Crim 101 Chapter 1

Crime

• Comes from the latin word Crīmen, which means judgment or offence

• used to be deli with as a private matter within communities 

Indigenous Justice System

• Rooted in respect, harmony and the maintenance of of balance

• corporal punishment was not uncommon 

• did not practice incarceration 

To commit a crime…

is to break the rules a society views as the moral limits of acceptable behaviour. crimes are an offence against society, not just an individual

Legalistic approach to crime

focuses strictly on violations of the legal code

Summery convictions

• less severe

• ex. theft under $5,000

Indictable offence

• most serious

• ex. murder

Actus Rea

the guilty act

mens rea 

• the guilty mind, intent or premeditation 

• people with mental illness don’t always have mens rea and will often receive treatment instead of punishment

Legalism

encourages us to think of crime in a reified way as a “thing in itself” rather than in terms if its social nature

Conflict prospective 

proposes that laws may serve the interests of one group over those of an other

Colonialism

• the means through which colonialism was initially pursued was often illegal within the content of its day, such as in the case of white settlers seizing land from indigenous peoples being contrary to the settlers own laws

• colonialism is a classic state crime that relies on violence and the threat of violence to achieve political and economics ends

Media

• effective at amplifying particular threats, sometimes to the point of generating moral panics and constructing representations of groups as a posing threat to public wellbeing

• crimes of the upper class are filtered out

• media can cause othering ar an “us vs. them” mentality

• media is shaped by public understanding of crime and justice

what lens do you use to see crime

• your background can influence what you see as crime

• crime can be a social construct 

• different countries have different laws

• sometimes laws serve some more than others(Indian acts)

Conventual crimes 

illegal activity committed by individuals or small groups, involving some degree of direct or indirect contact. E.G. robbery, theft 

Non- Conventional Crime

• illegal activity that may not be pursued by the criminal justice system

• white collar crime or organized crime

Deviance

• A wide range of behaviours that violate a social norm but are not necessarily prohibited by law

• E.G. cutting in line

Decimalization

• the reduction or removal of criminal penalties attached to an act without legalizing it

• E.G. the decriminalization of drug in BC or abortions in Canada

Consensus Crimes

• crimes that are generally considered harmful of which there is strong support for sanctioning them

Conflict Crimes

• Activities that are not universally considered crime, although they are legally defined as such

Criminology

• Often an interdisciplinary approach is taken

• didn’t begin till the 19th century

The Canadian justice system consists of three institutions 

• the police 

• the courts 

• the correctional/prison system

The Main functions of the criminal justice system

• to investigate criminal code offences

• to lay charges as defined under the criminal code

• to prosecute accused in court

• to determine guilt and innocence

• to sentence those who are found guilty

• to administer that sentence

The origins of criminology 

• the 18th century people thought criminals act the way they do purely by free will 

• later people learnt that external factors can be a driving factor in why people commit crimes

• late 18th century the term criminology was defined, criminology also shifted in looking at the criminal justice system not just why people commit crimes

• 20th century we started to see textbooks come out and we could see the influence between criminology and sociology

Interdisciplinary Criminology

• Classical and positivist are where with two schools of though lie

• important to put theory into practice

putting theory into practice

• As practitioners of an “applied” social science, criminologists use their data and theoretical perspectives to formulate workable solutions to existing problems

• governments must rely on the theoretical guidance of criminologists when making policy decisions

Framing

• fitting a story into a ready-made social construction so it is easy for an audience to understand

• select some aspects of a story to push out a narrative