This chapter, which introduces some of the complex interrelationships surrounding the various ways that crime is constructed and objectified, shows that, in practice and in the literature, there is much disagreement over the exact definition of a crime. It discusses four frameworks in which to make sense of how crime is defined: (a) crime as a social construction; (b) crime as a product of religious authority/doctrine; (c) crime as a reflection of nation-state legality; and (d) more recent concepts beyond the nation state derived from social and political theory.
Chapter
1. What is crime? Contrasting definitions and perspectives
Wayne Morrison
Chapter
2. Criminalizaton: historical, legal, and criminological perspectives
Nicola Lacey and Lucia Zedner
This chapter examines the relationship between legal and criminological constructions of crime and explores how these have changed over time. The chapter sets out the conceptual framework of criminalization within which the two dominant constructions of crime—legal and criminological—are situated. It considers their respective contributions and the close relationship between criminal law and criminal justice. Using the framework of criminalization, the chapter considers the historical contingency of crime by examining its development over the past 300 hundred years. It analyses the normative building blocks of contemporary criminal law to explain how crime is constructed in England and Wales today and it explores some of the most important recent developments in formal criminalization in England and Wales, not least the shifting boundaries and striking expansion of criminal liability. Finally, it considers the valuable contributions made by criminology to understanding the scope of, and limits on, criminalization.
Chapter
2. Criminalization: Historical, legal, and criminological perspectives
Nicola Lacey and Lucia Zedner
This chapter examines the relationship between legal and criminological constructions of crime and explores how these have changed over time. The chapter sets out the conceptual framework of criminalization within which the two dominant constructions of crime—legal and criminological—are situated. It considers their respective contributions and the close relationship between criminal law and criminal justice. Using the framework of criminalization, the chapter considers the historical contingency of crime by examining its development over the past 300 years. It analyses the normative building blocks of contemporary criminal law to explain how crime is constructed in England and Wales today and it explores some of the most important recent developments in formal criminalization in England and Wales, not least the shifting boundaries and striking expansion of criminal liability. Finally, it considers the valuable contributions made by criminology to understanding the scope of, and limits on, criminalization.
