Monoamine oxidase A, also known as MAO-A, is an enzyme that in humans is encoded by the MAOAgene.
The promoter of MAOA contains conserved binding sites for Sp1, GATA2, and TBP. This gene is adjacent to a related gene (MAOB) on the opposite strand of the X chromosome.
In humans, there is a 30-base repeat sequence repeated several different numbers of times in the promoter region
of MAO-A. There are 2R (two repeats), 3R, 3.5R, 4R, and 5R variants of
the repeat sequence, with the 3R and 4R variants most common in
Caucasians. The 3.5R and 4R variants have been found to be more highly
active than 3R or 5R, in a study which did not examine the 2R variant.
Studies have found differences in the frequency distribution of variants of the MAOA gene between ethnic groups:
of the participants, 59% of Black men, 54% of Chinese men, 56% of Maori
men, and 34% of Caucasian men carried the 3R allele, while 5.5% of
Black men, 0.1% of Caucasian men, and 0.00067% of Asian men carried the
2R allele.
The epigenetic modification of MAOA gene expression through methylation likely plays an important role in women. A study from 2010 found epigenetic methylation of MAOA in men to be very low and with little variability compared to women, while having higher heritability in men than women.
Protein
The gene encodes a monomeric protein which shares a 70% amino acid sequence identity, as well as conserved chain folds and flavin adenine dinucleotide (FAD)-binding site structures, with MAO-B. However, MAO-A has a monopartite cavity of approximately 550 angstroms, compared to the 290-angstrom bipartite cavity in MAO-B. Nonetheless, both proteins adopt dimeric forms when membrane-bound. The C-terminal domain of MAO-A forms helical tails which are responsible for attaching the protein to the outer mitochondrial membrane (OMM). MAO-A contains loop structures at the entrance of its active site.
MAO-A produces an amine oxidase, which is a class of enzyme known to affect carcinogenesis. Clorgyline, an MAO-A enzyme inhibitor, prevents apoptosis in melanoma cells, in vitro. Cholangiocarcinoma
suppresses MAO-A expression, and those patients with higher MAO-A
expression had less adjacent organ invasion and better prognosis and
survival.
Cardiovascular disease
MAOA activity is linked to apoptosis and cardiac damage during cardiac injury following ischemic-reperfusion.
Behavioral and neurological disorders
There is a link between low activities forms of the MAOA gene and autism. Mutations in the MAOA gene results in monoamine oxidase deficiency, or Brunner syndrome. Other disorders associated with MAO-A include Alzheimer's disease, aggression, panic disorder, bipolar affective disorder, major depressive disorder, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Effects of parenting on self-regulation in adolescents appear to be
moderated by 'plasticity alleles', of which the 2R and 3R alleles of
MAOA are two, with "the more plasticity alleles males (but not females)
carried, the more and less self-regulation they manifested under,
respectively, supportive and unsupportive parenting conditions."
Depression
MAO-A levels in the brain as measured using positron emission tomography are elevated by an average of 34% in patients with major depressive disorder. Genetic association studies examining the relationship between high-activity MAOA
variants and depression have produced mixed results, with some studies
linking the high-activity variants to major depression in females, depressed suicide in males, major depression and sleep disturbance in males and major depressive disorder in both males and females.
Other studies failed to find a significant relationship between high-activity variants of the MAOA gene and major depressive disorder.
In patients with major depressive disorder, those with MAOA G/T
polymorphisms (rs6323) coding for the highest-activity form of the
enzyme have a significantly lower magnitude of placebo response than those with other genotypes.
Antisocial behavior
In humans, an association between the 2R allele of the VNTR region of the gene and an increase in the likelihood of committing serious crime or violence has been found.
A connection between the MAO-A gene 3R version and several types of anti-social behaviour has been found: Maltreated children with genes causing high levels of MAO-A were less likely to develop antisocial behavior.
Low MAO-A activity alleles which are overwhelmingly the 3R allele in
combination with abuse experienced during childhood resulted in an
increased risk of aggressive behaviour as an adult,
and men with the low activity MAOA allele were more genetically
vulnerable even to punitive discipline as a predictor of antisocial
behaviour.
High testosterone, maternal tobacco smoking during pregnancy, poor
material living standards, dropping out of school, and low IQ predicted
violent behavior are associated with men with the low-activity alleles. The low-activity 3-repeat allele variant of the MAOA gene has also been found to occur frequently in men who join gangs.
According to a large meta-analysis in 2014, the 3R allele had a small
main effect on aggression and antisocial behavior, even in the absence
of other interaction factors.
