Criminalisation and Regulation - Midterm 1

Question 1

Gabor (1994) - key arguments

Answer 1

• we all use the justification that ‘everybody does it’
• crime and criminality are not moral absolutes (crime is not an attribute that one either possesses or lacks)
• crime is a continuum which includes both social and historical analysis

Question 2

Kramar (2011) - key arguments

Answer 2

Distinguishes between the formal and normative definitions of crime

Question 3

What is the normative definition of crime?

Answer 3

A crime that violates a cultural norm. This reacts to historical and economic conditions

Question 4

What is the formal definition of crime?

Answer 4

A crime that is prohibited by law and punishable by the state

Question 5

What is social/moral regulation?

Answer 5

A form of regulation that establishes what is right and proper. It encourages certain forms of conduct while discouraging others. It takes place on both a state and social level

Question 6

What is positivism? (counting crime)

Answer 6

A school of thought that believes all claims to truth must be proven with empirical evidence - must be objectively observed and measured

Question 7

What is the UCRS?

Answer 7

The Uniform Crime Report Survey

Question 8

What are the factors which may influence changes in the crime rate?

Answer 8

• crime rates are report sensitive, policing sensitive, definition sensitive and media sensitive
• crime rate really is changing

Question 9

What are the three main sources of crime statistics in Canada?

Answer 9

1. the uniform crime report survey
2. victimisation surveys
3. self-report surveys

Question 10

What are some of the limitations of UCRS?

Answer 10

• Reporting practices
• Law enforcement practices
• Legal definitions
• Media practices
• Methodological problems
• Geographical limitations - crime differ depending on geographical location

Question 11

What are some limitations of victimisation surveys?

Answer 11

• some people don’t know they’ve been a victim of crime
• fears over anonymity
• psychological harm
  sample size
• no aggregate data

Question 12

What are the limitations of positivism?

Answer 12

• society isn’t that objective
• statistics are socially constructed so measuring them objectively isn’t reliable/accurate
• doesn’t take into account why people do things
• statistics only measure policing and reporting
• doesn’t measure when crime happened
• doesn’t look at motivations

Question 13

What is the culture of spectacle?

Answer 13

Punishment is public and effected on the body

Question 14

What is carceral culture?

Answer 14

Punishment is more internalised/private and there is more of a focus on rehabilitation and regulation (regulatory power)

Question 15

What is the panopticon?

Answer 15

architectural design which allows an observer to observe all of the prisoners without being able to tell that they are/when they are being watched

Question 16

How does Foucault use Bentham’s panopticon?

Answer 16

As a means of explaining how society operates/how power is used in society

Question 17

What is sovereign power?

Answer 17

Obedience to the state/royalty

Question 18

What is disciplinary power?

Answer 18

Power that regulates the behaviour of individuals. It is done by organising space, time, activities and behaviour

Question 19

How does Foucault view the concept of power?

Answer 19

Foucault views power as productive. It is not a commodity. Knowledge is a mechanism of power

Question 20

What is discourse? (According to Foucault)

Answer 20

Word choice and ideology, ideas of common sense and morality. It provides a framework of understanding and interpreting information/representations

Question 21

What is governmentally?

Answer 21

Power exerted over people (and their bodies)

Question 22

What is criminalisation?

Answer 22

Crime is a process rather than a social fact - it responds to morals, values, and social/political/ideological circumstances. It describes the way ideas of crime change over time

Question 23

What is regulation?

Answer 23

how the state or law plays a role in telling us what is right or wrong, and what the consequences of such acts might be (state regulation and social/moral regulation)

Question 24

What does it mean for official statistics to be media sensitive?

Answer 24

MEDIA SENSITIVE - the media report things in a certain light - perpetuating stereotypes/moral panics - if something has media attention it is more likely to be reported/hate crimes increase when media report on terrorist attacks

Question 25

What does it mean for official statistics to be policing sensitive?

Answer 25

POLICING SENSITIVE - reflects policies (e.g. zero tolerance) or their views on criminalisation (e.g. US and police brutality)

Question 26

What does it mean for official statistics to be definition sensitive?

Answer 26

DEFINITION SENSITIVE - e.g what is defined as criminal can change (often this coincides with law changes) - for example, the legalisation of marijuana in Canada

Question 27

What is the dark figure of crime?

Answer 27

volume of crime which is unknown, and therefore unmeasured.