CRIM 1650 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: White-Collar Crime, Insanity Defense, Actus Reus

• School: York University
• Department: Criminology
• Course: CRIM 1650
• Professor: James Williams

Document Summary

Lecture 1: crime rates in canada have declined from 1991. Toronto is 29th: street crime is much less serious than corporate and white collar crime. Cost of burglary and robbery is . 8 billion. De nition of crime: criminology has no distinct entity. Criminology is a eld of study which is interdisciplinary, includes variety disciplines: psychology, philosophy, sociology. etc: objectives. Continuum of crime and deviance: crime and deviance. De nition: a crime is an act or failure to act which violates the criminal law. Tapan: crime is an intentional act in violation of the criminal law committed without defence or excuse and penalized by the state (100). Elements: "actus reus" and mens rea", acts reus=action itself, mens rea=mental intent. There has to be a physical act resulted in a crime. There must be intent (subjective) and an objective, offender enjoys: defenses, insanity defence, self defence, not guilty by intoxication, limitations, neglects harmful behaviour not sanctioned by criminal law.