis, this means that some people are more susceptible to crime because of the areas they live or frequent.

dialectic method    Georg Hegel developed the idea that for every thesis there exists an opposing argument, or antithesis. Since neither position can ever be truly accepted, the result is a merger of the two ideas, a synthesis. Marx adapted this analytic method for his study of class struggle. History, argued Marx, is replete with examples of two opposing forces whose conflict promotes social change.

differential association theory    A view which according to Sutherland, the principle that criminal acts are related to a person's exposure to an excess amount of antisocial attitudes and values.

differential opportunity    The idea that those who see themselves as failures within conventional society and who feel that there is little hope for advancement by legitimate means may join with like-minded peers to form a gang. This association provides the opportunity and socialization requisite to committing crime.

differential police response (DPR)    The effort made by police services to prioritize the requests for service made by the general public. This effort may include determining which calls require the presence of officers and which can be dealt with in other ways.

differential reinforcement theory    In social learning theory, there is the attempt to explain crime as a type of learned behaviour, combining a focus on differential association with elements of psychological learning.

diffusing    A critical incident stress intervention that generally occurs within hours of the incident and provides an opportunity for the officer to focus on what has occurre, to understand what happened, and to express feelings about the experience. The majority of diffusings do not lead to debriefings.

diffusion of benefits    An effect that occurs when an effort to control one type of crime has the unexpected benefit of reducing the incidence of another.

direct evidence    Those pieces of information gathered during a case investigation that can be detected by at least one of the five senses: sight, touch, hearing, smell, and taste. An example is eyewitness evidence.

direct examination    The questioning of one's own (prosecution or defence) witness during a trial.

direct observation    A technique in which an investigator attempts to develop theory through exploration, or confirm hypotheses through direct participation in and observation of the community or other social grouping being studied. See also experimental observation; participant observation

directed patrol    See tactical patrol.

directed verdict    The right of a judge to direct a jury to acquit a defendant because the state has not proven the elements of the crime or otherwise has not established guilt according to law.

disaggregate    Analysing the relationship between two or more independent variables while controlling for the influence of a third dependent variable. For example, looking at the relationship between conviction for murder and the likelihood of a death sentence disaggregated by race would entail separate analysis of the sentencing outcomes of whites and blacks convicted of first-degree murder.

disclosure    A principle established in R. V. Stinchcombe (1991), which ruled that the prosecution must give all the evidence gathered by the police to the defendant in order to make a complete defence to the charges.

discouragement    An effect that occurs when an effort made to eliminate one type of crime also controls others, because it reduces the value of criminal activity by limiting access to desirable targets.

discretion    The use of personal decision making and choice in carrying out operations in the criminal justice system. For example, police discretion can involve the decision to make an arrest, while prosecutorial discretion can involve the decision to accept a plea bargain.

dispatchers    Personnel in the police service, generally civilians, who receive the initial calls for service from the public, screen and prioritize calls, and relay information to patrol officers in the field.

displacement    Heavy law enforcement in one area, for example, might only serve to drive crime to another, less well-enforced area, thus making it ineffective overall as a policing strategy; however politically, sometimes people just don't want crime in their neighbourhood.

disposition    For juvenile offenders, the equivalent of sentencing for adult offenders. The theory is that disposition is more rehabilitative than retributive. Possible dispositions may be to dismiss the case, release the youth to the custody of his or her parents, place the offender on probation, or send him or her to a correctional institution.

disputatiousness    In the subculture of violence, it is considered appropriate behaviour for a person who has been offended to seek satisfaction through violent means.

diversion    An alternative to criminal trial usually featuring counselling, job training, and educational opportunities.

Divisional Staff Relations Representative Program (DivRep)    The program in the (nonunionized) RCMP that provides officers with a mechanism to express their concerns about employment issues.

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)    A compound composed of self-replicating units, called nucleotides, that are organized into two chains twisted into a double helix. DNA carries the genetic information that determines hereditary characteristics.

DNA profiling    The identification of criminal suspects by matching DNA samples taken from them with specimens found at crime scenes.

documentary evidence    Written materials and records, including letters, invoices, bank statements, and accounting ledgers, that may be gathered during the course of a case investigation.

doing gender    In masculinity studies, this refers to how in western culture emphasizes being authoritative, in charge, combative and controlling. Failure to adapt these roles leaves men feeling effeminate and unmanly. Their struggle to dominate women to prove their manliness is called doing gender.

domestic violence   

battered women's syndrome    The sense of helplessness felt by women who come to believe that they can neither leave an abusive relationship nor effectively act to reduce the violence. See also household domain; family domain; routine activities theory.

double bunking    The practice of holding two or more inmates in a single cell because of prison overcrowding.

double marginality    According to Alex, the social burden black police officers carry by being both minority group members and law enforcement officers.

dramatization of evil    In Tannenbaum's pioneering study of labelling, this refers to the process where the reaction to deviance sets up a feedback effect which becomes internalized in the individual.

