Crime: Difference between revisions

{{pp-move-indef}}In ordinary language, a '''crime''' is an unlawful act punishable by a [[State (polity)|state]] or other authority.<ref name="oed">{{cite book |title=Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition on CD-ROM |year=2009 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |chapter=Crime}}</ref> The term ''crime'' does not, in modern [[criminal law]], have any simple and universally accepted definition,<ref name="Farmer">Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definitions of", in Cane and Conoghan (editors), ''[[The New Oxford Companion to Law]]'', Oxford University Press, 2008 ({{ISBN|978-0-19-929054-3}}), p. 263 ([https://books.google.com/books?id=xjo5AQAAIAAJ Google Books] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604015215/https://books.google.com/books?id=xjo5AQAAIAAJ |date=2016-06-04 }}).</ref> though [[statutory]] definitions have been provided for certain purposes.<ref>In the United Kingdom, for instance, the definitions provided by section 243(2) of the [[Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992]] and by the Schedule to the [[Prevention of Crimes Act 1871]].</ref> The most popular view is that crime is a [[Category of being|category]] created by [[law]]; in other words, something is a crime if declared as such by the relevant and applicable law.<ref name="Farmer" /> One proposed definition is that a crime or '''offence''' (or '''criminal offence''') is an act harmful not only to some individual but also to a community, society, or the state ("a public [[wrong]]"). Such acts are forbidden and punishable by law.<ref name="oed" /><ref name="oxdic">{{cite book |title=Oxford Dictionary of Law |year=2003 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-860756-4 |author=Elizabeth A. Martin |edition= 7}}</ref>