The Criminal Lawyer’s Guide to Criminal Law (with pictures!)
Part 1: Crime
Page 3: What is “crime”?
Angry mob with pitchforks throwing rocks at Average Joe.
NARRATOR
No. “Crime” means those acts that are so wrong… so bad… so dangerous that society PUNISHES those who do them.
But not through mob violence or social disapprobation.
What the hell is ‘social disapprobation’??? I was with you, until that!
“Social disapprobation” is a common phrase for the strong moral disapproval of one’s community. A powerful force in socialization.
I would like to note that there are crimes that are neither wrong nor dangerous nor disliked by the population.
Wouldn’t, by that definition, most drug offenses *not* be crimes? Dealing, sure you can make an argument there, but possession isn’t wrong, bad, or in many cases particularly dangerous.
(Of course, there’s also “it’s a crime because we say it is, now go to jail”. There probably *shouldn’t* be, but there is.)
Maybe not now, where you live, but at one time they were (for various and in some cases, racist, reasons) considered bad enough to warrant punishment.