Crime : Its meaning, definitions by different jurists

and sociologists
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Crime?

The word crime is difficult to define, but an attempt at definition essentially

must precede the study of crime.  Legally, a crime is an act made
punishable by law. A criminal is one who has committed such a legally
forbidden act. Yet there are other criteria which determine whether a
person may be dealt with as a criminal. R. C. Nigam (Law of Crimes in
India) says that to answer the question, as to what is a crime, it is to be
known at first, what is Law because these two questions are interrelated.
The law is a command enjoining a course of conduct. A crime may,
therefore, be an act of disobedience to such a law forbidding or
commanding it. But then, sometimes, disobedience of all laws may not be a
crime, for instance, disobedience of civil laws. Therefore, crime would
mean something more than mere disobedience of law. Crime may be
viewed from various perspectives with the definitions put forth by various
jurists or criminologists or sociologists from time to time.

As a Public Wrong:

Sir William Blackstone in his book, Commentaries on the Laws of England, 

defines crimes in two ways, in his work, at the first stage he defines crime
as, “An Act committed or omitted in violation of a ‘Public Law’ forbidding or
commanding it”. At a second stage, he modified his definition as: “A crime is
a violation of the public ‘rights and duties’ due to the whole community,
considered as a community”

Crime is defined in Halsbury’s Laws of England as “an unlawful act or

default which is an offense against public and renders the person guilty of
the act or default liable to legal punishment”.
According to Salmond, the distinction between crimes and civil wrongs is
that crimes are public wrongs, whereas civil wrongs are private wrongs.
Thus, Salmond maintains that a crime is an act deemed by law to be
harmful to society in general, even though its immediate victim is an
individual.

Sergeant Stephen, while editing Blackstone’s commentaries modified the

definition to some extent as: “A crime is a violation of a right considered in
reference to the evil tendency of such violation as regards the community
at large”. The definition stresses that crimes are breaches of those laws,
which injure the community. The definition narrows down the scope of
crime to violation of rights only, whereas criminal law fastens criminal
liability even on those persons who omit to perform the duty required by
law. For instance, a police officer who silently watches another police
officer torturing a person for the purpose of extorting confession is liable
for abetting the said offence, as he is under a legal duty to prevent torture.
Thus the definition fails to give an adequate and comprehensive definition.

As Moral Wrong:

Raffaele Garofalo defines crime in some sociological perspective as: “Crime

is an immoral and harmful act that is regarded as criminal by public
opinion because it is an injury to so much of the moral sense as is possessed
by a community- a measure which is indispensable for the adaptation of
the individual society”. He considers crime to have been some act ‘labelled’
as criminal by public opinion. His emphasis is also on the moral wrong, but
there are some of the conducts though derogate from the moral value of the
community, are not considered crimes, for instance, immoral acts like
ingratitude, hard-heartedness, callous disregard for sufferings of others,
though immoral, do not constitute crime.

As Conventional Wrong:

Edwin Sutherland, noted criminologist defines crime in terms of criminal

behaviour as: “Criminal behaviour is behaviour in violation of criminal
law. No matter what the degree of immorality, reprehensibility, or
indecency of an act, it is not a crime unless it is prohibited by criminal law.
The criminal law, in turn, is defined conventionally as a body of specific
rules regarding human conduct which has been promulgated by political
authority, which apply uniformly to all members of the class to which the
rules refer, and which are enforced by punishment administered by the
state, characteristics which distinguish the body of rules regarding human
conduct from other rules, are therefore, politicality, specificity, uniformity
and penal sanction”. This definition is consistent with the concept ‘nulla
poena sine lege’, which means there is no crime without a law. He merely
enumerates the characteristics of crime and says that crime is a violation of
a criminal law.

As Social Wrong:

John Gillin, a renowned sociologist defines crime as: “Crime is an act that
has been shown to be actually harmful to society, or that is believed to be
socially harmful by a group of people that has the power to enforce its
beliefs, and that places such act under the ban of positive penalties.”

According to Donald Taft, ‘Crime is a social injury and an expression of

subjective opinion varying in time and place”.

As a Procedural Wrong:

John Austin defines crime in terms of the nature of the proceeding, as: “A
wrong which is pursued by the Sovereign or his subordinate is a crime
(public wrong). A wrong which is pursued at the discretion of the injured
party and his representatives is a civil wrong (private wrong)”.

Prof. Kenny defined crime as: “Crimes are wrongs whose sanction is
punitive, and is in no way remissible by any private person, but is
remissible by the crown alone, if remissible at all.”

