Author: Ria Tandon, Research Associate
To understand the idea or conception of crime it is very important for anyone to know the meaning of word crime. Black’s Law Dictionary define crime as “Any act done in violation of those duties which an individual owes to the community, and for the breach of which the law has provided that the offender shall make statisfaction to the public. A crime or public offense is an act committed or omitted in violation of a law forbidding or commanding it, and to which is annexed, upon conviction, either, or a combination, of the following punishments: (1) death; (2) imprisonment; (3) fine; (4) removal from office; or (5) disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit. While many crimes have their origin at common law, most have been created by statute; and, in many states, such have been codified ((Black’s Law Dictionary, 5 th ed)).”
Hughes, Concept of crime speaks of two concepts of crime which overlap each other but it is important to explain the detailed relationship between the two. First idea crime is called natural that is considered to be largely understood by people. It embodies acts which that are deeply rooted disapproval from the community at large and it calls upon for punitive sanction. Thus for say acts like deviant sexual behavior or blasphemy may be considered to be wrong at some place at a time. This is the common understanding of the idea of crime at large but besides this natural concept of crime there is a broader reference that derives its idea from the enactments based on legal system. This idea of crime is based on with particular legal set of procedures and with special rules of evidence and the special avenues of appeal.
This type of body of law is called criminal or penal law wherein it poses disadvantage on the defendant such as legal checks like imprisonment, probation and fine ((ROBINSON, PAUL H. (1948) Fundamentals of criminal law. Boston: Little Brown)).
Elements of Crime
It is a very common to recall two most important elements as (1) an act and (2) the intention or state of mind with which act is done ((The intent and the act must concur to constitute the crime.” Per Lord Kenyon, C. J., in Fowler v. Padget (i798) 7 T. T. a, 5I4. “To constitute a crime, there must, as a rule, be both a guilty mind and a criminal act.” Odgers, The Common Law of England, p. io6. “Every common law crime consists of two elements: first, the voluntary commission of an act which is declared by the law to be criminal; second, the existence in the offender of a state of mind which is declared by law to be consistent with criminality.” May, Criminal Law (3d ed.) sec. 5. Sometimesintent is used; at other times, intention. Throughout the presentdiscussion the latter has been used. Both of these of course in many cases are used as meaning merely state of mind, as for example, in the question, “What was his intention ?”))when we talk about the composition of crime. The situation becomes ambiguous when we consider the latter element and question whether the person who committed the act intended to bring the same result as the actual result took place? Was this his intention?. These two elements may seem to be very straight when we talk about them but by no means they are free from the aspect of ambiguity.
We come across the phrase like “an act of homicide” or an act of trespass . Hence when we analyze terms like act of homicide . For say a person murdered person A by a knife. Hence the act done would be murder but just this it has a number of things involved . Apparently it covers (1) series of act if seen from the narrow point of view ,i.e. it involves some muscular movement that is willing , (2) surrounding circumstances, (3) consequences of the movement. Hence these things would decide the criminal liability.
Theories of Criminal Law
Retribution is based on the assumption that the causing of pain to the offenders or letting them face consequences is a right and proper move. Thus this helps both the society and the offenders Man affected of crime is bound to retaliate against the government if his urge is not satisfied and would in turn take law in his hand , results in disaster for law and order in the society. The main idea is to bring the disequilibrium which has been caused by the crime to the victim can be rectified by resorting pain in retaliation to what they have done to the victim. It has its focus on culpable behavior.
The theory of prevention gives its authorization for infliction of pain in order to prevent crimes from happening in future. Special preventive measures prevents convicted criminals from committing crimes further. Reformation may be achieved by way of reforming an individual so that they obey the law. It is also believed that others those who have a proclivity for committing might not commit one because of the fear of being punished and dissuaded from crime ((Chandrasekharan Pillai, K.N., (2003) General Principles of Criminal Law. Lucknow:Eastern Book Company)).
Sources of Criminal Law
Law is derived from the following sources: administrative regulations, constitutions, judicial decisions , and statutes . The latter two are considered to be more important in criminal law.
Common law as the term refers to the laws which are derived from long custom and usage or from decision by judges in contrast to laws passed by the legislature. The importance of common-law crime can be seen in the Pennsylvania case where the defendant was convicted of the common-law crime. The defendant used objectionable language as well as talked to the victim about sodomy which according to the presiding Judge was against the public morality but not a specified crime by a statute.
