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KNOWING CRIME
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detailed explanations in different perspectives of knowning crime
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SG2043- Key Issues in CriminologyLecture 2: Knowing ‘Crime’
(DR) LAMBROS FATSIS | FHEA
, LECTURE OVERVIEW
❖What ‘crime’ is
❖How is it ‘known’, researched &
understood within Criminology
❖Who/what is (a) ‘criminal’?
❖Are all ‘crimes’ … ‘criminal’?
, WHAT IS ‘CRIME’?
“An action or omission which constitutes an offence and is punishable
❖Is that all we mean/understand when we think of or talk about crime
❖A problematic term: often confused with the activities the word desc
(e.g. murder)
❖Suffers from inadequate, contradictory definitions: something that is
morally repugnant, (b) socially harmful and (c) against the law
❖An uncertain term that is best placed inside quotation marks: Not cri
“crime”!
, WHAT IS ‘CRIME’? (CONTINUED)
❖Not something that objectively is, but something that is mad
process, not an inherent quality
❖Criminal-isation: Certain acts turned into criminal offences,
individuals are singled out for cruel/unjust treatment as a res
❖Not an individual trait, but a social and political problem (th
are disagreements and divergent interests involved!)
, ‘CRIME’ IN LAW
❖Mala in se: An intrinsically harmful act/wrongdoing (“bad in
itself”)
❖Mala prohibita: An illegal (“prohibited”) act
❖Contra bonos mores: An act which offends moral convention
(“moral goodness”)
‘We must not say that an act offends the common conscience
because it is criminal, but that it is criminal because it offend
common conscience. We do not reprove of it because it is a cr
rather, it is a crime because we reprove of it’ (Durkheim, 1930
, ‘CRIME’ IN CRIME FICTION & CRIMINOLO
‘Crime’ in Crime Fiction
❖Crime, like murder, has two handles: a ‘moral’ and an ‘aesth
one: It shocks and delights us! (Thomas De Quincey)
❖Crime as a ‘symptom’, not a ‘cause’: speaks of/reflects broa
social problems/ills (Raymond Chandler)
‘Crime ‘in Criminology
The outcome of many processes: ‘making laws, of breaking law
and of reacting towards the breaking of laws’ (Sutherland et a
1992: 3)
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