CRJS 358 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Model Penal Code, Precedent, Title 21 Of The United States Code
Document Summary
Specific rule or act within a particular legal system. Jurisprudence= study of law, criminal law, & its contexts. Value/consensus: durkheim (consensus theory, law= formalization of deeply held, widely shared values, law is a tool of unification and social solidarity, law is: Value-neutral: crimes are not inherently wrong but considered wrong because society decides so, and therefore crimes can change. Leviathan, 1651: law= formalization of social contract in best interests of all, security and liberty, & survival driven necessity. Carl marx: law= product of privileged classes to maintain status quo, law is the result of class conflict; repressive, not representative or value-neutral, crime definitions are relative & tools of power. Durkheim (on crime: crime= whatever offends the collective conscience/morality, crime is socially constructed, crime is culturally relative, normal, necessary, and functional in society. Common law (2 meanings: law that"s arisen from judicial decisions not legislative enactment, law that came over from england to colonial america.
