Define Crime Paper
David Bruner
June 9, 2014
CJA/204, Introduction to Criminal Justice
Linda Fisher-Lewis
Webster’s defines crime as an illegal act in which someone can be punished for by the government. A crime is also defined as an action, activity, or omission done by someone that is an offense against society, punishable by the legal system. The relationship of crime to the law goes hand in hand, without the set laws, crime simply does not exist. As people break the laws that are written in the penal code, the criminal justice system exists to keep them in check and apply the proper punishment for the crime committed. The two most common models of how society determines which acts are criminal are the Conflict and Consensus models.
When you look at the conflict and consensus models, you see that society views crime in different ways depending on who the suspect is and what crime has been committed. Society sees what law enforcement does in response to crime and makes a quick reaction and then law makers use that information to appeal decisions and make new case laws by this process. As a general rule, I would say that "society" determines what acts are criminal by a rule we call the reasonable standard. What people with similar training and experience would decide is normal and from that lawmakers evolve existing laws and make new ones.
The government structure as it applies to criminal justice is an assumption that all three main parts of the criminal justice system described later work together to achieve the bigger picture of what society sees as justice. Police patrol and serve the public where they identify crime and criminals, make arrests and then allow the courts to house the offender until they are scheduled to arrive in court and receive a plea bargain or have a trial by jury.
According to our textbook, “the rational choice theory states that criminality is largely the result of conscious choices that people make. According to
June 9, 2014
CJA/204, Introduction to Criminal Justice
Linda Fisher-Lewis
Webster’s defines crime as an illegal act in which someone can be punished for by the government. A crime is also defined as an action, activity, or omission done by someone that is an offense against society, punishable by the legal system. The relationship of crime to the law goes hand in hand, without the set laws, crime simply does not exist. As people break the laws that are written in the penal code, the criminal justice system exists to keep them in check and apply the proper punishment for the crime committed. The two most common models of how society determines which acts are criminal are the Conflict and Consensus models.
When you look at the conflict and consensus models, you see that society views crime in different ways depending on who the suspect is and what crime has been committed. Society sees what law enforcement does in response to crime and makes a quick reaction and then law makers use that information to appeal decisions and make new case laws by this process. As a general rule, I would say that "society" determines what acts are criminal by a rule we call the reasonable standard. What people with similar training and experience would decide is normal and from that lawmakers evolve existing laws and make new ones.
The government structure as it applies to criminal justice is an assumption that all three main parts of the criminal justice system described later work together to achieve the bigger picture of what society sees as justice. Police patrol and serve the public where they identify crime and criminals, make arrests and then allow the courts to house the offender until they are scheduled to arrive in court and receive a plea bargain or have a trial by jury.
According to our textbook, “the rational choice theory states that criminality is largely the result of conscious choices that people make. According to