NCJ Number
79752
Journal
Research Bulletin Issue: 12 Dated: (1981) Pages: 6-11
Date Published
1981
Length
6 pages
Annotation
The diverse character of 'crime' and strategies for controlling various types of crime are discussed.
Abstract
Because crime is not a unitary phenomenon and there are many kinds of criminals, most of whom are 'normal' people, searches for a uniform explanation for the causes of crime and the criminal personality have been futile. Distinctions can be made between traditional (violence against the person, robberies, thefts, and frauds), nontraditional (political and ideological crime, along with crimes against the regulatory laws of the state), and moral (sexual offenses, drug offenses, abortion, suicide, and euthanasia) crimes. These categories of crime are largely distinctions of convenience or political preference rather than of principle. Criminal law is one kind of social rulemaking, distinguished not so much by any peculiarity in the characteristics of the activities the rules are to regulate as by the procedures for enforcement of the rules and the punishment of violations. The compliance of most people with the criminal law most of the time shows general behavioral conformity. If the rules of criminal law are to continue to have a special status among social rules, however, they should be reserved for those areas where there is a broad public consensus favoring enforcement. The control of crime can benefit from being examined from the same perspective as any other regulated social activity. On the one hand, it is appropriate to ask whether the form of regulation is appropriate (voluntary, administrative, civil, or criminal), recognizing that criminal law changes considerably over time. On the other hand, there is merit in distinguishing between individual crimes and examining the circumstances in which they occurred, so as to determine how they may best be countered. Seventeen references are listed. (Author summary modified)