criminalization

(noun)

The act of making a previously legal activity illegal.

Related Terms

Examples of criminalization in the following topics:

  • Differential Association Theory

    • This theory focuses on how individuals learn to become criminals, but it does not concern itself with why they become criminals.
    • To some extent, both non-criminal and criminal individuals are motivated by the need for money and social gain.
    • Criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other persons in a process of communication.
    • The process of learning criminal behavior by association with criminal and anti-criminal patterns involves all of the mechanisms that are involved in any other learning.
    • While criminal behavior is an expression of general needs and values, it is not explained by those needs and values, since non-criminal behavior is an expression of the same needs and values.

  • Crime and Criminal Justice

    • Criminal justice is the system of practices and institutions of governments directed at deterring and mitigating crime.
    • Police department reforms are an example of legislative attempts to regulate or improve criminal justice.
    • Police department reforms are an example of legislative attempts to regulate or improve criminal justice.
    • Criminal justice is the system of practices and government institutions directed at upholding social control, deterring, and mitigating crime, or sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties and rehabilitation efforts.
    • The American criminal justice system consists of three main parts: (1) enforcement; (2) adjudication; and (3) corrections.

  • Global Crime

    • Like national and local organized crime, global crime includes highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit.
    • In order to achieve their goals, these criminal groups utilize systematic violence and corruption.
    • This has led to the rise of global criminal organizations such as Mara Salvatrucha and the 18th Street gang.
    • In doing so, it has been argued, national and international criminal groups threaten the security of all nations.
    • While the International Criminal Court can prosecute individuals for crimes against humanity, it has no jurisdiction over other global crimes.

  • Biological Theories of Deviance

    • The Italian School was interested in why some individuals engaged in criminal behavior and others did not.
    • He belived that atavism was a sign of inherent criminalities, and thus he viewed born criminals as a form of human sub-species.
    • Garofalo's presentaion of crime as a violation of a human universal allows for one to characterize criminals as unnatural.
    • Italian School biological explanations have not resonated in criminal justice systems in America.
    • Cesare Lombroso argued that criminality was a biological trait found in some human beings

  • Organized Crime

    • Organized crime refers to transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals.
    • Organized crime refers to transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals for the purpose of engaging in illegal activity, most commonly for monetary profit.
    • Sometimes criminal organizations force people to do business with them, as when a gang extorts money from shopkeepers for "protection."
    • An organized gang or criminal set can also be referred to as a mob.
    • A distinctive gang culture underpins many, but not all, organized groups; this may develop through recruiting strategies, social learning processes in the corrective system experienced by youth, family, or peer involvement in crime, and the coercive actions of criminal authority figures.

  • Class, Crime, and the Criminal Justice System

    • Class structure within the criminal justice system helps determine the types of crimes individuals will commit.
    • They discussed the fact that inner city kids tended to be more involved in a criminal lifestyle than kids who lived in the suburbs.
    • Being able to afford to live in better parts of the city (and thus having wealth) afforded certain kids better opportunities in terms of lifestyle and education, leading to less crime and criminal involvement.
    • Criminal justice is the system of practices and institutions of governments directed at upholding social control, deterring and mitigating crime, or sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties and rehabilitation efforts.
    • Within the criminal justice system, there are three basic elements that constitute it: the police, the courts, and punishment.

  • Types of Crime

    • Criminal law, as opposed to civil law, is the body of law that relates to crime and that defines conduct that is not allowed.
    • Criminal law, as opposed to civil law, is the body of law that relates to crime.
    • Criminal law is distinctive for the uniquely serious potential consequences, or sanctions, for failure to abide by its rules.
    • Virtual crime refers to a virtual criminal act that takes place in a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG).
    • Sometimes criminal organizations force people to do business with them, as when a gang extorts money from shopkeepers for "protection. " An organized gang or criminal set can also be referred to as a mob.

  • Crime Statistics

    • Crime statistics are usually data collected by governments for the reporting of incidents of criminal activity.
    • They are useful for a number of reasons, beyond simply giving an awareness of the extent of criminal activity.
    • Presented below are statistics on criminal activity and the criminal justice system for both the U.S. and selected nations around the world (for comparisons).
    • One explanation for this is the increasingly punitive approach of the criminal justice system.
    • This suggests that the criminal justice system in the US values white victims above minority victims.

  • Crime

    • For example: as cultures change and the political environment shifts, societies may criminalize or decriminalize certain behaviors, which directly affects the statistical crime rates, influences the allocation of resources for the enforcement of laws, and re-influences the general public opinion.
    • One can view criminalization as a procedure deployed by society as a pre-emptive, harm-reduction device, using the threat of punishment as a deterrent to anyone proposing to engage in the behavior causing harm.
    • The state becomes involved because governing entities can become convinced that the costs of not criminalizing, through allowing the harms to continue unabated, outweigh the costs of criminalizing it, restricting individual liberty, for example, to minimize harm to others.
    • Criminology is the scientific study of the nature, extent, causes, and control of criminal behavior in both the individual and in society.

  • Formal Means of Control

    • When Sam kills Katie, he is a criminal guilty of murder.
    • Criminal sanctions can take the form of serious punishment, such as corporal or capital punishment, incarceration, or severe fines.
    • When Sam kills Katie, he is a criminal guilty of murder.