A short notes on crime Denasar Boro LLB. Final Semester, ULCGU Crime is an act or omission which is prohibited or forbidden by law which affects the society or public at large and it always committed against government also for which penalty or punishment is provided or given to the offender or wrong doer. The person who commits crime is known as offender or criminal.crime may be said an anti-social, immoral or sinful behaviour act. However according to the legal definition crime is any form of conduct which is declared to be socially harmful in a state and as such forbidden by law under pain of some punishment. Definition of crime : Some definitions of crime are discussed bellow : Tappan defined crime as an intentional act or omission in violation of criminal law committed without any defence or justification and penalised by law as felony or misdemeanour. According to Stephen, the editor of Blackstone s commentaries-a crime is a violation of a right, considered in reference to the evil tendency of such violation as regards the community at large. According to Donald Taft crime is a social injury and an expression of subjective opinion varying in time and place. Hulsbury defined crime as-an unlawful act which is an offence against the public and the perpetrator of that act is liable to legal punishment. From above definitions it may be said that a crime is a wrong to society involving the breach of a legal wrong which has criminal consequences attached to it i.e. prosecution by state in the criminal court and the possibility of punishment being imposed on the wrongdoer. Stages of crime : There are three distinct stages of crime : (i) Intention (ii) Preparation (iii) Attempt (i) Intention - It is the first stage of a crime. Intention means guilty intention of a person against another person, it helps a person to design to commit the offence. Here the term intention means bad intention because if one person has no bad intention then he can not commit crime. (ii) Preparation- It is the device or arrangement of the means or measures necessary to complete the offence. (iii) Attempt- It is the third stage of a crime. Here the term attempt means direct movement toward the commission of the crime after the preparations are made. It is very important that there must be attempt to commit a crime because it helps the judge of a court to convict a offender. If there is no attempt then a judge cannot convict a offender because he cannot look into the heart or mind or the individuals.
Elements of crime- There are two elements of crime- (i) Mens-rea or Guilty mind (ii) Actus -rea or An act (i) Mens-rea or Guilt~ mind-mens-rea is one of the most important element of a crime, it may however be direct or implied. The implied mens-rea is otherwise termed as constructive mens-rea. It implies that there must be a state of mind with respect to an actus reus, i.e. an intention to act in the prescribed fashion. As the above mentioned that there must be a state of mind. It means there must be guilty mind of a person because an animal never have guilty mind to commit a crime. So there must be a person involved. (ii) Actus-reus or An act:- There should an act or commission to constitute a crime. Intention or mens-rea alone shall not constitute a crime unless it is followed by some external or overt act. Generally, omitting to do something will not amount to actus reus of an offence. The criminal law usually punishes individuals for positive conduct and not for inaction.there are however, some notable exceptions, For example- a police officer may have a duty to act to prevent an assault and if he does not, he will be liable to be punished under the law. Classification of crime : There are variety of crimes such as violent personal crimes, occasional property crimes, occupational crimes,political crimes, public order crimes, conventional crimes,organised crimes, professional crimes, white collar crimes, sexual crimes, crimes against property, person, deceny etc. Some writers have preferred to classify crimes into legal, political, economic, social and miscellaneous crimes. 1. Legal crimes are- Theft, robbery, dacoity, rape, hurt and rioting etc. 2. Political offences- Political offeences are committed in violation of election laws or norms set out for the politicians in course of their political activities. 3. Economic crimes are- Tax evasion, smuggling, prostitution, gambling, foreign exchange violations, offences under the MRTP (amendment) Act 1991 etc. 4. Social crimes are those which are committed under social legislation such as-the Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1978; Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955; Immoral Traffic (prevention) Act, 1956; lndescent Represent of Woman (prohibition) Act 1986; Commission of Sati (prevention) Act, 1987; The Dowry Prohibition Act, 1961 as amended in 1983 and 1986; Juvenile Justice (care and protection of children) Act, 1955; Scheduled castes and scheduled Tribes (prevention of Atrocities )Act 1988 etc. 5. There are some other crimes which are committed under local and special Acts which are termed as miscellaneous crimes, for example-offences under the prevention of food Adulteration Act, 1954; Drugs Act, 1955; Consumers protection Act,1986; Prevention of Illicit Trafic in Narcotic and Psychotherapy Substances Act, 1988 etc. More recently a new spice of crime known as Cyber crime has emerged as a result of development of computer science and information technology during last quarter of the 20th century. These are crimes either computer generated crime or where computer
software is itself a target of crime a special Act called The Information technology Act, 1988 has been enacted to tackle these offences. These crimes are can be classified into three main heads, namely:- (i) Offences falling under Code of Criminal Procedure (ii) Offences under Indian Penal code. (iii) Offences under Local or Special laws or enactments. (i) Offences falling under Cr.PC are:- (a) Offences relating to Peace and order (Sections 106 to 124 Cr. PC) (b) Offences relating to Maintenance (Sections 125 to 128) (c) Offences against Public Tranquillity (Sections 129 to 148) (ii) Offences falling under I.P.C. are:- (a) Offences against Person. (b) Offences against Property. (c) Offences relating to Document. (d) Offences affecting mental order. (e ) Offences against public Tranquillity. (f) Offences against State. (g) Offences relating to public servant. (a) Offences against person are :- Culpable homicide (Section 299), murder (Section 300),causing death by negligent (Section 304-A), Dowry death (Section 304-B), Abetment of suicide of Child or insane person (Section 305), Abetment of suicide (Section 306), Attempt to