SOCI 3810 Lecture 13: Criminology -- (13) The Social Contstruction of Crime
2 May 2018
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The Rich Get Richer and The Poor Get Prison Chp. 2
The Social Construction of Crime
•“The acts we label crime, the acts we think of as crime, and the actors and actions we treat as
criminal — is created : it is a reality shaped by decisions as to what will be called crime and
who will be treated as a criminal”
•The label of “Crime”
-Criminal Law —> provides some acts with label of “crime”
•Pyrrhic Defeat Theory —> the CJ system fails in order to project a certain image of crime in
the US
-ex. Economic Crash of 2008
•How is Crime Socially Constructed?
a. Decisions of Legislators
b. Decisions of Police & Prosecutors
c. Decisions of Judges & Juries
d. Decisions of Sentencing Judges
e. All Taken Together
•The Typical “Crime”
-One-on-One Harm
-Results in physical harm, loss of valuables, or both
•Crimes by Any Other Names —> the authors discuss how other actions, not labeled criminal,
are very harmful and dangerous (ex. workplace, unnecessary surgeries and medications,
poverty, etc.)
•The Typical “Criminal”
-he is a he
-he is young
-he is predominantly urban
-he is disproportionally black
-he is poor
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