AC1.2 Explain the Social Construction of Criminality

Question 1

Social construction

Answer 1

something that has been made or defined by society. What counts as criminality is whichever acts a society defines as criminal.

Question 2

Physical Punishment

Answer 2

any sanction that contains a physical element.

Question 3

Examples of physical punishment

Answer 3

• hanging
• hard labor
• birching
• lethal injection

Question 4

Corporal Punishment

Answer 4

physical punishment that is intended to cause pain or discomfort.

Question 5

Capital Punishment

Answer 5

punishments that results in death. State authorised execution.

Question 6

Historical Events relating to Capital punishment

Answer 6

• 11th century - burning people (women) at the stake (witchcraft)
• The Bloody codes - 17th to 19th century - made more than 200 offences punishable by death
• 1965 - the Murder (Abolition of the Death Penalty) Act suspended the death penalty for an initial five-year period and was made permanent in 1964.

Question 7

Historical Events relating to Corporal Punishment

Answer 7

• 1820 - illegal to whip women
• 1881 - removal of whipping from the Navy
• 1948 - illegal to whip/birch men.

Question 8

Why Law on Capital punishment changed

Answer 8

• breaches a basic human right
• death penalty doesn’t work as an effective deterrent
• belief people can change
• society doesn’t take pleasure in watching people being hanged anymore
• miscarriages of justice - Dereck Bentley

Question 9

Why Law on Corporal Punishment changed (education)

Answer 9

• 1967 - Plowden report - caning in primary schools should be banned
• considered degrading
• abuse of power - young as 5 getting the cane
• rights of children

Question 10

Example: Honour crime definition

Answer 10

crimes conducted against family members by other family members in response to threats to the family ‘honour’.

Question 11

Examples of honour crime

Answer 11

• murder
• domestic abuse
• forced marriage
• FGM
• sexual violence and harrassment

Question 12

2 specific examples of Honour crime where victims are protected by law in the UK

Answer 12

• FGM - Female Genital Mutilation Act 2003
• Forced Marriage - Forced Marriage (Civil Protection Act) 2007.

Question 13

Statistics to show law isn’t enough to prevent honour crime from taking place

Answer 13

• UK - estimates that at least a dozen women are victims of honour killings
• Pakistan - 2009 study found nearly 2000 newspapers reports of honour killing.