CRIM 101 Lecture Notes - Law, Socalled, Mens Rea
2 Jun 2013
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Document Summary
Social science studying crime and related phenomenon e. g. law making, criminal behavior, victimization and punishment. Fairly new development, about 200-300 years most ideas and concepts we know about crime and criminals emerged over 2-3 centuries. There is little relationship between crime news. Little relationship between crime news and actual amount of crime (popular topic for newspaper) Media focus primarily on violent crimes though it"s a small part of all the crime activity. Appears as though police solve more crimes and arrest more criminals than they do in reality. Deal with moral questions of goods vs. evil. Criminals appear in stories as insane or dangerous or psychopaths. Stories happen in short time span, short attention span. Felson"s 10 fallacies about crime: the dramatic fallacy. To keep ratings high, media seek strange/violent incidents to report/create dramas around. Murder makes up less than 1% of all crime. Seems that most murders are well-planned, grisly affairs, or they happen solely by random chance.
