How Do You Define Crime - Assignment Example

 Introduction Crime refers to the acts of omission or commissions which are against the law and socially accepted rules (Siegel, 2012). Among the criminal act that may be attributed to criminal activities include; robbery, hacking companies data from the internet, burglary, rape, assaults, murder, misdemeanour, smuggling, kidnapping, rape to mention just but a few of the criminal acts . The two major types of crime include; crime against human beings and crime against property commonly categorized under criminal law. The context of criminal justice has put forth a system via which criminals may be punished or deterred from committing unlawful acts .This process of establishing a system for punishing criminals refers to as criminalization process. However, criminalization process has not been successful in most countries such as United States and in some parts of Europe. This is because most of those crimes committed are not submitted in the court of law for a verdict. Therefore, failure to make full submission of criminal acts committed tends to propagate criminal act (Gottfredson & Hirsch, 2001). Researchers and philosophers have put forth various theories that tend to explain the origin of crime. Among the theories that have been discussed include; scientific theories and evolution theories. Whereby, scientific theory tends to utilize science towards explaining origin of crime while evaluation theory utilizes a set of factors to explain the origin of crime. On the contrary, classical and positive crime theories have been put forth to explain the origin and development of criminology (Purpura, 1996). In above connection, reporting of crime has not been very successful in the past years because of the bureaucratic procedures attributed in crime reporting process. Among the limitations crime of reporting include: Political influence on readily available evidence, whereby, some crimes committed by people with higher status were influenced by politics making it difficult to prosecute them. Additionally, lack of adequate forensic professionals may have contributed to escalating cases of unreported crimes. Connectively, lack of necessary knowledge and skills for interpreting and analyzing statistical data on crime has contributed significantly to escalating cases of crime. On the contrary, criminology may be defined as the science of crime which involves activities such as; making the law, breaking the law as well as response involved when dealing with law breakers (Vito, 2006). On the other hand, criminal justice involve certain activities such law enforcement, breaking of the law, nature of crime committed and the extent in which such crime were committed(Purpura, 1996). On the contrary, criminal justice focuses on the responses that may be employed when dealing with law breakers. This means that criminal justice focuses on upholding the law and protecting the rights. Additionally, it focuses at ensuring those criminals are prosecuted in accordance to the law. In above connection, criminal justice can be divided into three main areas namely; legal section, law enforcement and correction section. The legal section focuses at ensuring activities undertake by other people do not violate or interfere with the rights of the citizens. On the other hand, law enforcement involves establishing institutions that ensures that every one adheres strictly to the established law. Under this section, police officers, criminologist and other law enforcing agencies may be involved directly towards ensuring law and justice has been efficiently and effectively upheld(Downes, 1978).Therefore, this study will provide an insight of what crime appertains within the context of criminology and criminal justice. 1. How do you define crime? Illustrate examples Crime may be defined as the acts of omissions or commission that has been prohibitive by the law. Whereby, violation of such acts may make the culprits to be liable for their acts and may be subjected to punishment as may be defined by law. A crime involves a triangle that is made up of three major components whereby, when one component is removed crime may not occur (Office of Justice Program, 2009). The three basic components of crime include; offenders, victim and location. For example, if a Jogger does not enter into a parking lot, security guards may not have somebody to prosecute. This means that there will be no crime because some of the elements of crime are missing. On the contrary, if there was no parking lot, crime could not occur because the element of location is not available. Additionally, if security guards were not available in the parking lot then, crime could not occur. Therefore, the above example indicates that for a crime to take place, all the three components of a crime triangle must be present (Office of Justice Program, 2009). The crime triangle may be represented diagrammatically as shown below. Crime Triangle Location CRIME Offenders Victims Source: Author The above diagram illustrates the three components of a crime that must be available for a crime to occur whereby; Offenders + Victims-location=No, Crime Offender+ Location-Victim=No Crime, Location + Victim-Offenders=No Crime, Location+offenders-Victims=No crime. Theories on why Crime Occurs as well as examples In order to eliminate crime, guardians must be actively involved. The guardians in the context of criminal justice are all those people involved in fighting crime. Therefore, In order to understand crime it is vital to take into consideration why and where a crime can take place (Office of Justice Program, 2009). Several theories have been put forth by philosophers such as Paul, Branting ham and Patricia with an attempt of explaining why and whey a crime can take place. Among those theories include; the theory of routine activity, prevention of crime theory, the theory of broken window, opportunity crime theory, disorganization social crime theory and pattern of crime theory (Office of Justice Program, 2009). According to routine activities theory, a crime can take place when incapable guardian, an offender and target location meet at the same point at the same time, making it favourable for the criminal to carry out deviant acts. In above connection, the theory of crime prevention asserts that, crime can only be averted if opportunities for committing crime are totally discouraged as well as ensuring all factors that may encourage crime have been removed (Office of Justice Program, 2009). For example, the opportunities for committing crime in dark the streets can be prevented by installing alarms and reliable security lights as well as deploying enough security officers in the streets (Office of Justice Program, 2009). Additionally, the theory of broken window asserts that crime may occur in those areas that are least anticipated to occur. Some of those areas may include open areas, petrol station and even in an open street where there are enough lights. Therefore, if police officers and other security agents provide a full security in those areas the rate of crime may be minimized if not prevented. On the contrary, the theory of crime opportunity holds that offenders scrutinize those areas that provide opportunities for committing crime. For example, a place where there is a dark parking lot may provide offenders with a nice opportunity for attacking car owners as they come to take their vehicles. The social disorganization theory suggests that crime can easily occur if there is lack of corporation among members of the society. Connectively, crime pattern theory asserts that a crime can easily occur due to lack of necessary control from the guardians (Office of Justice Program, 2009). According to the Australian Institute of Criminology, 2013.Crime may be categorized into eight major sections namely; alcohol and drugs crime, cyber crime, in focus crime, environmental crime, organized crime, property crime, violence crime and economic crime. Whereby, alcohol and drugs crime entails consumption of elicit drugs that may have a negative impact on human health. For instance, abuse of such drugs may result to escalating cases of motor vehicle accidents as well as increase in death rates (Australian Institute of Criminology, 2013). Connectively, property crime involves destruction of property, burglary, theft, arson to mention just but a few. Property crime may further subdivided on the basis of whether force was applied or not during the time when crime was being committed. For instance, the United States Uniform crime reporting programme categorised Arson, burglary and motor vehicle theft as crimes that involve force and property destruction. On the contrary, money laundry was categorised as crime that dose not involve application of force. Therefore, prior administering the kind of punishment that was to be applied to punish criminal the judges considered not only the magnitude and the extent of destruction but also considered. According to a report by Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI) in United States under the umbrella of United States Department of Justice, criminal offenses cases were report to decrease substantially at a rate of 4.6percent in the year 2009 (Federal Bureau of investigation,para4). This is was a significant fall in crime rate as compared to the year 2008 that reported a statistic figure of 9,800,000 (Federal Bureau of investigation,para4). The graph below indicates the trends of crime over a period of five years; this may help to show how crime had been declining in the past five years. Source: Federal Bureau of investigation: on 3rd April 2013. Gottfredson, M. R., & Hirschi, T. (2001). A general theory of crime. Stanford, Calif, Stanford Univ. Press. Office of Justice Program. (2009, October, 14) “Why Crime Occurs In Hot Spots. The United. Purpura, P. (1996). Criminal justice: an introduction. Boston, Butterworth-Heinemann. Siegel, L. J. (2012). Criminology. Belmont, Wadsworth/Cengage Learning. William. J, Barratton and William. A (2010). Eight Steps to Reduce CrimeRetrieved :< http://www.americasquarterly.org/node/1500> on 3rd April 2013. Vito, G. F. (2006). Criminology. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett. Read More