SOC102H1 Lecture Notes - Moral Panic, Anomie, Restorative Justice
Document Summary
The behaviour of normal people bending the rules. The behaviour of normal people in deviant roles. The behaviour of normal people in abnormal situations. The result of unequal opportunities to conform and the result of deviant learning (imitation). Criminal law attaches moral responsibility (blame) to people"s behaviour. Justice is about rules and the evaluation of rule-breaking. Some laws are about the $ amount stolen. Some laws offer the police and judge"s discretion. A moral panic occurs when a condition, episode, person or group of persons emerges to become defined as a threat to societal values and interests. Moral panics reveal and aggravate social tensions that are hard to resole. During a moral panic, the media act as agents of moral indignation. What a society defines as crime is socially constructed and culturally relative, it varies over time and from one place to another. Competing scientific and professions claims about the origin of crime.
