CJA 303 Natural Crime and Legal Crime Paper

8/8/2019 CJA 303 Natural Crime and Legal Crime Paper

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Natural Crime and Legal Crime 1

Natural Crime and Legal Crime

Natural Crime and Legal Crime


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Abstract

A crime is a wrongdoing classified by the states or Congress as a felony of

misdemeanor. For every crime committed, theres a label that it must go

under. After the arrest is made, the information is gathered and any

investigation is conducted, there has to be a decision made whether it is a

natural or legal crime.


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A crime is an offense against a public law. This word, in its most

general sense, includes all offenses, but its more limited sense is confined to

a felony. The term offense may be considered as having the same meaning,

but is usually understood to be a crime not indictable but punishable,

summarily or by the forfeiture of a penalty (Cohen 1985). A felony is a

serious crime punishable by at least one year in prison. People convicted of

felonies lose certain rights, such as the right to vote or hold public office.

During the term of sentence, the convicted person may also be prohibited

from making contracts, marrying, suing or keeping certain professional

licenses.

A misdemeanor is a crime for which the punishment is usually a fine

and up to one year in a county jail. Often a crime which is a misdemeanor

for the first offense becomes a felony for repeated offenses (Cohen 1985).

All crimes that are not felonies are misdemeanors. Crimes are defined and

punished by statutes and by the common law. Crimes are 'mala in se,' or bad

in themselves and these include all offences against the moral law; or they

are 'mala prohibita, bad because prohibited, as being against sound policy

which, unless prohibited, would be innocent or indifferent.


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Natural and Legal crimes, are crimes can be divided into two distinct

categories under the law (Encyclopedia 2009). Natural crime is a crime

against the basic laws of nature or personal crimes that may or may not be

against the laws of the land. Mala in se is another term used to describe

natural crime. Mala in se are offenses or acts that a person should inherently

understand as wrong and should not partake in such actions (Gale 2009).

For example, a man decides to go for a walk and gets caught in the middle of

a drive by shooting, and the man dies along with five other people. Theres

a guilty intention or a guilty action that creates the crime. The group of

people that were harmed is on the receiving side of this crime and would be

considered murder. This is mala in se.

On the other hand, legal crimes are offenses or acts that are direct

violation of the law. Mala prohibita is associated with the term legal crimes,

because society has deemed the actions as violations of the laws against the

best interest of society (Gala 2009). Legal crimes are violations of specific

regulatory statues, such as traffic violations, that ordinarily would not be

punishable in the absence of statutory enactments prohibiting the

commission of such acts. Guilty intention and guilty action go hand in hand,

but theres a difference because if some only intense to commit a crime but

does not follow through then it is just an intention, but if you add a guilty


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action to that equation then it becomes a crime. The only difference between

natural and legal crime is that one is in direct violation of the law and the

other is morally or ethically a violation or evil (Encyclopedia 2009).

Theres a list of major crimes found on the FBI website in the Index

section. A few of the major crimes are murder, forcible rape, robbery,

aggravated assault, burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft and arson. The

crimes that are mala in se (wrong in itself) are Murder, Forcible rape, it is

carnal knowledge of a person forcibly or against a persons will, or when a

victim is mentally or physically in incapable of giving consent. Violent

gangs cause personal harm to other humans; bank robbery can impose

personal injury during the act, murder for hire causes severe personal harm

to other humans, crimes against children also can be seen as causing extreme

personal harm against other humans (Gale 2009). These crimes are against

the law, the acts are considered to be natural crimes because these crimes are

considered common law crimes or those to life or limb (Dinitz 1990). Legal

crimes can also appear to be morally or ethically wrong but these mala

prohibita (legal crimes) are classified as such because these acts are in direct

violations of the law. I believe that some of the offenses should be classified

as legal crime. Examples of natural crime should be categorized as legal

crimes is DUI violations, weapons offenses, counterfeiting or falsification,


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and sex offenses because even though these crimes are understood to be

ethically wrong, laws have been passed to smother such actions and harm

these acts have on others can be life threatening.

Conclusion

I chose the separate definitions of natural and legal crime to differentiate

what the Federal Bureau of Investigation index is based on the differences of

crimes. Based on physical injury versus monetary injury, natural and legal

crimes are known as mala in se and mala prohibita. Its more important than

to understand what makes up both mala in se and mala prohibita, when

involved in the adjudication of crime, or the enforcement of the law one

should be aware that there are many ways to approach every crime type.


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References

Cohen, Stanley (1985). Visions of Social Control: Crime,

Punishment, and Classification. Polity Press.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime

Crime. (2009). In Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved August 17,2009,

from Encyclopdia Britannica Online:

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/142953/crime

Dinitz, Simon. Criminal Justice Policy Review 1991; hardcover

edited by Lee Ellis and Harry Hoffman. Praeger Publishers, 1990. 321

Book Reviews : Crime In Biological, Social And Moral Contexts,

http://cjp.sagepub.com

"Today's white collar crime; legal, investigative, and theoretical

perspectives.(Brief article)(Book review)." Reference & Research

Book News (May 2009): NA. General OneFile. Gale. Apollo

Library. 17 Aug. 2009
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimehttp://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/142953/crimehttp://cjp.sagepub.com/http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/142953/crimehttp://cjp.sagepub.com/http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime


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http://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do?prodId.

"Introduction to criminology; theories, methods, and criminal behavior, 6th

ed.(Brief Article)(Book Review)." Reference & Research Book

News (Nov 2007): NA. General OneFile. Gale. Apollo Library. 17

Aug. 2009

http://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do?prodId.
http://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do?prodIdhttp://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do?prodIdhttp://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do?prodIdhttp://find.galegroup.com/itx/start.do?prodId

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