Understanding Crime & Criminology Flashcards

1
Q

What is Criminology?

A

Concerned with the study of crime, those who commit crime, the criminal justice system and penal systems

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2
Q

What is Criminalisation?

A

Criminalisation is the process by which certain acts, people or groups are defined as criminal

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3
Q

What does over-criminalisation mean?

A

Excessive punishment/sentences without adequate justification

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4
Q

What does under-criminalisation mean?

A

Too soft a punishment for a certain act / the failure to routinely enforce prohibitions against certain behaviours

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5
Q

What did Garland (2002) propose?

A

Modern criminology is made up of two streams
>The Governmental Project - administration of justice; the working of prisons and police and the measurement of crime
>The Lombrosian Project - examine the characteristics of criminals and non-criminals

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6
Q

What did Edwin Sutherland (1937) propose?

A

Criminology is the study of:

  • The making of the laws
  • The breaking of the laws
  • Society’s reaction to the breaking of laws
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7
Q

What were Hillyard and Tombs (2004) 4 major criticisms against criminology?

A
  1. Crime has no ‘ontological reality’ - no universal criteria for what is a crime
  2. Criminology perpetuates the myth of crime - talk of crime as if the category was relatively unproblematic
  3. Crime consists of many petty events
  4. Crime excludes many serious harms
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8
Q

What is Crime?

A

Conduct or an act of omission, which, when it results in certain consequences, may lead to prosecution and punishment in criminal court

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9
Q

What are the 4 frameworks for defining crime?

A
  1. Crime and the Criminal Law - Legalistic Approach
  2. Social and political constuct
  3. Human rights definition
  4. Crime defined by Religion
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10
Q

What 4 things are necessary in the legalistic approach?

A
  1. Guilty act (actus reus)
  2. Guilty mind (mens rea)
  3. Absence of lawful defence
  4. Having legal capacity
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11
Q

What are some strengths to the legalistic approach?

A
  1. Clarity & Precision - crime is defined on the basis of the criminal law thus there are clear consequences and official punishment
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12
Q

What are some weaknesses of the legalistic approach?

A
  1. Prone to ambiguity and moral judgment
  2. Studying crime based solely on what the criminal law characterises as a crime is not enough - does not consider harm by governments etc
  3. Some acts which are harmful to others are not considered a crime -> why are some behaviours criminalised and others are not? eg Spanner case, sports
  4. If no criminal law then no crime (does not tell us why)
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