AC.1.2 Explain the social construction of criminality

Question 1

What is a social construct?

Answer 1

A social construct or construction concerns the meaning, notion, or connotation placed on an object or event by society, and adopted by the inhabitants of that society with respect to how they view or deal with the object or event.

Question 2

What is polygamy?

Answer 2

Polygamy is the practice of having more than one wife or one husband at the same time.

There are two forms of polygamy:
1. Polygyny, where a man may take two or more wives.
2. Polyandry, where a woman may take two or more husbands.

Question 3

Where is polygamy legal?

Answer 3

Legal in 58 countries.

Question 4

Where is polygamy illegal?

Answer 4

• Illegal in Turkey and Tunisia.
• In the UK if you marry someone else whilst still married. This is known as committing bigamy. You can be sentence up to seven years, a fine or both.

Question 5

What is adultery?

Answer 5

Sexual relations between a married person and another, with the exception of their spouse.

Question 6

Where is adultery legal?

Answer 6

Most countries, including the UK.

Question 7

Where is adultery illegal?

Answer 7

• Africa, Philippines, Taiwan, and 21 states.
• Punishments include stoning to death, caning, and a fine.

Question 8

What is homosexuality?

Answer 8

Sexual acts between members of the same sex are treated as crimes in a number of countries.

Question 9

Where is homosexuality legal?

Answer 9

UK, Europe, North and South America, and Indonesia.

Question 10

Where is homosexuality illegal?

Answer 10

• Illegal in 72 countries.
• Conviction could be death penalty.

Question 11

What is cannabis?

Answer 11

Laws on cannabis vary widely between different societies. In general, possession of cannabis for personal use is treated more leniently than growing, importing, or supplying cannabis.

Question 12

Where is cannabis legal?

Answer 12

• Legalised possession for personal use or medical use.
• Portugal

Question 13

Where is cannabis illegal?

Answer 13

• In the UK, possession can be punished with up to 5 years imprisonment and supply with 14 years.
• Many other European countries have the same law.

Question 14

How have laws from homosexuality changed over the years?

Answer 14

• Act between men were made a crime in 1885.
• Acts between males aged 21 or over were legalised in England and Wales in 1967, in Scotland in 1980, and Northern Ireland in 1982.
• Age of consent was reduced to 18 in 1994 and then equalised with heterosexuals at 16 in 2000.

Question 15

Reasons why homosexuality laws have changed?

Answer 15

• The Wolfenden report – the committee’s report published in 1957 recommended that homosexual acts in private between consenting adults over 21 be legalised.
• Campaigns – the Homosexual Law Reform Society legalised gay sex in 1967.
• Politicians – politicians’ supported homosexual campaigns.
• Human rights – the decision of the Supreme Court that the state has no right to control citizens’ private lives.

Question 16

How have laws from drugs changed over the years?

Answer 16

• The Portuguese case – 2001 possession of drugs became legal. From 1930s until 1975 Portugal had been ruled by a right-wing dictatorship as a ‘closed’ and strictly regulated society. 1975 Portugal became a democracy and the increased openness of the country led to a large influx of drugs. Portugal had the highest rates of heroin addiction in Europe, as well as soaring HIV infection.
• Public health – aimed at harm reduction, rather than an issue for the criminal justice system. HIV infections among addicts are almost non-existent and deaths from drugs are now the lowest in Europe.

Question 17

Reasons why drug laws have changed?

Answer 17

The sudden and rapid growth in the scale of drug addiction in Portugal after 1975: by 1990s, one in every 100 of the population was addicted to heroin. The new law would reduce the cots resulting from drug use and one source points to a saving of 18%.

Question 18

Gun control laws were put in place why?

Answer 18

In the UK, laws governing access to firearms changed following two mass shootings:

1. In 1987, Michael Ryan, an unemployed antique dealer, shot and killed 16 people in Hungerford, Berkshire.
2. In 1996, 16 children and one teacher were shot dead at Dunblane primary school near Stirling in Scotland by Thomas Hamilton, an unemployed former scout leader.

Question 19

How have laws from guns changed over the years?

Answer 19

• Laws were tightened in 1997 following a government enquiry led by senior former judge, Lord Cullen.
• John Major’s conservative government introduced an act banning all handguns expect 22 single shot weapons.
• Tony’s Blair’s government introduced a second Firearms Act, banning the remaining handguns as well.

Question 20

Reasons why gun laws have changed?

Answer 20

• The Gun Control Network – set up by lawyers, academics, and parents of victims to campaign for tighter gun control.
• The Snowdrop Campaign – started by bereaved Dunblane parents and their friends, organised a petition and collected 750,000 signatures calling for a change in the law.

Question 21

How have laws for children changed over the years?

Answer 21

• Until the 13th century, ‘the idea of childhood did not exist’.
• Work from an early age and were in effect ‘mini adults’ with the same rights and duties as everyone else.
• Law often made no distinction between children and adults, and punishments as those handed out to adults.

Question 22

Reasons why laws relating to children have changed?

Answer 22

• Laws excluding children from paid work – in the 19th century, children as young as six worked in factories. A series of Factory Acts gradually excluded children from the workplace.
• Compulsory schooling – introduced in 1880 ensured a basic education for all.
• Child protection and welfare legislation – 2004 Children Act made the child’s welfare the fundamental principle underpinning the work of agencies.
• Children right’s – Children Act defines parents as having ‘responsibilities’ rather than ‘rights’ in relation to children, while the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989) lays down basic rights.

Question 23

Laws concerning physical punishment were changed why?

Answer 23

In the past, physical punishment for criminal behaviour was common. At various times in British history, criminals could be punished by:
- Capital punishment (execution) by hanging, not only for murder but also for less serious crimes.
- Corporal punishments has included flogging, birching, branding with hot irons and being put in the sticks.

Question 24

How have physical punishment changed over the years?

Answer 24

• The number of offences carrying the death penalty was reduced, until it remained only for murder and treason.
• Capital punishment was abolished in Britain in 1965.
• Corporal punishment has also gradually disappeared.

Question 25

Reasons why capital punishment has changed?

Answer 25

• Capital punishment is now regarded as a breach of the most basic human right – the right to life.
• Nothing can be done to correct a miscarriage of justice, where a person executed is later proven to have been innocent.
• The death penalty does not appear to act as a deterrent. Most murders are committed in the heat of the moment without thought to the possible punishment.
• Some writers argue that changes in the law are the result if a long-term decline in violence.

Question 26

Differential enforcement of the law:

Answer 26

• Moral panics – those convicted of relatively minor offences committed during the London riots of 2011, such as theft, were more likely to receive custodial sentences than similar cases committed under ‘normal conditions’.
• Typification – another way in which the law may be enforced differently against similar cases is shown by the work of Chambliss.

Question 27

Age of criminal responsibility:

Answer 27

• Age of criminal responsibility is 10 in the UK, under 10 will not be subject to the law.
• In Canada no person can be committed under the age of 12.
• In Bangladesh the age is 9.
• In China the age is 16.

Question 28

Homicide:

Answer 28

• There are three special defences in the Homicide Act 1957. This means the defenders can plead not guilty despite having killed someone.
• Diminished responsibility – their menta condition substantially reduced their ability to understand what they were doing or form a rational judgement.
• Loss of control – a partial defence that may reduce the offence to manslaughter.
• Automatism – the defendant must consciously choose to commit a crime, so they can prove it was involuntary they can plead automatism.