unit 2

• Social definition of crime

  • The social definition of crime is the same as deviance
  • Deviance refers to breaking social norms, values, mores and/or moral codes
• Social norms

  • Social norms is a common standard within groups regarding socially acceptable or appropriate behaviours in particular social situations
  • Examples - appropriate clothes, queues, manners
• Social values

  • Social values are what society holds as important
  • Examples - fairness, individual rights, education, accountability
• Moral codes

  • Moral codes are a set of rules or guidelines that a person or group of people follow in order to live a good life.
  • They are based on culture and religion
  • Examples - You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery
• Mores

  • Mores are the behaviour in society that people actually do
  • Examples - queues, talking quietly
• The legal definition of crime

  • The legal definition of crime is an action or behaviour which is illegal and is punished by the criminal justice system
  • Examples - speeding, flying a kite, underage drinking, being drunk in a pub
• In law, a crime must have two elements :

  • Actus reus - guilty act
  • Mens rea - guilty mind
• Difference between murder and manslaughter

  • Murder is when a person of sound mind unlawfully kills another human with the intent to kill or cause greivous bodily harm
  • Manslaughter is when a person unlawfully kills another but they didn't intend to kill or cannot be held responsible for their actions.
• Formal deviancy

  • Formal deviancy are actions or behaviours which are both criminal and deviant
  • Formal deviancy is punished by the criminal justice system and society
  • Examples - murder, GBH, public nudity
• Informal deviancy

  • Informal deviancy are actions or behaviours which are deviant but not criminal.
  • Informal deviancy is punished by society but not the criminal justice system
  • Examples - Adultery, face tattoos, exotic pets, bad manners
• Sanctions

  • Formal sanctions are given out by the criminal justice system for criminal offences. There are 4 types : Imprisonment, community sentence, financial penalty, and discharge
  • Informal sanctions are given out by society. Examples are shouting, telling off, shop ban etc
• Universal

  • Universal is where something stays the same over time, place, culture and/or circumstance
  • Example -'you shall not kill' is a universal law and is based off one of the ten commandments.
  • Another example - 'you shall not steal' which is also another universal law.
• Social construction of crime

  • Social construction is something that changes over time, place, culture and or circumstance
  • Some of the ten commandments have become socially constructed laws e.g. 'you shall not commit adultery' which was made illegal in the UK in 1650, but was legalised in 1858. This has changed over time. Adultery is illegal in Iran and is a capital offence which is a change of place
• Social construction - Circumstance 1 = offender's intent

  • Murder is when a person of sound mind unlawfully kills another human with the intent to kill or cause greivous bodily harm. Manslaughter is when a person unlawfully kills another but they didn't intend to kill or cannot be held responsible for their actions.
  • 3 special defences in the homicide act 1957 - diminished responsibility, loss of control and automitism
• Social construction - Circumstance 1 = offender's intent

  3 Special defences in the homicide act 1957

  1. Diminished responsibility - prove a defendant's mental condition substantially reduced their ability to act rationally.
  2. Loss of control - a partial defence that may reduce the offence to manslaughter e.g. domestic violence victim murders their abuser
  3. Automitism - if the defendant can show that the act was not voluntary, that can plead the defence of automitism.
• Social construction - Circumstance 2 : age of offender

  • Age of criminal responsibility is the age below which a child is deemed incapable of having committed a criminal offence as they don't have the capacity to appreciate the nature of their actions.
• Social construction - Circumstance 2 : age of offender

  • Youth crimes are committed by children aged 10-17
  • The identity of a child aged 10-17 charged with a crime will not be disclosed outside the court
  • Those permitted inside the court are the usual participants like officers, family, and the parties. However, there are reporting restrictions
  • They are tried in the youth court which is in the magistrates court and they only have one specially trained magistrate.
  • Example - James Bulger case
• Social construction - Circumstance 2 : age of offender

