What is Crime?

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The Definition of Crime

When talking about crime, many people think about famous cases, like the assault at Rodney King in the U. S., or the mafia in Italy, or perhaps the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in India.

But crime isn’t restricted to the famous cases or even what we think of as serious cases. Crime includes violence, robberies, rape, and drug wars, but also stealing at work, corruption, corporate fraud, and tax violations. But what else is crime? What is it not?

These seem like questions with obvious answers, but when you start looking into these questions, it turns out that it’s not always so easy to say what’s a crime and what’s not a crime. What about when one hears the neighbor screaming at (and potentially beating) his or her family? Or when companies pollute the air with their toxic substances?

Of course, there is the law, which determines what is legal and what is illegal. But the thing is that the contents of the law vary depending on time and legal system.

Criminal Law Changes Over Time

So let’s look at a couple of examples of how the law can change over time:

• One example is domestic violence. It used to be tolerated (and in some places it still is) when a man or woman beats his or her partner and children. Nowadays, in many countries this is considered problematic to say the least.
• As another example, in 1784, in Prussia (which is the forerunner of modern day Germany, only much larger), there was a law that mothers were not allowed to take their under-2-year-old children into their beds. That idea has changed a lot in many places.
• It used to be a crime in different parts of the world to work on a Sunday. Maybe it still is in some areas.

How Crime Definitions Differ By Country

So these are some examples of how the law changes over time. The law also differs by legal system:

• An example is prostitution. In some countries, prostitution is illegal. In other countries, prostitution is legal. In still other countries, for example Sweden, it is a criminal offense to buy sexual services, meaning to be a client of a prostitute. What does that say about prostitution? Is it a crime, or not?

• Another example is the consumption of cannabis. Also in this area there are quite different rules and laws. In some countries, the possession of small quantities is legal, in other countries it’s not.

• But even for a crime such as murder, one cannot say that this is always and everywhere regarded as an offense and treated that way. In some places, you can murder certain people without being punished for it. An example is honor killings, which can be committed while the police are looking away in some areas. Or war: in war there are different rules and sometimes things are allowed that are not allowed otherwise.

Crime as a Product of Society, Culture, and Time

In many cases, when you talk about crime with others, you can probably get by when you use the current legal definition of crime in the area where you live. But especially when talking about crime across time and place, one should be aware that the definition of crime is a product of society, culture, and of time and so that it can change.

Want to learn more about crime and criminology? Check out my Udemy course. If you use this discount coupon, you can get it for $14.99.