DEFINITION OF CRIME AND ITS ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS –

INDIAN PENAL CODE

IN: LAW NOTES

To begin, let us look at some sentences that define crime.

An action committed or omitted, which constitutes an

offence and is punishable by law is a crime. Crime is an
unlawful act that is forbidden and punished by the State or
the law. In other words, anything which is injurious to
public welfare is a crime.

Generally speaking, crime is human conduct that the society

generally disapproves. But in the modern sense, crime is any
act that is prohibited by the penal law in force, and
the result of this is punishment.
In this law note, definitions by various jurists have been
mentioned. Along with this, essential elements that
constitute a crime are also given below.
 Definition of Crime According to Renowned Jurists

 Essential Elements of Crime

Definition of Crime According to Renowned

Jurists
 According to Bentham, “offences are whatever the
legislature has prohibited for good or for bad reasons.”

 According to Austin, “a wrong which is pursued at the

discretion of the injured party and his representatives is a
civil injury; a wrong which is pursued by the sovereign or
his subordinates is a crime.”

 According to Paul W. Tappen, “an intentional act or

omission in the violation of criminal law, without
justification and sanctioned by the law as felony or
misdemeanour.”

 Blackstone has defined crime in his “Commentaries on

The Laws of England”. He defined it as “an act committed
or omitted in violation of a public law either forbidding or
commanding it.” He also defined crime as “violation of the
public rights and duties due to the whole community,
considered as a community, in its social aggregate
 capacity”. The editor of Blackstone, Stephen, has done
slight changes in the definition and presented it 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.”

 According to Stephen, “crime is an act forbidden by law

and which is at the same time revolting to the moral
sentiments of the society.”

 According to Kenny, “crimes are wrongs whose sanction

is punitive and is in no way remissible by any private
person; but is remissible by crown alone, if remissible at
law.” (Here, the word ‘sanction’ means punishment and
the word ‘remissible’ means to pardon by a crown.)

 According to Keeton, “a crime would seem to be any

undesirable act which the State finds it most convenient
to correct by the institution of proceedings for the
infliction of a penalty, instead of leaving the remedy to the
discretion of some inured person.”
 According to Miller, crime is “to be the commission or
omission of an act which the law forbids or commands
under pain of a punishment to be imposed by the State by
a proceeding in its own name.”

 According to Paton, “the normal marks of a crime are that

the State has the power to control the procedure, to remit
the penalty or to inflict the punishment.”

Observation:

From the above definitions, it can be said that there is no

constant definition of the crime. Each jurist has defined the
crime differently according to his views and opinions. Also,
due to the varying nature of the content of crime, all efforts
to define crime with perfection have failed.

 According to Terence Morris, “crime is not absolute like

sin, that can be defined and have an existence beyond the
limits of what men may say and do. It is essentially a
relative definition of behaviour that is constantly
undergoing change.“

Essential Elements of Crime

The main elements that make up a crime are:

1. A human being
2. Evil intent or guilty mind from the part of a human being.
(Mens rea)
3. Any act committed or omitted in accordance with the evil
intent and is forbidden by law. (Actus reus)
4. Injury

1. Human Being

The first element of a crime is a human being. Any wrongful

act to be called crime must be done by a human being.
There must be a human being under a legal obligation to act
in a particular way, and it must also be capable of being
punished.

2. Mens Rea

The second essential element of a crime is mens rea or

guilty mind or evil intent. Mens rea refers to the mental
element that is necessary for a particular crime. Any
wrongful act committed by a human being cannot be called
a crime if committed without evil intent. There must be an
evil intent while doing an act.

There is a well-known maxim– ‘Actus non facit reum nisi mens

sit rea‘. It means ‘the act itself does not make a man guilty
unless his intentions were so.’ From this maxim there came
another maxim- ‘actus me invito factus non est mens actus’
which means ‘an act done by me against my will is not my
act at all.’
3. Actus Reus

The third element of the crime is actus reus. The criminal

intent to be punishable must be obvious in some voluntary
act or omission. As per Kenny, ‘actus reus’ is such a result
of human conduct as the law seeks to prevent. The act
committed must be the one that is forbidden or is punished
by the law.

