Abstract
The term ‘crime’ is as central to criminology as the term ‘society’ is to sociology. Criminology may be loosely defined as ‘the study of crime’ or as ‘the science of crime’, and a definition of crime is therefore essential for our understanding of what criminology is all about. A definition of crime is also necessary for determining who is a criminal, and for delineating the subject-matter of criminology.
… crime is not a single simple phenomenon that can be examined, analyzed and described in one piece. It occurs in every part of the country and in every stratum of society. Its practitioners and its victims are people of all ages, incomes and backgrounds. Its trends are difficult to ascertain. Its causes are legion. Its cures are speculative and controversial.
The President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice (1967:1)
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Notes
Durkheim, E. (1965 reprint) The Division of Labor in Society. NY: The Free Press (p. 81). In another book, The Rules of Sociological Method (1938), Durkheim also writes: `Non certes, ce n’est pas la peine qui fait le crime, mais c’est par elle qu’il se révèle extèrieurement à nous et c’est d’elle, par consequent, qu’il faut partir si nous voulons arriver à le comprendre’ (p. 42).
See Chambliss, W. (1964) A sociological analysis of the law of vagrancy. Social Problems, 12, 335–52.
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© 1997 Ezzat A. Fattah
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Fattah, E.A. (1997). The Thorny Issue of Defining Crime. In: Criminology: Past, Present and Future. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25838-3_2
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