SOCI-225 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Formal System, Corporate Crime, Edwin Sutherland
8 Jan 2021
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Document Summary
In western societies, an important function of governments has been to develop mechanisms of social control. These wrongful acts are reflected in the various categories of crime found in the criminal. They also point out that criminal law is not static, because as social attitudes change, "our definitions of crime are constantly refashioned in response. : there are two commonly used definitions of crime. The first focuses on the violation of a criminal law, the second on the determination of guilt in a criminal court. According to the first definition, an act can be called a crime only when it violates the existing legal code of the jurisdiction in which it occurs. First, without the criminal law there would be no crime. In other words, no behaviour can be considered criminal "unless a formal action exists to prohibit it. " Second, no behaviour or individual "can be considered criminal until formally decided upon by the criminal justice system".
