Hi! As I mentioned in my previous post,
I study criminology, something that the vast majority of people associate with stuff like CSI, NCIS, criminal minds and other similar TV shows.
Well the thing is that these people are only half right.
Criminology is all about social issues, human rights, gay rights, racism, sexism and more.
It's all about the justice system and how it's used or more how it should be used to create well balanced society.
Criminology is so much more than just a study of what is crime and why we commit crimes.
A criminology degree covers everything from Crimes of the Powerful (Yo Bezos, we're looking at you), Gender and Feminism, Prison systems and even sex work.
Crime has different levels, follows different patterns. Something we consider 'bad' or criminal, in different cultures may be totally normal and acceptable, like marrying underaged girls.
Some cultures will allow young girls marry adult men, engage in sexual activities with them and bring children to this world.
In other cultures it's a big no no.
In 69 countries being homosexual is punishable by law, however, in many others gay marriage is fine.
Even though this is not directly about crime, it's the construct of deviance and it's very important if we are trying to understand crime. In 1966 Becker said :
'Social Groups create deviance by making the rules whose infraction constitutes deviance and by applying those rules to particular people and labelling them as outsiders. From this point of view, deviance is not a quality of the act the person commits,but rather a consequence of the application by others and rules and sanctions to an offender'
As Zygmunt Bauman said, to study criminology, we need to 'de-familiarise the familiar'. Not everything is how it seems.
Sutherland suggests that there are 3 main areas to criminology:
Unfortunately a lot has changed since the 90s and now we more focus on criminal intersectionality. The crime itself, law in the place the supposed crime was committed, who was victimised and who commited the crime.
It's so hard to give a simple answer when someone tells us to define a crime.
Is it just the act of it?
The harm it caused? The punishment it received?
Hard question really.
The legal definition is : a violation of law and act punished by the law
Sociological definition is :
Crime is a historical invention,
Crime as a Norm Infraction
Crime as Social construct
Crime as an Ideological Censure
There is plenty involved in a crime!
Must admit, I haven't had a clue about it before I actually started studying it!
So what is involved in a crime?
I'm about to give you a crush course, sit tight!
1.Of course we need to take a look at the offender! Who are they, what's their background.
2.The victim itself, if there was one.
3.A reaction it created!
4.The punishment
5.Context to the evwnt
6.How it was discovered and policed.
7.How justice was experienced
8.Why the crime happened, what's the reason? Is it environmental? Psychological? Circumstantial
Have you ever heard about something called Black Letter Law?
Well, it states that crime is an act defined by State and punishable by law.
So basically no law without crime and no crime without law.
Once the law was created, that's how the first criminals were born.
Nils Christie said 'Crime does not exist-in order to understand crime, we must first of all deconstruct how behaviour comes to be labelled as criminal'
Because criminality is not a quality of an act, not at all, it's all about how much we demonise certain behaviours and acts
Before something is labelled as crime, it is not a crime. It's that simple. Definition of crime changes, depending on when it happened and where.
If a black woman walked into a white bar in 1920s it would be a crime, if she did that in 2021 (very glad we don't have racial separation anymore but I will literally write a whole post about that, so hang tight) no one would pay attention to her because it's normal nowadays!
Same with drinking, here in UK when you are 18 you can get as drunk as you possibly can, in USA the legal drinking age is 21.
I really hope I managed to bring you slightly closer to the topic and kept you engaged enough that you still reading it.
I find the idea of crime and how it is received by society as something fascinating. My plan is to make two crime posts a week and the rest will be about my other things I do in life.
I will show you different examples of crime, get in depth about different research techniques, talk about my 13 years of mortuary experience, talk about the most vile humans in history and also about people that received the punishment for crimes they never committed.
Have a lovely day!
Your friendly neighbourhood hobbit
Leto.