What_Is_Crime

1. Why is it so difficult to agree upon a definition of crime' Crime is an ambiguous term and if you were to think of what crime means to you it may be different for every person. The Oxford dictionary defines it as ‘an act punishable by law as being forbidden by statute or injurious to the public welfare... an evil or injurious act, an offence a sin esp. of a grave character.’ This may look like a straightforward definition but what is considered by the term sin, where do you draw the line as to what is considered as a criminal act or not and is it just the existence of different laws that can cause these crimes. Many sociologists have constructed definitions of what they think crime is, however social construct, countries policies, white collar crimes, ideological census all need to be looked at and therefore defining the word crime produces many difficulties as to what behaviours are considered deviant and a crime that should result in punishment. There are many conflicting views as to how we should go about defining crime, most definitions associate crime and criminal law. They state that it is a violation of criminal law and therefore must have an outcome of punishment. However Sutherland (1949) conducted research into unethical practices among corporate managers in the USA and he found that despite the serious nature the practices were not considered criminal. This led Sutherland to suggest that the definition of crime should include ‘social injury’ or ‘social harm’. Other ideas for the definition of crime include the creation of deviation by labelling behaviours and therefore crime can be a consequence of the application of this rule (Becker, 1993). Phillipson (1971) stated that ‘no behaviour is always and everywhere criminal, and Wilkins (1964) found that at one time or another some societies defined all forms of behaviour that are now deemed criminal as a desirable functioning of that form of society. This idea suggests crime is contextualised and should be looked at in terms of a social construct. Crime as a social construct is the idea that it has no real universal or objective existence but is relative to social and historical circumstances. This highlights questions when defining crime, for example to kill a man would that be considered murder' Instinctively people would consider this as a crime, however if this question is put into context for a example, a man kills another man during an armed robbery, this would be regarded as a crime but if a solider kills another soldier during a war it is the same act but there is the problem as to whether it is still considered as a murder. Even though in both situations a man is killed when put into context a soldier killing has been given justification and therefore not thought of as deviant. The Criminal Justice System (CJS) has given justification for some types of crimes. For example if a person comes at you first with the intention to cause harm then the possible victim is allowed to act in as what has been defined as a criminal behaviour and it will be classed as self defence and not a criminal offense. This is also true for killings or assault by police officers, if it the action was necessary to protect themselves from apparent deviant individuals then they are allowed to do so. This therefore can cause confusion when agreeing on a definition of crime as the same offense can be given validation in certain social context. Based on the same idea, as time changes new laws and legislation are brought in which adjust the whole meaning of what crime is. Therefore definition of crime and deviant behaviour will move with time so a definition can never be constant. Back in the 15th century witchcraft would have been a criminal offence and anyone found practicing would be put to death. Nowadays in the 21st century witchcraft is not an issue and it would not be punished. There are many other behaviours like this that were once considered to be deviant but are now are legalised, including in the USA between 1920 and1932 prohibition of the sale, manufacture and transportation of alcohol for consumption was made illegal but now is a desirable social activity. This causes difficulties with the definition as criminals are considered as being immoral and should be punished for their actions but as throughout history different forms and definitions of crimes come into existence as a result of social construct some types of behaviours may never be a crime for long. This means that years from now what is considered a crime may be classed as a normal behaviour and new ‘deviant’ acts may be included in the definition of crime instead. This is shown with smoking, smoking in pubs and public places was always considered a normal social behaviour however this was up until 1st of July 2007 where a smoking ban was put into place and it has now become a criminal offense to smoke inside a public area and individuals could now be fined for doing so. Rape is considered to be an evil and mentally and physically damaging crime, however it was not made illegal to rape your wife within marriage until 1991. It was considered for a man that he could have sex with his wife whenever he wanted despite whether she did or not. This is another example of crime as a social construct. These laws can vary all over the country and although can be legal in one country may not be in another. Hinckeldey (1981) found that a German law made it only considered rape if it was acted on a vagrant woman. Homosexuality is both