CRM 1300 Lecture : 2. What is Crime?.docx

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Criminology
• Course: CRM 1300
• Professor: Sam Alvaro

Document Summary

Criminology is the body of knowledge regarding crime as a social phenomenon. Records, experiments, surveys, historical data, content analysis. Sociology, criminal justice, psychology, political science, anthropology, economic, the natural sciences. Create valid and reliable measures of crime. Determining the nature and cause of specific crime patterns. Study involves describing, analyzing and explaining the agencies of justice. Norms are rules and expectations by which a society guides the behaviour of its members. They may be either prescriptive (don"t) or proscriptive (do). There are two special types of norms that were identified by william graham. Sumner: mores (right and wrong) and folkways (right and rude) As we internalize norms, we respond critically to our own behaviour through shame or guilt. Crime: any form of human behaviour that is designated by law as criminal and subject to penal sanction. Rule of law: we accept that laws are rules of society and when transgressed will have repercussions.