SOC 1500 Chapter 1: Crime Chapter 1

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 1500
• Professor: J.Bruce Morton

Document Summary

Laws: shared customs and beliefs that become legal statutes. Goal of criminology is a quest to understand why people break the law. Several theories are formed by this approach such as biological, psychological and sociological. Gottfredson and hirschi suggest that crime is based on social consensus and those who break the law do it because they lack self control. Crime and crime control are considered to be objective phenomena. Canada s criminal justice system is modeled on this approach. Administrative law: form of public law that governs relationships between individuals and the state. Civil law: relates to arrangements between individuals. In the criminal code violations fall under 3 categories: crime against the person, property crime, offences considered to be plain wrong with no obvious victim. To be found guilty of an offence you need to have: actus reus (guilty act) and mens rea (guilty mind) Children under 12 and the insane are unable to form mens rea, not held responsible.