Constructing Crime

Constructing Crime examines the central question: Why do we
define and enforce particular behaviours as crimes and target
particular individuals as criminals?

To answer this question, contributors interrogate notions of crime,
processes of criminalization, and the deployment of the concept of
crime in five radically different sites. Two studies of fraud against
welfare recipients and physicians illustrate that uneven enforcement of
the law can leave the privileged with a sense of entitlement and the
marginalized with an imposed criminal self-concept. An examination of
the enforcement of laws against Aboriginal harvesting practices offers
yet another example of how the threat of prosecution can be used to
criminalize cultural practices, while a study of public housing reveals
that its form can influence how residents respond to disorder. Lastly,
a case study on gambling reveals just how malleable the criminal law
and definitions of crime can be.

By demonstrating that how crime is defined and enforced is connected
to social location and status, these interdisciplinary cases and an
afterword by Marie-Andree Bertrand challenge us to consider just who is
rendered criminal and why. This timely volume will appeal to policy
makers and students and practitioners of law, criminology, and
sociology.

Janet Mosher is an associate professor at Osgoode Hall Law School, York University. Joan Brockman is a professor at the School of Criminology, Simon Fraser University.