Defining Crime

1. Defining Crime

2. Homework analysis

3. 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.

4. 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)

5. 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

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

7. Historical context cont…. • 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 – Illegal before 1967 Legal until 2004

8. Cultural Factors

9. 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.

10. 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.

11. 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

12. 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.

13. 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.

14. Examples

15. 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.

16. Which is true? • Newspapers report that ‘crime is up’ and ‘crime is down’. • What are these statements based on? • Are they reliable?