Legal Studies Crime Notes

This first week the assignment was to Define crime, its relationship to the law, and the two most common models of how society determines which acts are criminal, Describe the government structure as it applies to the criminal justice system, Identify choice theories and the their assumptions in regards to crime, Describe the components of the criminal justice system and the criminal justice process, Identify the goals of the criminal justice system.

The film describes a crime as being a violation of public laws which are the laws imprinted in the constitution and the law book of our society. According to the text Criminal Justice in Action, a crime can be defined as an action or activity that is considered an offense against society that is punishable by criminal law and sanctions based on laws. In the film, there are two different classification of crimes: a misdemeanor and a felony. Misdemeanors are petty crimes that can give you a punishment of less to a

* Sexual abuse. Rape and sexual assault or sexual acts to which the vulnerable adult has not consented, or could not consent or was pressured into consenting.

2) Sexual abuse is when a person is forced or tricked into taking part in any kind of sexual activity. When sexual contact is non-consensual, it is an abuse. It can happen to men and women of any age that is both old and young. It can include sexual penetration

The Bureau of Justice Statistics defines assault as “an unlawful physical attack or threat of attack” (BJS). It also categorizes assault under aggravated and simple. Aggravated is broken down into two categories “with injury” and “threatened with a weapon” (BJS). Simple assault is broken down

Sexual assault can be defined as the unwanted and offensive touching of the perpetrator to the victim. Sexual assault is a range from attempted rape to aggravated sexual assault. Sexual assault happens more within a certain age group as opposed to a certain racial community. College age students are most at risk of facing sexual assault, and many of the cases involve acquaintances as opposed to strangers. People of all ages, races, and genders are most likely to be victimized by someone they know.

“Sexual assault is any type of sexual contact or behaviour that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient. Falling under the definition of sexual assault are sexual activities as forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling, and attempted rape.” (Unknown, 2016)

((Assault refers to any intentional and unexcused threat of immediate harmful or offensive contact; words or acts that that create a reasonably believable threat are assaults.))

What does sexual assault truly mean? What are different situations that fall under the category? When you search the definition of sexual assault it will tell you that it is referred to be the sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the victim. What exactly do we consider to be sexual assault? “Most would consider attempted rape, fondling or unwanted sexual touching, forcing a victim to perform sexual acts such as oral sex or penetrating the perpetrator’s body, penetration of the victim’s body,also known as rape.”(“What Is Sexual Assault?) There are different situations that fall under the this category.

Throughout the social development of individuals, there are several things that we learn through inclusion and the way in which parents raise us. We learn how to make appropriate social interactions depending on who is in our presence, we learn social expectation, what is considered good behavior, and finally what is considered bad behavior. Yet, awareness of what can constitute as criminal conduct has become increasingly prominent in our culture, especially with the strong presence in social media that it now has. However, what we are often exposed to are adult criminal assailants, and we rarely hear about juvenile, unless they have committed an extreme offense. But it is that last population, the one that we need to focus on, considering that it is them that can move to the extremes; to get blossom under help or to commit an increasing amount of crime.

Despite the fact that the term assault has been changed endless times is still in civil argument today. It is by and large characterized as to constrain somebody to take part in sex by utilizing dangers or savagery. All the more particularly and lawfully the meaning of assault can be characterized as (Legal word reference) "the commission of unlawful sex or unlawful sexual interruption." Not just is it's definition constantly changing yet it likewise shifts from state to state. This obviously causes a few issues in the hazy areas in the matter of what constitutes as assault. Most states have chosen to name assault as rape and rape is part up into classes known as degrees.

Assault is a violent crime that requires offensive touching, hitting, or frightening the victim by word or deed. Assault crime can be upgraded to a felony when weapons are involved or abusing a victim during the commission of a felony. Although assault can happen during crimes like robbery and homicide, abuse happen mostly within a family or relationship (for example child abuse, parental abuse, dating violence).

Crime may simply be referred to as an offense against the state or against morality and is punishable by law, while justice is the fairness practiced during judgment of cases usually in instances where crime has taken place. Crime and justice go hand in hand as commonly evident in a case whereby a criminal is apprehended and taken to a court of law, then a ruling of justice practiced on the case and fairness used in passing of judgments. In most governments globally, crime and justice is managed by a criminal and justice department and typically, various departments are involved. These departments may primarily include; the police, the prosecution department, the law department, the correctional

Statutory rape describes sexual activity where one participating party is below the age of consent to engage in the sexual conduct. The term usually refers to adults engaging in sexual activities with minors under the age of consent; however, only a handful of jurisdictions recognize the actual words "statutory rape" in its legal code. Statutory rape differs from forcible rape because imposed force or threat is not present during the sexual acts. However, the laws presume that adult coerced the minor into having sex because a minor or mentally challenged are unsuitable to make their own decisions, according to the courts. Statutory rape differs from "child molestation," which is typically treated as a far more severe crime.

A crime is the breaking of certain rules laid out by a society i.e. the Government. Crime is said to be ‘activities that break the law and are subject to official punishment (Holborn and Haralambos, 2000, pg. 330)