ABSTRACT
Crime is an “act or omission, in violation of the law, that is punishable by the state.” Definitions of crime in criminal statutes typically include reference to both a behavior (act or omission), actus reus, and a mental state (intention), mens rea. Without law there can be no crime. A wide variety of behaviors are defined by the law as crimes and are thus subject to criminal justice attention. Conceptions of crime and criminals affect the ways that criminal justice agencies respond. Different crimes are prioritized differently as the result of classification. Crimes are often classified by legislative definition (i.e., least serious to most serious) or according to how widespread agreement is among the population that a prohibited behavior is indeed criminal (mala in se versus mala prohibita). Criminals are classified in several ways, including offense seriousness (misdemeanants versus felons), dangerousness (ordinary versus dangerous), and evidence of recidivism. New crime control techniques such as problem-oriented policing have shown promise for reducing crime through a situational crime prevention perspective.
