SOC 1500 Lecture Notes - Lecture 19: Aggressive Panhandling, Social Constructionism, Assisted Suicide
16 Jan 2017
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Crime is something that is against the law. Should focus on the people who break the rules. Violate: resolved privately, some cases they do go to court (small claims) A) crimes against the person (homicide, sexual assault) C) offences that are wrong, with no obvious victim (illegal drug use) We focus on people who break the law. Mens rea (guilty mind) (children under the age of 12 can never prove mens rea) Limitation inherence= criminal definition is widespread (we all agreed what is considered a crime) Label theorist challenged: deviance is not natural (nothing normal or natural about criminal law) No universal agreement about what is/isn"t a crime. No one is deviant until some labels him or her deviant. Social constructionism: why something is considered deviant and why others are not. Starts at least serious most serious (criminal acts, not always the case) Many acts are not criminal at all (assisted suicide)
