SOCI 335 Lecture 11: Soci 388 lecture notes
5 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Soci 388 2018-01-10 4:48:00 PM
January 8th
• Crime Intro
• Has its very own discipline “criminology”
• Extremely vibrant in society
o Just look at any popular show
• Is interdisciplinary
• But also extremely narrow
o Doesn’t focus on methods but on the problem of crime
January 10th
Crime, delinquency, deviance, definitions
• Crime: behaviour that violates the law
o Other definitions
▪ Crime disrupts social relationships
▪ Crime is not adjusting
• Delinquency: crime that is committed by young offenders
o Not distinguished very well
o But it focuses on juvenile crime
• Deviance: behaviour that violates social norms
o Social norms depend on the group you are thinking about
o There are fringes where people disagree but there is pretty much
consensus on most things
o Crime and deviance overlap but they are not the same
▪ Not all deviant acts are illegal/criminal
• Ex: Cheating on your spouse
▪ Not all crime is deviant
▪ Things can move in-between and deviant acts can become
criminalized
• Criminologists don’t study deviance, they study crime, but because many
actions change between deviant/criminal criminologists study a “moving
target”
o Peoples perspectives towards laws, and laws themselves change as
well
• Crime is socially constructed
•
• Explaining criminal law
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o Consensus perspective
▪ We as in society agree that it is wrong and it should be illegal
▪ Far reaching overlap between deviance and crime
o Conflict perspective
▪ We can use criminal law to defend the interest of those in
control against a subordinate potential threat to the other
groups power
o Pluralism perspective
▪ Modified consensus perspectives where first groups negotiate
and then decide what it is
▪ Recognize certain groups with different beliefs and ideas
• Miscegenation in the US
o Inter-racial mixing so to speak
o States in the US have had anti-miscegenation laws in the U.S
▪ At least half have had them
▪ Some got rid of them very quickly
▪ Many of the southern east got them taken down by the
supreme court
▪ Mostly focuses on black and white but some states had Asian
decent and indigenous people
▪ Some states you could and some cases you couldn’t
depending on which state you lived
o Case of conflict perspective (protecting the white race)
• Homosexuality in Canada
o 1965 Everett Klippert is sentenced to life in prison
o 1969 Canadian government decriminalized homosexuality
▪ still considered deviant, and the law still shaped it
o 1978 Homosexuality is removed from list of inadmissibility criteria
for immigration to Canada
o Consensus application makes a lot of sense because being a
homosexual was considered extremely deviant
• What about Criminology in the narrower sense on these acts?
o Explain why people were engaging in interracial relationships or
homosexual activities…
▪ Ex: Societal factors, family patterns…
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▪ Most criminologists would have focused more on bread and
butter things
▪ Points to a certain problems
• Criminologists have to take the law for granted and
generate theories on why people break laws
• Naturally makes it a conservative enterprise
• Confirms the validity of the law
• Breakout Discussion:
• Can you think of cases where a consensus approach seems valid and
useful?
o Ex: Murder, Sexual Assault, Drinking and Driving, Pedophilia
• Can you think of cases where a conflict approach seems valid and useful?
o Ex: Indigenous Status, corporate crimes/petty thefts, Law 62
• Can you think of cases where neither approach works?
o Jay-Walking, Human Rights Law, Environmental law
o
• Erikson Reading: Wayward Puritans
o Point 1: Crime can be functional:
▪ Reaffirms the difference between right and wrong
▪ Marks boundaries between insiders and outsiders
▪ “morality and immortality meet at the public scaffold” pg 12
▪ idea that we need crime to be united
▪ we feel united by someone being punished and in punishment
we learn who we don’t want to be and the values of our
community
o Point 2: Crime often reflects the concerns of the societies in which it
occurs
▪ We don’t punish randomly, we punish the things we are afraid
of/feel threatened by
▪ Ie Salem witch trials reflects the fear of Satan/witchcraft
•
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
2018-01-10 4:48:00 pm: has its very own discipline criminology , extremely vibrant in society, just look at any popular show, is interdisciplinary, but also extremely narrow, doesn"t focus on methods but on the problem of crime. The foundational idea is that the legitimacy of the state is the citizens that voluntary signed a social contract at a point of intellectual authority. Courts must prove adjudicate guilt on the basis of objective evidence the only justification for punishment is social utility (deterrence, rehabilitation). Got rid of the idea of vengeance thought punishment had to be proportionate to the severity of the crime committed. Was always against the death penalty bc he said it violated the social contract. Principles of punishment: severity, certainty of apprehension, swiftness ( the punishment will be effective if it occurs quickly after the crime: jeremy bentham. 1789 introduction to the principles of morals and legislation: thinking similar to beccaria.
