Nettler (1984) offers an analysis of crime and the response of society to crime, beginning with definitions of crime and continuing through an analysis of different types of crime leading to a consideration of sociopsychological explanations for crime. She offers several possible explanations for crime and notes that we pay a different price when we choose one explanation over another. The analysis is extensive and opens a number of issues for further investigation and consideration concerning crime, its effect on society, and what society does to control the problem.
Crime costs in various ways, so we also pay a price simply for the fact of crime. Crime is broadly defined here as "the wrongs we do ourselves and others" (Nettler, 1996, 1). This makes crime a moral determination, and the author says there is thus no essence of criminality to be observed in a situation because the definition is in some degree itself situational, based on the moral criteria used. In the legal sense the term "refers only to those injuries condemned by the criminal code of a state and prosecuted by a government" (Nettler, 1996, 1). Morals change over time, so the precise definitions even of generally accepted crimes like theft and murder will vary at different times, as reflected in the criminal code of a society. Concepts of victims also affect how crime is viewed and depends "on attributions of responsibility and conceptions of harm" (Nettler, 1996, 4).
Nettler continues analyzing the definitions of crime and narrows the field of wrongs that can be considered crimes. Some wrongs are universally defined as such, while others are dependent on social and historical circumstances. In legal terms, there is no crime without a law deeming a certain act to be a crime, and even then, an act might be justified and so not be deemed a crime. There is also no crime without intention--you cannot commit a crime by accident, in other words, so volition...