CJS 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Tunxis Community College, Kerry Stokes, Community Media
8 Dec 2020
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Effects of crime on victim and community. Define crime as acts/omissions that cause public harm, forbidden by law or punishable by law. Crime is a social construction: varies across time and place. Personal experience, experience of relatives and friends, media. Inconsistencies between official research and media portrayal. Function: bring offenders before court for adjudication and sentencing. Cjs control behaviour defined as unlawful and has a power of citizens. Power is legitimised as the vast majority of citizens approve the power and restrictions in freedom in return of social stability and regulation. Maintain balance of civil liberties and social control. Formal mechanism of social control only in cases where informal agencies have inadequately socialised people. Volume of crime news varies over time and place and is influenced on how crime is defined. If crime defined narrowly, less crime news. If crime defined broadly, more crime news. Media is the primary source of indirect knowledge.
