In this assignment I am going to look at the problems involved in defining and measuring crime. I will look at the definition of crime and deviance and how this plays a part in our society. I will also look at two different approaches to defining crime and theorists with these ideas. Crime is defined as an act that isconsidered an offence and punishable by law. Whereas, deviance is behaviourthat is classed as unacceptable, but not necessarily a crime that ispunishable. There are a variety of ways in which crime can be defined. Intoday’s society it could be said refugees are seen as folk devils. They areportrayed in this way through the media, they are seen to be outsiders and thereason for social problems. By media portraying incidents of anti-socialbehaviour it creates greater moral panic. Stanley Cohen stated, ‘its nature, ispresented in a stylised and stereotypical fashion by the mass media; the moralbarricades are manned by editors, bishops and politicians (1972. Pg.9). Thiscan be seen when you look at how terrorists are portrayed. We only know whatthe media shows us, this can create mass panic as the view portrayed can beone-sided. Some social or religious customs are seen as taboo. This could besurrounding events such as death or illness. For example, Jehovah’s witnessesdon’t believe in blood transfusions. In the event one is required they woulddecline it due to their religious beliefs. The main difference between crimeand deviance is that a crime is punishable by law. By committing a crime, youare breaking the law, but by being deviant you are breaking the social norms.The punishment for breaking the law would be that you are now in the criminaljustice system. However, the punishment you receive will vary depending on thecrime you have committed. This could be a fine, a suspended sentence, or evenprison. For committing an act classed as deviant the punishment would be fromthe society, possibly even religious leaders, depending on the act committed. In the 18th century the classicism theory was developed. It was originally developed as it was felt that punishments were cruel and barbaric. Classicism believed people commit a crime based purely on free will. It doesn’t look at any reasoning as to why the crime might be committed other than this. Cesare Beccaria was the Italian father of classical criminology. His main aim was to limit the barbarity in the justice system. Beccaria’s belief was that the punishment should be certain, swiftly carried out and the severity should be significant enough to deter any future crime being committed. Beccaria believed, that a punishment may not be an act of violence, of one, or of many against a private member of society, it should be public, immediate and necessary (Newburn, pg116) Another founder of classicism is Jeremey Bentham. Bentham believed that humans make their decisions based on a pleasure pain principle. Bentham states, ‘Human behaviour is generally directed at maximising pleasure and avoiding pain’. (Newburn, pg 117). It is thought that there are four reasons to commit crime. These are excitement, sex, money or anything else held with value. Bentham’s main belief was that the punishment needs to out weight the crime, however the severity of the punishment should be proportionate to the crime. If every crime received the same punishment there would be nothing to deter from the lesser crimes. There are some criticisms to the classicalism theory. If all crimes are based on free will, what about the people with mental health issues, or a child who are not sound of mind, should they be punished in the same way as someone who has committed a crime for free will. The theory very much looks at the crime and the punishment, not the offender. In contrast to the classicismtheory is positivism. Positivism developed in the late 19th century.This started to challenge the classicism theory, and look at how biological,psychological and social needs can affect reason for committing a crime. CesareLombroso developed a theory that people are born criminal, He believed it wasbiological. He carried out many studies that suggested that certain physicalfeatures meant you were a criminal. Alongside physical traits he also looked athypersensitivity, use of criminal slang, tattoos and unemployment. ‘Lombroso believedthat criminality was inherited and that criminals could be identified byphysical defects that confirmed them as being atavistic or savage’ (Bretherick,2015). From this study he developed his theory. This lead to developingthe idea that there are three categories to classify criminals. Firstly, hestill believed people are born criminal. This accounted for about 30% ofcriminals. Secondly abnormal criminal. This included idiots, imbeciles,alcoholics, epileptics and paranoids. This in today’s society would beconsidered as mental health issues. Thirdly, occasional criminals. Thisincludes people committing crime in self-defence, people with a poor childhoodand people who have had social interactions with criminals. Raffaele Garofaloagreed with Lombroso’s work. He agreed with the use of scientific methods tofinding the reason why people commit crimes. He also agrees that free willdoesn’t exist, and that there must be other factors involved in the reasoningas to why people commit crime. Garofalo’s belief was that a criminal is bornwith a deficiency, either lacking pity or probity. He categorised criminalsinto four categories. Murderers where altruism is completely lacking. Violentcriminals lacking pity. Thieves who lack probity, and lascivious, sexualoffenders who are lacking moral energy and moral perception. The positivismtheory looks at every single factor that could have influenced a person tocommit a crime, and they try to find a way to reduce the punishment. Apositivism view would be to look at rehabilitating the offender rather thanpunishing them (Newburn, pg. 126) Official crime statistics areproduced by a variety of organisations. This includes the government, police,DVLA, insurance companies and the office for national statistics. Thestatistics are collected to monitor crime and punishment. By collecting thedata, it helps to highlight crime and convictions, but also any unreportedcrimes. It is difficult to measure crime as the crime statistics are not alwaysa true reflection of crimes committed. This is due to lots of people notreporting crimes. The police statistics only record crimes that have beenreported and the convictions made. It does not include anyone that is notcharged. The British Crime Survey is carried out by the Home Office. It is avictim survey that looks at crimes experienced over the last 12 months. As itis a victim study it is believed that it is a better reflection of crimes as itrecords those that were not reported. The survey also looks at the public’sperception of crime and the justice system. There are some inaccuracies in thedata provided. This is due to inaccuracies in the information people canremember about an event and sometimes how they amplify the details. It is alsoan inaccurate method to record crime as its only one per household, and only 5crimes can be listed at once. Crime statistics are a good way to look at trendsin crime being reported and the levels of crime in each area, however it issomewhat inaccurate and not a true reflection of everything. The problem defining crime seemsto be in identifying if the act is actually a crime. There are some acts thatare a crime by breaking the law, however they are seen as morally acceptabledue to the circumstances. For example, stealing food to feed a hungry family.This makes it difficult to define what is actually, a crime. From looking atthe classicism theory this supports one argument, that everyone commits a crimebased on free will, whilst the positivism theory believes is social, physicalor psychological factors that determine the reason for committing a crime. Thisshifts the blame from being solely the offender to being a cause of theenvironment. The difficulty in defining crime reflects on the difficulty tomeasure crime. In accurate recording procedures, and victim’s uncertainty whenrecalling the details lead to an inaccurate crime record. This leads to therecords being a untrue reflection of what is happening. BibliographyBretherick, D. 2015. The ‘born criminal’? Lombroso and the origins of modern criminology, History extra.http://www.historyextra.com/article/feature/born-criminal-lombroso-origins-modern-criminology, date accessed 15.10.17. Cohen, S. 1972. Folk devils and moral panics, the creation of the mods and rockers, Mcgibbon & Kee Ltd. London. Newburn, T. 2007, Criminology. Willan Publishing. Devon. National crime statistics, figures on crime levels, https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice, date accessed 20.09.2017Office of national crime statistics, 2015, Crime survey for England and Wales, http://www.crimesurvey.co.uk/ , Kantar. Date accessed 20.09.17.Get Help With Your EssayIf you need assistance with writing your essay, our professional essay writing service is here to help!Find out more