Statutory Criminal Law –Today most states have codified all of their criminal laws. They do not recognize any act as crime unless and until it is specified in their statutory law ((Reid,Sue titus,(1989) Criminal Law. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company)). The federal system does not recognize the common law crimes if they are not in a codified state but sometimes common law is used to interpret the meaning of the words of that statute.
Substantive and Procedural Criminal Law- A study of criminal should make it easy to bring out the difference between the substantive and procedural law. Substantive law defines the right, elements, and what are the responsibilities of law, while procedural law helps on defining the methods by which the law can be enforced through the legal tools.
Classification of Crime
Most legal system have their division of crime into various categories matching the purpose connected with the procedure of the courts or in other words it means assigning different kinds of courts to different kinds of offenses. Common Law divided crime into two :felonies-the graver crimes, generally punished by death and forfeiture of the perpetrator’s land and misdemeanours which is generally punishable by fines or imprisonment.
By the early of 19 th century ((Available at http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/142953/crime/53412/Classification-of-crimes)), it was clear that the law had rendered this distinction to be obsolete. For say, theft was considered to be felony, irrespective of the amount which was stolen, while obtaining by fraud was always a misdemeanor. Soon this distinction was replaced by arrest table offences.
In the systems utilizing the civil law, there the criminal code was distinguished between three kinds like crime délit, and contravention. Under these three kinds, crime represented the most serious forms. Délits were subject to only minor prison sentences, and contraventions were minor offenses. Beginning of the 19 th century, henc some civil law countries like Sweden, Brazil and Portugal consolidated their codes; délits was this reclassified under much broader purview of crimes, and contraventions came to denote criminal offenses to be committed without intent.
Objectives of the Criminal Law in a nutshell
Is it really possible to come to a discussion with regards to the proper content of the criminal law in general terms? Here Walker tried to come up with contents of the criminal codes which cab be examined with a sociological eye , hence a number of different objectives can be discerned:
1) Protection of both human being as well as animals against intentional violence, cruelty, or unisexual approaches.
2) Protection of gullible people like the young or the weak minded from the abuse of their persons or property (for say sexual intercourse or hire-purchase)
3) Protection of people against any form of unintended harms like poison, infection, radiation etc.
4) Prevention of people from activities which shock them are public nakedness, obscene language, or copulation between the consulting adults.
5) Prevention of acts, especially when people are adult from activities like incest, bestiality and drug trips.
6) Discouragement of unlawful behavior which might provoke disorder.
7) Protection of property from wrongful activities like theft, damage and fraud.
8) Prevention of inconvenience for example: keeping a motor car or television set without a license .
It should be noted that objectives outlined by Walker ((Allen, Michael J. and Cooper, Simon , (2006) Cases and Material On Criminal Law. London: Sweet and Maxwell))are those of protection of the individuals and the prevention of the offending. The question arises is as to how these objectives are achieved depends upon the conviction .
Main Crime
Organized crime are now a days considered to be the important searched after crime. This crime threatens human security, violates human rights ((Available at http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/organized-crime/index.html))and undermines the economic, political and social societies around the world. Organized crime group they exploit the human mobility to smuggle migrants and undermined the financial system through the money laundering. The huge amount of money involved tends to compromise the legitimate economies and directly impact the public processes by buying the election through the mode of corruption.
The transnational nature of the organized crime is based on the idea of criminal networks forging bonds across borders as well as they overcome the cultural and linguistic differences in the commission of their crime.
The UN Protocol
The adoption of the fifty-fifth session of the General Assembly of the United Nations in the year 2000 and its enforcement in the year 2003 marked a historic commitment by the international community so as to counter the organized crime.
The benefit which which the State parties get is that of getting a new framework of mutual legal assistance and a platform for strengthening law enforcement cooperation. State parties also have committed themselves to the promoting training and the technical assistance to help them strengthen law enforcement cooperation on a better level.
Conclusion
Conception of crime basically means the idea of crime which includes all the basics which makes a crime. A crime or public offense is an act committed or omitted in violation of a law forbidding or commanding it, and to which is annexed, upon conviction, either, or a combination, of the following punishments: (1) death; (2) imprisonment; (3) fine; (4) removal from office; or (5) disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit hence this term shows that crime is not just made of mental attributes but it also involves the punishment attribute which is also the a part of the idea of crime . Theories of crime best explains the crime attributes and how government mitigates these crime aspects.