General Classifications of Crime
Crime is an action or an instance of negligence that is deemed injurious to the public welfare, morals, or the interests of the state; it is legally prohibited.
Crimes are generally divided into felonies and misdemeanors. The distinction between the two is based on the seriousness of the crime. Actions that constitute felonies and misdemeanours are determined by the legislatures in the various states; thus, their definitions vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.
A felony is a serious crime such as rape, homicide, or aggravated assault, for which punishment ranges from more than a year's imprisonment to death.
A misdemeanor is a minor crime that is typically punished by less than one year in jail.
Sociologists categorize crimes based on how they are committed and how society views the offenses. This slideshow examine four types of crimes:
- Conventional (street) crime, which includes violent crimes and property crimes
- Occupational (white collar) crime and corportae crime
- Organized crime
- Victimless crime
As you read about these types of crime, ask yourself how you feel about them. Should each be a crime? How stiff should the sanctions be against each type? Do any of your personal characteristics (such as your race/ethnicity, class, and gender) influence your opinions on crime?
Conventional street crimes typically fall into a few sub-categories. Misdemeanors tend to be less severe and have less severe punishments associated with them; felonies tend to be very serious and often change the standing of a citizen, permanently denying rights such as voting, owning a gun, and having social interactions with other felons.
The Federal Bureau of Investigations classifies two types of conventional crimes:
- Property
- Violent
The two graphs belowe are from the Uniform Crime Report. The graphs display the rate of property crime and violent crime in the U.S. from 2008 - 2012.
Property crimes include: burglary, larceny (a form of theft), theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, shoplifting, and vandalism.
Violent crimes include: forcible rape, murder, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault.
In 2012, the rate of violent crime was 389.9 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants. The rate of property crime was 2,859.2 offenses per 100,000 inhabitants. Read more statistics by looking at the FBI's 2012 Crime Statistics Report:
Many of the violent crimes are probably familiar to you from the news or from TV shows, but one term is often misused. Robbery is taking property of another from his or her person or in his or her immediate presence, against his or her will, by violence or intimidation. People often misuse this term by making statements like, "Our house got robbed while we were on vacation." Unless the victim was at home, the house was not "robbed," it was burglarized, which is a crime against property. Another type of violent crime that can confuse people is hate crime.
Hate crimes are acts violence against someone because of race, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, gender, and disability.
FBI: 2012 Hate Crime Statistics
There is a great deal of debate about when a crime is considered a hate crime. For example, if a minority person is attacked and his wallet is stolen, was it a simple robbery or a hate crime? Regardless of opinions on hate crimes, the FBI is concerned that not all hate crimes are reported to police agencies and therefore are often excluded from crime statistics. Considering those hate crimes that are reported, race, religion, and sexual orientation continue to dominate the reported hate crime categories.
Below is a chart displaying the types of hate crime nationally reported in 2007:
Many hate crime perpetrators are not members of hate groups. They tend to be young, white, from poorer families, and have very weak self concepts. The act of committing hate crimes is usually the result of someone compensating for lower education or their own insecurity. Click on the button below to listen to an NPR story entitled, "Why do young men commit hate crimes?"
NPR: Why Do Young Men Commit Hate Crimes?
Click on the buttons below to learn more about hate crimes and the different ways states define hate crimes:
State Hate Crimes Statutory Provisions
Congressional Research Service: State Statutes Governing Hate Crimes
Occupational (White-Collar) crimes are crimes committed by persons of respectable and high social status in the course of their occupations. These types of crime are rampant and increasing. They are the underlying cause of the economic crises of the years 1998-present.
In white-collar crime, crimes are committed in the elite suites of corporate offices. These could include insider trading, safety violations where employees are injured or killed, environmental destruction, deception and fraud, and inappropriate use of corporate funds. To commit a white-collar offense, one would have to be very well educated, wealthy, and somewhat powerful--a position most in society cannot claim for themselves.
When caught, laws (which were created by society's elite) rarely punish the elite criminal with the same type of justice street criminals face.
In an interview of prison inmates by sociologist Paul Cheney, one inmate said, "If I walked into a bank with a gun, I'd get 50 years. I go to college and do my stealing using a computer or some secret technique that I can't be caught with, I get 15 months in a cushy security prison with [spouse] visitation rights." This statement is an interesting example of the inequalities within the criminal justice system.
Organized crime is criminal activity perpetrated by covert organizations which are extremely secretive and organized that are devoted to criminal activity.
Organized crime usually includes:
- A complex hierarchy
- Territorial division of authority and practice
- Tendency towards violence at any degree
- Capacity to corrupt public officials at any level of government
The reason organized crime works so well is that it is typically highly organized, deals with services in high demand, involves political corruption, has minimal organized opposition, and uses lots of violence and intimidation.
Two examples of organized crime that you may be familiar with are a Mafia and a drug cartel.
Organized crime has become rooted on every continent and in almost every country of the world. Here in the United States, organized crime is still problematic but not as problematic in some other countries. In Colombia for example, powerful drug lords have a great deal of influence in the government which is one reason why they are difficult to defeat. Read more about organized crime in Colombia by clicking on the button below:
Victimless crime is crime where there is no apparent victim and no apparent pain or injury.
Examples of victimless crime are illegal gambling, prostitution (assuming the prostitute is of legal age and is a willing participant), or illegal drug use (assuming that the perpetrator does not harm others while under the influence). Victimless crimes are controversial. Some people believe many of these crimes should be legalized because the participants are acting of their own free will. Others believe that these acts compromise societal values and thus society becomes the victim.
