Aristotle (350 B.C.E) quoted in Jowett (2009) states that: “Poverty is the parent of revolution and crime. Great Philosophers such as Aristotle helped to set the foundation of what we today define as ‘crime’ showing that even in 350 B.C.E the definitions of ‘crime’ came from what was fist defined as ‘poverty’.
One of the most common definition of ‘crime’ comes from the Labour Government (2007) quoted in Muncie, Talbot and Walters (2010) “Labour Governments ‘Respect’ website 2007 Crime is doing something forbidden by law. That could mean stealing a mobile phone, vandalism, graffiti, mugging, stealing or taking and selling drugs” (Muncie, Talbot and Walters, 2010, p. 3). This definition of crime is very much focused on the ideas of what criminologists would class as ‘street crimes’, crimes that are generally committed by the poorer people within society, young people who come from council estates. However this definition of ‘street crimes’ omits the crimes that are committed in ‘invisible spaces’ which tends to focus more on: domestic abuse, gender abuse and people trafficking and the ‘invisible crimes’ committed by the powerful elites of the world. These crimes tend to be focused on white collar crimes, environmental pollution and illegal arms dealings amongst many more. This definition of crime omits behaviours that are potentially more harmful, that could cause greater pain or loss (Muncie, Talbot and Walters, 2010, p. 3).
Although we have a general definitions of crime, some criminologists argue that crimes is better placed within the concept of social harm, Stuart Henry and Mark Lanier (1998) as quoted in Muncie, Talbot and Walters (2010). pp 16-17 were leading authors who done just that. Criminologists such as “Tifft, 1995 an...
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...ns has been a very difficult procedure. Social harm helps to allow for the development of policies and procedures that will acknowledge the roles of governments and other parties in the perpetration of crime.
Works Cited
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Muncie, J., Talbot, D. and Walters, R. Crime: Local and Global, William Publishing, (Devon). P. 3.
Muncie J, Talbot D and Walters R, (2010) ‘interrogating crime’ Crime: Local and Global, William Publishing, (Devon). The Open University. pp. 16 – 17.
Muncie J, Talbot D and Walters R, (2010), Crime Local and Global, William Publishing, (Devon). P. 18.
Hilliyard and Tombs (2007) in Muncie J, Talbot D and Walters R, (2010), Crime Local and Global, William Publishing, (Devon). pp. 18-19.
Hickey, T. J. (2010). Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Crime and Criminology, 9th Edition. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
This essay sets out some of the advantages and disadvantages of the concept of 'social harm' hold for the criminologist over that of 'crime'.
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During the 1970’s to the early 1990’s there had emerged two new approaches to the study of crime and deviance. The discipline of criminology had expanded further introducing right and left realism, both believe in different areas and came together in order to try and get a better understanding on crime and prevention. There were many theorists that had influenced the realism approaches such as; Jock Young (Left Wing) and James Wilson (Right Wing).
Generally, the study of crime mainly focused on the offender until quite recently. In fact, Shapland et al (1985) described the victim as ‘the forgotten man’ of the criminal justice system and ‘the non-person in the eyes of the professional participants’. A new perspective was brought with victimology, an expanding sub-discipline of crimin...
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Property Crime can be defined as the unauthorized taking or damaging of an individual’s personal belongings. This is not limited to robbery of any kind, fraud, or even arson, but all of these crimes have several coinciding traits that group them under this term. While property crimes are meant to take something that is not ours and use it for our own advantage, violent crimes are used to harm or even kill another rather than using for ones self. This includes hate crimes, murder, rape, and abuse. Hate Crimes are unique because they usually target someone who’s different than the race or sex of that individual committing the offense whereas murder and assault are not always gender or race defined. Therefore, property and violent crimes are influenced by social inequalities that are caused by gender, race, income and age; thus why the legal definition of crime cannot cover all possible scenarios without taking each individual case and studying social behaviors in these of why or what was the cause of the crime committed.
Winslow, R. W., & Zhang, S. (2008). Contemporary Theories of Crime. Criminology: a global perspective (). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Wilson, James and Herrnstein, Richard. "Crime & Human Nature: The Definitive Study of the Causes of Crime" New York: Free Press, 1998.
Morgan, R., Maguire, M. And Reiner, R. (2012). The Oxford Handbook of Criminology. 5th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.