A conceptual introduction of Crime: A Systematic observations
Shah Mohammad Omer Faruqe Jubaer1
Senior Faculty of Law at Leading Uniersity and Research Manager at Shah Legal aid and
Research Centre
*E-mail: shahjubaer@lus.ac.bd smofjubaer@gmail.com
Abstract: This article is about to identify the
basic principles of crime. These principles
are the instruments for understanding the
crime and so can used when someone faced
unfamiliar or new offence. Crime literally
means a criminal offence or sin. There is no
simple or universal definition of crime under
any legal system or jurisprudence. And the
reason for this is that the phenomenon of
crime in terms researchers, has different
foundations and various forms, In other
words, what is considered crime in the view
of one scientist, in the view of other scientist
not only may not take as a crime, It may
even be considered as good practice. Crime
is subject to social construction under severe
criminal (procedural and substantive)
national and international law in order to
apply it. Title and subject matter of this
article is incarcerated to the concept of crime
to observe its efficacy and effectiveness
perfectly
1. INTRODUCTION
The test of efficiency of any society and any
form of government is its capacity to deal
with crime. Its power itself to survive and to
contribute to the preservation for the
mankind of the social principle for,
notwithstanding Aristotle and those who
have been repeating him for thousands of
years, man is not a social animal but merely
but a gregarious one, and the perfectly social
man is still in the making.
The fundamental fact to resolve this concern
issue that crime is the point of conflict
International Journal of Social Sciences in Universities
IJSSU, ISSN: 2617-4235
between individual and society. Here, the
rights of society were superior to those of
the individual. The struggle for law is a
struggle between the will of “the one”, the
offender, and the will of “the all,” the state;
and this struggle in its final analysis finds
itself epitomized in the effort of the state to
enforce the criminal Law. It is often argued
that the criminal law should seek to punish
only conduct which causes harm to others. .
I have seen a lot of law student who don’t
even have a clear concept about crime. So the
core purpose of this article is to clarify the
concept of crime. In reality, criminal law
used to be seen as a straightforward subject in
a traditional form, it can be extremely
complex and is often controversial. The aim
of this article is to ensure a systematic
observation to assemble a basic knowledge
and concept about crime.
2. Concept of Crime:
The Oxford Dictionary of Sociology defines
crime in a more complex way: ‘an offence
which goes beyond the personal and into the
public sphere, breaking prohibitory rules or
laws, to which legitimate punishments or
sanctions are attached, and which requires
the intervention of a public authority.’2
According to social commentators, people
are simultaneously attracted to and repulsed
by crime especially gruesome crimes
involving extreme personal violence.3
In psychology, there are three theories that
are the most widespread approaches to
defining crime. There are other approaches,
but as these are the most widely accepted,
we will consider those here.
1. The Consensus View: a crime can be
said to have occurred, it has to be
committed. So without an action,
there can be no crime. The act must
be legally forbidden. It is not enough
to just be anti-social behaviour.4
Where the crime is identify by indicating
category of conditions unceasingly. Such as,
 Crimes are behaviours that are
harmful to the majority of the
citizens.
 These behaviours are defined in the
law
 These laws represent the norms, goals
and values of the vast majority of the
society
 In other words, we as a society agree
that these behaviours should be
“Criminal”.
2. The Conflict View: The Conflict
View is the direct opposite of the
Consensus View. Proponents of this
theory argue that society is a
collection of diverse groups, not an
integrated structure. The conflict
perspective in crime was based on the
conflict theory introduced by Karl
Marx which divides society into the
capitalist and the worker classes.5
This view recognizes that the creation
of laws is unequal and may not have
consensus6.
3. The Interactionist View: The
Interactionist View falls between the
International Journal of Social Sciences in Universities
IJSSU, ISSN: 2617-4235
Consensus and Conflict View. It
began as a field of thought within
sociology called symbolic
interactionism. The basis of Edwin
Sutherland's theory of differential
association states that deviant
behaviour is not due to personality or
biological influence, but rather it is
caused by association with others
who behave deviantly.
The principal of criminal liability are the
core tools for understanding and applying
the Criminal La, and so can be used when
you are faced by an unfamiliar or new
offence. Most people would imagine the
criminal law to be about murders, assaults
and thefts but the scope of criminal law is
much wider than this. In line with that
Criminal Law plays a distinctive role in
society, including the following functions:
 To deter people from doing acts that
harm others or society
 To set out the conditions under which
people who have performed such acts
will be punished
 To provide some guidance on the
kinds of behavior, which are seen by
as acceptable?
According to the modern view of criminal
law we can specify a conduct as a criminal
conduct or crime. The first and more
important is that the defendant has done an
act which has caused a prohibited kind of
harm the second is that the defendant is
culpable- worthy of censure- for having
caused that harm. In a rhetorical Sense we
can say that crime is a identical to a criminal
conduct. Where everybody has been touched
by crime and everybody wants to know why
this is so. From the very commence point of
view of natural law we can clarify ‘crime’ as
a commission or omission, which exceeds
the general expectations or requirements of
natural in a naturalistic sense. The
naturalistic evolutionary notions are inspired
by a growing confidence in human
rationality and in the perfectibility of human
affairs led to the more inclusive and
complete expression of this belief. Criminal
conduct and crime is not equal in the
directive sense of law because crime is a
result of criminal conduct.
The positivist view of criminal conduct is an
approach to understanding the criminal
behaviour of individual through:
 The ethical and humane application
of systematic empirical methods of
investigation, and
 The construction of rational
explanatory system.6
Criminal conduct may engage an intention
and preparation of a crime in spite of that a
crime is generally occupied with an
intention, preparation and criminal
performance or result. Intently, criminal
conduct is a condition of a crime. Conflicts
appear from the criminal conduct of a
personage when they don’t do what the legal
rule of conduct orders, when they do
something different , incompatible with the
rule of conduct or when they react otherwise
than as prescribed by rule of conduct.
Further the rule of conduct shall impose
legislative expression to provide a legal
direction and obstruction to crime.
International Journal of Social Sciences in Universities
IJSSU, ISSN: 2617-4235
Consistently, violation of a criminal and
penal statute is a crime under national law.
Though, criminal legislative sanctions for
individual offender and leniency policies
have emerged as significant features of the
enforcement discourse globally.
4. CONCLUSIONS
There is no objective and plain definition of
crime. The meaning of crime is exaggerated
by the particular society in which you live.
Therefore, we can say that the meaning of
crime is actually a social construction. There
is no specific definition of crime under any
legal system but the crimes receive diverse
conception according to their severity. The
rigorousness of crimes classified as an
infractions, misdemeanors and felonies.
Most of the codification of a criminal law is
a fundamental principle of Criminalistic
policy. The modern criminal policy and
legislature or codifier adopt severe plans of
establishing a regular inventiveness schemes
to improve their victimized and criminalized
aspects which can effect and accept the word
crime and related provisions successfully.
Reference:
[1]Senior Faculty of the Department of Law at Leading
University and Research Manager at Shah Legal Aid and
Research Centre.
[2] ibid
[3] What is criminology? Understanding Crime and
Criminals, Karl Menninger (Chapter-1)
[4] The sociological theories. J Shepherd (1981).
[5] Conflict, 2005 retrieved December 25, 2008, from the
criminology department of the Florida State University.
[6] Hawkins, D. (1987). Beyond anomalies: Rethinking the
conflict perspective on race and criminal punishment.