Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

What is crime? A search for an answer encompassing civilisational legitimacy and social harm

  • Published:
Crime, Law and Social Change Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Mainstream sociology and criminology uncritically accept the legal definition of crime. This paper rejects this academic ideologically-laden approach in favour of the current power relations by critically analysing and evaluating consensus, conflict and interactionist views as well as integrated definitions of crime. Later on, an alternative definition of crime is presented. This builds on the inclusion of civilisational legitimacy and social harm. Civilisational legitimacy stems from general justice and fairness. Harm is a necessary component of crime and is always linked with the abuse of power. The new definition of crime encompasses harmful acts and processes that penal codes do not recognise as crime while excluding legitimate yet illegal actions.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. One of the first attempts to introduce the concept of harm into the definition of crime appears in Sutherland [32]. In his white-collar crime research, while still siding with legalists, Sutherland partially moves beyond the limits of the legalist perspective of crime. His understanding of crime was linked to the administrative and regulatory violations and not merely to the violation of criminal law.

  2. Although the “prism of crime” introduces new dimensions, it includes one questionable (and reluctant) aspect – the number of victims/extent of victimisation. Different numbers of victims are the consequence of a crime and not the core characteristic for its qualification. For definitional purposes it is enough to understand something as a crime if there is ‘only’ one (possible) victim, not even necessarily a human one for it can also include animals or the environment.

  3. Apart from these forms, Galtung [42] and Žižek [53] also expose a third form of violence – cultural or symbolic violence, which operates in the ideological field and legitimises direct and structural violence (crime). In the presented interpretation of crime, this form is included within the concept of structural crime.

  4. The idea of including basic liberties in a definition of crime derives from Schwendinger and Schwendinger’s [38] humanistic alternative perception of crime, which sees this kind of rights as basic rights of individuals (human rights) and not as rewards or privileges. The denial of these basic rights is considered a crime.

References

  1. Lanier, M. M., & Henry, S. (2001). Crime in context: The scope of the problem. In S. Henry & M. M. Lanier (Eds.), What is crime? Controversies over the nature of crime and what to do about it (pp. 1–15). Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  2. Michalowski, R. (2013). What is crime? Why is criminology. https://asc41.com/Annual_Meeting/2013/Presidential%20Papers/Michalowski,%20Raymond.pdf. Accessed 10 December 2017.

  3. Kramer, R.C. (2013). Expanding the core: Blameworthy harms, international law and state-corporate crimes. Available at: https://asc41.com/Annual_Meeting/2013/Presidential%20Papers/Kramer,%20Ronald.pdf. Accessed 9 December 2017.

  4. Agnew, R. (2011). Toward a unified criminology: Integrating assumptions about crime, people, and society. New York: University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Hillyard, P., & Tombs, S. (2007). From ‘crime’ to social harm? Crime, Law and Social Change, 48(1–2), 9–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Hagan, J. (1977). The disreputable pleasures. Toronto: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  7. Hagan, J. (1985). Modern criminology. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  8. Henry, S., & Lainer, M. M. (1998). The prism of crime: Arguments for an integrated definition of crime. Justice Quarterly, 15(4), 609–627.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Durkheim, É. ([1893] 1984). The division of labour in society. New York: Palgrave.

  10. Durkheim, É. ([1895] 1982). The rules of sociological method and selected texts on sociology and its methods. New York: The Free Press.

  11. Garofalo, R. (1914). Criminology. Boston: Little Brown and Company.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Tappan, P. W. (1947). Who is the criminal? American Sociological Review, 12(1), 96–102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Sutherland, E. H., & Cressey, D. R. (1978). Criminology – 10th edition. Philadelphia: Lippincott.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Sutherland, E. H. (1945). Is "white collar crime" crime? American Sociological Review. Annual Meeting Papers, 10(2), 132–139.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Wikström, P.-O. H. (2006). Individuals, settings, and acts of crime: Situational mechanisms and the explanation of crime. In P.-O. H. Wikström & R. J. Sampson (Eds.), The explanation of crime: Context, mechanisms and development (pp. 61–107). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  16. Gould, L., Kleck, G., & Gertz, M. (1992). The concept of “crime” in criminological theory and practice. The Criminologist, 17, 1–6.

