Crime is something that will always exist in society. It will always be in different forms and because of that there has to be some way to oversee crime. In 1929 a program called The Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR), created by the International Association of Chiefs of Police, keeps track of reported crimes. The UCR was organized to be able to seek knowledge on crime in the nation. The FBI was tasked with collecting, publishing, and archiving those statistics later on in 1930. There are a distinct number of philosophies that define crime in different ways and how differences in philosophy can influence the way crime is measured. Problems that arise when discussing crime are how the government and individuals define crime identified by change
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The legalistic definition of crime is an act that contravenes the law, breaking the laws of society (Pepper & Petrie, 2003). Different cultures have different values as a result of having different ways in defining and measuring crime, the issue with this is that some people may disagree wth certain charges and conflicts arise. Defining and measuring crime through historical context is a factor because a crime at one point in time may not be a crime at a different point. (Pepper & Petrie, 2003). Age is a factor because if a young two-year-old baby steals candy from a shop does not understand that it is a crime, so there is a level of understanding and an age of criminal responsibility (Pepper & Petrie, 2003). The benefit of this is placing the criminals where they belong, if it was a baby of course the baby wouldn't go to jail but if it was a teenager knowing whats right from wrong then there will be charges. Specific circumstances such as a father stealing food to feed his family because he does not have enough money is hardly a criminal act versus a man stealing food just for the thrill of it. The issue of measuring crime through specific circumstances is that anyone can go out and steal food and tell the authorities it was to feed their
The legalistic definition of crime is an act that contravenes the law, breaking the laws of society (Pepper & Petrie, 2003). Different cultures have different values as a result of having different ways in defining and measuring crime, the issue with this is that some people may disagree wth certain charges and conflicts arise. Defining and measuring crime through historical context is a factor because a crime at one point in time may not be a crime at a different point. (Pepper & Petrie, 2003). Age is a factor because if a young two-year-old baby steals candy from a shop does not understand that it is a crime, so there is a level of understanding and an age of criminal responsibility (Pepper & Petrie, 2003). The benefit of this is placing the criminals where they belong, if it was a baby of course the baby wouldn't go to jail but if it was a teenager knowing whats right from wrong then there will be charges. Specific circumstances such as a father stealing food to feed his family because he does not have enough money is hardly a criminal act versus a man stealing food just for the thrill of it. The issue of measuring crime through specific circumstances is that anyone can go out and steal food and tell the authorities it was to feed their