Unit 2

• Crime


  An act that is against the law
• Deviance


  An act that is against social norms but not necessarily against the law
• Types of behaviour


  • Criminal
  • Both criminal and deviant
  • Deviant
• Examples of deviance


  • Speeding
  • Shoplifting
  • Adultery
• Social definition of crime

  An act that offends society, often universally disapproved of and detrimental to our communities
• Legal definition of crime

  An act that breaks the law, which can be punished
• Most criminal offences require the prosecution to establish beyond all reasonable doubt that the accused has committed a criminal action and that this was committed with intent
• Actus Reus non facit reum, nisi mens sit rea: 'An act does not make a person guilty unless the mind is guilty'
• Actus Reus


  Guilty act
• Mens Rea


  Guilty mind
• Actus Reus + Mens Rea = Crime
• Elements of Actus Reus

  • Unlawful killing
  • Human being
  • Within the Queen's peace
• Elements of Mens Rea

  • Malice aforethought (intention to kill or cause GBH resulting in death)
  • Intent to take belongings that aren't yours (theft)
  • Intent to take other property with threat of harm (armed robbery)
• Mens Rea defences


  • Intoxication
  • Insanity
  • Automatism
  • Consent
  • Self-defence
  • Diminished responsibility
  • Loss of control
  • Lawful excuse
  • Duress
  • Infancy
  • Necessity
  • Age
• Non-court sanctions


  • Cautions
  • Conditional cautions
  • Penalty notices
• Court sanctions


  • Custodial sentence
  • Community sentence
  • Fines
  • Discharge
• Types of criminal acts

  • Fatal offences against the person (murder, manslaughter)
  • Non-fatal offences against the person (assault, battery, actual and grievous bodily harm)
  • Offences against property (theft, burglary, robbery)
  • Sexual offences (rape, indecent assault)
  • Public order offences (riot, affray, violent disorder)
  • Drug offences (possession, possession with intent to supply)
• Norms


  Social expectations that guide behaviour
• Moral codes


  Morals or good ways of behaving, breaking them is considered serious
• Values


  Shared by people within a culture, more of a general guide to behaviour than norms
• Types of deviance


  • Admired behaviour
  • Odd behaviour
  • Bad behaviour
• Sanctions against deviance are informal and can include parents grounding their children, people disapproving and ignoring you or labelling behaviour and a group of people as delinquents
• Biological theories of crime

  • Offending behaviour is inherited
  • One or more genes predispose people to commit crimes
• The evidence for biological theories comes from family studies and twin studies
• Concordance rate


  The extent to which both twins share the same characteristic
• Twin studies show higher concordance rates for offending in MZ twins compared to DZ twins, suggesting a genetic basis for criminality
• The MAOA gene causes a deficiency in monoamine oxidase A, an enzyme responsible for the metabolism of neurotransmitters such as serotonin, which has links to aggression
• Adoption studies show a significant correlation between the number of criminal convictions of biological parents and their offspring, but not with adopted parents
• Lombroso's theory


  • Criminals are a separate species and have atavistic features that manifest as a tendency to commit crimes
  • Murderers have bloodshot eyes and curly hair, sex offenders have thick lips and protruding ears
  • Criminals have other physical traits such as insensitivity to pain, use of criminal slang, and unemployment
• A Chinese study using AI correctly flagged criminal men 83% of the time based on facial features
• Sheldon's theory


  • There are 3 fundamental body types - ectomorphic (thin and fragile), mesomorphic (muscular and hard), and endomorphic (fat and soft)
  • Mesomorphs are more prone to committing violent and aggressive acts
• Raine's theory


  • Damage to the prefrontal cortex of the brain may cause individuals to have an altered behaviour pattern, making them more impulsive and less self-controlled
  • Low levels of serotonin are linked to higher aggression
• Modelling


  Learning behaviour by observing others
• Role models


  People who others look up to and relate to, whose behaviour can influence others
• Bandura's Bobo doll experiment showed that children who observed adults being aggressive were also aggressive towards the doll
• Modelling


  When someone is a role model and has a role of authority in someone else's eyes
• Role models


  Someone who someone else looks up to because they relate to them or they are deemed a role of authority
• The role model's behaviour


  Affected the children's behaviour as to how they they behaved- if the model was aggressive, they were aggressive
• Bandura's study also looked at whether the models in the film were rewarded or punished for their behaviour to the Bobo doll
• Observational learning


  Learning that occurs by observing others, such as in the family, prevalent subculture (e.g. peers), and through cultural symbols like TV and books