SOC208H5 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: California Electricity Crisis, Mail And Wire Fraud, Black Death
Document Summary
Lecture 2 - defining and identifying white-collar crime. 2 forms of social control: informal (shaming) and formal (law) Consensus perspective - law emerges to embody and reflect the strong, majority sentiment of the population. Conflict perspective - law reflects successful actions by certain groups with enough power to legislate according to their own interests. Example: common law - brought things people believed were morally wrong and turned it into law (king henry) Vagrancy laws - homelessness or a homeless person. This is when the black death wiped out 1/2 the population. Made it illegal for you not to accept work, you can"t move or flew from one county to the next. Social power - the ability to make choices by virtue of control over political, economic, or social resources. Powerful people (or organizations) often define standards for deviance and the law. Those with social power can do certain norms with the exclusion of others.
