CRIME & ITS
CONSEQUENCES
Chapter 2:
Introduction to Criminal Justice
5th Edition
Law & Public Safety 1
DEFINITIONS OF CRIME
Crime is from the Latin “crimen”, meaning
“accusation” or “fault”.
Difficult to properly define crime.
We will look at multiple definitions.
SOCIAL DEFINITIONS
Behavior that violates the norms of
society
Norm
Standard or rule regarding what human beings
should or should not think, say, or do under
given circumstances.
PROBLEMS WITH NORMS
Norms vary from group to group within a
single society
Gambling, abortion, improper behavior.
Norms are always subject to
interpretation
Norms change from time to time
LEGAL DEFINITION
Legal definition of crime:
 An intentional violation of the criminal law or penal code,
committed without defense or excuse and penalized by the
state. T
Problems of its own
 Overcriminalization
 Victimless crimes
 Include gambling, illegal drugs, prostitution
PROBLEMS WITH LEGAL DEFINITIONS OF
CRIME
 It is illegal to buy a bag of peanuts after sunset and before sunrise the
next day in Alabama.
 In Connecticut, it is illegal to walk across the street on your hands
 Kisses may last for as much as, but no more than, five minutes in Iowa.
 In Michigan a woman isnt allowed to cut her hair without her husbands
permission.
 It is illegal to slurp soup in New Jersey.
PROBLEMS WITH LEGAL DEFINITIONS
Non enforcement
Failure to routinely enforce prohibitions against
certain behaviors.
Common for white-collar and government
crimes
Under criminalization
Failure to prohibit some behaviors that arguable
should be prohibited.
 Maintaining unsafe working areas
ELEMENTS OF CRIME
Crime has not been committed unless all
seven of the following are present:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Harm
Legality
Actus Reus
Mens rea
Causation
Concurrence
Punishment
HARM
For crime to occur, there must be an external
consequence, or harm. A mental or emotional
state is not enough.
Harm may be physical or verbal
Verbal harm
 Libel
 Slander
LEGALITY
2 aspects
 Harm must be legally forbidden
 Criminal law must not be retroactive or ex post facto.
 Ex post facto
 A law that declares criminal an act that was not illegal when it was
committed, and increases the punishment for a crime after the
crime is committed.
 US Constitution forbids the ex post facto laws.
ACTUS REUS
Intentional or criminally negligent action
that causes harm
MENS REA
Guilty state of mind.
Negligence
 Failure to take reasonable precautions to prevent harm.
CAUSATION
 Casual relationship between the legally forbidden harm and the actus
reus. In other words the criminal act must lead directly to the harm
without a long delay.
CONCURRENCE
The criminal conduct and the criminal intent
must occur together.
PUNISHMENT
For a behavior to be considered a crime,
there must be a statutory provision for
punishment or at least the threat of
punishment.
LEGAL DEFENSES
Not considered responsible or is considered
less responsible for an offense if he or she:
1. Acted under duress
2. Was underage
3. Was insane
4. Acted in self defense
5. Was entrapped
6. Acted out of necessity
JUVENILE DELINQUENCY
Individuals between the ages of 7-18
Anyone at 18 can be considered an
adult.
Some jurisdictions may charge anyone between
16-18 as an adult.
INSANITY
Mental or physiological impairment or retardation.
Insanity defense rests on the assumption that
someone who is insane at the time of a crime lacks
the capacity or has diminshed capacity to form
mens rea.
M’NAGHTEN RULE
 “Every man is to be presumed to be sane and… to establish
a defense on the ground of insanity, it must be clearly
proved that, at the time of the committing of the act, the
party accused was laboring under such a defect of reason,
from disease of the mind, as not to know that nature and
quality of the act he was doing; or if he did know it, that he
did not know he was doing what was wrong.”
 In short…. A person is legally insane if, at the time of the
commission of the act, he or she did not know that nature
and quality of the act or did not know that the act was
wrong. The burden of proof is on the defendant.
ENTRAPMENT
Not responsible or less responsible for their
crimes if they were entrapped or induced into
committing them by a law enforcement officer or
by someone acting as an agent for a law
enforcement officer, such as an informant or
undercover agent.
DEGREES OR CATEGORIES OF CRIME
Crime mala se
 Wrong in themselves
 Characterized by the Universality and timelessness.
 They are crimes that happen everywhere and have
always been a crime.
 I.E- ->Rape and murder
Mala Prohibita
 Offenses that are illegal because the laws say so.
 IE  Trespassing, gambling, prostitution
THE HANDOUT THAT IS
BEING PASSED AROUND
IS FAIR GAME OF
VOCABULARY THAT CAN
BE SEEN ON ANY QUIZ
OR TEST!!
According to the “The Year-and-a-
Day Rule” a person cannot be
prosecuted for murder if the victim
dies more than a year and a day
after the injury.
 Based on 13th century English common law
For statistical reasons, crimes are
usually classified as…
 crimes against property or property crime.
 IE  burglary, larceny, authotheft
 crimes against the person or violent crimes
 IE  murder, rape, assault
 Crimes against public decency, public order, and
public justice.
