There are several factors contributing to whether or not certain behaviours are criminalized by law in a society.
From the sociological aspect, there are two major theories that explain law and crimes: the consensus theory and the conflict theory. These two theories have radically different views on what crimes are. The consensus theory suggests that a crime is a behaviour that violates the general values of the society, whereas law is a collective agreement which is necessary to be functionally existed, and is enforced for a collective benefit. With the rapid process of globalization, the consensus theory is almost impossible to work out and can only remain as an academic theory, especially but not exclusively in Hong Kong and other multicultural countries. Hong Kong’s population consists of people of various races, religions and nationalities and we share different values. With a population of different backgrounds, it is often hard to come to a collective agreement on what behaviours should be criminalized. Having said that, it does not mean it is easy if the population is
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In the 19th century, the criminal law protected mainly the Europeans: an example can be the prohibition of Chinese living in the Peak area. Recently, the uprising of the Occupy Central Protests showed the existence of imbalance of power in Hong Kong, where “the minority upper classes control political power”. In fact, I reckon that the conflict perspective is more suitable to describe the world’s situation nowadays. Nearly all countries prioritize national’s interests over citizens’ benefits, regardless of how liberal the country seems to be. The perfect consensus perspective can never be achieved, unless a country is perfectly equal, not in war, completely atheism or homo-religious, homo-ethnic, and all of its citizens are highly
Crime Scenario: This case is about a missing 9 year old boy who lives with his mother, younger sister, and his mother 's boyfriend. The child has been missing for over 24 hours and the boyfriend seems very protective of the mother and answers most of the questions about the disappearance. The scene is overwrought with the media, neighbors, and volunteers offering to help with the search for the missing boy.
What is considered as deviant or legal have been always manipulated by the human being. Societies have a key factor on defining what is right and what is wrong, and depending on how we can interpret this, we will consider as right or wrong the decision or acts that we make. Society is very complex, and trying to define what deviance is and what is not we need to take in consideration the social environment that we are studying. There are two types of deviance, 1) Statistical Deviance based on numbers and factual rules that people break and 2) Social Deviance, which is based on the social norms that people break. As well, there are two definitions on what we should do and what we do not. Rules are the boundaries between what is considered wrong and what not, setting a limit by written laws and rules, and where official representatives of power make it accomplish. On the other hand, the Norms are unwritten rules based on our behavior and given by the environment in which we are; it is first taught by the parents and family which surrounds the person.
In today's world law is above everything. Millions Americans would never think of themselves as lawbreakers. But when it comes to tax codes, or laws against littering or speeding or noise pollution, more citizens becoming scofflaws. Trippett in his argument asserts that law-and-order is threatened mainly by violent crime. Author supports his position, by first, providing reasons and examples from real life. He continues by demonstrating how americans reacts to different kinds of laws. His purpose is to persuade the reader, that people should obey all rules, doesn’t matter what they are about. The Author creates judgemental tone for citizens that does not want to follow some laws. Trippett argues that people need to stop saying that they will
The goals of punishment that are most important in this case are retribution, individual deterrence and rehabilitation. Retribution would be one of the goals, since a person died through the fault of another and getting justice or vengeance could be an important factor for family and friends of the victim. Individual deterrence is an important goal for this case since the offender needs to be prevented from committing similar crimes. Lastly rehabilitation could be an important factor in order to rehabilitate the offender and make them less dangerous to other individuals for the chance of their release. The best sentence that would serve these goals is incarceration. Through incarceration of this individual some sort of retribution would be achieved and it would deter the individual from further crimes. Further depending on the programs offered the individual could move towards rehabilitation.
Written regulations in today 's society defines criminal behaviour (Morley & Hall, 2003, p. 2). Morley & Hall (2003) state that there is three ways of defining criminal behaviour. The first approach is that criminal behaviour is defined as one engaging in criminal acts that are against the written regulations of society, this can lead to those being punished by law; arrested and convicted. The second approach when defining criminal behaviour is to follow the criteria set in place when diagnosing those with Antisocial Personality Disorder, as this disorder is linked with a high risk of committing criminal activities. The final approach to defining criminal behaviour according to Morley & Hall (2003) is to take into account personality traits of individuals, such as aggression, as it is normally associated with high levels of criminal activity. (p. 2).
