CRM 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Social Constructionism, Populism, Fair Sentencing Act
30 Oct 2018
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Criminological theory = plausible explanation of crime. People consider what crime is differently depending on your viewpoint. Crime is not just what is reported but also unreported. Stephen harper was very tough on crime. There is not a uniform meaning of crime. What constitutes crime depends on different theoretical, methodological orientations. Crime is whatever the state identifies as a crime. If it is defined as a criminal offence in the law, then it is a crime: social harm. Whether it be legally defined or not, an action or an inaction which brings about some type of harm is a crime. Psychological harm can be constituted as a crime: cross-cultural/universal. There are some things that are universally and cross-culturally (all societies) criminal, e. g. murder is murder. Weakness: no room for compassion ex. self defense: labelling approach. Crime only exists when there has been a (negative) social response to a particular activity that has labelled that act as a crime.
