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Crimes, Criminals and Crime Statistics: Exercise 1 - The concept of crime


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Legal Construct of Crime

     A legal definition of crime comes from a view of crime as a legal construct (based on law). As a legal construct, crime is defined as “an intentional act or omission in violation of criminal law … committed without defense or justification, and sanctioned by the state as a felony or a misdemeanor”.

     Based on the definition of crime as an intentional act, we can say that in most cases a crime is not a crime until the actual act is committed. There are, however, cases called inchoate offenses where a person can still be considered as committing a crime even though he may not complete or fully participate in the criminal act. An inchoate offense includes the following categories: an attempt to act; a conspiracy to act, in which two or more people agree to commit a criminal act; a solicitation of another person to act, in which the criminal directly asks or encourages someone else to commit the criminal act; or assisting in the committing of the act, which is known as being an accomplice.

In your own words, give a legal definition of crime.

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