What is Crime?

Deviance
• Any action that departs from the social norms of society
(Taylor, Walton, and Young, 1973)
 Crime
• Deviance becomes a crime when it is deemed socially
harmful or dangerous;
• Not all crimes are deviant and not all deviant acts are illegal
or criminal.
– e.g. using recreational drugs, such as smoking marijuana is crime
but not deviance
– Not helping someone who is drowning is deviance but not a crime
• Many criminal acts, but not all, fall within the concept of
deviance.
• Some deviant acts, but not all, are considered crime
 Defining Crime
• Crime is the violation of law (Sutherland)
• Thorsten Sellin (1931): "any form of conduct which is
forbidden by the law under pain of some punishment "
• Paul Tappan 1960:" intentional act or omission in violation of
criminal law“
• any form of conduct forbidden by law and for whichauthorized
government personnel can inflict punishment, whenthose
violations carry relatively severe penalties and provokemoral
outrage against the offenders
 Defining Crime
• Crime is violation of societal rules of behaviour as
interpreted and expressed by the criminal law, which
reflects public opinion, traditional values, and the
viewpoint of people currently holding social and political
power. Individuals who violate these rules are subject to
sanctions by state authority, social stigma, and loss of
status (Larry, Siegel, 2005:15).
 Perspectives on Crime
• Consensus Perspective
• Conflict Perspective
• Interactionist Perspective
 1. Consensus Perspective on Crime
• Crimes are behaviours that all elements of society consider
to be repugnant*.
– Crimes are defined through consensus of rich and poor.
– They are in complete agreement over what behaviour should be
outlawed and how to punish them.

*Repugnant: Offensive and Completely Unacceptalble

 Elements of Crime
1. Actus Reus (bad act itself) can be either an aggressive act
or it can be a failure to perform a legal duty’
2. Mens Rea (Guilty Mind) is an individual’s state of mind at
the time of the act or the INTENT of an individual to
commit crime.
– Both Actus Reus and Mens Rea must be present in the actor for
the violation to constitute crime. Thoughts alone do not fall
within this definition of crime.
 Who is a criminal?
• A criminal is someone who breaks the law.
 Criminality
• a certain personality profile that causes the most alarming
sorts of crimes.
• The quality or state of being a criminal
• Criminal behavior refers to the conduct of an offender that
leads to the commission of an unlawful act
 Sin
• Sin can simply be defined as an action or way of behaving
that is not allowed by religion, something considered
incorrect by God, or an offence against religious law.
 Crime
• It is the set of rules that are
provided in criminal statutes
• It includes a breach of law
• A person committing a crime is
punished by the state.
• Crime: In crime, injury is an essential
element.
• Remedy for crime is subjected to a
term of sentence by the court of law
Sin
• Sin is provided in respective religious
books of different religions.
• It results in violation of rules of
religion.
• A person committing sin is punished
by God.
• There is no direct harm or injury
involved.
• The remedy for sin is penance.
 Norms and Beliefs
• Norms are certain prescriptions of how an individual should behave to remain
consistent with the values of modern society. On the other hand, Values are
the beliefs of individual that drives people to act in a certain way. It guides
human behaviour.
• Norms depend on values. It determines, guides and predicts our behaviour.
• Norms are specific. It implies an array of expected behaviour concerned with
a specific situation or position in a social setting. However, values are general,
as they represent the overall ideal.
• Norms provide specific rules concerning what should or should not be done
by people in specific situations. As against, values are notional standards of
desirability. These are more abstract and universal as compared to norms.
 Nature
• Dynamic
• Applied science
• Nationalistic
• Social Science