crime

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crime summary

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crime

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Written by Thomas J. Bernard, Donald C. Clarke•All

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Dec 16, 2024 • Article History

Key People:: Richard Ramirez; Udham Singh; Richard Kuklinski; John du Pont; Carlos Lehder

Related Topics:: cybercrime; online predator; doxing; swatting; obstruction of justice

On the Web:: Academia - What is crime? Contrasting definitions and perspectives (PDF) (Dec. 16, 2024)

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crime, the intentional commission of an act usually deemed socially harmful or dangerous and specifically defined, prohibited, and punishable under criminal law. Most countries have enacted a criminal code in which all of the criminal law can be found, though English law—the source of many other criminal-law systems—remains uncodified. The definitions of particular crimes contained in a code must be interpreted in the light of many principles, some of which may not actually be expressed in the code itself. For example, many legal systems take into account the mental state of the accused person at the time the alleged crime ...(100 of 12542 words)

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