hi there this is Margot from criminology web.com and in this video I'll take on the question what is crime when talking about crime many people think about famous cases like the assault and Rodney King in the US or the Mafia in Italy or perhaps the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi in India but crime isn't restricted to the famous cases or even what we think of as serious cases crime includes violence robberies rape and drug wars but also stealing at work corruption corporate fraud and tax violations but what else is crime and what is it not these
seem like questions with obvious answers but when you start looking into these questions it turns out that it's not always so easy to say what is a crime and what is not a crime what about for example when one hears here's the neighbor screaming or potentially beating his or her family or when companies pollute the air with their toxic substances of course there is the law which determines what is legal and what is illegal but the thing is that the contents of the law vary depending on time and legal system so let's look at a
couple of example of how the law varies by time one example is domestic violence it used to be tolerated and in some places it still is when a man or a woman beats his or her partner and kids nowadays in many countries that is considered to be problematic to say the least as another example in 1784 in Prussia which is the forerunner of modern-day Germany only much larger there was a law that mothers were not allowed to take there under two-year-old children into their beds that idea has changed quite a bit in many places it
also used to be a crime in different parts of the world to work on Sunday and maybe it still is in some areas so these are some of samples of how the law varies by time the law also varies by legal system an example of this is prostitution in some countries prostitution is illegal in other countries prostitution is legal and in still other countries it is a criminal offence to buy sexual services meaning to be a client of a prostitute so what does that say about prostitution is it a crime or is it not a
crime another example is the consumption of cannabis also in this area there are quite different rules and laws in some countries the possession of small quantities of cannabis is legal and in other countries it's not but even for a crime like murder one cannot say that this is always and everywhere regarded to be an offence and treated that way in some places you can murder certain people without being punished for it an example of that is honor killings which can be committed while the police are looking away in some places or war in war there
are different rules and sometimes things are allowed that are not allowed otherwise in many cases when you talk about crime with other people you can probably get by when you use the current legal definition of crime in the area where you live but especially when talking about crime across time and place once you be aware that the definition of crime is a product of society culture and of time and so that it can change for more fascinating criminology and criminal justice stuff subscribe to this channel and turn on the alarm bell or go to criminology
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