Crime

Crime a behavior or activity which breaks the legal code or more appropriately, which offends the social code of a particular community. Within each culture, the line between normal and criminal, or merely deviant behaviour, is drawn differently by varying codes or bodies of criminal law. During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, crime was usually considered as the deliberately chosen behavior of rational actors. It was accepted that those who break the law at the expense of others do so willfully and selfishly. The sociologist Emile Durkheim suggests that crime is both inevitable in society and also necessary. Even in society of 'saints', there would have to be 'crime', for without crime society would not exist. Subculture theories of crime tend to stress the importance of the shared values and beliefs of groups of people who are able to justify their criminal activities. They generally live in similar areas. Primitive and rural communities tend to have less criminality involved in their affairs than do the restless, profit-seeking, highly mobile, mixed populations of modern industrial societies. Peasant communities change slowly and hence are relatively crimeless.
Crimes identified in different groups by their nature include acts of property offences, professional thefts, habitual criminal offences, cheating, white-collar offences (crimes like break of promise, lying, cheating etc committed by persons established in the society economically and/or socially), juvenile delinquency, smuggling and cruelty to women and children. Many other activities like child sexual abuse, drug and women trafficking, domestic violence on women, threats of violence or force, actual physical violence, injuries and rape are also criminal acts. In many countries, drunkenness itself is not an offence, but many kinds of conduct closely related to it, such as disorderly conduct or disturbing the peace, are crimes. Drug addicts often commit certain types of crime mainly because they need money to support a habit made impossibly expensive.
Crimes are generally divided into two main categories - indictable, which are triable by higher courts and non-indictable, which are dealt with summarily by magistrates in the lower courts. The indictable offences include larceny, breaking and entering, receiving stolen property, frauds, false pretences, sexual offences, violence committed against a person and homicide. The non-indictable category includes things such as malicious damage, cruelty to children, assaults, offences by prostitutes and motoring and traffic offences. However, laws have been framed to include these in the list of indictable crimes. Crimes that are difficult to handle in a society are those committed by businessmen, politicians, government employees, doctors and in general, persons enjoying proximity to power or commanding positions in the community. Violations of the law by businessmen include those related to receiverships and bankruptcies, restraint of trade such as monopoly, illegal rebates, infringement of patents, trademarks and copyrights and misrepresentation of advertising. Norms concerning food and drugs sale and anti-pollution regulations also may be violated. Many employers violate laws regarding wages, working hours, and public contracts. Politicians and government employees may obtain illegal financial gains by furnishing favours or confidential information to business firms and obtaining illegal commissions. In the medical profession, doctors may give illegal prescriptions for narcotics and give false testimony. Embezzlement is a common form of occupational crime. Occupational offenders rarely see themselves as criminals.
The Indian Penal Code, 1860 together with the introduction of a professional police organisation under the Police Act of 1861 (Act V/1861), laid the foundation of clear and precise definitions of all categories of crimes and standardisation of crime statistics at both provincial and district levels. Significant social changes with growth of industrialisation, urbanisation and communication left an indelible imprint on the social history and the crime scene of Bengal. Prior to the introduction of the Police Act of 1861 in Bengal there was no uniformity in crime reporting by the district magistrates who were also district police chiefs. After the introduction of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) on 1 January 1862, cognizable crimes have generally been categorised under the following six classes in annual police administration reports on the basis of the IPC classification. Class I embraced offences against the state, public tranquility, safety and justice (e.g. offences relating to coins, stamps, government promissory notes, rioting, unlawful assembly etc.) whereas class II included serious offences against a person (e.g. murder, rape, grievous hurt, kidnapping, abduction etc.). Class Ill comprised serious offences against person and property or against property only. (e.g. dacoity, robbery, burglary/lurking house trespass, house breaking etc.) and class IV meant minor violence (wrongful restraint, rash act causing hurt etc.) against a person. Minor offences against property (e.g. theft, criminal breach of trust, cheating etc.) were categorised as class V. Offences other than the above (e.g. public nuisance, offences under local and special laws declared to be cognizable) came under class VI.
Crime is an act which violates criminal law (in case of organized state), or norms of a society (in case of a tribal community or most of the earlier human societies which did not have formal law and state) and is subject to punishment. Why does a society consider some wrongs as crime and allow other wrongs to be settled in private? Natural law philosophers, for centuries, believed in universal rightness and wrongness of some human behaviors and accordingly viewed some behaviors as innately criminal, for which all the societies denounced them equally. Homicide and theft are said to be categorized as crime by all the societies, but surprisingly this is not the case. Roman Law of Twelve Tables, Babylonian Code of Hammurabi and other early legal systems did not list homicide or ordinary theft among crimes. The perpetrator could be exonerated by giving compensation or by surrendering to the injured clan as a substituted worker for the victim clan. For societies that had not developed the concept of property, theft was not a problem. Socioeconomic condition of a society, therefore, determines which acts are crimes and need to be controlled by law, or by any other mechanism of social control. In the modern sense of term earlier societies had no legal systems, yet they had their mechanism to punish the offenders and to control the wrongdoing.

The economic, social, environmental reality of a society is reflected in the crime category made by it. In the Inca society of Peru, the destruction of a bridge was the most serious crime as it was a country, which was crisscrossed by ravines and canyons and bridges were the only ways of communication. A person without a horse was in danger of death among North American Plains Indians, so theft of a horse was the most heinous crime in that society. In the ancient Germanic tribes honesty was the only source of sugar for food. Some argued that crimes are defined by a small group who hold the rein of control in a society or in a organized state. To them those activities which are likely to threaten their vested interest ate crimes. Sometimes categorization of crime depends on the existing values and morality.

Legal definition of crime

Legal definition of crime is convenient in distinguishing crime from sin and moral wrongs and it gives a basic premise for characterizing criminology as scientific and precise. Paul W. Tappan defined crime as “an intentional act or omission in violation of criminal law, committed without defense or justification sanctioned by the state as felony or misdemeanor.” To become crime any conduct must be an intentional act or omission in violation of criminal law. If some defense or justification is available for the alleged act or omission, it will not come within the purview of crime. An act or omission does not need to be always intentional in order to be a crime. It can be made punishable with reference to knowledge, recklessness, or negligence, or on the basis of strict responsibility, which does not require any reference to the mental element of the wrongdoer.

Social definition of crime by Sutherland

-there must be a value which is politically important and appreciated by a group or part of a group

-there must be some people who do not appreciate the value or appreciate it less highly and later attempt to violate it

-the people appreciating the value should decently take resort to coercion to the people who disregard the value

Social definitions imply that in a society the bulk of the people have to follow some values, which they consider very sacred and necessary to maintain social solidarity.