  • Example - James Bulger case
  • 2 ten year old boys abducted and killed two year old James Bulger.
  • The age of criminal responsibility in the UK is 10 so therefore, The boys were tried in court
  • Under 18s dont have a mandatory life sentence so the boys were given an indefinate sentence and paroled after 8 years
• Social construction - Time : double jeopardy

  • 800 years ago, the double jeopardy law was established and stated that a person who had been acquitted of an offence couldn't be retried for the same offence to protect individuals from the power of the state
  • Now, the double jeopardy law is partially abolished by the criminal justice act 2003. In certain circumstances, a person who is acquitted of a crime can now be put on trial once more
  • This law changed due to the murder of Julie Hogg
• Social construction - Time : double jeopardy

  • Julie Hogg was murdered by Billy Dunlop and was found under the bath 3 months later.
  • On Billy's first trial, he was acquitted and therefore could not be tried again
  • Billy later confessed to the murder of Julie Hogg and it was taped. However, he could not be tried due to the double jeopardy law
  • The Justice for Julie campaign started and aimed to change the double jeopardy law.
  • The law was not providing justice for victims and family anymore. The law was partly abolished and Billy was retried.
• Social construction - Culture : Guns in America

  • In the USA, they believe everyone has a right to bear arms as it's rooted in the second amandment of the constitution. It is common to see guns in public, shops and homes in America
  • In Uk culture, guns are believed to be dangerous and it's believed no one should have one. They are illegal in the UK following the Dunblane massacre and stronger legislation was introduced as a result of race riots and police strikes
• Social construction - Place : age of criminal responsibility

  • UK -2 ten year old boys abducted and killed two year old James Bulger.The age of criminal responsibility in the UK is 10 so therefore, The boys were tried in court. Under 18s dont have a mandatory life sentence so the boys were given an indefinate sentence and paroled after 8 years
  • Norway - 2 six year old boys beat 5 year old Siljie Redergard to death. The age of criminal responsibility in Norway is 15 so the boys were kept anonymous, they were protected rather than punished and havent been involved in criminal activities ever since
• Social construction - Culture

  • Tunisia - individuals can't live together unless they are married
  • Jaywalking USA - pedestrians aren't allowed to cross the road if there is no crossing
  • Homosexuality in Iran - it's illegal and can be given the death penalty as it is thought to be a crime against god
  • Amsterdam - legal to smoke weed
  • Afghanistan - due to religious groups in power, they don't believe in alot of womens rights
  • Poligamy - legal in Middle Eastern countries
• Criminal behaviour

  • Criminal behaviour is against the law. Behaviours such as theft and murder break the law.
  • It usually requires an actus reus and a mens rea, though not in cases of strict liability.
  • Criminal behaviour is normally sanctioned formally, with one of the four sanctions : discharge, financial penalty, community sentence and imprisnment
  • .It is usually deviant but it may be normalised e.g. illegal streaming or speeding which do reflect society’s norms, values and mores.
• Emotional language in campaigns

  • The use of emotional language, especially involving bereavement or death. This can be found is Sarah’s Law, Anne Ming and Stephen Lawrence Foundation. In many of these, the dead person’s image was used extensively to encourage a more emotional and less rational way of engaging with the campaign. Campaigns make issues personal and emotions are important because campaigns are often controversial and complex e.g. removing double jeopardy was also removing protection from government abuse, Sarah’s Law may in fact make people less safe from paedophiles.
• Simplified language in campaigns

  • Emotional language can be enhanced by the simplified language used in tabloid newspapers and all the campaigns try to some extent to get coverage there because complex legal issues can be simplified into ‘easy to agree with statements’ e.g. Would you want to know a paedophile is living near your child? This helps engage people who wouldn’t read or understand more complex arguments.
• Use of celebrities in campaign

  • Sometimes, celebrities can be recruited to help the campaign get more media attention and become widespread e.g. the Stephen Lawrence Foundation had the benefit of support from Nelson Mandela and other celebrities and the #MeToo movement only really gained massive levels of support once celebrities also started to engage with it. Equally, the use of social media has allowed campaigns to quickly access millions of potential supporters, which has been found in pressure groups whose actions have gone viral such as Just Stop Oil.
• Different types of campaigns

