Crime In Australia Essay

Why might it be necessary to agree on a definition of crime in Australia? If not, why not?

The term ‘crime’ holds great importance and is used widely, yet has no settled meaning. It is often defined vaguely and insufficiently, thereby having a deceiving and unhelpful effect in the many contexts in which it is used. It would be necessary to agree on a definition of crime in Australia so everyone is held accountable to a set standard of laws and rules as it makes it fair for every citizen otherwise the rules would differ for each supposed crime. http://anj.sagepub.com/content/23/1/39.short Human beings are social creatures. Rules and laws are essential to avoid conflicts that may cause societies to disintegrate. Legal rules, otherwise known

Drawing on the legal tradition, is the severity of society’s formal response through law. This may range from official warning through fines and imprisonment, to complete expulsion from society or, ultimately, the death penalty. Hagan argues that “the more sever the penalty prescribed, and the more extensive the support for this sanction, the more serious is the societal evaluation of the act” (1985).

Touching on the contribution of radical and critical theory is the relative seriousness of crime based on the harm it causes. He argues that some acts, such as drug abuse, gambling and prostitution, are victimless crimes, which means they harm only the perpetrators. Many other crimes, such as domestic violence, harm others – some harm more than one person at any one time. Despite a limited conception of the role of power in framing crime, Hagan at least considers the dimension of harm to be a very important contribution in the decision of a definition for

As a result, such perpetrators receive officially sanctioned punishment. As laws are created to achieve social cohesion in their respective society, they are created based on the moral, social and economic values of the majority population. After comparing an array of various societies, despite marked variation in how different societies responded to murder, rape and theft, these acts are universally condemned, whatever the prevailing legal system, as they are morally considered inhumane acts of violence. Whilst they are considered crimes pretty much everywhere, the definition of many other acts as criminal depends heavily on which societies we look at, and when we look at them. Within Australia, however, such acts should be identified nation-wide as ‘crimes’. After committing what is considered to be a crime in one state, the perpetrator may try to flee authorities by simply escaping to a different State or Territory, and claim that they are hereby safe from suffering the punishment of their crime. According the Section 75 (iv) of the Australian Constitution, the High Court of Australia (HCA) is responsible for resolving disputes between a state and a resident of another state. This requires the HCA to have a definition of the term ‘crime’ in order to come to a unanimous decision.