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Crime and Punishment

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Crime and Punishment:
A Dissection of its Various Elements.

“The true measure of crimes is the harm done to society” – Cesare Beccaria.

Crime as a concept and its origin
There is no easy definition for what denotes a crime. Any theory on criminal law has to answer two questions – ‘What acts should be punished?’ and ‘To what extent can it be punished?’ Glanville Williams, admitting the impossibility of a workable content based definition of a crime, points out that the definition of crime is one of the thorny intellectual problems of law. Russell also admitted that ‘to define crime is a task which so far has not been satisfactorily accomplished by any writer’
Personal safety, particularly security of life, liberty and property, is of utmost importance to any individual. Man realized this when he started living in a community. He realized that he had certain rights. Rights are essentially conditions for self-development. At the same time he understood that he was also obligated to behave in the same manner in which he expected his neighbour to behave. This was the crux of the social contract which man entered into with his fellow beings. The social contract allowed men to live together in a community and leave behind the “nasty, short and brutish” life he led hitherto.
The social contract paved way for the State to come into force and start making laws for everyone. Naturally, the rational and selfish nature of man would make him look out for his best interests and that would include deviant acts to gain an advantage for him in the race for survival. Now this meant that the state would have to step in and stop these transgressions. An individual’s freedom could only be taken so far where it won’t encroach or interfere with another individual’s freedom.
Maintenance of peace and order is essential in any society for human beings to live peacefully without

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