SOCI 1F90 Lecture Notes - Squeegee, Moral Panic, Hoodie
24 May 2014
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Document Summary
Criminologists have been preoccupied with 4 main questions: What methods are used by the state to control criminal behaviour: called moral regulation (formal and informal) The poor are criminalised more than the wealthy: eg. Criminalizing homelessness (eg. public nuisance laws, can"t sleep in a public place, loitering: safe streets act (squeegee law) Race as strong predictor of reported crime. Black: 2% of population; 6% of prisoners. More likely to be arrested, convicted, punished. What we understand as crime and appropriate crime control are infused with power relations; saying crime is fair doesn"t hold any empirical water. Dave chappelle: how does his skit critique the racialization of crime? video clip, the ways people are arrested, how prisoners are treated, how the jury is selected. Definition of crime vs. deviance different between formal and informal sanctions. Crime: behaviours, codified in law, that require formal state intervention. Deviance: behaviour that breaks dominant norms condemned/challenged informally (arbitrarily defined)
