UGC NET Criminology key terms

A state of normlessness in which society's rules lose their hold on individual conduct. Durkheim linked it to suicide; Merton used it to explain deviance arising when goals and legitimate means diverge.

Merton's explanation that deviance results from a gap between culturally approved goals and the legitimate means available to reach them, producing conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion as adaptations.

Sutherland's theory that criminal behaviour is learned through interaction with intimate groups, where definitions favourable to law violation are acquired and outweigh definitions unfavourable to it.

Rationalisations offenders use before or after an act to blunt guilt, such as denying responsibility, denying injury, condemning condemners, and appealing to higher loyalties. Sykes and Matza identified five such techniques.

Matza's idea that offenders are not fully committed to delinquency but move between conventional and delinquent behaviour, using techniques of neutralisation to justify episodic rule-breaking.

Hirschi's control theory holding that conformity depends on attachment, commitment, involvement and belief; weak bonds free a person to offend. It asks why people do not offend rather than why they do.

Gottfredson and Hirschi's claim that crime results from low self-control, formed in early childhood through inadequate parenting, and that low self-control produces a general tendency toward risky, impulsive acts.

Shaw and McKay's concept that neighbourhoods with poverty, residential turnover and ethnic heterogeneity lose informal controls, allowing delinquency to persist across generations regardless of which groups live there.

A neighbourhood's capacity for mutual trust and shared willingness to intervene for the common good, which Sampson showed predicts lower violence even where disadvantage is high.

The view that deviance is not inherent in an act but a status conferred through societal reaction; being labelled, especially formally, can become a master status that promotes further offending.

In Lemert's formulation, initial rule-breaking that is incidental and does not alter the person's self-concept; it becomes secondary deviance only when labelling and reaction push the person to reorganise identity around the act.

A label so powerful that it overrides other social identities, such as 'ex-convict' or 'sex offender', shaping how others respond and how the person comes to see themselves.

Cohen and Felson's explanation that crime occurs when a motivated offender, a suitable target and the absence of a capable guardian converge in time and space; changes in daily routines alter crime opportunities.

The assumption that offenders weigh expected gains against risks and costs before acting, so crime can be reduced by increasing effort, risk and reducing reward rather than by changing offenders' personalities.

Interventions that reduce opportunities for specific crimes by manipulating the immediate environment, such as target hardening, access control, surveillance and removing excuses.

Designing the built environment to reduce crime through natural surveillance, natural access control and territorial reinforcement, so that offenders perceive higher risk and reduced opportunity.

Cloward and Ohlin's argument that illegitimate opportunity structures vary by neighbourhood, so blocked legitimate access leads to different delinquent subcultures: criminal, conflict and retreatist.

Bandura's and Akers' account that behaviour is acquired through observation, imitation and reinforcement; Akers applied it to crime, combining differential association with operant conditioning and definitions.

The criminological tradition that treats crime as determined by biological, psychological or social factors that can be measured and treated, rather than as a product of free choice.

The eighteenth-century tradition of Beccaria and Bentham holding that people choose crime rationally, so punishment should be proportionate, certain and swift enough to deter.

Research examining how genetic, neurological and physiological factors interact with social environments to influence antisocial behaviour, without claiming biology alone determines crime.

The idea that a victim's behaviour may contribute to the occurrence of an offence, as in Wolfgang's study of homicides. Critics note it risks shifting blame from offender to victim.

Attributing responsibility for a crime to the person harmed, often through scrutiny of dress, sobriety or conduct. It discourages reporting and is criticised by victimologists and feminist scholars.

The finding that a small proportion of victims and places experience a disproportionate share of offences, so preventing repeat incidents can reduce total crime efficiently.

The volume of crime that never appears in official statistics because it is not reported to or recorded by police, estimated through victim surveys and self-report studies.

India's central agency that compiles and publishes official crime statistics, principally through its annual 'Crime in India' report based on data supplied by state police forces.

The written record police in India prepare when they first receive information about a cognizable offence, under Section 173 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita, 2023, which replaced the corresponding CrPC provision.

India's penal code that replaced the Indian Penal Code 1860 with effect from 1 July 2024, retaining most offences while adding provisions such as organised crime and community service as a sentencing option.

India's procedural criminal law in force from 1 July 2024, replacing the Code of Criminal Procedure 1973 and governing investigation, arrest, bail, trial and appeal.

The claim that punishment reduces offending through fear of consequences: specific deterrence targets the punished individual, general deterrence warns the wider public. Effectiveness depends on certainty and swiftness more than severity.

Relapse into criminal behaviour after conviction or release, usually measured by re-arrest, reconviction or re-imprisonment within a defined period. It is a key indicator of correctional effectiveness.

The correctional aim of changing offenders through education, vocational training, counselling and treatment so they can reintegrate lawfully, in contrast to retribution or incapacitation.

An approach that brings offender, victim and community together to repair harm through dialogue, apology and reparation, emphasising accountability to the person harmed rather than state punishment.

Sutherland's term for offences committed by respectable persons of high status in the course of their occupation, such as fraud, embezzlement and insider trading, often punished leniently.

Continuing criminal enterprises that use structure, violence and corruption to profit from illegal markets such as drugs, extortion and trafficking, often exercising territorial or sectoral control.

The process of disguising the origin of criminal proceeds through placement, layering and integration so the funds appear legitimate; in India it is addressed by the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002.

The study of punishment, prisons and correctional systems, including sentencing aims, prison administration, parole, probation and the social effects of imprisonment.

The overall plan linking research questions to data collection and analysis, specifying whether the study is exploratory, descriptive or explanatory and whether it uses experimental, survey or qualitative strategies.

Selecting a subset of a population for study. Probability methods such as simple random, stratified and cluster sampling permit generalisation; non-probability methods such as purposive and snowball sampling do not.

The extent to which a study or instrument measures what it claims to measure, covering internal validity of causal inference and external validity of generalisation to other settings.

The consistency of a measurement or instrument across repeated observations, assessed through test-retest, inter-rater and internal consistency methods. Reliability is necessary but not sufficient for validity.

A testable, falsifiable statement predicting a relationship between variables, derived from theory or prior evidence and evaluated through data analysis.

Principles governing research with human participants, including informed consent, confidentiality, avoiding harm, voluntary participation and institutional review, especially important with offenders and victims.

A Paper-I topic covering learner-centred instruction, levels of teaching (memory, understanding, reflective), Bloom's taxonomy of objectives, and characteristics of effective teachers and classroom communication.