SOCI 100A Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Flint, Michigan, Trepanning, Regulation A
13 Jun 2018
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Crime, Law& Regulation
A crime designates particular behaviors or actions as violations that require some
formal response and intervention.
Deviance (or non-conformity) are violations of accepted social norms (i.e., a man
wearing a skirt)
What is criminal or deviant varies across time and space.
•e.g., in North Carolina, unmarried couples cannot stay in a hotel room
together.
•In Flint, MI, you cannot wear low-riding pants
•In Oshawa, ON you cannot climb a tree on city property
Two historical schools of thought have influenced how we approach criminals and
deviants.
•Before them deviance was usually explained in terms of religion and
superstition.
•have you heard of trepanning?
1.The Classical School:
-Associated with Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794).
-In 1764, Beccaria wrote An Essay on Crimes and Punishments.
This essay argued that the treatment of criminals and deviants was cruel and
inhuman.
“It is not the intensity of punishment that has the greatest effect on human spirit, but
it’s duration” (1964:47)
“…The certainty of punishment, even if it be moderate, will always make a stronger
impression than the fear of another which is more terrible but combined with the
hope of impunity” (1764:58).
Thus, smaller and repeated punishments are preferred over singular, severe ones.
Free will?
-belief that you can make conscious choices
-we all have the ability to choose between right and wrong, good and evil
Free will denied the earlier belief that human behaviour was determined.
“Man is rational and is endowed with a free will, and should therefore be held morally
responsible and legally accountable for his actions. He may be controlled by feared
prevented from doing wrong by the threat of punishment” (1764).
If people had free will they must be held accountable for their actions
Classical theorists believed that punishment for wrong-doings MUST be known in
advance in order to act as a deterrence.
In the classical school the role of the judge is just to assess if the person did the
crime - they become a simple distributor of justice since the punishments for the
crime is known in advance
(Sounds a lot like mandatory minimum sentences in Bill C-51.)
Two groups of people were not held to this standard:
1.Children
2.Lunatics
But, how can the classical school (and the concept of free will) explain:
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
A crime designates particular behaviors or actions as violations that require some formal response and intervention. Deviance (or non-conformity) are violations of accepted social norms (i. e. , a man wearing a skirt) What is criminal or deviant varies across time and space: e. g. , in north carolina, unmarried couples cannot stay in a hotel room together. In flint, mi, you cannot wear low-riding pants. In oshawa, on you cannot climb a tree on city property. In 1764, beccaria wrote an essay on crimes and punishments. This essay argued that the treatment of criminals and deviants was cruel and inhuman. It is not the intensity of punishment that has the greatest effect on human spirit, but it"s duration (1964:47) The certainty of punishment, even if it be moderate, will always make a stronger impression than the fear of another which is more terrible but combined with the hope of impunity (1764:58). Thus, smaller and repeated punishments are preferred over singular, severe ones.
