Problems in defining and measuring crime

Problems in defining and measuring criminal offenceToday we willing be looking at the difference between crime and diversion, the way of measuring crime and deviance and the problems involved.Defining crime is complex, dependant on social, political and economic f exploitors. Crime is an act punishable by law. If somebody breaks the law, whether it is a serious or minor crime, s/he will be punished. round argues that no matter how immoral, reprehensible, damaging or dangerous an act is, it is not a crime unless it is do such(prenominal) by the authorities of the State, the legislature. Some sociologists argue that only those argon criminals who have been adjudicated as such by the courts, and no act can be considered criminal before and unless a court has meted come on some penalty. Not all of those who break criminal laws be caught and convicted and many acts that could be considered criminal be r arly prosecuted. The forms of punishment are varied, depending of seriousness of crime, for example, imprisonment etc.Deviance is a flake of behavior that is not accepted by the majority of the society. It is behaviour that differs from the norm and terms weird, evil, sick, immoral are a lot connected with this form of behaviour. This could be something as minor as wearing the wrong kind of frock to a party or as major as a murder. Many deviant acts that are not accepted by society are not necessarily criminal acts. Certain type of behaviour whitethorn be accepted by one society, but devalued and discredited by another. For example, drinking alcohol in British society is considered satisfactory, even if it has negative impact on our society. However, there are many cultures (particularly those influenced by religious beliefs) that disapprove of this behaviour. In some countries like Libya, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Morocco, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Tunisia and Sudan, the utilization of alcoholic beverages is forbidden. There are some exceptions where alco hol can be available to foreign tourists but only in certain areas.Criminal and deviant behaviour changes from place to place and measure to time. soaked public opinion and changing moral set have a huge impact on these interpretations and it becomes difficult to say what acts are deviant/criminal and what can be considered conventionality. For example, spontaneous abortion used to be illegal in the UK, but in 1967 it become legal up to 24 weeks with no time limit when there is a risk to the womans life. However, there are still anti-abortion groups in UK that believe that abortion is wrong, but because majority of society agree on this outcome it is not seen as criminal act anymore. There are still many countries that place value on human life and abortion is illegal there, for example in Northern Ireland, Brazil, Malta, the Philippines, Egypt, Nigeria and many more.It is very difficult to draw a aura between crime and deviance. They go hand in hand. Any crime that is commi tted is a conduct of someone being deviant. A great flowerpot of deviant behaviour is not punishable by law, but can come to the attention of a community which implements various informal controls, such as isolating those who deviate from the norm rejected by family, friends, colleagues, whole community.Who has the power and right to say what is normal and what is deviant behaviour? Cultures, traditions, religion, morals and beliefs, greatly influence society about what we see as acceptable/unacceptable behaviour. People are born into disparate societies with different cultures, values and morals. Individuals are influenced by these from stimulate and continue to learn and adapt new values and morals. If people migrate and become members of a different society, they may have to learn new values and morals. If somebody undertakes a religious conversion, their morals and values will change to meet their chosen religions behavioural code.Crime and deviance have always contend a b ig part in our society. Crime statistics are an important source of information, which provide an shrewdness into the amount and type of crime committed within particular areas (both national and local). In England, crimes recorded by the police have been published since 1876. However, official crime statistics (as recorded by the police) only contains information regarding the crimes that are reported and recorded by the police, courts and prisons. Previously the police had a certain amount of control over which crimes were recorded but since 2002 all crime has to be recorded. All those crimes which go unreported are cognise as a dark figure of crime. Hidden, unnoticed and ignored crimes belong to this category and all these are excluded from official statistics. Crimes occurring within a family or involving children are the most common types of unreported crimes. People may not report crime for different reasons, for example, lack of trust in the police or choosing to deal with the situation personally. It has been suggested that only about fifteen percent of crime is reported to the police. For this reason it is clear that statistics do not measure and provide a clear figure of total crime, therefore they are not reliable. There are other problems in comparing statistics over time including changing legislation changing interpretation of the law by the judiciary and the changing morals and greater sensitivity of the general public.To conclude, crime refers to behaviours that are a violation of the criminal law, but the law is under constantly under review. Changes in police practices, priorities, politics, law and what our definition of what constitutes a crime, have a dramatic impact on statistics. Although the truth of collected crime statistics are often questioned, they still provide us with insight, keeping the public, the media and other groups informed about the problem of crime. Even if they do not represent our experience of crime, they allow us to check the ever changing nature of crime and deviance.BibliographyM. Haralambos M. Holborn (2008) Sociology Themes and PerspectivesJ. Muncie and E. McLaughlin (2001) The Problem of CrimeDavid W. Jones (2008) Understanding Criminal Behaviour.