Crime- A term
that means someone is being deviant and breaking the law. Crime is less broad
than deviance as it only applies to what laws have been broken than what is
acceptable as social behaviour. A typical example of a crime in British and
most societies is homicide. The study of criminology’s main focus is on illegal
deviance which is crime. Other examples of crimes are:
·
Theft
·
Fraud
·
Paedophilia
·
Violence
·
Racism
·
Murder
Deviance- This
is the act of breaking social norms. Deviancy is thus broader than crime and
doesn’t always mean resorting to it but can be acts of incivilities or morally
disapproved conduct. What is deviant in one culture can vary to another. A
typical example of deviant behaviour in England is cutting through the cue
whilst waiting for a bus. This type of behaviour is much more acceptable in
other societies but the social norm seems to be stricter in Britain. However,
cutting the cue is not breaking a law and won’t resort to being arrested or
fined. Other examples of deviant acts for many types of people and cultures
range from:
·
Incest
·
Mixed
Race Relationships
·
Homosexuality
·
Sex
before marriage
·
Picking
your nose
Hagan- In his
“common sense view”, he defines deviance as a collective set of agreed wrongs
by a group or culture. Punishment or rejection from members of society reflects
the seriousness of the offence and criminal deviance harms human beings and
society itself. The Criminal Justice System (CJS) is there to give punishment
and control the reports and procedures that take place due to crime.
For theorists like Hagan, crime and deviance is a social construct that
varies from location to location, to different people, different periods of
time and in different situations. For example murder is acceptable by members
of society when they are soldiers going to war.
Hagan’s view of criminology explains that no one ever truly conforms to
the laws all the time and the rationality or morality of the rules over crime
and deviance varies at times and in different situations.
Criminal- The
criminal is an individual who performs actions that violates public interests
and morality by breaking the law. Crime itself is the violations of public
interests, morals and breaking the law.
Role of the Law- The law is the legally written rules and policies that govern how we are
allowed to behave in society. It is there to define people’s moral rights and
wrongs. It does this by establishing a rational hierarchy of norms and offences
which serves to protect the community’s interests and values.
Criminal Justice System- The CJS is there to give punishment and control the reports
and procedures that take place from the event of a crime and its aftermath. The
process of the CJS is crime, arrest, charge, court and then conviction. The
main institutions in the CJS are the Police Service, Crown Prosecution Service,
Courts, Prisons and Probation Service. Its main functions are:
·
Punishment
·
Incapacitation
·
Deterrence
·
Community
Self Defence (Hobbes, Leviathan)
Much of the social construction of
crime reflects the interests of the powerful in order to retain their control
and assets. For example when people commit corporate crime they are more likely
to be leniently treated by the CJS than a thief or drug addict even though they
are technically costing society more money.
When groups of members of society’s collective conscience are obtained
and they understand their position of marginalisation it’s likely they may
resort to means of trying to claim fairness and equality. Civil protest was
much more legal 40 years prior but new state policies have been introduced in
recent years to prevent it from occurring in Britain. Such policies include:
·
Trade
Union Laws (1980’s-1993)
·
Public
Order Act (1986)
·
Criminal
Justice and Public Order (1995)
·
Terrorism
Act (2000) - An action which involves serious damage to property, endangers
someone’s life, effects electronic systems or is one used to affect or harm the
government with some form of ideology. Examples are bombings, hostage cases,
hacking into organisations and Political Crime Action.
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