the concept of crime

8/13/2019 The Concept of Crime

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CONCEPT OF CRIME

Crime is an intentional act or omission in violation of criminal law,(statutory and case law)

committed without defense or justification and suctioned by the state as a felony or

misdemeanor. So a crime comes as a result of the breach of a specific criminal law1

Short historical background of crime and punishment

Normally there is no society without the problem of crime and criminals. The concept of

crime is essentially concerned with the society order. It is well known that man s interests are

best protected as a member of the community. Everyoneowes certain duties to his fellow men

and at the same time has certain rights and privileges which he expects others to ensure for him.

This sense of mutual respect and trust for the right of others regulates the conduct of the

members of society inter se. Although most people believe in live and let live policy yetthere are

few who for some reason or the other, deviate from this obviously imposes an obligation on the

state to maintain normalcy in society. This arduors task of protecting the law binding citizens and

punishing the law breakers this reason led Salmond to define law as the rule of action

regulating the conduct of individual in the society. The conduct which are prohibited by the law

are known as wrongful acts and the conduct which are permissible under the law are known as

lawful acts 2.

THE EARLY CONCEPT OF CRIME

Historically, the concept of crime seems to have always been changing with the variation

in the social conditions during the evolutionary stages of human society. This can be explained to

the fact that during the early English society in 12 and 13 centuries it include only those acts

which were committed against the state or the religion. Treason, rape and blasphemy were

treated as crime where murder was not 3.

The early society failed to diffentiate between the law of crime and the law of torts they

only knew the law of wrongs. This is due to the fact that the bond of family was far stronger than

that of the community, the injured party and his kindred could avenge the wrong by private

1Reid S. T. 6Edn. (1976) Crime and Criminology pg 52Paranjape V. C 15 Edn ( 1997) Criminology and Penology p g3 Ibid


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vengeance and self redress. During this time the recourse to legal remedied was considered

merely an optional alternative to self redress. So the wrongdoer was supposed to offer

compensation to the person wronged, the compensation depend on the extent of the wrong

caused and the status of the sufferer. The compensation paid were known as bot it wash away

the guilt of wrongdoer and put him to the position as if he had done no wrong 4.

EIGHTEENTH AND NINITEENTH CENTURY

The concept of crime is closely related to the social policy of a given time. The earlier

emphasis on crime, the idea that crime was the result of divine displeasure, the superstition and

myth. But during the 18 and 19 century in European countries especially in Italy and France we

witnessed a new era of miraculous reorientation in criminological thinking. The early ideas was

abandoned and the study of crime and criminal was started basing on scientific bases. Due to thatchanges it once established that no one else than the offender himself could be attributed

criminal responsibility for his crime. This seems that when it happen that were there are

ideological changes in the society the concept of crime also change 5.

TWENTIETH CENTURY UP TO DAY.

It happen that now days there has been considerable increase in crime rate in all over the world.

But some of the countries the rate of crime is not higher this was due to the variation of social

condition in those countries for example in India. The factors such as greater control of family

over the ward and respect of morality and religion have acted as effective instrument to reduce

the rate of crime in those countries.The development of science and technology which lewd to

the discovery of computers increase the rate of crime like cyber crime

TYPES OF CRIME

Generally there are three types of crime this include

a) Crime against the person

b) Crime against the property

c) Crime against the state

4 Ibid5 Ibid


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Crime against person

These kind of crime include all wrong person can commit against another person. Under

violent personal criminal behavior, clinard and quinney listed homicide, assault and forcible

rapes. These crimes have one thing in common, also it include crime like assault and battery6

.

Crime against property

This group of crime include all types of theft or stealing such as shoplifting, palfrey,

breaking and entering, theft or motor vehicles or spare parts and accessories, forgery, and other

crime like this are violence against property. Crimes committed against property, much more

than crimes of violence, have shown a remarkable increase and there are much prevented in

urban area than in rural area 7.

