Aiah

• Crime and the fear of crime have permeated the fabric of American life
• Collective fear stimulates herd instinct, and tends to produce ferocity toward those who are not regarded as members of the herd
• Criminology


  The scientific study of crime
• Criminology


  The study of lawmaking, law-breaking, and the response to law-breaking
• Criminal justice


  The response (policing, courts, and corrections) to criminal behavior
• Deviance


  Anyone who violates social norms
• Norms


  Guidelines that define for members of a society the types of behaviors that are appropriate or inappropriate in certain situations
• Folkways


  Norms against actions that may evoke a snicker or some teasing as a response
• Mores


  Norms that evoke a more serious response from others when violated
• Laws


  Norms that have been codified, and the response to violations comes from formal government agencies
• Criminology has emerged as a distinct social science discipline
• Sociology has had the largest impact on the study of crime
• The roots of sociology's contribution to criminology can be traced to members of the sociology department at the University of Chicago
• Edwin Sutherland became the dominant advocate of criminology with his theories of differential association and white-collar crime
• Robert K. Merton developed the sociological theory of anomie
• The first acknowledged set of laws (dated 1792 bce) was the Code of Hammurabi
• The Mosaic Code of the Israelites (1200 bce) developed the laws of the Old Testament, which include the Ten Commandments
• The root of American law is English common law
• Most of the U.S. criminal code is considered statutory law
• Actus reus


  The specific act
• Mens rea


  The criminal intent
• Levels of criminal intent

  • Purpose
  • Knowledge
  • Negligence
  • Recklessness
• Strict liability offenses


  Offenses that do not require criminal intent
• Specific intent offenses


  Offenses that require a particular mental state
• Mala in se crimes


  Crimes considered "evil in themselves"
• Mala prohibita crimes


  Crimes that are "wrong because they are prohibited"
• Felonies


  Serious offenses that can result in longer prison sentences
• Misdemeanors


  Less serious offenses that carry a maximum sentence of 1 year in a local jail
• Procedural law


  The rules that actors within the criminal justice system must follow
• Civil law


  Includes contract law, property law, and tort law
• Laws are dynamic and greatly influenced by current events, politics, economics, and numerous other external factors
• Tort law


  Strongest resemblance to criminal law, where an individual or group seeks compensation to redress some wrongdoing or harm
• Violations of the criminal law


  Can result in both a criminal and tort trial
• Criminal law continues to change as judges have to interpret situations associated with the emergence of new technology (e.g., the Internet) and new threats (e.g., terrorism)
• Terrorist attack in the United States had a substantial impact on the law


  September 11, 2001
• USA Patriot Act was passed, 6 weeks after 9/11


  October 24, 2001
• USA Patriot Act


  Amended numerous laws, with the primary intent to relax the procedural laws that restrict law enforcement investigation and surveillance powers
• Controversial provisions of the USA Patriot Act


  • Sneak-and-peek search warrant
  • Expanded government's ability to view records on an individual's activities held by third parties
• Edward Snowden copied and released classified information to the media, revealing the NSA was accumulating and storing online metadata from millions of Internet users

  2013
• USA Freedom Act extended some provisions in the original Patriot Act while scaling back others

  2015