Aggression and the "Warrior gene"
A variant of the monoamine oxidase-A gene has been popularly referred to as the warrior gene.
Several different versions of the gene are found in different
individuals, although a functional gene is present in most humans (with
the exception of a few individuals with Brunner syndrome). In the variant, the allele associated with behavioural traits is shorter (30 bases) and may produce less MAO-A enzyme. This gene variation is in a regulatory promoter region about 1,000 bases from the start of the region that encodes the MAO-A enzyme.
When faced with social exclusion or ostracism, individuals with the low activity MAOA gene showed higher levels of aggression than individuals with the high activity MAOA gene.
Low activity MAO-A could significantly predict aggressive behaviour in
a high provocation situation, but was less associated with aggression
in a low provocation situation. Individuals with the low activity
variant of the MAOA gene were just as likely as participants with
the high activity variant to retaliate when the loss was small.
However, they were more likely to retaliate and with greater force when
the loss was large.
"Monoamine oxidases (MAOs) are enzymes that are involved in the
breakdown of neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine and are,
therefore, capable of influencing feelings, mood, and behaviour of
individuals".
According to this, if there was a mutation to the gene that is involved
in the process of promoting or inhibiting MAO enzymes, it could affect a
person's personality or behaviour and could therefore make them more
prone to aggression. A deficiency in the MAOA gene has shown
higher levels of aggression in males, which could further stimulate more
research into this controversial topic. "A deficiency in monoamine
oxidase A (MAO-A) has been shown to be associated with aggressive
behaviour in men of a Dutch family".
Legal implications
In a 2009 criminal trial in the United States, an argument based on a combination of "warrior gene" and history of child abuse was successfully used to avoid a conviction of first-degree murder and the death penalty; however, the convicted murderer was sentenced to 32 years in prison.
The results showed the effects of the 4-repeat allele of MAOA promoter
polymorphism on physical aggressive behavior for women. It seems that
there is an interaction between the 3-repeat allele of MAOA promoter
polymorphism and emotional abuse experiences on aggressive behavior for
women.
Epigenetics
Studies have linked methylation of the MAOA gene with nicotine and alcohol dependence in women. A second MAOA
VNTR promoter, P2, influences epigenetic methylation and interacts with
having experienced child abuse to influence antisocial personality
disorder symptoms, only in women.
Animal studies
A dysfunctional MAOA gene has been correlated with increased aggression levels in mice, and has been correlated with heightened levels of aggression in humans. In mice, a dysfunctional MAOA gene is created through insertional mutagenesis (called ‘Tg8’). Tg8 is a transgenic mouse strain that lacks functional MAO-A enzymatic activity. Mice that lacked a functional MAOA gene exhibited increased aggression towards intruder mice.
Some types of aggression exhibited by these mice were territorial
aggression, predatory aggression, and isolation-induced aggression.
The MAO-A deficient mice that exhibited increased isolation-induced
aggression reveals that an MAO-A deficiency may also contribute to a
disruption in social interactions. There is research in both humans and mice to support that a nonsense point mutation in the eighth exon of the MAOA gene is responsible for impulsive aggressiveness due to a complete MAO-A deficiency.
The statistical correlations of criminal behavior explore the associations of specific non-criminal factors with specific crimes.
The field of criminology studies the dynamics of crime. Most of these studies use correlational
data; that is, they attempt to identify various factors are associated
with specific categories of criminal behavior. Such correlational
studies led to hypotheses about the causes of these crimes.
The Handbook of Crime Correlates (2009) is a systematic
review of 5200 empirical studies on crime that have been published
worldwide. A crime consistency score represents the strength of
relationships. The scoring depends on how consistently a statistically significant
relationship was identified across multiple studies. The authors claim
that the review summarizes most of what is currently known about the
variables associated with criminality.
Gender and biology
Crime occurs most frequently during the second and third decades of
life. Males commit more crime overall and more violent crime than
females. They commit more property crime except shoplifting, which is about equally distributed between the genders. Males appear to be more likely to reoffend. Measures related to arousal such as heart rate and skin conductance are low among criminals. Mesomorphic or muscular body type is positively correlated with criminality, in particular with sexual crimes. Testosterone levels positively correlate to criminal behavior.
When controlling for age and sex, strong genetic correlates with criminality. Low monoamine oxidase activity and low 5-HIAA levels tend to be found among criminals. Monoamine oxidase A (dubbed the "warrior gene" in the popular press) is strongly tied to an increased tendency towards violent crime. In addition, CDH13, a gene previously tied to an increased risk of substance abuse, has been tied to violent crime. These tendencies are ostensibly related, as the majority of all individuals who commit severe violent crime in Finland
do so under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The presence of the
genetic profile is not determinative, although it increases the
likelihood of delinquency
in cases where other factors are present. Ferguson stated, 'a large
percentage of our behaviour in terms of violence or aggression is
influenced by our biology - our genes - and our brain anatomy.'