murder (Section 306), Attempt to commit suicide (Section 309), thug (Section 300), causing miscarriage (Section 312), Hurt (Section 319), Wrongful restraint (Section 339), Wrongful confinement (Section 340), Criminal force (Section 350), Assault (section 351), Kidnapping (Section 359), Abduction (Section 362), unlawful compulsory labour (Section 374), Rape (Section 375), Unnatural offences or offences relating to nature (Section 377). (b) Offences against Property are:- theft (section 378), Extortion (section 383), Robbery (Section 390), Dacoity (Section 391), Dishonest misappropriation of property (Section 403), Stolen property (Section 410), Dishonestly receiving stolen property (Section 411 ),Cheating (Section 415), Fraud (Section 420 ), mischief( section 340), Criminal trespass (Section 441). (c) Offences relating to document are :-forgery (section 463), Property mark (Section 479), Counterfeiting currency-notes or bank notes (Section 489-A). (d) Offences affecting mental order are:- Cruelty (Section 498-A), Defamation (Section 499) (e )Offences against public Tran Quillit are:- Unlawful assembly (Section 144), rioting (Section 146), Affray (section 159). (f) Offences against State are:- Waging or attempting to wage war or abetting waging of war, against the government of India (section 121), Collecting arms etc. with intention to waging war against the government of India (Section 122), Concealing with intent to facilitate design to wage war (Section 123), Assaulting President, Governor with intent to compel or restrain the exercise of any lawful power (Section 124), Sedition (Section 124-A), Waging war against any Asiatic power in alliance with the government of India
(Section 125) Committing depression on territories of power at peace with the government of India (Section 126), Receiving property taken by war or predation mention in section 125 and section 126, Public servants voluntarily allowing prisoner of state wage to escape and negligently suffering such prisoner to escape (Sections 128 and 129), Aiding escape of rescuing or harbouring such prisoner (Section 130). Punishment of Crime : As the crime is punishable offence the accused or convicted person can be awarded penalty according to their nature of crime. There are various kinds of punishments such as- 1. Capital punishment or death sentence 2. Imprisonment for life 3. imprisonment - (a) with simple imprisonment (b )with rigorous or hard labour 4. Forfieture of Property. 5. Fine 1. Capital punishment : It is the biggest punishment of crime which is awarded to the accused person. As mentioned under I.P.C. following are the offences in which death penalty or punishment may be awarded to the accused person-waging war against the state (Section 305), Abetment of mutiny (Section 132), Giving or fabricating false evidence leading to procure one s conviction for capital offence (Section 194), Murder (section 302), Abetment of suicide committed by a child or insane (Section 305), Attempt to murder by life-convict,if hurt is caused (Section 307), Kidnapping for ransom (Section 364-A) and Dacoity with murder (Section 396) 2. Imprisonment for life : This punishment is recognized as the form of punishment under section 53 of I.P.C. as amended by Act 26 of 1955. In a decided case the supreme Court of India held that it is a form of rigorous imprisonment and under section 418 of the Cr. P.C a criminal court can award life imprisonment to an accused. There are fifty one sections in the I.P.C. which provide for sentence of imprisonment for life. Section 57 of I.P.C. provide that imprisonment for life is for twenty (20) years. The executive authorities are competent under section 55 I.P.C. or under section 433 (b) of the Cr.P.C.1973 to commit sentence of imprisonment for life to one of rigorous imprisonment not exceeding a term of Fourteen (14) years. In a landmark judgment Kartik Biswas vs Union of India,The Supreme Court of India observed in the context of section 53 of I. P. C. and section 32 of the Prisoners Act, 1900, the court made it clear that life imprisonment is not equivalent for fourteen (14) years or twenty (20) years. (3) Imprisonment :- (a) Simple:- Simple imprisonment may awarded to the accused person who has commit crime which is simple in nature. Simple imprisonment may extend up to six month. (b) Rigorous :- In rigorous imprisonment an accused person send to prison. As provided dy I.P.C. rigorous imprisonment may extend to long period of term with hard labour or it may extend upto life imprisonment.
(4) Forfeiture of property :- Section 53 of the I.P.C. provides for forfeiture of property as a form of punishment. There are two offences specified under sections 126 and 127 of I.P.C. which provide confiscation of property besides the punishment of imprisonment with or without fine. (5) Fine-:- It is a simple form of punishment.it can also be called minimum punishment. Punishment of fine may awarded to the person who has not commit a serious of offence and specially those involving breach of traffic rules or revenue laws. Fines by way of penalty may be used in case of property crimes and minor offences such as- fraud, embezzlement, Theft, Gambling, Loitering, Disorderly conduct etc. other forms of financial penalty include payment of compensation to the victims of the crime and payment of costs of the prosecution.financial penalty may be either in shape of fine or compensation or cost. The amount of fine is decided by the court and when the court decide the amount of fine the court is required to keep in mind the financial condition of the convicted person. Provisions relating to recovery of fine are contained in sections 421 of the Cr. P. C.1973. At last, it is very important to note that crime becomes a global problem or trouble in the world.in India also crime is increasing day by day. Most of the crimes such as- Murder, Rape, kidnapping, Dowry death, Child labour, transaction of human body and Corruption as a form of white coller crime is increasing. As a result thousands of cases are pending in the court of law. Government is making various anti-crime laws to prevent these crimes but it is not only the duty of government it is also the duty of each and every general public to help the government to prevent these increasing crimes. Reference Books : 1. Indian Penal Code, Prof. T. Bhattyacharya 2. Code of Criminal Procedure, Ratanlal and Dairajlal 3. Criminology, peneology and Victimology, Prof. N. V. Paranjape The Article was Published in : Bidangshri : The annual mouthpiece of Guwahati District Committee, All Bodo Student Union (ABSU), published on the auspicious occasion of it s 30th Freshmen Social cum Bodo Get-together held at Rabindra Bhawan, Gauhati-1 on 8 October, 2013.