    Google Scholar 

  17. Becker, H. S. (1963). Outsiders: Studies in the sociology of deviance. New York: The Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  18. Arrigo, B. A., & Bernard, T. J. (1997). Postmodern criminology in relation to radical and conflict criminology. Critical Criminology, 8(2), 39–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Tiff, L. L. (1979). The coming redefinitions of crime: An anarchist perspective. Social Problems, 26(4), 392–402.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Marcuse, H. (1955). Reason and revolution: Hegel and the rise of social theory. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Turk, A. T. (1976). Law as a weapon in social conflict. Social Problems, 23(3), 276–291.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  22. Kennedy, M. C. (1970). Beyond incrimination: Some neglected facets of the theory of punishment. Catalyst, 5, 1–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Pashukanis, E.B. ([1924] 2003). The general theory of law and Marxism. London: Transaction Publishers.

  24. Marx, K. & Engels, F. ([1848] 2008). Manifesto of the Communist Party. Utrecht: Open Source Socialist Publishing.

  25. Quinney, R. (2008). The social reality of crime. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  26. Althusser, L. (2014). On the reproduction of capitalist ideology and ideological state apparatuses. London: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  27. Gramsci, A. (1992). Selections from the prison notebooks of Antonio Gramsci. New York: International Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  28. Arrighi, G. (2008). Globalization and uneven development. In I. Rossi (Ed.), Frontiers of globalization research: Theoretical and methodological approaches (pp. 107–123). New York: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  29. Arrighi, G. (1994). The long twentieth century: Money, power, and the origins of our times. New York: Verso.

    Google Scholar 

  30. Hardt, M., & Negri, A. (2009). Commonwealth. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  31. Wallerstein, I. (2004). World-systems analysis: An introduction. Durham: Duke University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  32. Sutherland, E. H. (1949). White collar crime. New York: Dryden.

    Google Scholar 

  33. Bohm, R. M. (1993). Social relationships that arguably should be criminal although they are not: On the political economy of crime. In K. Tunnell (Ed.), Political crime in contemporary America (pp. 3–30). New York: Garland.

    Google Scholar 

  34. Henry, S., & Milovanovic, D. (1996). Constitutive criminology: Beyond postmodernism. London: Sage Publications.

    Google Scholar 

  35. Henry, S., & Milovanovic, D. (1999). Introduction: Postmodernism and constitutive theory. In S. Henry & D. Milovanovic (Eds.), Constitutive criminology at work: Applications to crime and justice (pp. 3–16). New York: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

  36. Michalowski, R. (1985). Order, law and crime. New York: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  37. Michalowski, R. (2009). Power, crime and criminology in the new imperial age. Crime, Law and Social Change, 51(3–4), 303–325.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Schwendinger, H., & Schwendinger, J. (1970). Defenders of order or guardians of human rights? Issues in Criminology, 5(2), 123–157.

    Google Scholar 

  39. Friedrichs, D. O. (2010). Trusted criminals: White collar crime in contemporary society. Belmont: Wadsworth.

    Google Scholar 

  40. Matthews, R., & Kuzlarich, D. (2007). State crimes and state harms: A tale of two definitional frameworks. Crime, Law and Social Change, 48(1–2), 43–55.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  41. Reiman, J. (2004). The rich get richer and the poor get prison: Ideology, class, and criminal justice (7th ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

    Google Scholar 

  42. Galtung, J. (1990). Cultural violence. Journal of Peace Research, 27(3), 291–305.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  43. Surette, R. (2011). Media, Crime, and Criminal Justice: Images, Realities, and Policies. Australia: Wadsworth.