Schnupp stated, 'To call these alleles "genes for violence" would
therefore be a massive exaggeration. In combination with many other
factors these genes may make it a little harder for you to control
violent urges, but they most emphatically do not predetermine you for a
life of crime.'
Race, ethnicity and immigration
Associated factors include race and crime and status as an immigrant.
In some countries, ethnically/racially diverse geographical areas have
higher crime rates compared to homogeneous areas, and in other
countries, it is the other way around. Some studies on immigrants
found higher rates of crime among these populations; these rates vary
according to the country of origin (immigrants from some regions having
lower crime rates than the indigenous population).
Notions about the propensity for immigrants to commit crime vary among
geographical regions. Likewise, the propensity for immigrants to commit
more or less crime than the indigenous population also varies
geographically. For instance within the United States, census data shows
that immigrants are less likely to commit crime than residents who were
born within the United States.
Early life
Associated factors include maternal smoking during pregnancy, Low birth weight, perinatal trauma/birth complications,
child maltreatment, low parent-child attachment, marital discord/family
discord, alcoholism and drug use in the family, low parental
supervision/monitoring, family size and birth order, nocturnal enuresis or bed wetting, bullying, school disciplinary problems, truancy, low grade point average, dropping out of high school and childhood lead exposure.
Adult behavior
Associated
factors include high alcohol use, alcohol abuse and alcoholism, high
illegal drug use and dependence, early age of first sexual intercourse
and the number of sexual partners, social isolation, criminal peer
groups and gang membership.
Religion
A few studies have found a negative correlation between religiosity and criminality. A 2001 meta-analysis found, "religious beliefs and behaviors exert a moderate deterrent effect on individuals' criminal behavior".
An individual with high religious saliency (i.e. expressing the high
importance of religion in their life) is less likely to be associated
with criminal activities; similarly, an individual who regularly attends
religious services or is highly involved in them tends to be less
involved in criminality, with the exception of property damage.
Other meta-analysis research suggests that those who subscribe to more
orthodox religious beliefs are less likely to engage in criminal
behavior than those who do not.
A 1997 study of six public schools found no statistically
significant negative correlations between religiosity and crime, or
religiosity and drug use, and the only relationship between religiosity
and alcohol was statistically significant. A more recent review concludes that there are insufficient data to indicate any correlation between religiosity and crime.
Political ideology
A
2016 study found statistically significant evidence that political
ideology is moderately correlated with involvement in non-violent but
not violent crime, among White individuals and particularly among White
women. It suggests that liberal self-classification can, among some
groups, be positively associated with non-violent criminal behavior
compared to conservative self-classification.
The American Psychological Association's 1995 report Intelligence: Knowns and Unknowns stated that the correlation between IQ and crime was -0.2. In his book The g Factor: The Science of Mental Ability
(1998), Arthur Jensen cited data which showed that IQ was generally
negatively associated with crime among people of all races, peaking
between 80 and 90. Learning disability is a substantial discrepancy
between IQ and academic performance and is associated with crime. Slow
reading development may be particularly relevant.
Socioeconomic status
(usually measured using the three variables income (or wealth),
occupational level, and years of education) correlates negatively with
criminality, except for self-reported illegal drug use. Higher parental
socioeconomic status probably has an inverse relationship with crime.
Unstable employment and high frequency of unemployment correlate
positively with criminality.
Low socioeconomic status is thought to be positively correlated with
higher levels of stress, and therefore the mental and psychological
ill-effects of stress. These higher stress levels would probably be correlated positively with the propensity to commit a crime.
Somewhat inconsistent evidence indicates a positive relationship
between low income levels, the percentage of population under the
poverty line, low education levels, and high income inequality in an
area with more crime in said area.
A World Bank study said, “Crime rates and inequality are
positively correlated within countries and, particularly, between
countries, and this correlation reflects causation from inequality to
crime rates, even after controlling for other crime determinants.”
Geographic factors
Associated
factors include areas with population size, neighborhood quality,
residential mobility, tavern and alcohol density, gambling and tourist
density, proximity to the equator, temperature (weather and season). The higher crime rate in the southern US largely disappears after controlling for non-climatic factors.
Parent/child relationships
Children
whose parents did not want children are more likely to commit crimes.
Such children are less likely to succeed in school, and are more likely
to live in poverty. They tend to have lower mother-child relationship quality.
