Law of Crimes
Law of Crimes I
Q1. Explain the concept of crime and essential ingredients to constitute crime with the help of appropriate examples.
A1.
INTRODUC T ION
Crime, we are told, is today a salient fact, an integral part of the risks we face in everyday life. In both scholarly and public opinion crime is associated with harm and violence; harm to individuals, destruction of property, and the denial of respect to people and institutions. It is clear that we face pressing problems of a practical and scholarly nature in understanding crime. But we lack agreement on the most basic question, namely what is crime? This battle over definitions, of categorizing events as crimes or other things, is no tame affair. It is clear that there has been a great deal of variation in history and across different jurisdictions as to what has been defined as a crime. Some of the major figures in history have been termed criminals by a State process that was considered legally valid at the time. In ancient Greece, Socrates (d. 399 BC)—who we remember through Plato’s dialogues as one the greatest philosophers of all time—was condemned by a court for the crime of corrupting the youth of Athens with his teachings. He died by taking hemlock after refusing the aid of his supporters to free him. In Roman-occupied Palestine, Jesus Christ was condemned and crucified along with ‘two common thieves’; Martin Luther King was imprisoned for his role in the 1960’s US civil rights movement. While in prison he wrote his Letter From Birmingham Jail, an essay that stands as one of the classic writings on civil disobedience (in which he argues that one has a duty to disobey unjust laws, but also to abide by the lawful processes of the State including any punishment so ordered). Likewise, Nelson Mandela was convicted for activities against the apartheid State of South Africa and served 26 years in prison before his release. He subsequently became the first democratically elected President of South
Q1. Explain the concept of crime and essential ingredients to constitute crime with the help of appropriate examples.
A1.
INTRODUC T ION
Crime, we are told, is today a salient fact, an integral part of the risks we face in everyday life. In both scholarly and public opinion crime is associated with harm and violence; harm to individuals, destruction of property, and the denial of respect to people and institutions. It is clear that we face pressing problems of a practical and scholarly nature in understanding crime. But we lack agreement on the most basic question, namely what is crime? This battle over definitions, of categorizing events as crimes or other things, is no tame affair. It is clear that there has been a great deal of variation in history and across different jurisdictions as to what has been defined as a crime. Some of the major figures in history have been termed criminals by a State process that was considered legally valid at the time. In ancient Greece, Socrates (d. 399 BC)—who we remember through Plato’s dialogues as one the greatest philosophers of all time—was condemned by a court for the crime of corrupting the youth of Athens with his teachings. He died by taking hemlock after refusing the aid of his supporters to free him. In Roman-occupied Palestine, Jesus Christ was condemned and crucified along with ‘two common thieves’; Martin Luther King was imprisoned for his role in the 1960’s US civil rights movement. While in prison he wrote his Letter From Birmingham Jail, an essay that stands as one of the classic writings on civil disobedience (in which he argues that one has a duty to disobey unjust laws, but also to abide by the lawful processes of the State including any punishment so ordered). Likewise, Nelson Mandela was convicted for activities against the apartheid State of South Africa and served 26 years in prison before his release. He subsequently became the first democratically elected President of South