What is a crime?

We explain what a crime is, its various elements and the types that exist. In addition, crime prevention and apology measures.

1. What is a crime?

When we talk about a crimes, we refer to a social behavior that violates the codes of coexistence and legality established in the Law , and that therefore is considered a guilty, imputable, typical and unlawful act, that is, an action or omission contrary to the laws by which we choose to govern and therefore merits punishment or compensation.

The term crimes  comes from the Latin word  delinquere , translatable as “abandoning the road”, since a crimes of something that departs from the path contemplated by the Law for peaceful coexistence among citizens who take advantage of it. To that extent, what is and what is not a crimes is established in the appropriate codes of the legal system of each nation.

Therefore, what is considered or not a crimes changes over time and reflects the legal, cultural and historical values ​​of a given society . In that sense, most criminal codes refrain from incorporating dogmatic definitions of crime, but delimit it based on what is allowed and what is not.

Crimes are a matter of study of Crime Theory, a branch of Criminal Law that proposes a hierarchy for the conception of punishable behaviors , according to which recidivism constitutes a more serious crime than the first offense, for example, or that the Flagrance facilitates the execution of punishment as there is no place for interpretations of what happened.

2. Elements of a crime

The elements of the crime are the components and the characteristics that constitute it, not independently. They are classified in:

• Action or inaction . An act committed or stopped committing, which causes harm to others.
• Typicality . Depending on whether the crimes is contemplated or not in the penal code.
• Juridicity . Depending on whether or not there are extenuating considerations that should be taken into account.
• Culpability . Express desire to commit the crimes or not.
• Imputability . Ability of the offender to be subjected to justice .
• Punibilidad . Possibility of real execution of a penalty or sanction.

3. Types of crime

There are numerous classifications for the crimes, some of which are:

According to their forms  of guilt:

• Malicious crime . The perpetrator committed it with awareness of what he was doing, that is, it was not an accidental act, but a premeditated act.
• Guilty or reckless crime . The offender did not want to commit the crimes, but nevertheless he did it because of his recklessness, his complicity or other mitigating conditions.
• Felony offense . Whoever committed the crimes aspired to a smaller event than what happened, for example, in a fight he decides to hit his opponent and unwittingly kills him.

According to the action committed:

• Commission crime . It occurs when the offender has committed the crime on his own, that is, he is responsible for the action.
• Crimes by default . It occurs when the crimes is the result of an inaction of the offender, that is, of something he did not do or allowed to occur. It can be of two types, in turn:
• By own omission . Any crimes resulting from omitting the rule to which is bound by the criminal code.
• By improper omission . Any crimes resulting from an omission not contemplated in the penal code.

According to the offender:

• Special crime . It could have been committed only by someone in a privileged, particular or important position.
• Common crimes . Any ordinary citizen could have committed it.

According to the damage they cause:

• Crime injury . When there is appreciable damage to the person or their legal assets.
• Crime of danger . When a possible damage to a person or legal entity was exposed, even if the damage was not suffered.
• Crime of result . It requires that a behavior be carried out and have results.

4. Crime prevention

There is talk of crimes prevention to refer to the measures that can be taken, from the State or the citizenry itself, to avoid being victims of crime or reduce the probability of being involved in one. Some of these measures may be:

• Educate the population regarding the daily forms of self-defense and prevention of urban crimes.
• Maintain urban surveillance as a deterrent to crimes.
• Promote education in young people and adolescents and promote work culture.
• Avoid areas of the city considered dangerous and maintain constant police surveillance.

5. Crime Apology

While society as a whole generally condemns the crimes, it may happen that some factors aspire to justify the crimes based on arguments and speech strategies, which result in the promotion of crimes in the population . When this occurs in a public place or in a public speech, in fact, most legal regulations consider it a punishable offense: promoting crimes is a criminal act in itself.