Biosocial criminology and other analysis of environmental factors
Abnormalities in these systems also are known to be induced by stress, either severe, acute stress or chronic low-grade stress.
In environmental terms, the theory that crime rates and lead exposure
are connected, with increases in the latter causing increases in the
former, has attracted much scientific analysis. In 2011, a report
published by the official United Nations News Centre remarked, "Ridding
the world of leaded petrol, with the United Nations leading the effort
in developing countries, has resulted in $2.4 trillion in annual
benefits, 1.2 million fewer premature deaths, higher overall
intelligence and 58 million fewer crimes". The California State University did the specific study. Then U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) executive director Achim Steiner
argued, "Although this global effort has often flown below the radar of
media and global leaders, it is clear that the elimination of leaded
petrol is an immense achievement on par with the global elimination of
major deadly diseases."
In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a state or other authority. The term "crime" does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition, though statutory definitions have been provided for certain purposes. The most popular view is that crime is a category created by law; in other words, something is a crime if declared as such by the relevant and applicable law. 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.
The notion that acts such as murder, rape and theft are to be prohibited exists worldwide. What precisely is a criminal offence is defined by criminal law of each country. While many have a catalogue of crimes called the criminal code, in some common law countries no such comprehensive statute exists.
Usually, to be classified as a crime, the "act of doing something criminal" (actus reus) must – with certain exceptions – be accompanied by the "intention to do something criminal" (mens rea).
When informal relationships prove insufficient to establish and maintain a desired social order, a government or a state may impose more formalized or stricter systems of social control. With institutional and legal machinery at their disposal, agents of the State can compel populations to conform to codes and can opt to punish or attempt to reform those who do not conform.
Authorities employ various mechanisms to regulate (encouraging or
discouraging) certain behaviors in general. Governing or administering
agencies may for example codify rules into laws, police citizens and
visitors to ensure that they comply with those laws, and implement other
policies and practices that legislators or administrators have
prescribed with the aim of discouraging or preventing crime. In addition, authorities provide remedies and sanctions, and collectively these constitute a criminal justice
system. Legal sanctions vary widely in their severity; they may include
(for example) incarceration of temporary character aimed at reforming
the convict. Some jurisdictions have penal codes written to inflict
permanent harsh punishments: legal mutilation, capital punishment or life without parole.
Usually, a natural person perpetrates a crime, but legal persons may also commit crimes. Conversely, at least under U.S. law, nonpersons such as animals cannot commit crimes.
The sociologist Richard Quinney
has written about the relationship between society and crime. When
Quinney states "crime is a social phenomenon" he envisages both how
individuals conceive crime and how populations perceive it, based on
societal norms.
Etymology
The word crime is derived from the Latin root cernō, meaning "I decide, I give judgment". Originally the Latin word crīmen meant "charge" or "cry of distress." The Ancient Greek word krima
(κρίμα), from which the Latin cognate derives, typically referred to an
intellectual mistake or an offense against the community, rather than a
private or moral wrong.
In 13th century Englishcrime meant "sinfulness", according to etymonline.com. It was probably brought to England as Old French crimne (12th century form of Modern Frenchcrime), from Latin crimen (in the genitive case: criminis). In Latin, crimen could have signified any one of the following: "charge, indictment, accusation; crime, fault, offense".
The word may derive from the Latin cernere – "to decide, to sift" (see crisis, mapped on Kairos and Chronos). But Ernest Klein (citing Karl Brugmann) rejects this and suggests *cri-men, which originally would have meant "cry of distress". Thomas G. Tucker suggests a root in "cry" words and refers to English plaint, plaintiff, and so on. The meaning "offense punishable by law" dates from the late 14th century. The Latin word is glossed in Old English by facen, also "deceit, fraud, treachery", [cf. fake]. Crime wave is first attested in 1893 in American English.
Definition
England and Wales
Whether a given act or omission constitutes a crime does not depend
on the nature of that act or omission. It depends on the nature of the
legal consequences that may follow it. An act or omission is a crime if it is capable of being followed by what are called criminal proceedings.
History
The following definition of "crime" was provided by the Prevention of Crimes Act 1871, and applied for the purposes of section 10 of the Prevention of Crime Act 1908:
The expression "crime" means, in England and Ireland, any felony or the offence of uttering false or counterfeit coin, or of possessing counterfeit gold or silver coin, or the offence of obtaining goods or money by false pretences, or the offence of conspiracy to defraud, or any misdemeanour under the fifty-eighth section of the Larceny Act, 1861.