An act includes omissions also. A man is also held liable if

some duty is imposed upon him by law, and he omits to
discharge that duty. An omission must be a breach of a legal
duty.

4. Injury

Injury is the last important, or we can say the essential

element of a crime. It must be caused illegally to another
human being or a body of individuals or society at large.
‘Injury’ has been defined in section 44 of the Indian Penal
Code as ‘any harm whatever illegally caused to any person

in body, mind, reputation or property.’

However, there can be some crimes that may not cause any
injury to anybody. For example, if you drive a vehicle
without a driving license, it is a crime, even if it does not
cause any injury to someone.
Nature and definition of crime
By

Rajni Negi

August 30, 2019

Nature of crime

In ancient time any act by a person or even an animal which caused harm to any
other person was considered as punishable crime. The punishments at earlier
times were way different that it is now. The wrongdoers were beheaded or
thrown out of the country as per their acts. To punish animals, stones were
thrown at them. Crime is a changing concept dependent upon the social
development of people that is upon the fundamental interest and values
dominating their common beliefs. But as the time passed by and humans started
to regularise themselves the Nature and Definition of crime became clearer.

The nature of crime is changing due to the changes in the society and the
environment. Today one cannot view crime with a single perspective alone.
Two of the common views that explain the nature of crime are its condition as
being a social construct and being an individual criminality.

Role of Government and Society

Development of crime can largely be due to the role of laws and the government
itself in the society. The punishment when a crime takes place is left on the
hands of the government. The government is guided by policies and rules that
have been promulgated to protect the welfare of the majority or the greater
good.
Very Often crimes are creation of government policies and the government in
power forbids a man to bring about results which are against its policies. The
very definition of crime depends upon the values of a given society.[1]

There is a division created by the morals that tends the government to make
rules which outlaws certain acts which wouldn’t have been a crime otherwise.
For instance, the non-violent drug offences are considered as crimes because it
is declared by the government. Indeed it wouldn’t be a crime the government
didn’t categorise drugs something as illegal. In such context people turn as
‘moral entrepreneurs’. By believing that drugs are evil, or adultery is bad or
even bigamy is evil, they try to convince their society’s authority to make
violating their mores a crime.

Also in this form of government construction of crime, public play an important

role in the prohibition or in the process of making something illegal. For terms
of Sec. 377 of IPC were decriminalised due to the changing in the minds of the
public in general and all the people it was effecting. Also like the prohibition of
alcohol drinking or smoking at certain places, the coalition of the public is
necessary.

Definitions of Crime

At first, Crime was defined as- An act or omission of an act that is prohibited
and punishable by the federal statutes. Four essential conditions or an act or
omission to be considered as crime are:

 The act is considered wrong by the society,

 the act causes harm to the society in general or to those in need of
protection,
 The harm is serious and the remedy must be dealt by the criminal
justice system.
A crime may be an act of disobedience to such a law forbidding it or
commanding it. But then, sometimes, disobedience of law may not be a crime,
for instance disobedience of civil laws. Therefore, crime would mean something
more than mere disobedience of law[2].

A crime is a deemed by law to be harmful to society in general, even though its

immediate victim is an individual. In case of murder, it injures a particular
victim but its disregard of human life results in putting it beyond the matter of
mere compensation between the murder and the victim’s family. Those who act
in such a manner are preceded against by the state in order that, if convicted,
they may be punished.[3]If the punishing of a wrongdoer is the remedy given and
enforced by the prosecution at the suit of the crown, the wrong so addresses is
crime or criminal in nature.[4]

According to Sir William Blackstone: “An act committed or omitted in

violation of Public Law forbidding or commanding.”[5]

The Elements of a Crime

To convict a person of most criminal offences the two elements are very
important to prove: Actus Reus and Mens Rea. Actus Reus refers to the physical
act involved in committing the offence described by the criminal law. Mens rea
means that the accused person had the intent to commit an offence or
knowledge of what he or she did was against the law. The intention of a person
to commit a criminal act means that the person meant to do something wrong
and knew or should have foreseen the results of the wrongful act. Intent is not
the same as motive. A motive can be understood as the reason that a person
commits a crime, while intent refers to that person’s state of mind and
willingness to break the law.

