crime

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Behaviour or action that is punishable by criminal law. A crime is a public, as opposed to a moral, wrong; it is an offence committed against (and hence punishable by) the state or the community at large. Many crimes are immoral, but not all actions considered immoral are illegal.

What constitutes a crime
The laws of each country say which actions or omissions (failures to act) are criminal. These include serious moral wrongs and offences against the person, such as murder and rape; offences against the state, such as treason or tax evasion (which affect state security and social order); wrongs perpetrated against the community, such as littering; and offences against property, such as theft and the handling of stolen goods. Because crime is socially determined, the definition of what constitutes a crime may vary geographically and over time. Thus, an action may be considered a crime in one society but not in another; for example, drinking alcohol is not generally prohibited in the West, but is a criminal offence in many Islamic countries. Certain categories of crime, however, such as violent crime and theft, are recognized almost universally.

Penalties
Crime is dealt with in most societies by the judicial system, comprising the police, the courts, and other institutions. These may impose penalties ranging from a fine to imprisonment to, in some instances, death, depending upon the severity of the offence and the penalty laid down by the country where the offence was committed. Most European countries have now abolished the death penalty, though it is still retained by a number of African and Asian countries as well as some US states. Non-capital and minor offences are also punished in some countries, such as Britain and the USA, by the granting of suspended sentences, where an offender's prison sentence is waived on condition that they do not reoffend during a set period of time. Other common elements in sentencing in Britain and the USA include the provision of probation periods, where offenders are released into the community, but are regularly supervised by probation officers; and community punishment, where offenders are required, in lieu of a prison sentence, to perform a certain amount of unpaid work for the good of the community.

Theories of punishment
There are a number of different theories of punishment, ranging from those which place most emphasis upon the aspect of retribution, where the criminal's punishment is seen as an end in itself (though the punishment's severity may still be linked to that of the crime), to theories which stress the deterrent and reformative aspects of punishment. However, the theory that punishment is intended merely as expiation is not subscribed to by most modern penologists, and in practice the different theories are frequently combined. The most positive theory of penology is aimed at the reform or rehabilitation of the criminal, and stresses the importance of training and educating criminals in preparation for their return to the community as law-abiding citizens. Even the most optimistic criminologists are forced to admit, however, that modern methods have so far failed to influence persistent offenders.

Red, white, and blue recall the French tricolour. Red, yellow, and green are the pan-African colours. Red represents the common blood of mankind which links African and European nations. Effective date: 1 December 1958. >>