1. What is Crime?
Summary and Review
Dr. Sean Ashley
✅ Summary
- Crime is a normal and universal social phenomenon.
- Indigenous conceptions of law and justice pre-date European migration to Canada.
- European justice systems are oriented toward retribution, while Indigenous justice systems are oriented more toward restitution.
- The legalistic approach to crime focuses on violations of the legal code, while the social constructionist approach sees law and crime as social constructs.
- The consensus perspective suggests that most members of a group define law and crime in the same way, while the conflict perspective proposes that laws are defined by and serve the interests of powerful groups.
- Colonialism is responsible for many harms that have evaded criminalisation in Canada.
- The media is a key social institution that constructs our idea of what crime is.
🖊️ Key Terms
actus reus: a guilty action.
conflict perspective: law and a society’s response to crime are seen as the creation of a ruling elite or class, and may reflect the interest of the dominant group.
consensus perspective: a perspective about the way in which crime is defined that states that law and a society’s response to crime is rooted in societal agreement, where most people consider the act to be morally wrong.
eugenics: the word eugenics refers to good birth. Eugenics is the practice of selectively encouraging people with ‘desirable traits’ to breed to ‘improve’ the human species. Positive eugenics is the practice of encouraging people that are considered to be ‘superior’ in some manner to have more children. Negative eugenics is the practice of ‘discouraging’ or actively preventing people who are considered ‘less desirable’ from having children, including enforced sterilisation.
felonies: indicatable offences in Canada. In the US, a serious offence, such as murder or sexual assault.
genocide: a coordinated effort intended to bring about the destruction of a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group.
indictable offence: a serious offence, such as murder or sexual assault.
laws: norms that are specified in explicit codes.
legalistic approach: defines crime as a violation of criminal law.
mens rea: a guilty mind.
misdemeanors: summary offence in Canada. In the US, a less serious crime for which a person would receive a lighter punishment.
restorative justice: an approach to crime that focuses on restitution rather than individual punishment. Restorative justice involves organising a meeting between the victim and offender, and often includes members of the community.
social construct: something that is not an actual fact, but has been defined by humans. Crime is a social construct because something that is considered a crime at some time or place may not be a crime in others. For example, owning small quantities of cannabis in Canada was a crime until very recently and now it is not.
social constructionist approach: views the law and the definition of crime as a social construct.
summary offence: a less serious crime for which a person would receive a lighter punishment.
🧠 Chapter Review
Crossword
Fill in the term in the right-hand column and it will display in the crossword puzzle. Be sure to include spaces where appropriate.
Discussion Questions
- What does it mean to say that crime is normal?
- What are some of the differences that exist between the way the Canadian criminal justice system and Indigenous justice systems approach crime?
- What are some of the limits of thinking about crime using only a legalistic perspective?
- What does it mean to say that crime is a product of consensus or a product of conflict?
