CCJS 105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Malum Prohibitum, Smallest-Circle Problem, Homicide

• School: University of Maryland
• Department: Criminology and Criminal Justice
• Course: CCJS 105
• Professor: Kiminori Nakamura

Document Summary

Durkheim: even in a society of saints : there will still be crimes, people make rules for themselves to combat acts that are considered to be deviant enough. Do we break laws: yes, examples, speeding, trespassing, jaywalking, drinking, mala prohibita: bad because they are prohibited, mala in se: acts bad in themselves, some harmful behaviors are legal, drinking, smoking boges. Crime is relative: across time, what is defined as crime may be later be decriminalized, behavior deemed acceptable may be criminalized later, across space, what is defined as crime may differ between locations. Code of hammurabi (1750 bc: death penalty for 25 crimes. Until early 1900s: heroin was legal and sold in drug stores. 5 legal elements of crime in the us: thinking about crime but not actually committing it is not a crime. Punishment: felony, punishable by a year or more in prison, misdemeanor, less serious; a year or less in jail, violation, usually punished by fines.