    Google Scholar 

  44. Friedrichs, D. O., & Friedrichs, J. (2002). The World Bank and crimes of globalization: A case study. Social Justice, 29, 1–12.

    Google Scholar 

  45. Rothe, D., & Friedrichs, D. O. (2015). Crimes of globalization. New York: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  46. Milovanovic, D., & Henry, S. (2001). Constitutive definition of crime: Power as harm. In S. Henry & M. M. Lanier (Eds.), What is crime? Controversies over the nature of crime and what to do about it (pp. 165–178). Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  47. Lanier, M., & Henry, S. (2004). Essential Criminology. Oxford: Westview press.

    Google Scholar 

  48. Bauman, Z. (2008). Modernity and the holocaust. Cambridge: Polity Press.

    Google Scholar 

  49. Hillyard, P., & Tombs, S. (2017). Social harm and zemiology. In A. Liebling, S. Maruna, & L. McAra (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of criminology (6th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  50. Rawls, J. (1999). A theory of justice – Revised edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  51. Galtung, J. (1969). Violence, peace and peace research. Journal of Peace Research, 6(3), 167–191.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  52. Bohm, R. M. (1986). Crime, criminal and crime control policy myths. Justice Quarterly, 3(2), 193–214.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  53. Žižek, S. (2008). Violence: Six sideways reflections. New York: Picador.

    Google Scholar 

  54. Hinsch, W. (2010). Justice, legitimacy, and constitutional rights. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 3(1), 39–54.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  55. Weber, M. ([1925] 1978). Economy and society: An outline of interpretive sociology. Berkeley: University of California.

  56. Kant, I. ([1795] 2006). Toward perpetual peace and other writings on politics, peace, and history. New Haven: Yale University Press.

  57. Tyler, T. R. (2006a). Psychological perspectives on legitimacy and legitimation. Annual Review of Psychology, 57(1), 375–400.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  58. Tyler, T. R. (2006b). Why people obey the law. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  59. Hough, M., Jackson, J., & Bradford, B. (2014). Legitimacy, trust and compliance: An empirical test of procedural justice theory using the European social survey. In J. Tankebe & A. Liebling (Eds.), Legitimacy and criminal justice: An international exploration (pp. 326–352). New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  60. Bottoms, A., & Tankebe, J. (2012). Beyond procedural justice: A dialogic approach to legitimacy in criminal justice. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 102(1), 119–170.

    Google Scholar 

  61. Chomsky, N. (2002). Media control: The spectacular achievements of propaganda (Second ed.). New York: Seven Stories Press.

  62. Lazarsfeld, P. F., & Merton, R. K. (1948). Mass communication, popular taste, and organized social action. In W. Schramm (Ed.), Mass communication (pp. 492–512). Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

    Google Scholar 

  63. Barak, G., & Henry, S. (1999). An integrative-constitutive theory of crime, law, and social justice. In B. A. Arrigo (Ed.), Social justice/criminal justice: The maturation of critical theory in law, crime and deviance (pp. 152–173). Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  64. Marx, K. ([1867] 2015). Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Volume I. www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/Capital-Volume-I.pdf. Accessed 15 October 2017.

  65. Feinberg, J. (1987). The moral limits of the criminal law - volume 1: Harm to others. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  66. Coons, C., & Weber, M. (2016). The ethics of self-defense: The current debate. In C. Coons & M. Weber (Eds.), The ethics of self-defense (pp. 1–19). Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Criminal Justice and Security, University of Maribor, Kotnikova ul. 8, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Aleš Bučar Ručman

Authors
  1. Aleš Bučar Ručman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aleš Bučar Ručman.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The author declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Bučar Ručman, A. What is crime? A search for an answer encompassing civilisational legitimacy and social harm. Crime Law Soc Change 72, 211–226 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-019-09812-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-019-09812-1

Search

Navigation