Criminology 101

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Criminology P1 Crime A crime is something that is deliberately done to break the law. The legal definition of crime is ‘when an action carried out that is forbidden by law. Afterwards, the police can then sort the crime and investigate, giving the appropriate punishment’. An example is murder or robbery. Some say that the normative definition of crime is better. This is when crimes are viewed as ‘deviant behaviour that violates prevailing norms or cultural standards, specifying how humans should behave’. An example could be Jaywalking or pacifists. The Susan Smith case- In 1995 Susan Smith was convicted of murdering her two sons, ages 3 and 1 years old by strapping them into a car and driving into a lake. She reported the crime to the authorities,…show more content…
Illegal now – Polygamy, smoking marijuana and more. Any sort of behaviour could become a crime due to the process of social construction. Sometimes certain behaviour can be seen as a crime in one society, but a noble act in another. All cultures differ from one another. It is not about the legal view; it is based upon the social response to certain behaviour that may cause conflict. Changes are made towards a certain behaviour or action as a result. A recent example could be abortion or euthanasia. These are very controversial decisions to make. US prohibition In 1920, a law passed called the 18th amendment. This made it illegal to mass produce and sell alcohol. However, people continued to drink it and ignored the law and as a result underground gangsters made lots of money selling it on the illegal market this is why it eventually failed and the government had to change the law. The 18th amendment was done due to various different social reasons like people thinking it was damaging society and wrong to enjoy when many were fighting in the American war at the time. There were also religious reasons; some thought it was going against god to drink any

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