Concept

Crime

Overview

In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term crime does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition, though statutory definitions have been provided for certain purposes. The most popular view is that crime is a category created by law; in other words, something is a crime if declared as such by the relevant and applicable law. One proposed definition is that a crime or offence (or criminal offence) is an act harmful not only to some individual but also to a community, society, or the state ("a public wrong"). Such acts are forbidden and punishable by law.

The notion that acts such as murder, rape, and theft are to be prohibited exists worldwide. What precisely is a criminal offence is defined by the criminal law of each relevant jurisdiction. While many have a catalogue of crimes called the criminal code, in some common law nations no such comprehensive statute exists.

The state (government) has the power to severely restrict one's liberty for committing certain crimes. In most modern societies, there are procedures to which investigations and trials must adhere. If found guilty, an offender may be sentenced to a form of reparation such as a community sentence, or, depending on the nature of their offence, to undergo imprisonment, life imprisonment or, in some jurisdictions, death.

Usually, to be classified as a crime, the "act of doing something criminal" (actus reus) is accompanied by the "intention to do something criminal" (mens rea). Some criminal offenses are defined as strict liability crimes, meaning that the prosecution must prove the actus reus to secure a conviction, but is not required to establish any mens rea with respect to one or more elements of the offense.

While every crime violates the law, not every violation of the law counts as a crime. Breaches of private law (torts and breaches of contract) are not automatically punished by the state, but can be enforced through civil procedure.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

In the original texts

Passages from public-domain books where Crime is discussed.

1. Many other cases of Aggravation, and Extenuation might be added: but by these I have set down, it is obvious to every man, to take the altitude of any other Crime proposed. Publique Crimes What Lastly, because in almost all Crimes there is an Injury done, not onely to some Private man, but also to the Common-wealth; the same Crime, when the accusation is in the name of the Common-wealth, is called Publique Crime…

   Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan

   names the idea; a chapter is titled for it; states what it is; author linked in the graph; opens on it

   Read the chapter · Open in the reader

2. Nevertheless, if a public authority, or even a private person, sees any one evidently preparing to commit a crime, they are not bound to look on inactive until the crime is committed, but may interfere to prevent it. If poisons were never bought or used for any purpose except the commission of murder, it would be right to prohibit their manufacture and sale.

   John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

   names the idea; states what it is; opens on it

   Read the chapter · Open in the reader

3. Death by the court of law is decreed in important cases: when faith is undermined, or a great crime is committed, viz., idolatry, incest, murder, or actions that lead to these crimes. It is further decreed for breaking the Sabbath (Exod. xxxi.

   Moses Maimonides, The guide for the perplexed

   names the idea; states what it is; opens on it

   Read the chapter · Open in the reader

4. Enough of actions that are involuntary, or done in anger; let us proceed to voluntary and premeditated actions. The great source of voluntary crime is the desire of money, which is begotten by evil education; and this arises out of the false praise of riches, common both among Hellenes and barbarians; they think that to be the first of goods which is really the third. For the body is not for the sake of wealth, but…

   Plato, Laws

   names the idea; states what it is

   Read the chapter · Open in the reader

5. He permits crime, but He does not commit it. Committing a crime is acting against divine justice, it is disobeying God. Well, God cannot disobey Himself, He cannot commit crime; but He has made man in such a way that man may commit many crimes: where does that come from? There are people who know, but I do not; all that I know is that the Alcoran is ridiculous, although from time to time it has some tolerably good…

   Voltaire, Voltaire's Philosophical Dictionary

   names the idea; states what it is; opens on it

   Read the chapter · Open in the reader

Philosophers who discussed Crime

• Detective fiction

Related ideas

• Animal
• Feudalism
• Homicide
• Human rights
• Abrahamic religions
• Prostitution
• Individualism
• Cesare Lombroso
• Law
• Psychiatry
• Retributive justice
• Modernism
• Social constructionism
• Russian Empire
• Western world
• Thomas Aquinas
• Natural law
• William Blackstone
• Probability
• Penology
• Rule of law
• Roman Empire
• Roman law
• Statute

Opposing perspectives

• Social class

Place in the tradition

Part of Morality.

Explore Crime in the interactive graph →