Scotland
For the purpose of section 243 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, a crime means an offence punishable on indictment, or an offence punishable on summary conviction, and for the commission of which the offender is liable under the statute
making the offence punishable to be imprisoned either absolutely or at
the discretion of the court as an alternative for some other punishment.
Sociology
A normativedefinition views crime as deviant behavior that violates prevailing norms – cultural
standards prescribing how humans ought to behave normally. This
approach considers the complex realities surrounding the concept of
crime and seeks to understand how changing social, political, psychological, and economic conditions may affect changing definitions of crime and the form of the legal, law-enforcement, and penal responses made by society.
These structural
realities remain fluid and often contentious. For example: as cultures
change and the political environment shifts, societies may criminalise or decriminalise certain behaviours, which directly affects the statisticalcrime rates, influence the allocation of resources for the enforcement of laws, and (re-)influence the general public opinion.
Similarly, changes in the collection and/or calculation of data
on crime may affect the public perceptions of the extent of any given
"crime problem". All such adjustments to crime statistics,
allied with the experience of people in their everyday lives, shape
attitudes on the extent to which the State should use law or social engineering to enforce or encourage any particular social norm. Behaviour can be controlled and influenced by a society in many ways without having to resort to the criminal justice system.
Indeed, in those cases where no clear consensus exists on a given norm, the drafting of criminal law by the group in power to prohibit the behaviour of another group may seem to some observers an improper limitation of the second group's freedom,
and the ordinary members of society have less respect for the law or
laws in general – whether the authorities actually enforce the disputed
law or not.
Other definitions
Legislatures can pass laws (called mala prohibita) that define crimes against social norms. These laws vary from time to time and from place to place: note variations in gambling laws, for example, and the prohibition or encouragement of duelling in history. Other crimes, called mala in se, count as outlawed in almost all societies, (murder, theft and rape, for example).
English criminal law and the related criminal law of Commonwealth countries can define offences that the courts alone have developed over the years, without any actual legislation: common law offences. The courts used the concept of malum in se to develop various common law offences.
Criminalization
The spiked heads of executed criminals once adorned the gatehouse of the medieval London Bridge.
One can view criminalization as a procedure deployed by society as a
preemptive harm-reduction device, using the threat of punishment as a deterrent
to anyone proposing to engage in the behavior causing harm. The State
becomes involved because governing entities can become convinced that
the costs of not criminalizing (through allowing the harms to continue
unabated) outweigh the costs of criminalizing it (restricting individual
liberty, for example, to minimize harm to others).
States control the process of criminalization because:
Even if victims
recognize their own role as victims, they may not have the resources to
investigate and seek legal redress for the injuries suffered: the
enforcers formally appointed by the State often have better access to
expertise and resources.
The victims may only want compensation for the injuries suffered, while remaining indifferent to a possible desire for deterrence.
Fear of retaliation
may deter victims or witnesses of crimes from taking any action. Even
in policed societies, fear may inhibit from reporting incidents or from
co-operating in a trial.
Victims, on their own, may lack the economies of scale that could
allow them to administer a penal system, let alone to collect any fines
levied by a court. Garoupa & Klerman (2002) warn that a rent-seeking
government has as its primary motivation to maximize revenue and so, if
offenders have sufficient wealth, a rent-seeking government will act
more aggressively than a social-welfare-maximizing
government in enforcing laws against minor crimes (usually with a fixed
penalty such as parking and routine traffic violations), but more laxly
in enforcing laws against major crimes.
As a result of the crime, victims may die or become incapacitated.
Labelling theory
The label of "crime" and the accompanying social stigma
normally confine their scope to those activities seen as injurious to
the general population or to the State, including some that cause
serious loss or damage to individuals. Those who apply the labels of
"crime" or "criminal" intend to assert the hegemony
of a dominant population, or to reflect a consensus of condemnation for
the identified behavior and to justify any punishments prescribed by
the State (in the event that standard processingtries and convicts an accused person of a crime).
Natural-law theory
Justifying the State's use of force
to coerce compliance with its laws has proven a consistent theoretical
problem. One of the earliest justifications involved the theory of natural law. This posits that the nature of the world or of human beings underlies the standards of morality or constructs them. Thomas Aquinas wrote in the 13th century: "the rule and measure of human acts is the reason, which is the first principle of human acts" (Aquinas, ST I-II, Q.90, A.I). He regarded people as by nature rational
beings, concluding that it becomes morally appropriate that they should
behave in a way that conforms to their rational nature. Thus, to be
valid, any law must conform to natural law and coercing people to
conform to that law is morally acceptable. In the 1760s William Blackstone (1979: 41) described the thesis:
This law of nature, being co-eval with mankind and dictated by
God himself, is of course superior in obligation to any other. It is
binding over all the globe, in all countries, and at all times: no human
laws are of any validity, if contrary to this; and such of them as are
valid derive all their force, and all their authority, mediately or
immediately, from this original.
