Defining criminal behaviour

• criminal behaviour is a form of deviance that involves serious, harmful acts that are a wrong against society. these acts are regarded as so disruptive that the state must intervene on behalf of society to forbid them and to punish them by law.
• in law, criminal behaviour is any action that is forbidden by the criminal law.
• for a court to consider a defendant’s actions to be a crime, the action must normally have two elements: actus reus and mens rea, meaning guilty act and guilty mind respectively.
• there are two exceptions to the requirement of both actus reus and mens rea:

  • strict liability - the wrongful act on its own is enough to convict someone.
  • self-defence - assaulting someone with the deliberate intention to harm them is usually a criminal act. however, if it is done in self-defence it is not a crime - so long as the force used was reasonable in the situation.
• although the law does define many harmful acts as crimes, not all harmful acts are in fact criminal and not all criminal acts are particularly harmful. many trivial or victimless acts are still classed as crimes.
• rather than relying solely on the legal definition, we can gain a better understanding of criminal behaviour by considering how it is defined socially. this includes differing views, law enforcement, and law-making.
• differing views - the public often have a different view of what acts are ‘really’ crimes, as compared with the legal definitions of crimes.
• law enforcement - not all criminal laws are enforced; some come low on the list of priorities for police.
• law-making - not all acts that people think ought to be made into crimes have laws passed against them. sometimes, laws are changed to reflect changes in public opinion, with some actions being decriminalised and other previously legal ones being redefined as crimes.
• the social definition of a crime is an act that offends society
• the legal definition of a crime is an act that breaks the law. this can be punished by imprisonment, a fine or community service