ELEMENTS OF CRIME

Crime constitute of two elements Actusreus and Mensrea. These refer to physical and mental

elements. The actusreus and mensrea is a coincidence as they must co-exist. Hence there must be

the overt act which is actusreus and the mental element (mensrea) to form an intention. This is

supported by the common law maxim, actus non facitreumnismens sit rea . In Bratty v AG

Northern Ireland it was pointed out that, no act is punishable if it is done involuntarily.

However there are exceptions which in cases of strict liability and vicarious liability where only

actusreus is required to prove the commission of crime and not mensrea.

CAUSES OF CRIME.

Crime can be defined in many different ways. Different societies may also choose to define

crimes differently. However, in general, crime can simply be defined as the breach of laws that

are laid down by the ruling authority of the land. There can be many different causes of crime

and many studies are conducted all around the world to understand and bring down criminal

activities. It is a constant endeavor of governments and policing organizations all around the

6Tibamanya M. M. Crime and Deviance p g 87 Ibid p g 11


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world to bring down crime rates so that the world becomes a safer place to live in. The fight

against crime is not a new one in humanity and it has, since the establishment of society, tried to

bring crimes down. Let us now attempt to look at some of the causes of crimes.

Crime is an intentional act or omission in violation of criminal law can be caused by differentfactors which we can categorize it into three. Economic, Social and political cause.

Economicfactor like Poverty: Economic deprivation or simply poverty is a major cause of

crime all around the world. People are often driven to great lengths of desperation by poverty

and this is a major cause of crime all around the world. The fact that such frustration is created is

in itself a very dangerous thing for society on the whole as global inflation has risen significantly

over the last few years. Although it does seem that in our world today, the rich get richer and the

poor get poorer 8.

Social f actor whereby under this situation there is overpopulation, racism, social classes,

family condition, drugs. Religion . Religion has also been one of the causes of crime in the world.

This does not mean that religion itself encouraged crimes but the encouragement has come from

the different sects which originated in the differences of opinion between people on matters of

religion and in the hatred for other religions. In a general way, of course, communal riot and

crimes such as looting, murder and so on, perpetrated in order to increase the number of one's

own religion and to injure another religion have always been happening in many different area 9.

Poli tics factor is often a cause of crime. It is seen that many political associations all

around the world have their own mafias running which they use to manipulate and subjugate

people. Political power is often misused to take advantage of weaker groups and people and the

dissidence that rises out of such situations often force the victims to resort to crimes. Politics is

more related to crime on a much larger and a much heinous level than anything else.

CONCEPT OF CRIMINALOGY

The word criminology is composite of two words criminal + ology . Literallyit means a

systematic study of the criminals, that is, persons who break or offend the social or group law.

8Sharma R. K. (1998) Criminology and Penology Part II p g 29 Ibid


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However, since the offences committed by criminals are crimes, and as crimes occur in society,

the term criminology fully means a study of crimes as well as criminals in relation to society. It

also tries to determine the causes of these and also thereby recommend preventive measures. The

science of criminology is a scientific and systematic study of a social phenomenon. Various

scientific techniques and methods are employed for the study of this phenomenon. As

criminology views man as a social animal, it tries to study social interactions and phenomena to

place its subject matter in a proper perspective. The science of criminology also investigates the

structure and function of social laws, rules and regulations.

In order to understand the nature of criminology, it is essential to examine closely the definitions

given by learned sociologists and eminent criminologists.

According to Elli ott M .A. and M erri ll, F . E . "Criminology may be defined as the scientificstudy of crime and its treatment. 10" The definition, emphasizing the scientific investigation into

the nature and etiology of crime, stresses the practical or utilitarian nature of this body of

knowledge, namely, devising ways and means to prevent or reduce the incidence of crime and to

rehabilitate criminals as normal members of the society.

According to D.R. Taft. "Criminology is the study which includes all the subject matter

necessary to the understanding and prevention of crimes together with the punishment and

treatment of delinquents and criminals 11 ." The definition is comprehensive and it describes

theoretical as well as practical aspects of the study. It brings out clearly the fact, which may get

overlooked usually, that criminology is concerned not with the offences committed by adults

only but also with juvenile offences.