But John Austin (1790–1859), an early positivist, applied utilitarianism
in accepting the calculating nature of human beings and the existence
of an objective morality. He denied that the legal validity of a norm
depends on whether its content conforms to morality. Thus in Austinian
terms, a moral code can objectively determine what people ought to do,
the law can embody whatever norms the legislature decrees to achieve
social utility, but every individual remains free to choose what to do.
Similarly, Hart (1961) saw the law as an aspect of sovereignty, with lawmakers able to adopt any law as a means to a moral end.
Thus the necessary and sufficient conditions for the truth of a proposition of law simply involved internal logic and consistency, and that the state's agents used state power with responsibility. Ronald Dworkin
(2005) rejects Hart's theory and proposes that all individuals should
expect the equal respect and concern of those who govern them as a
fundamental political right. He offers a theory of compliance overlaid
by a theory of deference
(the citizen's duty to obey the law) and a theory of enforcement, which
identifies the legitimate goals of enforcement and punishment.
Legislation must conform to a theory of legitimacy, which describes the
circumstances under which a particular person or group is entitled to
make law, and a theory of legislative justice, which describes the law
they are entitled or obliged to make.
Indeed, despite everything, the majority
of natural-law theorists have accepted the idea of enforcing the
prevailing morality as a primary function of the law. This view entails
the problem that it makes any moral criticism of the law impossible: if
conformity with natural law forms a necessary condition for legal
validity, all valid law must, by definition, count as morally just.
Thus, on this line of reasoning, the legal validity of a norm
necessarily entails its moral justice.
One can solve this problem by granting some degree of moral relativism
and accepting that norms may evolve over time and, therefore, one can
criticize the continued enforcement of old laws in the light of the
current norms. People may find such law acceptable, but the use of State
power to coerce citizens to comply with that law lacks moral
justification. More recent conceptions of the theory characterise crime
as the violation of individual rights.
Since society considers so many rights as natural (hence the term "right") rather than man-made, what constitutes a crime also counts as natural, in contrast to laws (seen as man-made). Adam Smith illustrates this view, saying that a smuggler would be an excellent citizen, "...had not the laws of his country made that a crime which nature never meant to be so."
Natural-law theory therefore distinguishes between "criminality"
(which derives from human nature) and "illegality" (which originates
with the interests of those in power). Lawyers sometimes express the two concepts with the phrases malum in se and malum prohibitum respectively. They regard a "crime malum in se" as inherently criminal; whereas a "crime malum prohibitum" (the argument goes) counts as criminal only because the law has decreed it so.
It follows from this view that one can perform an illegal act
without committing a crime, while a criminal act could be perfectly
legal. Many Enlightenment thinkers (such as Adam Smith and the American Founding Fathers) subscribed to this view to some extent, and it remains influential among so-called classical liberals and libertarians.
History
Some religious communities regard sin
as a crime; some may even highlight the crime of sin very early in
legendary or mythological accounts of origins – note the tale of Adam and Eve and the theory of original sin. What one group considers a crime may cause or ignite war or conflict. However, the earliest known civilizations had codes of law, containing both civil and penal rules mixed together, though not always in recorded form.
Ancient Near East
The Sumerians produced the earliest surviving written codes. Urukagina (reigned c. 2380 BC – c. 2360 BC, short chronology) had an early code that has not survived; a later king, Ur-Nammu, left the earliest extant written law system, the Code of Ur-Nammu (c. 2100 – c. 2050 BC),
which prescribed a formal system of penalties for specific cases in 57
articles. The Sumerians later issued other codes, including the "code of
Lipit-Ishtar".
This code, from the 20th century BCE, contains some fifty articles, and
scholars have reconstructed it by comparing several sources.
The
Sumerian was deeply conscious of his personal rights and resented any
encroachment on them, whether by his King, his superior, or his equal.
No wonder that the Sumerians were the first to compile laws and law
codes.
— Kramer
Successive legal codes in Babylon, including the code of Hammurabi (c. 1790 BC), reflected Mesopotamian society's belief that law derived from the will of the gods.
Many states at this time functioned as theocracies, with codes of conduct largely religious in origin or reference. In the Sanskrit texts of Dharmaśāstra (c. 1250 BC),
issues such as legal and religious duties, code of conduct, penalties
and remedies, etc. have been discussed and forms one of the elaborate
and earliest source of legal code.
