Social Functions of the Criminalization Process (From Selected Issues in Criminal Justice, 1985, P 24-39, Helsinki Institute for Crime Prevention and Control - see NCJ-133290)

• NCJ Number: 133293
• Author(s): A Yakovlev
• Date Published: 1985
• Length: 16 pages
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services; United Nations European Institute for Crime Prevention and Control (HEUNI)
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: Finland

Annotation

Criminalization of certain activities occurs when those acts of individual conduct are deemed to be dangerous for the dominant social relations and are therefore qualified in law as criminal, criminally punishable, and unlawful.

Abstract

The criminalization process depends on the social scale of normative values which are codified into rules of law but which also exist informally as societal norms and professional ethics. The social functions of the criminalization process are characterized by a discrepancy. On one hand, the criminal law cannot avoid the polarizations rooted in social consciousness and stereotypes, but on the other hand, it cannot be identified with those stereotypes. In reacting to social realities, the criminalization process influences the development and improvement of social relations and updates the existing social class structures. 20 references