ABSTRACT
This chapter describes conventional crime activities that could, if prosecutors so wished, lead to prosecution under the criminal law. It discusses several that are particularly relevant to the understanding of conventional crime. The chapter also discusses some major kinds of conventional crime. Many kinds of crime attain conventional status because, although they are criminal acts, they are not policed by the ordinary enforcement agencies of the community. The chapter also describes two dimensions which can be used to analyze any kind of crime: the character of the rationalizations used to justify the "criminal" act, and the perceived or actual likelihood of punishment. Conventional crime characteristically occurs when: rationalizations for committing the act in question are widely shared among otherwise conventional people, and when the likelihood of punishment, for any of the reasons just suggested, is small. The chapter explains problem of integrating conventional crime with both the lives of conventional people and conventional institutions.