Sir Henry Maine
(1861) studied the ancient codes available in his day, and failed to
find any criminal law in the "modern" sense of the word. While modern
systems distinguish between offences against the "State" or "community",
and offences against the "individual", the so-called penal law of
ancient communities did not deal with "crimes" (Latin: crimina), but with "wrongs" (Latin: delicta). Thus the Hellenic laws treated all forms of theft, assault, rape,
and murder as private wrongs, and left action for enforcement up to the
victims or their survivors. The earliest systems seem to have lacked
formal courts.
Rome and its Legacy in Europe
The Romans systematized law and applied their system across the Roman Empire. Again, the initial rules of Roman law regarded assaults as a matter of private compensation. The most significant Roman law concept involved dominion. The pater familias owned all the family and its property (including slaves); the pater enforced matters involving interference with any property. The Commentaries of Gaius (written between 130 and 180 AD) on the Twelve Tables treated furtum (in modern parlance: "theft") as a tort.
Similarly, assault and violent robbery involved trespass as to the pater's property (so, for example, the rape of a slave could become the subject of compensation to the pater as having trespassed on his "property"), and breach of such laws created a vinculum juris (an obligation of law) that only the payment of monetary compensation (modern "damages") could discharge. Similarly, the consolidated Teutonic laws of the Germanic tribes, included a complex system of monetary compensations for what courts would now consider the complete range of criminal offences against the person, from murder down.
Even though Rome abandoned its Britannic provinces
around 400 AD, the Germanic mercenaries – who had largely become
instrumental in enforcing Roman rule in Britannia – acquired ownership
of land there and continued to use a mixture of Roman and Teutonic Law,
with much written down under the early Anglo-Saxon kings. But only when a more centralized English monarchy emerged following the Norman invasion,
and when the kings of England attempted to assert power over the land
and its peoples, did the modern concept emerge, namely of a crime not
only as an offence against the "individual", but also as a wrong against
the "State".
This idea came from common law,
and the earliest conception of a criminal act involved events of such
major significance that the "State" had to usurp the usual functions of
the civil tribunals, and direct a special law or privilegium
against the perpetrator. All the earliest English criminal trials
involved wholly extraordinary and arbitrary courts without any settled
law to apply, whereas the civil (delictual) law operated in a highly
developed and consistent manner (except where a king wanted to raise
money by selling a new form of writ). The development of the idea that the "State" dispenses justice in a court only emerges in parallel with or after the emergence of the concept of sovereignty.
In continental Europe, Roman law persisted, but with a stronger influence from the Christian Church.
Coupled with the more diffuse political structure based on smaller
feudal units, various legal traditions emerged, remaining more strongly
rooted in Roman jurisprudence, but modified to meet the prevailing political climate.
In Scandinavia the effect of Roman law did not become apparent until the 17th century, and the courts grew out of the things –
the assemblies of the people. The people decided the cases (usually
with largest freeholders dominating). This system later gradually
developed into a system with a royal judge nominating a number of the
most esteemed men of the parish as his board, fulfilling the function of
"the people" of yore.
From the Hellenic
system onwards, the policy rationale for requiring the payment of
monetary compensation for wrongs committed has involved the avoidance of
feuding between clans and families.
If compensation could mollify families' feelings, this would help to
keep the peace. On the other hand, the institution of oaths also played
down the threat of feudal warfare. Both in archaic Greece and in medievalScandinavia, an accused person walked free if he could get a sufficient number of male relatives to swear him not guilty. (Compare the United Nations Security Council, in which the veto
power of the permanent members ensures that the organization does not
become involved in crises where it could not enforce its decisions.)
These means of restraining private feuds
did not always work, and sometimes prevented the fulfillment of
justice. But in the earliest times the "state" did not always provide an
independent policing force. Thus criminal law grew out of what
21st-century lawyers would call torts; and, in real terms, many acts and
omissions classified as crimes actually overlap with civil-law
concepts.
The development of sociological thought from the 19th century onwards prompted some fresh views on crime and criminality, and fostered the beginnings of criminology as a study of crime in society. Nietzsche noted a link between crime and creativity – in The Birth of Tragedy he asserted:[context?] "The best and brightest that man can acquire he must obtain by crime". In the 20th century Michel Foucault in Discipline and Punish made a study of criminalization as a coercive method of state control.
Classification and categorisation
Categorisation by type
The following classes of offences are used, or have been used, as legal terms of art:
One can categorise crimes depending on the related punishment, with sentencingtariffs prescribed in line with the perceived seriousness of the offence. Thus fines and noncustodial sentences may address the crimes seen as least serious, with lengthy imprisonment or (in some jurisdictions) capital punishment reserved for the most serious.