drift    According to Matza, the view that youths move in and out of delinquency and that their lifestyles can embrace both conventional and deviant values.

drug courier profile    A way of identifying drug runners based on their personal characteristics; police may stop and question individuals based on the way they fit the characteristics contained in the profile.

due process    The constitutional principle based on the concept of the primacy of the individual and the complementary concept of limitation on governmental power; a safeguard against arbitrary and unfair state procedures in judicial or administrative proceedings. Embodied in the due process concept are the basic rights of a defendant in criminal proceedings and the requisites for a fair trial. These rights and requirements have been expanded by appellate court decisions and include (1) timely notice of a hearing or trial that informs the accused of the charges against him or her; (2) the opportunity to confront accusers and to present evidence on the accused's own behalf before an impartial jury or judge; (3) the presumption of innocence under which guilt must be proven by legally obtained evidence and the verdict must be supported by the evidence presented; (4) the right of an accused to be warned of constitutional rights at the earliest stage of the criminal process; (5) protection against self-incrimination; (6) assistance of counsel at every critical stage of the criminal process; and (7) the guarantee that an individual will not be tried more than once for the same offense (double jeopardy).

duress    This is one of the grounds which excuse an accused from responsibility from an act, if it can be shown that they were forced or compelled by someone else to commit an act which would otherwise constitute a crime.

Durham rule    A definition of insanity used in New Hampshire that required that the crime be excused if it was a product of a mental illness.

E

early onset    A term that refers to the assumption that a criminal career begins early in life and that people who are deviant at a very young age are the ones most likely to persist in crime.

economic compulsive behaviour    Behaviour that occurs when drug users resort to violence to gain funds to support their habit.

economic crime    An act in violation of the criminal law that is designed to bring financial gain to the offender.

economism    The policy of controlling white-collar crime through monetary incentives and sanctions.

egalitarian    Where there is an equal sharing of authority and power, for example between the two partners in a family.

ego identity    According to Erikson, ego identify is formed when persons develop a firm sense of who they are and what they stand for.

electroencephalogram (EEG)    A device that can record the electronic impulses given off by the brain, commonly called brain waves.

embedded    Becoming entrenched in a delinquent way of life, thereby reducing any chances of future success in the marketplace.

embezzlement    A type of larceny that involves taking the possessions of another (fraudulent conversion) that have been place in the thief's lawful possession for safekeeping, such as a bank teller misappropriating deposits or a stockbroker making off with a customer's account.

emergency response team (ERT)    Specialized police unit used in high-risk, high-visibility, high-consequence situations, including hostage takings and barricaded person incidents. Also known as tactical team.

employment equity    An employment policy under which, all other qualifications being equal, visible minorities are given preference in hiring.

empty-hand compliance    The gaining of control of a subject through the use of any of various techniques used by police officers, including level and joint manipulation, throws and takedowns, handcuffs and restraints.

enterprise crime    Sale of illegal goods and services to customers who know that the goods and services are illegal. See also culture of competition; occupational crime.

enterprise syndicate    An organized crime group that profits from the sale of illegal goods and services, such as narcotics, pornography, and prostitution.

entrapment    A criminal defence maintaining that the police originated the criminal idea or initiated the criminal action.

entrepreneur    One willing to take risks for profit in the marketplace.

environmental scan    A study by police services designed to identify trends and developments in the community that may affect the nature and extent of crime and disorder and the demands that will be placed on the police.

equipotentiality    View that all individuals are equal at birth and are thereafter influenced by their environment.

equity    The action or practice of awarding each his or her just due; sanctions based on equity seek to compensate individual victims and the general society for their losses due to crime.

equivalent group hypothesis    The lifestyle view that victims and criminals share similar characteristics because they are not actually separate groups and that in fact a criminal lifestyle exposes people to increased levels of victimization risk.

eros    Freud maintained that humans have two opposing instinctual drives that interact to control behaviour: eros, the life instinct, which drives people to self-fulfilment and enjoyment, and thanatos, the death instinct, which produces self-destruction

ex post facto laws    Laws that make an act criminal after it was committed or that retroactively increase the penalty for a crime; for example, an ex post facto law could change shoplifting from a misdemeanour to a felony and penalize offenders with a prison term, even though they had been apprehended six months prior. Such laws are unconstitutional.

exclusionary rule    The principle that prohibits using evidence illegally obtained in a trial. excuse    A defence to a criminal charge in which the accused maintains he or she lacked the intent to commit the crime (mens rea).

experimental observation    An experimental method, often conducted in laboratories, in which the experimenter creates the conditions necessary for observation rather than searches for naturally occurring situations. See also direct observation; articipant observation.

expressive crimes    Crimes that have no purpose except to accomplish the behaviour at hand, such as shooting someone.

expressive violence    Violence that is designed not for profit or gain but to vent rage, anger, or frustration.

extinction    The phenomenon in which a crime prevention effort has an immediate impact that then dissipates as criminals adjust to new conditions.

extraversion    A personality trait market by impulsivity and the inability to examine motives and behaviour.