 IE  Drunkeness, Disorderly conduct
ON THE BOARD:
Are there any acts that are currently
legal that you think should be illegal? If
so, what?
Do you think there should be other
elements of crime besides the seven
listed in this section? If so, name them.
CRIME AND STATISTICS
Measurement of crime
Crime Statistics
Difficult to count
Unreliable
“Impossible to determine with accuracy the amount of
crime in any given jurisdiction at any particular time”
 Why?
WHY?
1. Some behavior is labeled as crime but others
may not consider a given behavior crime
2. Large proportion of crimes are undetected
3. Some crimes may not be reported to the police
4. Crimes reported to the police may not be
properly recorded.
Dark figure of crime
The number of crimes not officially recorded by
the police
 Crime Index
An estimate of crimes committed.
Only 5% of crimes committed are
violent crimes, while the other 85%95% are property crimes and public
order crimes.
OFFENSES KNOWN TO POLICE
Best index of crime – most accurate
Reported directly to the FBI index
Can be inaccurate though because victims do
not always report the crimes.
CRIME RATES
 Expressed as the number of crimes per unit of
population or some other group.
 Used instead of total numbers because they are more
comparable.
 So.. How do we compare?
 DeSoto County?
 Memphis?
DIFFERENT TYPES OF CRIME REPORTS:
1. Uniform crime report
2. National Incident Based Reporting System
3. National Crime Victimization Surveys
4. Self- Report Crime Surveys
UNIFORM CRIME REPORTS
UCR
Primary Source of crime statistics
A Collection of crime statistics and other law
enforcement information gathered under a
voluntary national program administered by the
FBI.
Began in the 1920s
More than 17,000 agencies report to the program
which make up the entire U.S. population
UNIFORM CRIME REPORTS
 Until June 2004, the UCR had 2 major categories.
 Offenses known to police
 Statistics about people arrested
 Eight Index Crimes
1. Murder and manslaughter
2. Forcible Rape
3. Robbery
4. Aggravated Assault
5. Burglary
6. Larceny – Theft
7. Motor Vehicle Theft
8. Arson
Considered Violent
Crimes
Considered Property
Offense
STATUS OFFENSE
An act that is illegal for a juvenile but
would not be a crime if committed by
an adult
Examples:
1. Truancy,
2. Running away
from home.
CRIME INDEX OFFENSES CLEARED
 the number of offenses for which at least one
person has been arrested, charged with the
commission of the offense, and turned over to the
court for prosecution.
NATIONAL INCIDENT-BASED REPORTING
NIBRS
Began in 1982
Law enforcement authorities provide offense and
arrest data on 22 broad categories of crime.
Contains more data on each crime.
As of December 2005, 30 states were NIBRS
certified.
The benefits of participating in the
NIBRS are:
1. The NIBRS can furnish information on nearly every major
criminal justice issue facing law enforcement today.
2. access to more comprehensive crime information than the
traditional Summary reporting system can provide.
3. more detailed, accurate, and meaningful data than the
Summary reporting system.
4. agencies can work together to develop solutions or
discover strategies for addressing the issues.
5. provide a full accounting of the status of public safety
within the jurisdiction to the police commissioner, chief,
sheriff, or director.
NATIONAL CRIME
VICTIMIZATION SURVEYS
 A source of crime statistics based on interviews in which
respondents are asked whether they have been victims of
any of the FBI’s index reports or other crimes within the
last 6 months. If they have, they are asked to provide
information about their experience.
SELF REPORTING CRIMES
Surveys in which subjects are asked whether they
have committed crimes.
Most of these are administer to school age
students.
ON THE BOARD:
Of the various methods of measuring
crime presented, which one do you
think is most accurate? Why?
Least accurate? Why?
Do you think there are ways to get
more victims of crime to report
criminal incidents? How would you
suggest them to come forward?
COSTS OF CRIME
In 2005, total economic loss was approximately
$17 billion.
The NCVS = best estimate
Deficient in 2 ways:
Include only limited number of personal and property
crimes
2. Report only estimates of relatively short term costs.
They do not include long term costs associated with
pain, suffering, and reduced quality of life.
1.
WHAT DO PEOPLE FEAR?
45% worry about homes being broken into when
they are not home.
42% worry about having their car broken into
19% worry about being sexually assaulted
5% worry about getting murdered
WHO FEARS CRIME?
GENDER
 Females (47%) more fearful than males (19%)
AGE
 18-20 were most fearful (41%) than people in other ages.
21-29 = 30% , 30-49 = 27% , and 50 and up = 37%
RELIGION
 Jews were most fearful (60%), Catholics (35%),
protestants (31%) non claiming religion (30%)
HOW PEOPLE RESPOND TO CRIME…
47% avoided certain places or neighborhoods
31% keep a dog for protection
29% have security systems in their homes
23% have a gun for self protection
ON THE BOARD:
What do you think can be done to
overcome peoples fear of crime?
What are major things that you
fear?
What do you think are major
contributors to peoples fear of
crime?
VICTIMS OF CRIME
 An estimated 23 million crimes are committed each year
 Against people 12 years old and up
 About 18 million property crimes annually
 About 227,000 personal thefts annually