1. Introduction to Criminal Justice
Chapter 2: Crime and its Consequences

2. Definitions of Crimes
An appropriate definition of crime remains a critical unresolved issue in criminal justice
Many dangerous and harmful behaviors are not crimes
Many less dangerous or harmful behaviors are crimes

3. Social Definitions
Crime is behavior that violates the norms of society
A norm is any standard or rule regarding what people should not think, say, or do under given circumstances
However, norms:
Vary
Are subject to interpretation
Change from time to time and place to place

4. Legal Definition
Crime is an intentional violation of the criminal law or penal code, committed without defense or excuse and penalized by the state
Major advantage of a legal definition of crime, at least on the surface, is that it is narrower and less ambiguous than a social definition of crime

5. Problems with a Legal Definition
Overcriminalization arises in the so-called victimless crimes
Nonenforcement is common
Undercriminalization

6. Elements of Crime Harm Legality Actus reus Mens rea Causation
Concurrence
Punishment

7. Harm For crime to occur, there must be harm, either physical or verbal
A harm is the external consequence required to make an action a crime
Thinking about committing a crime is not a crime
A verbal threat to strike another person is a crime

8. Legality
A harm must be legally forbidden for the behavior to be a crime and that law must not be retroactive
Ex post facto: a law that (1) declares an act that was not illegal when committed, (2) increases the punishment for a crime after it was committed, or (3) alters the rules of evidence in a particular case after the crime is committed.

9. Actus Reus
Refers to intentional criminal conduct, or criminal negligence
Crimes involves not only what people do but also things they do not do

10. Mens Rea Refers to the mental aspect of crime
Criminal conduct usually refers to intentional action or inaction
Sometimes, negligence or reckless action can be criminal

11. Legal Defenses for Criminal Responsibility
An offender is not considers responsible or less responsible if he/she
Acted under duress
Was underage
Was insane
Acted in self-defense or defense of a third party
Was entrapped
Acted out of necessity

12. Causation
In order for a crime to be a legal crime, there must a causal relationship between the legally forbidden harm and the actus reus
The criminal act must lead directly to the harm without a long delay

13. Concurrence
There must be concurrence between the actus reus and the mens rea
The criminal conduct and the mental intent must occur together

14. Punishment
For a behavior to be considered a crime, there must be a statutory provision for punishment or at least the threat of punishment

15. Degrees or Categories of Crime
Felonies – severe crimes
Misdemeanors – less severe crimes

16. Degrees or Categories of Crime
Another way of distinguishing crime is between:
Mala in se: “wrong in themselves”
Characterized by universality and timelessness
Mala prohibita: offenses that are illegal because laws define them as such
Lack universality and timelessness

17. Introduction to Criminal Justice
Chapter 2: Crime and its Consequences

18. Crime Statistics
Crime and delinquency statistics are probably the most unreliable and most difficult of all social statistics
Behavior may be wrongly labeled
Crimes may go undetected
Crimes are sometimes not reported
Crimes may be inaccurately recorded or not recorded at all
Statistics do not reflect the dark figure of crime

19. Crime Statistics
Any record of crimes can be considered at most a crime index

20. Crime Rates
When crimes indexes are compared, it is usually by crime rate
Crime rates are used because they are more comparable
Crime rates can change because of demographic changes or other factors

21. Calculating Crime Rates

22. Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)
One of the primary sources of crime stats in the US is the Uniform Crime Reports
Nearly 18,000 city, county, and state law enforcement agencies are active in the program
They represent about 96% of the U.S. population

23. Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)
Collection of crime statistics and other LE information gathered under a voluntary national program administered by the FBI.
UCR includes to major indexes
Offenses known to the police
Statistics about persons arrested

24. Uniform Crime Reports (UCR): Part I Offenses
Murder & nonnegligent manslaughter
Forcible rape
Robbery
Aggravated assault
Burglary
Larceny-theft
Motor vehicle theft
Arson

25. Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)
The other major crime index in the UCR is based on arrest statistics, provided for the 8 index crimes as well as 21 other crimes and status offenses.
Status offense: an act that is illegal for a juvenile but would not be a crime if committed by an adult

26. UCR: Part I and Part II Offenses

27. National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS)
Result of joint task force of the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and the FBI
Contains more data on more crimes than the UCR
Makes it possible to examine crimes in much more detail

28. National Crime Victimization Surveys (NCVS)
Source of crime statistics based on interviews in which respondents are asked whether they have been victims of crime during past 6 months
If they have, they are asked to provide information about the experience

29. Self-Report Crime Surveys
Self-report crime surveys ask selected subjects whether they have committed crimes
Examples:
The National Youth Survey
The National Institute on Drug Abuse surveys

30. Costs of Crime
The 2009 total economic loss to victims of crime in the U.S. was $16.3 billion.
When medical costs, lost earning, and public program costs are added, the cost rises to $105 billion.
When intangible costs of pain, suffering, and reduced quality of life are added, annual cost increases to $450 billion.

31. Victims of Crime
2009, NCVS revealed a total of 20 million crimes were attempted or completed against U.S. residents age 12 or older
4.3 million violent crimes
15.6 million property crimes