PICT103 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Medical Cannabis, Cybercrime, Criminology
8 May 2018
School
Course
Professor
Module 1 -
Criminalisation is a complex, contested and multi-stage process.
The process of changing law and developing polices based on crime can result in inequitable,
discriminatory or otherwise problematic outcomes for people from suspect of marginalised
communities.
Questions for the criminologist -
What is crime?
• Determining what behaviours should/should not be considered crime.
• Conducting field research and collecting data about crime.
• An act that breaks the law.
How is it caused?
• Developing theories about crime causation.
• Determining what makes crime better or worse.
• Social factors; wealth e.g. poverty, mental health, the environment.
What can we do about it?
• Critiquing the role of the criminal justice system - the 3 C's (cops, courts and corrections).
• Developing policies to deal with crime.
• Societies with safety - through policies (which policies criminalise minorities.
Legal definitions of Crime -
Crime is "simply what the law says it is (white 2012:3)
o Behaviour that violates criminal law as defined by the state (i.e. federal or state governments.
o Attracts state sanction (e.g. fines or a prison sentence.)
o Enforced by state agencies (e.g. state police forces, federal agencies, AFP, Border force, etc.)
Laws vary between jurisdictions.
E.g. death penalty in the US, Medical cannabis (legal in only certain countries and states).
o Legal definitions of problems - Vary according to jurisdiction and change across time - "no
uniform or
agreed approach to the types of behaviours identified as crimes either nor or throughout
modern history (Warren 2012:5)
• Ignores sometimes very serious, dangerous and harmful activities.
• Focuses on street level crimes rather than corporate/white collar offences which are
handled under civil (rather than criminal) law.
• Does not adequately address state sanctioned crimes (e.g. genocide, torture, war
crimes, etc.)
o Harm based definitions - Used by sociologist and criminologist as an alternative to legal
definitions.
• Involved assessing the harm or damage caused by different acts or behaviours.
• Capture a wider range of 'crimes', including those that fall outside legal definitions.
• Can form the basis for social movements that challenge official definitions of crime.
• Harm is a measure of crime.
o Human rights definitions - Minimum standards set out by the UN regarding acceptable
treatment of people.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Criminalisation is a complex, contested and multi-stage process. The process of changing law and developing polices based on crime can result in inequitable, discriminatory or otherwise problematic outcomes for people from suspect of marginalised communities. What is crime: determining what behaviours should/should not be considered crime, conducting field research and collecting data about crime, an act that breaks the law. How is it caused: developing theories about crime causation, determining what makes crime better or worse. Social factors; wealth e. g. poverty, mental health, the environment. What can we do about it: critiquing the role of the criminal justice system - the 3 c"s (cops, courts and corrections), developing policies to deal with crime. Societies with safety - through policies (which policies criminalise minorities. Ignores sometimes very serious, dangerous and harmful activities. Stalking (amendment to the nsw crimes act in 1994: cybercrime (commonwealth cybercrime act 2001)