Best Answer: Basically it was created as the Bureau of Investigation in 1908 to give the U.S. Attorney General an investigative staff of his own within the Justice Department to gather evidence for the prosecution of the few federal crimes then on the books. Prior to this the Justice Department had relied on investigators furnished by the U.S. Secret Service. Among the early crimes placed by Congress within the investigative jurisdiction of the Bureau were opium smuggling (1908), interstate transportation of women for immoral purposes (1910), and interstate transportation of stolen motor vehicles (1919). They did not, and do not, investigate federal crimes that were either Postal (mail robbery, mail fraud, etc.) or Treasury (counterfeiting, tax evasion, etc.) violations. In the early days the agents
As Wykes (2001) suggests in her work, crime is not static since a criminal act last year may not be next year and a crime in a particular country may not be a crime in another one. This concept can be perfectly viewed in the case of Peng Tang, a former University of Iowa student, who sexually assaulted a woman; the young man 's parents flew from China to persuade the victim offering money to drop the charges and they were arrested. The investigators then dropped the charges against the parents since they were acting according to their cultural norms (Miller, 2014). Thus, an action that is considered a crime in, for instance, Iowa, is not considered a crime in China; and there are much more examples similar to this one because with different cultures also come different morals, opinions, and
Law, ?a governmental social control? (Black 2), is a quantitative variable that changes in time and space and can be defined by style: penal, compensatory, therapeutic or conciliatory (Black 5). The brief description of law and its interrelation with social control and deviant behavior can be encapsulated in the following scheme. This concept of law put into the context of social life gives a framework of the behavior of law.
In an article named Social construction of crime by Stuart Henry(2009) state that deviance and crime is defined through the social meanings collectively applied to the people’s behaviour conditions and is rooted in interaction. Society created rules to differentiate what is right and wrong in a certain society. People that violates the rules will be labelled as criminal and might get punished. Molesting is example of criminal act that violate rules and social norms.
“Crime” and “criminality” are two terms that are one in one with each other. One of the concepts focuses on the act or actions, which would be the “crime.” The other concept focuses on behaviors and influences, which would be the “criminality” aspect. Crime can be defined as an act forbidden by law that can be punished by imprisonment, fines, or both. Crime can come in many ways from violent actions like aggravated assault and murder to less violent actions like petty theft and embezzlement. Criminality is a certain personality profile that causes varied levels of crime. Almost every crime is committed with the use of force, fraud,
Crime exists everywhere. It is exists in our country, in the big cities, the small towns, schools, and even in homes. Crime is defined as “any action that is a violation of law”. These violations may be pending, but in order to at least lower the crime rate, an understanding of why the crimes are committed must first be sought. There are many theories that are able to explain crimes, but three very important ones are rational choice theory, social disorganization theory and strain theory.
In Britain, as James B Christoph[1] points out, the major cause for this trend was the social and economic chaos brought about by the Industrial Revolution. The spread of poverty as well as child labor, prostitution and other social evils went hand in hand with unexpected wealth, which sparked off crime. The amazing existence of both these extremes caused insecurity among the lawmakers in Britain resulting in the creation of strict rules, making any offense from stealing turnips to cutting down a tree punishable by death. Some examples he sites show just how obscure the law was.
There are many factors that might lead someone to indulge in criminal activities. And a lot of times we think that crime is done by mostly those who are poor or unemployed but even those who are wealthy do commit crime too. Criminal activities may be caused by financial problems at home, hanging around the wrong crowd and so on. I have seen this happen to many people I know and grew up with. Right now it has gotten worse because people don’t care anymore, even the ...
Charney, E., (1999) Cultural Interpretation and Universal Human Rights: A Response to Daniel A. Bell. Political Theory. 27 (6), 84. [online] Available from: [Accessed 28 February 2011]
Criminal laws are set of rules set by the authority to set control in society. Whereas, moralities are principles and values that are set out by society to establish right from wrong and good from bad. Different cultures, age groups and sex in society have different beliefs, attitudes and values as Jock Young has pointed out. What one may view as moral others may view immoral. As society develops, people’s views change and the way they react to certain ideas such as manner offences (littering). The definition of ‘morality’ has changed over time