According to Webster D ictionary . Criminology may be described to be the scientific study of

crime as a social phenomenon, or of criminals and their mental traits, habits and discipline

etc. 12.'' This definition has the merit of emphasizing equally the sociological as well as

psychological aspects of the crime and the criminal.

10Elliott, M.A and Merrill, F.E., (1941) Social Disorganization.11 Taft, D.R. (1956) Criminology.12Webster Dictionary


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NATURE OF CRIMINOLOGY

Fundamentally speaking, the task of criminology is a scientific, systematic, statistical, structural

and functional in depth study of crime, and the behavior covertly deviant, liable to become

overtly offensive of social norms and laws, both from sociological and psychologicalstandpoints. Besides having a theoretical understanding of crime, criminal and his behavior, tile

object of criminology is also to devise effective tools to minimize the incidence of crime, reform

and rehabilitate the criminal 13 .

SCOPE OF CRIMINOLOGY

Like other social sciences, the scope of criminology is .also quite extensive. It is related to each

and every social class and structure. Though the scope of criminology is very vast and

coextensive with many sciences, the criminologists have tried to limit its scope in order to be

able to study the subject scientifically, systematically and exhaustively 14. The viewpoints of

certain notable criminologists are given below

According to E.H . Sutherland and D.R. Cressey the science of criminology, "includes within its

scope the processes of making laws, of breaking laws, and of reacting towards the breaking of

laws 15."'In the opinion of Sutherland criminology has three distinct aspects or departments.

'Though distinct, these are nonetheless not independent, but inter-linked. A thorough study of

these aspects exhausts the scope of criminology, to study all of them is the same asstudying the

whole science of criminology. In accordance with Sutherland's description of the scope of

criminology, we can divide into

The Sociology of L aw . In this we study the nature of crime fromlegalistic point of view.

Also we investigate into the effects of present lawsupon crime and study the possible reforms in

the laws in order to prevent andcontrol the occurrence of crime 16. The major concern of the

sociology of law isto critically examine the impact of various legal systems upon crime. Thisstudycan go a long way to evolve suitable changes in the laws to curb crime.

13Sharma R. K. (1998) Criminology and Penology Part I p g 314Sharma R. K. (1998) Criminology and Penology Part I p g 415Sutherland, E.H. and Cressey, D.R., Principles of Criminology, p. 316Sharma R. K. (1998) Criminology and Penology Part I p g 4


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Criminal Etiology . In this department a systematic investigation intothe various causes of

crime is made. Here we study the social and personalfactors responsible for the occurrence of

crime and growth of criminals 17.

Penology . Besides knowledge and determination of the causes andfactors which generateor encourage crime, it is equally, if not more, essentialto know the ways and means of

controlling and preventing the crime 18. This aspect is studied systematically and in a scientific

manner to achieve controlover crime. The facts and theories in this regard form the scope of

Penology,an important department of criminology departments.

CONCLUSION.

The development of crime depends from time to time, this is due to the fact thatCrime

causation is a developmental process that starts before birth and continues throughout the life

course. Individual factors interact with social factors to determine the onset, length, and end of

criminal careers. They key theoretical issues involve continuity and change in crime. Some

theories predict continuity across the life course; others predict continuity for some offenders and

change for other offenders; and some predict continuity and change for the same offenders.

17 Ibid18 Ibid


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BIBLIOGRAPHY:

I ntroduction to Crimi nology , Third Edition Barlaw, D H, (nod:) George B, V, Theoretical Criminology, Oxford University Press New York

1958

Cri minology and Penology , (1998), Dr. Rajendra K.S Social Di sorganization, Elliott, M.A and Merrill, F.E., (1941) Criminology, Taft, D.R. (1956) Crime and Deviance, Tibamanya M. M. Crime and Cr iminology, Reid S. T. 6Edn. (1976) Cri minology and Penology, Paranjape V. C 15 Edn ( 1997) Webster Dictionary

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