Global Crime Slide Notes PDF
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Università di Torino
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Summary
These notes provide a basic overview of the concept of crime and criminology. They discuss historical and social factors influencing the understanding of crime, and highlight the role of the state and globalization in shaping this concept. The notes also address different approaches to defining crime, such as legal and sociological perspectives.
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Week 1 - Basic concepts - Criminology: - "is the body of knowledge regarding crime as a social phenomenon that includes within its scope the process of making laws, of breaking laws and of reacting towards the breaking of laws." (Edwin sutherl...
Week 1 - Basic concepts - Criminology: - "is the body of knowledge regarding crime as a social phenomenon that includes within its scope the process of making laws, of breaking laws and of reacting towards the breaking of laws." (Edwin sutherland) - Criminology has no distinct theoretial object and no distinct method of inquiry of its own. Rendez-vous discipline (Garland). - What's a crime: (definition of crime is subject to debate) - Legal oriented definition (criminal law): crime is a violation of the law that can be subject to prosecution and punishment. Criminal lawyers are concerned to conceptual structure, doctrinal content and judicial interpretation. PRESCRIPTIVE APPROACH - Sociological-oriented definition (criminology): crime is historically changeable and relative. Crime is the result of a legal/culture/social construction (so called, process of criminalization). Criminologists are concerned to development and scope of criminal law. DESCRIPTIVE APPROACH - Crime isn't an objective entity but also the result of a process of social construction. - Many circumstances (social, cultural, and historic) influence the definition of what is a crime. - The conventional concept of crime doesn't include new situations or doesn't consider the harm caused by certain behaviors (e.g. private security personnel on the battlefield; white collar crimes/environmental crimes) - Crimes of globalization - The relativism of the concept of crime - "Crime is a problematic category used routinely to describe a set of behaviors that, beyond a central core, are highly contested. Legal definition cannot adequately recognize the historical development, social relationships, practices, ideologies and interests that determine what, at any given moment, is designated criminal" (lucia zedner) - The role of the state in defining what is criminal is changing due to globalization. - Relativity ---\> crime \