  • Anne Ming double jeopardy - individual campaign
  • Sarah's law - newspaper campaign
  • Steven lawrence foundation - pressure group
  • stonewall - pressure group
• How Social change affects policy development

  • Increased liberal attitudes and public concern about miscarriages of justice motivated the 60s Labour government to abandon the death penalty, which was now regarded as barbaric. In both cases, the policy would not have been changed without a corresponding social change.
• How Social change affects policy development

  • Sometimes, policy can be prevented from changing due to social pressure. The UK government was considering changing the age of criminal responsibility from 10 to 14 but this didn’t happen in part because of public anger around the killing of James Bulger by two 10 year old boys
• How Social change affects policy development

  • Social changes in the way that teenage relationships are considered could be regarded as influential in changes to the laws around domestic violence, so that these relationships are now included in the definition, whereas other laws, such as the age at which someone can get married, mirrors the publics perception of young people in a different way as 16 year olds now considered too young and immature to get married, even with parental consent.
• How social change affects policy development

  • In a democracy, policy developments often follow social change, because MPs, who make decisions on policy, are vulnerable to public opinion. This can sometimes make policy and law change slow, since MPs are reluctant to change existing policies until they are certain that the public are in favour.
• How social change affects policy development

  • Since the 60s people had started to think of homosexuality as something that should not be defined as crime. This was in part motivated by wider social changes such as the more liberal attitudes towards sexuality and an increased focus on human rights and freedoms. These changes were also in part motivated by protests and pressure groups, e.g. stonewall, as well as government investigations like the Wolfenden report, which recommended the decriminalisation of homosexuality and so further normalised it.
• how demographic changes affect the policy development

  • Demographic change, affect policy development in that new laws needed to be made to reflect the changing ethnic makeup of Britain. One example of this was changes made to the Race Relations Act and, later to laws relating to Equality and Hate Crime. When the UK was largely monocultural it was regarded as unnecessary to have laws protecting ethnic minorities from discrimination but as immigrants started to experience racism and discrimination laws were developed to prevent this and to protect all British citizens in the same way.
• Explain the consequences of unreported crime

  • One consequence is the that within a culture or subculture the crime may be normalised and lead to less reporting e.g. in some cultures FGM may be normalised to the extent where even the victim doesn’t understand that a crime is taking place, which then increases the likelihood of a crime being committed.
• Explain the consequences of unreported crime

  • One consequence could be decriminalisation or even legal change e.g. if people stop caring about or reporting the smoking of marijuana it may eventually cause the government to believe that this should no longer be a crime and so change their policy; this also happened with Homosexuality in the UK.
• Explain the consequences of unreported crime

  • One consequence might be that the police no longer prioritise these crimes, this can lead to a lack of resources and policing in these areas, which then means an increase in the likelihood of these crimes being committed because criminals don’t fear sanctions.
• Explain the impact of the media on the public perception of crime

  • The media can glamorous crimes, which lead them to be more attractive and thus increase the number of crimes committed e.g. music or film can make the ‘gangster life’ more appealing than it really is, or can normalise unusual and criminal behaviours.
• Explain the impact of the media on the public perception of crime

  • Deviance amplification can occur whereby the media can make crimes seem more commonplace and ‘normal’ which can have the effect of generating interest in rare or unusual activities, as happened with Leah Bett’s death due to ecstacy use. It can also generate moral panics by making people think that everyone is at risk e.g. if you believe that knife crime is common then you may carry a knife (a criminal activity) for defensive reasons. This is a form of labelling, where the media is creating a self-fulfilling prophecy.
• Explain the impact on the media on the public perception of crime

  • The CJS may change come of its priorities in response to the media, emphasising some kinds of ‘media friendly’ crime (mugging) to the detriment of others (white collar crime). This can cause more serious or common crimes to be ignored