1.2 What is crime?
So, what is crime? For many people, most of the time, crime is something other people do. In the next activity, however, you’ll check this against personal experience.
Activity 2 Crimes and punishments
Look through the questions in the first column of Table 1 and make a mental note of the ones you would answer ‘yes’ to. Consider also the penalty you might have been given had you been caught, charged and convicted of these offences.
| Incident | Offence | Penalty ranges |
|---|---|---|
| Have you ever bought goods knowing or believing they were stolen? | Handling stolen property | Discharge – 14 years’ imprisonment |
| Have you ever taken stationery or anything else from your office/work? | Theft | Discharge – 7 years’ imprisonment |
| Have you ever used your workplace’s telephone for personal calls? | Dishonestly abstracting electricity | Fine of £2000 – 5 years’ imprisonment |
| Have you ever kept money if you received too much change? | Theft | Discharge – 6 years’ imprisonment |
| Have you kept money found in the street? | Theft | Discharge – 6 years’ imprisonment |
| Have you taken ‘souvenirs’ from a pub or hotel? | Theft | Discharge – 6 years’ imprisonment |
| Have you ever left a shop without paying in full for your purchases? | Making off without payment | Discharge – 2 years’ imprisonment |
| Have you ever taken something from a shop or stall without paying for it (shoplifting)? | Theft | Discharge – 7 years’ imprisonment |
| Have you used a television without buying a licence (pertains specifically to the UK) | Using a television without a licence | Fine of £1000, non-payment of the fine can lead to a custodial sentence in some cases |
| Have you ever fiddled your expenses? | Theft | Discharge – 6 years’ custody |
| Have you ever been in possession of cannabis? | Misuse of drugs | Unlimited fine – up to 5 years’ imprisonment or both |
Answer
How did you get on? It may be that you are a perfectly law-abiding citizen who has never knowingly committed a crime. But, if you have been involved in some of the above ‘incidents’, you may not have even registered them as being ‘criminal.’ It would also be likely, then, that you probably don’t consider yourself to be a ‘habitual criminal’ or ‘persistent offender’. Yet crime, often thought of as an abnormal, minority behaviour is actually something that is widespread, perhaps even a majority pursuit.