How can you Classify Crimes?

Classification of Crimes

Crimes have been classified on varied bases. Sutherland has given two types of crimes on the basis of their atrocity and seriousness felony and misdemeanor. The distinction between the two is made in terms of the sentence that can be imposed.

Felonies are the more serious crimes for which a person can be imprisoned for a long period of time or sentenced to death. Misdemeanours are the less serious offences for which either a short-term confinement in a jail may be provided or a fine may be imposed.

This classification is not much useful because some misdemeanors can be more dangerous than some felonies. A person having committed a theft can be imprisoned for two to three years (if he is a recidivist) or for two to three months only (if he is a petty first-offender).

Similarly, theft of ornaments and money from a house, where a girl is to be married, and where her parents have kept jewellery and cash worth thousands of rupees in an almirah, may be more serious than theft of one or two lakhs of rupees from the house of a multi-millionaire.

Another objection to this classification is that it is used for classifying criminals as felons (more dangerous) and misdemeanants (less dangerous) who are more susceptible to reformation. But it is quite fallacious to judge danger to group/society or probability of correction and resocialisation on the basis of one act. Suppose an individual commits a theft (misdemeanor) and within a month thereafter, a murder.

The two crimes do not represent changes in his character. Yet another argument against this classification is that what is considered a misdemeanor in one society may be considered felony in another society, or what is considered a misdemeanor in a society at one point of time may be considered a felony after a few years in the same society. On these grounds, there seems to be good reason to abandon this classification.

Bonger (Criminality and Economic Conditions, 1916: 36-37) has classified crimes into four groups on the basis of their motives: economic, sexual, political and miscellaneous (with vengeance as chief motive).

But it cannot be maintained that all crimes are committed only with one motive. A politician who gets his politician father-in-law killed may have a political motive, vengeance motive, as well as an economic motive of getting his (father-in-law’s) property through his wife who may be the only daughter of the politician killed. The classification is thus clearly inadequate.

Crimes are also classified for statistical purposes into four groups: against person (assault, murder), against property (theft, robbery), against public decency or morality (drunkenness, disorderly conduct) and against public justice (embezzlement, breach of trust). This classification may be useful from the legal point of view but not for theoretical analysis.

Lemert (Social Problems, 1958: 141-49) has classified crimes as situational and systematic. The former are those which are committed because of the pressure of situation while the latter are those which are committed in a planned and systematic way. This classification is important in the treatment of criminals.

Clinard and Quinney (Criminal Behaviour Systems: A Typology, 1967: 14-18) have given six types of crimes:

(i) Violent personal crime:

This crime is based on the use of violence and is committed by a person who does not have earlier record of crime against him. Murder, rape, assault are some examples of this crime. The reaction of society against those who commit this crime is very harsh.

(ii) Occasional property crime:

This crime is violation of individual property rules. Shoplifting is one example of this crime.

(iii) Occupational crime:

This crime is committed, during the course of one’s occupation, with an economic motive. The criminals who commit this crime accept the traditional norms of society except that of honesty. Embezzlement, black-marketing, misleading advertisements are some examples of this crime.

(iv) Political crime:

This is committed by an individual with vested political and economic interests. Treason, spying, passing secrets to enemy country are examples of this crime.

(v) Public order crime:

This crime is one in which an individual violates the rules of conduct in society. Some examples of this crime are alcoholism, vandalism, prostitution, homosexuality and violation of traffic rules.

(vi) Conventional crime:

This is a crime in which an individual violates the sacred norms of individual property. Theft, robbery, dacoity, kidnapping, and riot are some examples of this crime. Individuals commit these crimes on a part-time basis, and these crimes are not the main source of their income. However, these criminals are more committed to criminal subculture.

Besides the above kinds of classification, crimes are also classified as white-collar crime (committed by persons of high status with an economic motive), professional crime (committed as a profession and as the main source of livelihood because of which crime becomes a way of life which gives criminals a status in their criminal group), and organised crime (committed in a planned way by a group of criminals).