Defining Crime

Homework analysis

Different levels Crime can appear on many

different levels, ranging from petty theft of smalls amounts of money to the injury or death of another person.

Most offences are closely linked with acts that are regarded as against the criminal law.

Viewed from a legal perspective.

Some Definitions

‘a wrong to society involving the breach of a legal rule’ (Williams, 1991)

‘something which is against the criminal law’ (Croall, 1998)

‘behaviour that breaks the formal written laws of a given society’ (Kirby et al., 2000)

Problems in definition

There are some behaviours which society considers ‘wrong’ that are not specific crimes against the law.

Does anything else have to be considered? Historical Context, Culture, Age and Specific Circumstances

Historical Context Historically,

witchcraft was regarded as a criminal behaviour punishable by death; now, hundreds of years later it is hardly ever thought about.

What is defined as a crime at one point in time might not be considered to be a crime at a different point in time.

Homosexual acts – Smacking a child –

Historical context cont….

Illegal before 1967Legal until 2004

Cultural Factors

Cultural factors cont …

In some countries strict religious laws govern the behaviour of the population.

Particular problems arise where a group of people who have their origins in one culture live in a different culture, but prefer to retain their own cultural ideals of what is right and wrong.

Age Age is an important factor

in determining whether or not a person is a criminal. Although stealing is against the law, a 3-year-old child who picks up a toy and a packet of sweets in a store and wanders out of the shop is hardly criminal. But when a group of teenagers go on a shoplifting spree, deliberately distracting security guards whilst another member of the group steals CDs and DVDs, are clearly offending.

Age cont … What is the major issue in the

previous example. Why is one example a crime and the other not?

What age are you criminally responsible for your actions?

10 Years Old

Specific Circumstances

A mother who steals food because her child is hungry is a criminal?

Problems arise when using a legalistic definition of crime would be to take a deviance approach, classifying behaviour as a crime if it breaches codes of socially acceptable behaviour.

The deviance approach This would mean that antisocial

behaviours such as hanging around bus shelters in a big threatening group, or spitting in the street, might be considered to be a crime.

However, this fails to take account of the intention behind the act; it is unlikely that teenagers in a large group intend to be threatening, although they are often perceived to be so by outsiders. For this reason, Blackburn (1993) suggested that crimes should involve conscious rule-breaking.

Examples

Problems with crime study

Considering some of the problems in trying to arrive at a definition of crime, further difficulties ensue when attempting to measure the amount of crime that occurs.

Which is true? Newspapers

report that ‘crime is up’ and ‘crime is down’.

What are these statements based on?

Are they reliable?