Just indicting that a person had knowledge of certain facts is enough to ascertain
the presence of Mens Rea. Sometimes Mens Rea is not necessary to ascertain
the act as an offence. Such as matters relating and dealing with environment
protection and workplace safety, these are meant to protect the public welfare.
Here Strict Liability and absolute liability comes into picture. Strict liability
means when a person may prove that they had the knowledge of the facts and
consequences and with due diligence tries to avoid it but it was out of their
power. Absolute liability is such driving without a driving license, there is no
defence possible.

A crime, therefore, involves:

 harm, brought about by human conduct which the sovereign power in

the state desires to prevent.
 Legal proceeding of a special kind that are employed to decide
whether the person accused is guilty of the harm caused, and is,
according to law, to be held legally punishable for doing so.

Involvement of people in crime

In order to establish an act as a crime against a person, the involvement of
certain parties is essential. The Perpetrator is the person who actually commits
the crime/ offence. If there are more than one person involved then it is known
as “co-perpetrators.” To be involved in a crime it is not necessary to be directly
being involved in the crime. There can be other, non-participating “parties to a
crime.” The victim is the one against whom the crime actually took place. There
can be multiple victims for an act by one or more perpetrators.

Illustrations

1. If a person uses the internet to commit crimes is considered as cyber-crimes.

For example hacking into other’s accounts or systems, identity theft, sharing or
downloading pirated data, pornography etc. all are considered as cyber-crime.
Anyone using the internet can be a victim to an act of cyber-crime.

2. If a person is involved in taking the life of some other person willingly with a
guilty intent then it is a crime as it is covered under the definition of Murder or
Culpable Homicide under.

3. In a case where X person shoots another person Y, resulting in his death, such
a situation cannot be covered under the definition of crime as the action of the X
are not criminal but necessary as per the circumstances for self-defence.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is the definition of crime scene?

A crime scene is any location which is associated with a committed crime.
Crime scene contains physical evidence that is pertinent to a criminal
investigation.

The crime scene can be either where the crime took place or any location that
contains evidence related to a crime. Scenes are not limited to location but can
be object, person or place associated with the criminal behaviours that occurred.
[6]

Overall the criminal investigators work in the following manner:

a. After reaching the crime scene they conduct a walk through to analyse the
situation and seal the area.
b. Then with the help to forensic science investigators they document the whole
situation by taking photographs and sketches.

c. They collect the evidence carefully so that not a single piece of evidence gets
destroyed or contaminated.

d. These evidences so collected are sealed and contained with due care and then
sent to forensic labs for further examination.

Crime scenes can be outdoors or indoors.

1. Outdoor crimes are the most difficult to examine because there are chances of
losing or contaminating the evidences that might lead to the perpetrator. Also a
crime scene in an open area suffers environmental changes due to which
evidences get lost.

2. Indoor crimes are easy to be contained and sealed if the investigators reach
on tome and are cautious enough.

2. How is the nature of crime changing?

 The changes have been noticed that people who did not committed
crime, due to the availability of knowledge and technology are
tempted to commit crime seeing how easily it can be done and
various ways of avoiding to get caught.
 Drug dealing which used to be done face to face in the middle of
street with the fear of getting busted now can be done online with
just some clicks of a keyboard.
 Distance is just a number now with various means of transport are
available a wrongdoer can easily commit a crime in one city and move
to another city in hours.
 The lack of interaction among people, not knowing who actually lives
next door makes it easy for perpetrators to find their targets and
commence their activities.
 With such changing happening in the nation the police authorities are
also required to change their methods of tracking the criminals and
increase their technical ability. With the criminals being smart the
authorities are required to be smarter.
 Criminals are adapting to the measures taken by the police
authorities.
 Local gang members have noticed that they can make more money,
with less risk of getting caught and smaller penalties if they do get
caught, by using technology.