So what are we talking about when we talk about crime?

V
452
comments
i
e
w

When we talk about crime we are talking about

something that is complex. Perhaps the dominant idea
about crime today is that we know what it is - it is
common sense - something that we all agree on,
something that all can acknowledge as being a problem
and something that needs to be prevented, detected,
controlled and punished.
Nick Tilley and Gloria Laycock (2000) suggested the following
common sense beliefs about crime: Offenders are different
from the rest of us; if a crime is prevented in one place it will
move elsewhere; more police officers will reduce crime; more
severe punishments will reduce crime; there was less crime in
the old days. Such beliefs are well known. There is a common
sense and a reality that we share after all we all know when we
are offended against.
But in practice even violent assault and poisoning are not
crimes until/unless the law defines them so - in some countries
poisoning is legal euthanasia. In the case of violence, it seems
straightforward and unarguable that it is a crime, but there are
also complex common sense exceptions around self-defence
and diminished responsibility. Why is it breaking the law to
drive at 75mph but not breaking the law to make cars that can
drive at 150mph?
So can we argue that whoever constructs law constructs crime
and thus, by extension, crime will vary according to the views
and interests of those who make the law?
Crime also varies over time within jurisdictions. Munice and
McLaughlin (2001) remind readers that slavery was legal until
relatively recently and that whilst in some circumstances killing

is murder, in others it is heroism.

In England and Wales homosexuality was illegal until 1967,
whilst domestic abuse was only properly recognised as a crime
in its own right in 2004 with the Domestic Violence Crime and
Victims Act.
Other behaviours can be criminalised in one country but not
another. In the UK, stalking and harassment were criminalised
under the 1997 Prevention of Harassment Act but such crimes
are barely recognised outside of Western countries. At the
same time, homosexuality is largely now legal in Western
countries but remains a serious crime in many others.
Definitions of what is a crime within a jurisdiction may change
for many reasons including political expediency, public
pressure, moral outrage, social change and national security.
So we cannot take crime for granted.
Nor should we take what we know about crime for granted. For
most of us, most of the time, what we know about real crime
comes from the news. But the news isnt all the crime there is its a selection made by journalists who choose what crime
events to tell us about and how to tell those stories in ways
that are economic to produce, attract big audiences and make
money either through cover sales or advertising revenue.
So the crime we know about is often extreme, rare,
unambiguous and involves sex and/or violence. Ideally,
journalists like a story involving an attractive young woman
(preferably famous and often with a glamorous accompanying
photograph) as the victim of a dangerous
stranger ormadman in a faraway place. These stories sell
because they titillate audiences but also reassure them such
a thing wont happen to us, were ordinary.
In practice, ordinary is where crime happens. Women are most
at risk at home and/or from men they know well: On average
two women a week are killed by a partner or ex-partner in
England or Wales (Womens, Aid 2014). Whilst also in England

and Wales: Approximately 85,000 women are raped and

400,000 sexually assaulted each year (Ministry of Justice,
2013). In this country, the majority of rapes are committed by
men known to the victim. The same is true in the US where
82% of rapists know their victim well (US Dept of Justice, 200913) and this is the same for most countries where data is
available.
So dont just question what crime is, question how you know
about it and what you know too. A piece of graffiti art scrawled
on an empty shop in London made me think about this very
recently. It said:
If you give a man gun he can rob a bank; if you give
man a bank he can rob the world.
Why is one a crime and the other not?
References
McLaughlin, E and Muncie J (eds) (1996) Controlling Crime,
London: Sage Publications. Chapters 1-2.
Tilley, N and Laycock, G (2000) Joining up Research, Policy and
Practice about Crime. Policy Studies, 21 (3) pp. 213-227.
The University of Sheffield