PSYC 3402 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Official Statistics, General Social Survey

• School: Carleton University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 3402
• Professor: Shelley Brown

Document Summary

Crime is a social construct in which we decide. Typically crime has legal, social and moral elements. Law: acts that the government says are illegal and punishable by state (criminal code) Morally wrong: violations of religious norms that are punishable by supreme beings/gods. Social: a society deems something criminal and society punishes you for it (no formal piece of paper, being rude to staff in a restaurant, not letting a pregnant woman get preferred seating ) Age of culpability- 12 vs 16 in spain vs no age in florida. Marijuana laws (19% canadians approve in 1977 to legalize, in 2013 close to. Rape in context of marriage canada 1984 vs now; clearly still ok in some cultures) The course"s working definition of crime: criminal behaviour refers to intentional behaviour that violates a criminal code; intentional in that it does not occur accidentally or without justification of excuse (bartol & bartol, 2008)