Ac1.2 Explain the social construction of criminality

• Social construction

  Made or defined by society rather than occurring naturally
• Polygamy

  More than one wife/husband at the same time
• Polygyny


  Man may take two or more wives
• Polyandry


  A woman may take two or more husbands
• Polygamy legal

  58 countries

  India and Malaysia

  Have to be Muslim
• Polygamy crime

  Most countries

  Turkey and Tunisia

  In UK marrying more than 1 person is bigamy= 7 years/ fine
• Why polygamy laws vary between cultures:

  • religion- Qur'an permits Muslim men to take up to 4 wives. Mormons practised it until 1890 in the USA
  • tradition-tradition in some African societies, declined sharply in recent decades