Lecture notes for Crim 1 Law. Criminalisation (46-54) 2.1 Introduction The issue if criminalisation interrogates the principles, motivations and forces behind decisions to characterise certain forms of behaviour as criminal. Chapter traces the contours of the criminalisation debate: what should be the content and scope of the criminal law, and the social, historical, cultural, economic, class, race and other forces behind the deployment of the power to criminalise. Cunneen et al define penality (Penal Culture and Hyperincarceration (2013) The broad field of institutions, practices, discourses and social relations which surround the ideas and practices of punishment. Concept of penality implies understanding of punishment which is social, historical and political What is criminal? • Male in se ? wrong in themselves ? murder, rape, theft, kidnapping, assault, etc • Male prohibita ? wrong because it is prohibited ? speeding, drug use, fishing without a licence, industrial safety, pollution, tax evasion, trafficking However, these pillars aren’t actually helpful, highly dependent on the individual What ought to be criminal? And what factors affect the processes of criminalisation? Some materials focus on nature of behaviour which makes it criminal whereas others claim that social response is a crucial factor Contextualising criminal law Involves bringing together different criminological and criminal justice perspectives to bear on study of criminal law and the forces and conditions of its creation and development