Introduction
A crime is an act, omission or event, the
commission of which is prohibited by law, and which if committed leads to
prosecution by and in the name of the state rather than an individual person
and, upon conviction, to punishment of some form administered by agents of the
state rather than the payment of compensation.[1]
However according to Adler Mueller Laufer,[2]
crime is defined as any human conduct that violet a criminal law and is subject
to punishment.
In other hand Raffaele Garofalo, defined crime to mean
behavior that offends basic moral sentiment such as respect for the property of
others and revulsion against infliction of suffering.[3]
Therefore from the above definitions by different
author we can define crime to mean any wrong morally or socially committed by
one or group of person against another person or state that are prohibited by
the state and when convicted punishment if inflicted by the state rather than
the individual wronged person. There are different types of crime such as;
crimes against person, crimes against property, organized crimes, occupational
crimes, and political crimes as well as corporate crimes.
The following are the basic requirements of crime
according to some writers:-
The act
requirement: it is
argued that there must be a conscious interaction between mind and body, a
physical movement that result from determination or effort of the actor. In
other words if only the mind is active and the body does move, we don’t have an
act, there should be interaction of the two.
The legality
requirement: crime must
be defined by law as an act prohibited by law (actus reus)
The harm
requirement: it is a
crime if it causes a prohibited result or harm either to the individual or society.
The
causation requirement: the actor
must achieve the result or harm through her or his own effort.
The
mensrea requirement: a guilt
mind; no one guilt of a crime unless he or she acted with the knowledge of
doing something wrong.
The
concurrence requirement: the
criminal act must be accompanied by an equally criminal mind; act and intent
should conquer.
The
punishment requirement: the
law must subject it to a punishment for it to be a crime.
In another hand
society is defined to mean a group of people related to each other through
persistence relations, or a larger social grouping sharing the same
geographical or virtual territory, subject to the same political authority and
dominant cultural expectation.[4]
Causes of crime
Crime
are said to be caused by different factors, such as poverty, mental disorder,
anomie and so on. Number of theories has been developed to explain the causes
of crimes and include:-
The
Theological-biological theories such as demonology theory, original sin theory,
the doctrine of free will theory the heredity theory, mental disorders theory,
and the Freudian theories of violence and social cultural theories which include culture
conflict, subculture of violence, lower class culture, anomie, poverty, as well
as genetic theory of crime.
Impacts of crimes
Impacts
of crimes to the society today are of different dimension and some writers have
categorized impact of crimes into economical, sociological, political,
psychological as well as physical impact. While others, have categorized impacts
of crime in the society into both positive and negative impacts and for the
purpose of this writing we are going to categorize crime into negative and
positive impact as follow:-
Negative impacts
In
most cases crime led to negative effect to the society economically, socially
as well as politically. The following are the negative impacts of crime in the
society today:-
Hinders development in the society
Crime
led to poor development in the society in a number of ways. For instant because
of crime the government invests money to combat crimes instead of channeling
such money into productive sectors. For example a lot of money is used to build
prisons, buying instrument to prevent crime as well to employ and pay people
employed in Criminal Justice System. In other hand crime hinders development
through increasing expenses in running business as well as by reducing human
capital.
Led to death of people
Crimes
led to death of number of people in the society yearly. Crime led to death of
people directly and indirectly. Directly crime causes death through violent
crime like the one which took place in September 11 in 2001 in the USA where
terrorist attack at Pentagon and World Center killed approximately 2996 people
and more than 6000 people were injured.[5] In
another criminal incident in September 2002 which took place in two popular
nights club in Indonesia killed more than 200 people and more than 300 were
injured out this incidence alone. And according to witness on this incidence
many of the victims were burned beyond recognition by the bomb blast.[6]
Destruction of property
Destruction
of properties is among of the impact of crimes in the societies. Among the
crimes which led to destruction of crimes in the societies include vandalism,
juvenile offences, and violent crimes to mention few. A good example of destruction of properties in the
societies through crimes are the event of September 11 where the world trade
center in 2001, pentagon, and the three planes that were crushed in the same
terrorist attacks.