As a Legal Wrong:

Cross & Jones define crime as a legal wrong the remedy for which is the
punishment of the offender at the instance of the State.

A person is not a criminal ‘officially’ until he or she has been defined as

such by law. The process of defining what constitutes a crime and who will
be defined as a criminal is an important part of criminology. Before the law
can properly call a person a criminal, it must go through a series of actions
governed at all junctures by well defined legal rules collectively called
criminal procedure and in this study are included the Criminal Procedure
Code (Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973, Act 2 of 1974), the India Penal
Code, 1860 and the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, These procedural rules,
however, vary greatly from culture to culture, but almost all modem
cultures have a set of rational rules guiding the serious business of officially
labelling a person a criminal.

Criminologist Paul Tappan defines crime as “an intentional act or omission

in violation of criminal law …, committed without defense or justification,
and sanctioned by the state as a felony or misdemeanor.”

This definition is the best fit for a country where a mechanism is installed
(e.g. India. In India there being established procedure and criminal and
penal laws including laws of evidence, in the form of the Criminal
Procedure Code, the Indian Penal Code, the Indian Evidence Act, the task of
enforcing the law and administering the criminal justice through various
organs of the mechanism established for the purpose, is followed in the
strict legal terms. In a society where ‘Rule of Law’ reigns supreme, there has
to be a well-built legal system and to run the affairs in the most effective
manner enforcement of the law is of utmost necessity.

Distinction between sin & crime:

Crime Sin

Sin is a religious concept that is a

Crime is an action that is against the law
violation of God’s will or an act done
or rule written and created by
against some religious, spiritual or
government body
moral belief.

Crime is identified by the state Sin is identified by God.

The punishment of crime is given in this The punishment of sin is given after
world by the State death by the God.

Every crime is a sin Every sin is not a crime

Sin is a subjective term, and has no

Crime is something that is set by social
parameters to base exactly what it is. It
codes of the country we live in, and if
is believed by religious people and
broken a penalty is to be paid.
ignored by others as a delusion.
 Brief of crime is given in criminal Brief of sin is given in religious books.
statutes, penal code, CrPC, etc

For both believers and non-believers For non-believers anti-social activities

anti-social activities are crime. are not sin

Intention and Motive of a Crime:

Criminal intent (intention) refers to the mental state of mind possessed by a

defendant in committing a crime. While the motive is usually used in
connection with the Criminal Law to explain why a person acted or refused
to act in a certain way.

If ‘X’ has an insurance policy of Rs. 20 lakh and ‘Y’ is the beneficiary of the
policy in case of death of ‘X’. ‘Y’ plans a murder of ‘X’ so that he would get
the insurance amount. He plans his crime so that it looks like an accident.
In this case, the intention of ‘Y’ is to murder ‘X’, while his motive is to get
the insured amount after the death of ‘X’.

‘A’ is so poor that she is not able to feed her child. She plans to commit a
theft and to use money obtained from it to feed her child. In this case, the
intention is to steal but the motive is to feed her child.

A defendant’s motive is important in police investigation and sentencing.

Law enforcement personnel often consider potential motives in detecting
perpetrators. Judges may consider the motives of a convicted defendant at
sentencing and either increase a sentence based on avaricious motives or
decrease the sentence if the defendant’s motives were honorable.

Distinction Between Intention and Motive:

INTENTION MOTIVE

Intention refers to a purposeful action and a Motive alludes to the ulterior cause,
conscious decision to perform an act, which which induces a person to do or
is forbidden by law. abstain from doing a particular act.

It is the objective of the act It is the driving force for the act

It is expressed It is implied
 INTENTION MOTIVE

It is substantial to determine criminal It is insubstantial to determine

liability. criminal liability.

With few exceptions the prosecution in a

Proof of motive is not required in a
criminal case must prove that the defendant
criminal prosecution.
intended to commit the illegal act.

In Ganesan v. State, Criminal Appeal (MD) No. 22 of 2011, the Madurai

bench of Madras High Court observed that intention is different from
motive or ignorance or negligence. Intention requires something more than
the mere foresight of the consequence s. The intention is a conscious state
in which mental faculties aroused into activity and summoned into action
for the purpose of achieving the conceived end. Thus in case of intention,
the mental faculties are projected in a set direction.

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Tags Civil wrong, Conventional wrong, Crime, Criminal Appeal (MD),

Criminology, Ganesan v. State, Indian Penal Code, Intention, IPC, Legal
wrong, Moral wrong, Motive, Procedural wrong, Public wrong, Sin,
Social wrong, What is crime

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