Common law
Under the common law of England, crimes were classified as either treason, felony or misdemeanour,
with treason sometimes being included with the felonies. This system
was based on the perceived seriousness of the offence. It is still used
in the United States but the distinction between felony and misdemeanour
is abolished in England and Wales and Northern Ireland.
Classification by mode of trial
The following classes of offence are based on mode of trial:
In common law countries, crimes may be categorised into common law offences and statutory offences. In the US, Australia and Canada (in particular), they are divided into federal crimes and under state crimes.
In the United States since 1930, the FBI has tabulated Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) annually from crime data submitted by law enforcement agencies across the United States.
Officials compile this data at the city, county, and state levels into the UCR. They classify violations of laws based on common law
as Part I (index) crimes in UCR data. These are further categorized as
violent or property crimes. Part I violent crimes include murder and
criminal homicide (voluntary manslaughter), forcible rape, aggravated
assault, and robbery; while Part I property crimes include burglary,
arson, larceny/theft, and motor-vehicle theft. All other crimes count
come under Part II.
For convenience, such lists usually include infractions although, in the U.S., they may come into the sphere not of the criminal law, but rather of the civil law. Compare tortfeasance.
Booking arrests require detention for a time-frame ranging 1 to 24 hours.
Reports, studies and organizations
There are several national and International organizations offering
studies and statistics about global and local crime activity, such as United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, the United States of America Overseas Security Advisory Council (OSAC) safety report or national reports generated by the law-enforcement authorities of EU state member reported to the Europol.
Offence in common law jurisdictions
In England and Wales, as well as in Hong Kong, the term "offence"
means the same thing as, and is interchangeable with, the term "crime", They are further split into:
Many different causes and correlates of crime
have been proposed with varying degree of empirical support. They
include socioeconomic, psychological, biological, and behavioral
factors. Controversial topics include media violence research and effects of gun politics.
Emotional state (both chronic and current) have a tremendous
impact on individual thought processes and, as a result, can be linked
to criminal activities. The positive psychology concept of Broaden and
Build posits that cognitive functioning expands when an individual is in
a good-feeling emotional state and contracts as emotional state
declines.
In positive emotional states an individual is able to consider more
possible solutions to problems, but in lower emotional states fewer
solutions can be ascertained. The narrowed thought-action repertoires
can result in the only paths perceptible to an individual being ones
they would never use if they saw an alternative, but if they can't
conceive of the alternatives that carry less risk they will choose one
that they can see. Criminals who commit even the most horrendous of
crimes, such as mass murders, did not see another solution.
Religious
sentiment often becomes a contributory factor of crime. In the 1819
anti-Jewish riots in Frankfurt, rioters attacked Jewish businesses and
destroyed property.
Different religious traditions may promote distinct norms of
behaviour, and these in turn may clash or harmonise with the perceived
interests of a state. Socially accepted or imposed religious morality
has influenced secular jurisdictions on issues that may otherwise
concern only an individual's conscience. Activities sometimes
criminalized on religious grounds include (for example) alcohol consumption (prohibition), abortion and stem-cell
research. In various historical and present-day societies,
institutionalized religions have established systems of earthly justice
that punish crimes against the divine will and against specific
devotional, organizational and other rules under specific codes, such as
Roman Catholic canon law.
Military jurisdictions and states of emergency
In the military sphere, authorities can prosecute both regular crimes and specific acts (such as mutiny or desertion) under martial-law codes that either supplant or extend civil codes in times of (for example) war.
Many constitutions contain provisions to curtail freedoms and criminalize otherwise tolerated behaviors under a state of emergency in the event of war, natural disaster or civil unrest. Undesired activities at such times may include assembly in the streets, violation of curfew, or possession of firearms.
The complexity and anonymity of computer systems may help
criminal employees camouflage their operations. The victims of the most
costly scams include banks, brokerage houses, insurance companies, and other large financial institutions.
In the United States, it is estimated that workers are not paid at least $19 billion every year in overtime and that in total $40 billion to $60 billion are lost annually due to all forms of wage theft. This compares to national annual losses of $340 million due to robbery, $4.1 billion due to burglary, $5.3 billion due to larceny, and $3.8 billion due to auto theft in 2012. In Singapore,
as in the United States, wage theft was found to be widespread and
severe. In a 2014 survey it was found that as many as one-third of low
wage male foreign workers in Singapore, or about 130,000, were affected
by wage theft from partial to full denial of pay.
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