Congestion of prisoners in prison
facilities
There
is the increase of criminal activities in the world today, something which is
caused by different factors, such as unequal level of economic distribution,
increase of unemployment as well as the growing gap between the poor and the
rich. Also because of the growing of technology in both crime prevention and
investigation number of criminals caught continues to increase. However as
criminal increase the number of prison facility does not correspond with the
building of prison facilities something which led to congestion of prisoners in
the available prison facility. For example according to the budget speech of
the Ministry of Home Affairs the current Tanzania prison facility has the
capacity to keep only 29,552 prisoners but until 1st April 2011
there were 37,811 prisoners.[7]
It increases the cost of living
within the society.
Act
of crimes in the society leads to the increases of cost of living in the
society, this comes about in different ways such as the cost taken by the
society to prevent crimes, cost incurred to investigate and prosecute criminal
as well as the cost incurred by the society in keeping those imprisoned for
criminal doings. For example once the lawbreaker is prosecuted he/she has to be
incarcerated. Housing, clothing and feeding criminals is expensive. In 2007 a
local newspaper, The Sacramento Bee, reported that the average annual cost of
housing prison inmates in the California prison system was $43,287 per inmate.
In 2008 TV station WHAS in Louisville, KY reported that the average cost of
housing an inmate in KY was $20,000. WHAS also reported that Kentucky has the
fastest rising inmate population in the country, causing huge money problems
for the people of Kentucky.[8]
Migration
Crime
is one of the factors that may lead to both internal migration as well as
international migration. This caused per the fact that most people prefer to
settle in area where they are sure of security for themselves, their family and
their properties and tend to move from places with poor security or no
security. Therefore crime being one of the causative of insecurity in the society
therefore it leads to migration of people from those areas where crimes are
prone to are where there is no crime or the rate of crime is law.
It led to erosion of morality in
the society
Crime
by themselves are immoral and against social norms and customs and that is why
they prohibited by criminal law. However today the matter is even worse the
number of crime which are considered immoral by the society are increasing in
commission and some of them are even being legalized or the government agency
tasked with prevention of those crime tend to turn a blind eye of their
commission. A good example of these kinds of crimes includes prostitutions,
rape, drug abuse, and Sodom. These kinds of crime even if not prohibited by law
they are immoral in their nature and the increase in their commission erode
morality of the society.
It increases the cost of living
within the society.
Act
of crimes in the society leads to the increases of cost of living in the
society, this comes about in different ways such as the cost taken by the
society to prevent crimes, cost incurred to investigate and prosecute criminal
as well as the cost incurred by the society in keeping those imprisoned for
criminal doings. For example once the lawbreaker is
prosecuted he/she has to be incarcerated. Housing, clothing and feeding
criminals is expensive. In 2007 a local newspaper, The Sacramento Bee, reported
that the average annual cost of housing prison inmates in the California prison
system was $43,287 per inmate. In 2008 TV station WHAS in Louisville, KY
reported that the average cost of housing an inmate in KY was $20,000. WHAS
also reported that Kentucky has the fastest rising inmate population in the
country, causing huge money problems for the people of Kentucky.[9]
Affect investment climate
Crime
deter or delay both domestic and foreign investment, and hence growth of
economy of the society. This is due to the fact that crimes leads to higher
cost of doing business, because of the need to employ different forms of
security, and diverts investment away from business expansion and productivity
improvement, and may lead to a less than optimal operating strategy, it leads
to business losses, arising from looting, arson, theft, extortion and fraud,
loss of output because of reduced hours of operation (including avoiding night
shifts) or loss of workdays arising from outbreaks of violence, and avoidance
of some types of economic activity, also reduces output because of the temporary
(from injury) or permanent (from murder) exit of individuals from the labor
force. In the latter case, the loss is not just current output, but the output
in the remaining years of the individual’s working life also cause a permanent
shut-down of firms or relocation to less crime-prone countries. All these led
to investor to avoid investing in such a society or state.
For
example one of the reasons why Tanzania is preferred by investor is presence of
security and peace in the country.
It increases the government budget
Crime
affect the government budget, where by this happen in number of ways:- first
the government spend money in the criminal justice system which include money
spent in building prison as well as it has to spend more money in taking care
of the prisoners. Also the government has spend more money in protecting the
safety of the community by paying people employed in security forces such as
police, mgambo, intelligence agency and national security force. On top of that
the government is supposed to pay personnel in the judicial system. For example
in 2011/2012 budget the government of Tanzania has budgeted to spend Tshs.482,394,883,000/- compared to Tshs. 352,756,892,775/- spent in
2010/2011.