subjected to historical context and countries policies. New movements have made it acceptable for individuals to be lesbian, gay, bi or transsexual. However this is only in certain countries. In the USA and the UK it is legal and LGBT can be open about their sexual orientation even if it may be discriminated against by certain groups in society there is no legal obligation against it. In Egypt being anything other than straight is considered illegal and resulting in up to 3 years imprisonment and although this behaviour is not resulting in any sort of harm to another person or entity it is still considered in some countries as a criminal offense. It becomes a problem in the definition as this means a definition cannot be used worldwide and it is possible that that this behaviour could become legal in years to come as it did in the UK. As looked at before the sociologist Becker stated that "social groups create deviance by making the rules whose infraction constitutes deviance." In other words, changing what counts as crime changes what is criminal or not. A change in crime rates does not just reflect changes in how the rules are broken, but also reflects the changes in the rules themselves once they become legal there are no more crime statistics for that particular behaviour therefore crime statistics will always change. This makes it difficult to compare crime statistics to previous years. As the classification for deviation and crime is changing it is important to know why some rules are enforced and others not. Rape, murder, assault and burglary are serious crimes which inflict injury and therefore are most likely to be reported by the victims. These are portrayed largely in the media which creates moral panic and a sense of fear within society. These crimes are types of blue collar crime which are usually committed by an individual of lower social class and usually require less skill and therefore more physical violence. These are sometimes known as ‘street crimes’ and are activities that threaten the powerful. Therefore ‘street crimes’ are seen as serious and white collar crimes are ignored and seen as less serious. However although blue collar crimes cause physical injury white collar crimes can have long term damaging effects, for example identity fraud. It has also been found that there are 13% more per year than ‘street crimes’. (Friedrichs, 1996) Criminologist and sociologist Edwin Sutherland first popularized the term “white collar crime” in 1939, defining such a crime as one “committed by a person of respectability and high social status in the course of his occupation.” According to Sutherland crime is committed at all levels of society and by persons of widely divergent socio-economic backgrounds. These crimes include fraud, embezzlement, identity theft and forgery. These crimes can have a huge impact on the victims and therefore are a massive problem. However white collar crimes don’t have as much focus as blue collar crimes and they can often go unnoticed especially within a federal organisation. An example of this was demonstrated recently with the massive revelation of the MP’s expenses. Each year they were claiming extra millions of pounds declaring they were necessary expenditure. This issue contributes to the difficulty to agree upon a definition. It often goes undetected and many people are daily committing petty crimes, for example taking a pen from work is stealing but it wouldn’t be considered a criminal offense and punishable. Definitions of crime can be viewed as highly politicised. It has been argued that actions are only defined as criminal when it is in the interest of the ruling class to do so. This is the idea of crime as an ideological censure where the empowerments of some groups are forced over weaker ones. Marxist sociologists such as Chambliss and Quinney (1975) suggest that it is the ruling class that defines criminal acts as they are in the position to assert power using the law to protect their own interests. Crime can also be viewed as political in the sense that it requires the deployment of power to translate legal rules into actions and to enforce a definition of a person’s behaviour as illegal. This idea conflicts ethics and politics as crime should essentially be an action that society has deemed morally wrong and not be affected by politics Crime is not a simple term to define and many ideas shown in this essay have argued as to what is believed to constitute towards the meaning of crime. As crime has been shown not to be a constant term and displays a movement across time it is difficult to distinguish which behaviours are deviant. Therefore definitions need to be renewed and made appropriate to the current laws. Deviant behaviour will always be a behaviour that goes against moral conduct the most difficult issue is deciding to what extent certain behaviours breech these moral conducts and therefore to decide whether it is an act enough for it to be criminal. References Farmer, L. (1996). Journal of research in crime and delinquency. 22 (5), 83-94. Henry, S., Lanier, M. (2001). What is crime': controversies over the nature of crime and what to do about it. 19-37. Maguire, M., Morgan, R., & Reiner, R. (2007). The Oxford handbook of Criminology (4th ed.). Oxford University Press, USA. Muncie, J., Mclaughlin, E. (2001). The problem of crime: Crime order and social control (2nd ed.). 9-20. Sutherland, E. (1949). White collar crime. New York, Dryden Press. Wilkins, L. (1964). Social deviation. London, Tavistock.