CRIM10001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Mens Rea, Misdemeanor
29 May 2018
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Week 1 Readings
The Problem of Crime
This reading explores a variety of ways in which the 'problem of crime' can be subjected to social
scientific inquiry, focusing on:
• What crime is, specifically in regards to what forms of behaviour are (or could be) considered
criminal and which are not
• How extensive crime is, the ways in which it can be measured, and the reliability of statistical
indices
• The severity of crime, and where the notions of severity emanate from
Competing Definitions of ‘Crime’
Dictionary Definition:
The Oxford English Dictionary defines crime 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; especially of a
grave character’. While this definition may seem simple and uncontroversial at first, it becomes
more complicated upon closer inspection. Dictionary definitions manage to avoid complex issues of
interpretation by conflating a number of competing meanings. This definition of crime raises
several questions:
• Does crime refer to particular acts and behaviours or to their legal sanction?
• Is it simply the existence of law that creates crime?
• What counts as 'injurious', 'sinful' or 'evil'?
• Who deems some acts to be sinful and evil and others not?
• Are moral and legal codes inseparable?
• Are they reflective of any widely held consensus of opinion of the constitution of unlawful
activity?
• What is meant by a 'grave' offence? Grave to whom? Are all crimes grave, or is there some
sliding scale of gravity?
• Is what counts as crime universal and unchanging, or do societies at different historical
moments require different kinds of law which in tum create new categories of crime?
Because of these questions, to fully appreciate the complexities of the question, ‘What is crime?’,
the enquiry must be broadened to include some understanding of criminal law, social mores and
social order.
Crime as Criminal Law Violation:
The most commonly used definition of crime is that which links it to substantive criminal law.
Essentially, this definition implies that at act is only a crime where it violates the prevailing legal
code of the jurisdiction in which is occurs. Many people have created definitions of crime based
upon this theory:
•
Michael and Adler (1933) define crime as ‘behaviour which is prohibited by the criminal code’.
This is perhaps the most precise and least ambiguous definition of crime.
•
Williams (1994) re-emphasises the legal foundation of crime by arguing that 'it is essential that
one never forgets that no matter how immoral, reprehensible, damaging or dangerous an act is, it
is not a crime unless it is made such by the authorities of the State - the legislature and, at least
through interpretation, the judges'
•
Tappan (1947) takes a more extreme approach of this argument, stating that 'Only those are
criminals who have been adjudicated as such by the courts. Crime is an intentional act in
violation of the criminal law (statutory and case law), committed without defence or excuse and
penalised by the state as a felony or misdemeanor’. This approach maintains that no act can be
considered criminal unless a court has imposed a penalty.
Two important consequences flow from such formulations:
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Document Summary
The oxford english dictionary defines crime 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; especially of a grave character". While this definition may seem simple and uncontroversial at first, it becomes more complicated upon closer inspection. Dictionary definitions manage to avoid complex issues of interpretation by conflating a number of competing meanings. Because of these questions, to fully appreciate the complexities of the question, what is crime?", the enquiry must be broadened to include some understanding of criminal law, social mores and social order. The most commonly used definition of crime is that which links it to substantive criminal law. Essentially, this definition implies that at act is only a crime where it violates the prevailing legal code of the jurisdiction in which is occurs.
