SOCI 377 Lecture Notes - Incest, Schizophrenia
1 May 2012
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Document Summary
Thursday, september 08, 2011 (positivist) malum in se. Wrong in and of itself (non-positivist) malum prohibitum. Most evils are relative to society and societal rules. Tries to deconstruct the thought that there are some behaviors that are malum in se . Alternative: relativism failure to abide by social norms (which change between and among societies) Social construction = society decides what is normative. Society needs to define and label a certain act before it is labeled deviant. We must look at the social reaction not the acts themselves to find out what is deviant in a society. Focusing too much on cultural relativism not productive too focus on the differences. Suggests to shift our focus to look at crimes. Only acts that have a victim should be categorized as deviant. Claim to look at criminal acts study does not look at crime (instead looks at sexual behavior) Most negative response = toward extramarital (where there is a clear victim)
