Criminology

This course introduces students to the discipline of criminology. While criminology is a multi-disciplinary field, incorporating a range of disciplines from sociology to biology, psychology, politics, social work, health, and law – our main emphasis in this course will largely be sociological. A sociological approach to crime adopts the view that we must question our common sense understanding about crime and its control and look at the complexities of crime at many levels. At one level, there is the immediate behavior, and we may ask “why does s/he do it?” Or we might ask, why do certain groups of people do it? This might point to various social forces that shape individuals’ and groups’ behavior. Yet we can, at another level, ask why, we as a society, define this behavior as a “problem” for which we have decided, as a collective, to deem it a legal “problem” (i.e., a crime). Do we construct law based on “nature?” Or based on our moral values? But whose moral values are reflected in the law?

Does the legal definition – crime – necessarily mean that the behavior is “really” beyond the boundaries of normalcy? That is, why are some behaviors considered “normal” at one time and place but defined as a “crime” in another? The consumption of opium was legal in Hong Kong and around the world at one point in time but later became a crime. What does this tell us about society and its values, politics, and economy? Crime, then, must be understood, in its historical, cultural, and social contexts.