CRM 100 Lecture : What is Crime?

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Criminology
• Course: CRM 100
• Professor: Emily Van Der Meulen

Document Summary

Crime: a violation of criminal law (an act becomes a crime if it violates the country"s legal code). Crime requires a guilty mind (mens rea) and a guilty action (actus reus: a crime occurs, when someone is found guilty in a court of law. An action isn"t considered criminal, unless there are laws that prohibit it from happening. An action isn"t considered criminal until it is formally decided by the criminal justice system. A lot of crimes aren"t reported, therefore never make it to court. Infringement of habeas corpus: a crime is behaviour that has been defined as such by the agents of the criminal justice system. Basically a crime is only a crime if it defined as one e. g. -not a crime to not wear a seatbelt until recently because it was recently defined as a crime. Panhandling, not a problem until the cities defined it as a crime mainly due to the tourism industries (social construct of crime)