PSYC 3402 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Intentionality, Propensity Score Matching, Operational Definition

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

Document Summary

Psychologists don"t worry too much about definitions of crime. Sociologists, criminologists worry more than we do. There"s disagreement in terms of whether something is a crime or how it should be defined. Many crimes are not universal over time or within a culture. Our definitions of crime are subjective and they can change over time within a given society. A society decides whether a certain set of behaviours are considered criminal or not. Legal elements, social elements and morality issues to whether or not something is criminal. It"s not an absolute truth, nor is it an objective truth crime are subjective. As a function of time and where you live. Change over time within a given society. Three key things always continually come up as being universally accepted as crime, robbery, theft, and incest. Define crime dramatically influences crime statistics, and crime statistics are very important for policy development.