A crime is an act or behavior of an individual, which hurts or infringes the right of another. That sounds much too innocuous a definition for such an act. Nevertheless, it is a somewhat accurate definition of the word. Conventionally, the word was understood as murder, rape, theft, or other form of physical or mental abuse. In the contemporary world, the word pulls up images of serious offences, such as bank robberies, terrorist activities, arson, plane hijacking, etc. These are new additions to the list of crimes. These are more organized crimes, and are aimed not at any individual but against the businesses, governments, etc. Most of these large-scale crimes ensure that more than one person suffers due to it.

Though crimes do result in physical injuries, it is not essential that every crime should lead to some bloodshed. Therefore, crimes like identity thefts, hacking, and scams are finance related crimes, wherein there is no bloodshed. These types of crimes are new, and therefore, new sets of laws have to be drafted periodically to ensure that such crimes do not occur.

Essential part of any crime is infringement of a person’s rights. Therefore, rights of an individual must be clearly defined. Laws clearly defines these rights so that people know what they are entitled to, and what they are not, and what they should not do as it is likely to deprive another person of their rights. The objective of defining such rights is also to ensure that people can live peacefully as a society. These rights are, of course, common across the board, because of which, it is easy to know when there is a trespass. This, however, was not true in the past. For example, in the past, rights of women differed from those of men. Even today, in some societies, rights of women continue to be different from those of men.

A person violating these laws would be a criminal. Because the rights are common and very basic, and even the trespasser has the same rights as the other. There is no formal way of teaching these rights. Just by listening and observing others, or reading the books, people come to know their rights and those of others. The criminal, however, does not like to remain within the overall boundaries of law. There have been representations that some people are genetically inclined to be criminals. While genetic make up may affect the way a person thinks or behaves, it still does not make much sense in condoning such a person.

Punishments were initially designed as deterrents, i.e., examples to show others what would happen to them should they choose to defy the codes. These may or may not seem adequate. But it may give some relief to the people who are hurt or put through some agony by the criminal. Different crimes have different punishments. The extent of pain determines the level of punishment. For example, a person who steals some money does not deprive another person from living his or her life. Consequently, he or she would not face the same punishment for the crime as a murderer or arsonist.