Criminal Justice System September 16, 2011
Lecture 2
•General introduction to context, meanings & purposes of criminal law:
•Mechanisms of control
•Legal mechanisms of control
•Criminal legal system
•Definitions of crime/criminal law
•Perceived failures of criminal justice system by general public
•Weeding out of the victim- criminal justice system gradually pushes victim out
over few decades. Victim wants back in
•Legal rights of the accused is the main focus and victim is there to give testimony
•Trial doesn’t play a large part of resolution in criminal justice system
•Quinney:
•“What is important in the study of crime is everything that happened before
crime occurs. The question of what precedes crime is far more significant to
our understanding than the act of crime itself. Crime is the reflection of
something larger and deeper.”
•60-70s- lots of crime after baby boom
•Non-criminal law/social factors (risk)
•Lower the crime rate-lower birth rate
•Education as a risk factor
•Pre-natal, post-natal health is important
•If don’t catch risk factors by age 6, more likely for crime
•Where does crime come from-legally, how is it enforced, how is it produced?
Production, constitutional and enforcement? Etc
•Lots of activity, not criminalized
•Crime rate- what’s reported to police; most goes unreported
•Definition is important
•Just under 2 ½ million criminal offences
•Formal-creation of new law
•Labelling- arrest certain people and people for certain crimes
•Choices whether who enters the criminal justice system
Mechanisms of Control
•Criminal law- very narrow, short-effect. More expensive to invest in longer term
•Structural problems are there in terms of choices we have
•Marginalizes and labels certain groups (prostitutes, abortions, drug addicts)
•Want to punish people for doing things wrong, more difficult at an individual and
state level
•To do- to control, intervene, response