ACR101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1-6: Individualism, Behaviorism, Some Records
ACR101- Crime and Criminology Reading notes
WEEK 1: Chapter 29- Study skills for criminology
WEEK 2: Chapter 1- what is crime and who is a criminal? & Chapter 4- explanation of
crime
Chapter 1- What is crime and who is a criminal?
Intro
- Crime has many definitions, some cause us o question what defines crime and who is a
criminal based off this
- “problematic disconnect between harm and crime”
- “only some harms are defined as crime”, what about they others? Shouldn’t all harms =
crime
- Things that cause significant harm can be considered a political issue (oil spill)
- Conflicting social processes shape our views of crime
Legal definitions
- Identify behaviours
- Certain beahaviours are classified as the person intends to cause or actually produces harm
(brown 2009)
- Most crime involves behaviour that causes identifiable harm to other people
- Crimes Act 1958:
oOffences against state, treason
oOffences against person, assault
oRape or other sexual offences
oMurder or attempted murder
oTheft and related
oConspiracy or plans to commit a serious crime
oContamination of goods
oCriminal damage to property, arson
- Many harmful acts can be morally or legally justified
- Over-criminalization is a increasing problem with legal definitions
- Yet they also do not include/have not included a lot of harmful acts
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- Things like the complexity of white collar crimes, crime in the home and cyber crime are very
under-criminalized although they can cause severe harm, they are difficulty to either
understand or investigate due to the private nature
Crimes as a social and political process
- It influences and is influenced by a complex series of relationships
- Poor history of police relations can cause higher rates of criminal offending and
victimization, eg indigenous victims don’t call police because their poor history
- Thinking of using reintegrative programs to aid people who commit pre-crimes, drug
diversion to prevent reoffending instead of criminal punishment
Human Rights Definitions
- Human rights are minimum standards directed at governments, not enforceable the same
way criminal law is
- Main forms of human rights:
oSafety of the person, freedom and equal treatments
oIndividual freedom, expressing opinion
oFairness
opeaceful enjoyment of property and privacy
- can be embedded into the criminal procedure
- not always adequately enforced
Who is the criminal?
- Two different approaches: individual factors or social causes
- Aims to identify and prevent conduct that causes harm
- Contemporary variants of the biological criminal classification is the psychological traits
observed in convicted criminals
- Psychological theories situate deviant behaviour of the mind, examine why they can not
control
- Others suggest maltreatment and poor environment can be factors leading to criminality
- Social, economical and environmental theories- research demonstrates people experiencing
economic deprivation, lack of educational opportuinity, heightened public visibility or lack of
political power more likely to commit crimes
- Need to take crime seriously in an holistic approach
Chapter 4: explanations of crime
Intro-
- Fascinated with cause of crime from beginning
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- Influenced by a wide range of individual, social and political factors
- Historically crime was broadly defined and harshly punished
Explaining crime: some fundamental debates
- Rest fundamentally on particular theorists’ core philosophical beliefs about the key drivers
of human behaviour
- Free will or determinism?
- Nature or nurture?
- Normal or pathological?
- Driving or restraining forces?
- Person or situation?
Classicism
- Beccaria and Bentham
- Crime is a function of free will, dependent on an individual’s rational pursuit of pleasure and
avoidance of pain
- Tenets directly influenced Napoleonic code which brought about rationally informed legal
principles
- Classical thinking continues to be evident in democracies in practices such as proportionate
sentencing, which is still considered a cornerstone of due process and in the notion of
deterrence
Positivism
- Rational scientific approach to the understanding of the world
- Tradition sought to observe and measure society according to scientific methods
Biological
- Lombroso is often called the father of scientific analysis fo crime
- Compared to gall (earlier 1758-1828) who discovered phrenology – bumps on head reflected
brain abnormalities and criminality
- Lombroso studied scientific comparisions of physical traits of prisoners – hospitals for the
insane (brown, Esbensen and Geis 2015)
- He decided that that crime was not a result of poor choices but innate
- Lobroso’s ‘criminal anthropology’ Is dismissed as racist, sexist and miss informed
- The search for the ‘criminal gene’ exists
- Other areas currently being researched include brain chemistry, hormones, chromosomal
abnormalities
- Milwaukee wanted the fittest family to only reproduce
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Week 1: chapter 29- study skills for criminology. Crime has many definitions, some cause us o question what defines crime and who is a criminal based off this. Things that cause significant harm can be considered a political issue (oil spill) Conflicting social processes shape our views of crime. Certain beahaviours are classified as the person intends to cause or actually produces harm (brown 2009) Most crime involves behaviour that causes identifiable harm to other people. Many harmful acts can be morally or legally justified. Over-criminalization is a increasing problem with legal definitions. Yet they also do not include/have not included a lot of harmful acts. Things like the complexity of white collar crimes, crime in the home and cyber crime are very under-criminalized although they can cause severe harm, they are difficulty to either understand or investigate due to the private nature. It influences and is influenced by a complex series of relationships.
