Crime is a contested and complex concept. Discuss

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Various Definitions of Crime:
1. Labelling theory: The theory that the terms crime, deviance, or punishment are labels, variously applied by act of power and not some natural reflection of events – American criminologist Howard Becker
2. Social construction: Our concepts and the practical consequences that flow from using them are the products (constructions) of social interaction and only make sense within the communities in which that interaction takes place. Crime is a label created in social interaction, but once created it has both a symbolic and practical reality.
5 Assumptions/claims → complicate/differentiate out understanding of what crime is:
1. Crime is some action/omission that causes harm in a situation that the person/group responsible ‘ought’ to be held accountable and punished irrespective of what the law book of state say.
2. A crime is an action against the law of God, regardless of its existence/non-existence in the State law books
3. Only an act that is defined by the validly passed laws of the nation state in which it occurred so that punishment should follow from the behaviour
4. Crimes and criminals only exist when a public body has judged the such according to accepted procedures; no public authority → no crime
5. Crime is an irrelevant concept as it is tied to the formal social control mechanism of the State; deviance is a concept that is owned by sociology thus our study should be the sociology of deviance, rather than criminology
Argue for the abolition of crime: Nils Christie: Crimes do not exist. Only acts exist, acts given particular meanings within various social conditions.

Crime as a socially constructed process
Factors that distort the relationship between the actual and recorded crime rate:
1. ...

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...ings. London
Christie, N. (1986) ‘The ideal victim’, in E. Fattah, (Ed.), From Crime Policy to Victim Policy: Reorienting the Justice System New York: St Matins Press
Elias, R. (1993) Victims Still: The Political Manipulation of Victims. Newbery Park: Sage [Chapter 2]
Morrison, W. (2009) 'What is crime? Contrasting definitions and perspectives', in C. Hale, K. Hayward, A. Wahadin and E. Wincup, (eds), Criminology. Oxford: Oxford University Press
Weatherburn, D., and Indermaur, D. (2004) ‘Public perceptions of crime trends in New South Wales and Western Australia’, Contemporary Issues in Crime and Justice, 80: 1-8
Weatherburn, D. (2011) ‘Uses and abuses of crime statistics’, Contemporary Issues in Crime and Justice, 153: 1-16
White, R., and Perrone, S. (2009) Crime, Criminality and Criminal Justice. Melbourne: Oxford University [Chapter 2 ‘Crime and the Media’]

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