SOC102H1 Chapter Notes - Chapter 7: Corporate Crime, Edwin Sutherland, Property Crime
Document Summary
Disadvantaged people are more likely to commit common crimes, and they are also more likely to be punished for these crimes. The more unequal a society, the more often people will commit crimes, be victimized by crimes, and be punished for crimes. Criminal behaviour is a result of criminal values, personalities, and opportunities, low self-control, and social injustice: to understand crime, we need to understand the society that gives rise to it. Some have proposed that crime is far too complex to be reduced to a simple, social-determinist formula. Some have noted that crime is to be found in all segments of society, and therefore, it cannot be explained by social or economic factors like inequality. Punishment is important because it is a single of a society"s commitment to a certain code of rules: there can be no group, organization, or society without rules nor punishment. Inequality is one of the determinants of crime.
