SOC101Y1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 14: Malum Prohibitum, Uniform Crime Reports, Social Constructionism
Document Summary
Life depends on people following, however unconsciously, agreed-upon rules. One way of conceptualizing crime or deviance is to emphasize its rule-breaking qualities, focusing in particular on its behavioural dimensions: refer to the rules in question as norms. Most important norms are written laws (norms the state enforce: deviance involves breaking a norm, crime involves breaking a law. All human societies have norms about appropriate behaviour: some norms have wide scope, applying to more or less everybody in the community. Murder, robbery: other norms may only apply to particular subgroups. Drinking age: can be gendered too. How do we distinguish between diverse kinds rule-breaking behaviour: john hagan (1991) Suggests that norm violations can be differentiated by how serious they are, as gauged by three different measures of seriousness. (1) how harmful the act in question is deemed to be. (2) how much agreement there is that the behaviour in question is wrong.
