CC100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: George Klippert, Political Crime, Cybercrime
Criminology: Its Nature and Structure
● Everett George Klippert → bus driver arrested for being homosexual in 1960, last person
to be arrested because of sexual orientation, arrested again in Yellowknife after arson
attempt due to his previous arrest and homosexuality… fought with court system, gay
laws decriminalized in 1969
● Laws we have aren’t necessarily reflective of people who obey them
● Crime is not a hard and fast concept → change
What is Crime?
Crime: refers to a socially constructed concept defining certain behaviours as requiring formal
control and social intervention
Crime vs Offense:
● Indictable Offence: serious offence such as assault, theft over $5000, robbery (with or
without firearm), or murder (life sentence at most)
● Summary Offence: less serious offence, such as theft under $5000, impersonating a
police officer, or taking a motor vehicle without consent (2 years at most)
● Conventional Crime: illegal activity committed by individuals or small groups, involving
some degree of direct or indirect contact (e.g. robbery, vehicle theft, break and enter)
● Non - Conventional Crime: illegal activity that may or may not be associated with crime
and that may not be pursued by the criminal justice system (e.g. organized crime,
political crime, cybercrime)
Deviance:
● Deviance: refers to behaviour that violates a social norm but is not necessarily
prohibited by law, e.g. butting in line at a supermarket or cutting off another driver
● Decriminalization: the reduction or removal of criminal penalties attached to an act but
without legalizing it
● Crime is relative - what is defined as crime can vary with time and location
● Crime is also evolutive - the characteristics of a crime can change, taking different
forms over time
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
The Crime and Deviance Hierarchy:
● Consensus Crimes: activities that are generally considered very harmful; therefore
there is strong support for sanctioning and controlling them, e.g. murder, rape, robbery
● Conflict Crimes: activities that are not universally considered crimes, although they are
legally defined as such, e.g. possessing non-medical marijuana, procuring the services
of a prostitute, illegally downloading music
● Social Deviations: activities and worldviews that are not illegal by law, but are
considered deviant from societal norms by persons in power, e.g. LGBTQT, tattoos and
piercings, gang membership
● Social Diversions: social deviations that have become acceptable over time through
normalization, e.g. tattoos, bikinis, music piracy
Hagans Pyramid
What is Criminology?
● Criminology: interdisciplinary science that studies criminal behaviour, crime causation,
crime prevention, and the punishment and rehabilitation of offenders
● Criminologist: a behavioural scientist who specializes in the identification, classification,
and description of criminal behaviour
● In criminology, an interdisciplinary approach is taken - the integration of knowledge
from a variety of disciplines to formulate theories of criminal behaviour (sociology,
forensic science, law, etc)
● David Milgaard (example of why we study criminology)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Laws we have aren"t necessarily reflective of people who obey them. Crime is not a hard and fast concept change. Crime: refers to a socially constructed concept defining certain behaviours as requiring formal control and social intervention. Indictable offence: serious offence such as assault, theft over , robbery (with or without firearm), or murder (life sentence at most) Summary offence: less serious offence, such as theft under , impersonating a police officer, or taking a motor vehicle without consent (2 years at most) Conventional crime: illegal activity committed by individuals or small groups, involving some degree of direct or indirect contact (e. g. robbery, vehicle theft, break and enter) Non - conventional crime: illegal activity that may or may not be associated with crime and that may not be pursued by the criminal justice system (e. g. organized crime, political crime, cybercrime)
