SOC 1500 Chapter 1: Textbook Summary
21 Jan 2012
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Document Summary
Crime cuts across racial, class and gender lines. It involves acts that shock the conscience and other that seem relatively harmless. Criminal justice system: the complete institutional process of decision making from the initial investigation or arrest by police to the eventual release of the offender and his or her re-entry into society. The various sequential criminal justice stages through which the offender passes are police, courts, and corrections. Intimate violence: a form of violent behaviour that occurs in a context of familiarity, such as wife or child abuse. Research shows that habitually aggressive behaviour is often learned in homes in which children are victimized and parents serve as aggressive role models. After the holmolka/bernardo case, about 1/3 of canadians said they did not feel safe walking alone in their own neighbourhood, even though crime rates stayed the same. The public fear of crime is an important barometer of social health and how people feel about their communities.
