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Criminology Assignment

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Criminology: Assignment 1
1. According to the textbook, the legal, and most common, definition of crime is that it is a legalistic one in that it violates the criminal law and is punishable with jail terms, fines, and other sanctions. The Human Rights definition of crime defines crime as an action that violates the basic rights of humans to obtain the necessities of life and to be treated with respect and dignity. Unlike the legal definition of crime, the Human Rights definition of crime has a broader concept than its counterpart. With the Human Rights definition of crime, criminologists are allowed to the entire range of acts and omissions that cause social injury and social harm, while the legal definition of crime would only allow a …show more content…

Fast forward to a year later, the same two men could walk down the street and the man with the whiskey in his pocket would be called an honest citizen while the man with the gold coins in his pocket would be called a criminal. A cross-cultural example of how crime can vary from culture to culture can be shown in the form of marijuana. In Canada and North America, marijuana is still illegal unless a doctor prescribes it. Even though legislation has been put into motion to try and make marijuana legal in Canada and the United States, for the most parts it is still illegal to smoke or grow it in those countries. However, in places like Amsterdam it is entirely legal for a person to smoke and grow marijuana. Their society, culture, and laws allow for a person to smoke and grow marijuana compared to our society, culture, and laws who deny individuals the right to grow or smoke marijuana. I think it is not possible for a criminologist to overcome the problem of the relativity of crime. With the definition of crime varying from culture to culture and the ever changing definition of what qualifies as crime, it would be hard for a criminologists to gather data to do research about a specific type of crime. Since crimes can vary from culture to culture, criminologists would have a hard time trying to find the data needed for research because the data would be inaccurate since it would not account for

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