And this does not include money used in the judicial system.[10]
It led to injury of people
There are different forms of crime
and some if not all led to injury of people whether as direct or indirect
effect of criminal activities. For instance all crime under the category of
violence crimes involve physical harms of persons especially victims. A good
example is Alshabaab terrorist bombing that took place in Uganda is reported
that at
least
77 people were killed and 85 people were wounded.[11]
Insecurity
Is
the situation where the society lacks confidence or assurance, crime acts can
endanger the lives or safety of the public in general. Any society where crimes
are prone lacks security as people lives in fear of their lives and properties.
A good example is the recent Alshababu attacks in Kenya has led to insecurity
among the Kenyans as due to such attacks Kenyans lives in fear of being
attacked by these terrorist and the government has been forced to increase
security in streets something which increase fear and tension among the people.
It led to dirty money in the society
These are goods or money obtained illegally or
ill gotten money that needs money laundering for it to
be used in normal business transactions.
Dirty money has negative impact on the economy as the government cannot monitor
its use and cannot be recorded in the economy. According Senator Grassley
(R-Iowa), Chairman of the US Senate Committee on Finance, in a speech delivered
by Eric Akers Stated that; “the large flows of “dirty” money are a danger to
stable economies for the impact on exchange rates, the monetary base of a
national economy, and interest rates.
And, what “dirty” money can finance in illegal activity such as
terrorism is of great concern”[12]
Positive impact
Source of income
Most
criminal engage in criminal acts in order to get income, crimes like theft,
drug cartel and even corruption generates a lot of money to these criminal
something which give them income to sustain their living. Also these income
generated from crimes are sometimes used to invest in numbers business. A good
example is the fact most of pirates in Somalia are said to investing a lots in
Kenya and other East African countries. Therefore, unless caught criminal
activities are used by criminal as source of income like any other form of
employments or investment.
Sources of employment
As
stipulated above, crime being one of the sources of income one cannot separates
it from employment, since ones employment is a source of income yield. This is
to say crimes are employment of those involved such as thieves, drug abuser,
human trafficking and even terrorist. As result of these criminal acts people
are employed to act on behalf of their master into various degrees of crimes
such as bank robbers, and drug pushers. Hence all these criminal activities act
as sources of employment to the people into criminal act.
Innovation of technology
Crimes
in one way or another led to innovation of new technology, due to the fact that
various institutions put much effort economically and mentally in innovating
new security systems to tackle crimes activities. Example in most cases
existence of CCTV cameras; surveillance systems, electrical fences, alarm
system, and security control monitor centers are the result of crimes
activities and the effort of the society to prevent it. Through innovations of these technologies the
matter of proving before the court becomes easy become of present of hard
evidence like picture showing the crime activities.
Development
of laws
It is evident that emergence of crimes have
impacted the legal systems of many countries especially in developing new laws.
For example the International Criminal law is a recent law emerged to deal with
International crimes, Electronic Commerce laws, including Electronic evidence
have also been adopted to meet the gap arising as a result of electronic crimes
popularly known as cyber crimes, like illegal transactions of money from one
bank to another in different parts of the world which could not be treated
successfully by the normal laws we have.
[2]
Criminology and Criminal Justice System , 6th Ed, MC Graw-Hill
Companies Inc; New York 2007
[3]
Ibid at page 13
[5] Causalities
of September 11 attacks, retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11
on 28/11/2011 EAT
[6]
Criminology and Criminal Justice System , 6th Ed, MC Graw-Hill
Companies Inc; New York 2007 at page 11
[7] Hotuba Ya Waziri Wa Mambo Ya Ndani Ya Nchi
Mheshimiwa Shamsi Vuai Nahodha (Mb.) Akiwasilisha Bungeni Makadirio Ya Mapato
Na Matumizi Ya Wizara Ya Mambo Ya Ndani Ya Nchi Kwa Mwaka 2011/2012 retrieved
from http://www.moha.go.tz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=133&Itemid=215
on 29/11/2011 EAT
[8] Chapter 6:
Crime and Its Impact On Business In Jamaica, retrieved from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTLAWJUSTINST/Resources/JamaicaPaper.pdf
on 27/11/2011 EAT
[9]
Ibid
[11]
Al-Shabab
claims Uganda bombings: Twin attacks targeting World Cup fans in Kampala kill
at least 74 people retrieved from http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2010/07/2010711212520826984.html
on 27/11/2011 EAT
BY Member of group 13 of Fourth Year
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