SOCIOL 3600 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Child Pornography, Child Custody, Employment Non-Discrimination Act
Document Summary
Elimination of crime must include the elimination of inequality. Identifying the way social classes, crime and social control are connected. Explaining the role government and institutional power plays in crime. Examining class bias in the criminal justice system. Demystifying the relationship between a capitalist political economy and criminal law. Crime is a political concept designed to protect the power and position of the upper classes at the expense of the oppressed classes. Supranational crimes war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the penal system in which such crimes are prosecuted and tried. Instrumental theory criminal law and the criminal justice system are capitalist instruments for controlling the lower class. Structural theory criminal law and the criminal justice system are means of defending and preserving the capitalist system. Left realism pragmatic, community based crime prevention and control, which assumes crime is a class conflict in capitalist societies.
