Types of Crime

In your books...

Draw up a table with 7 cells on the left and the same on the right.

For each of the type of crime you will define it on the left and provide at least 3 examples of each type of crime on the right.

Crimes against the person

These are crimes that involve threatening, harassing or injuring another person or depriving them of their freedom.

Crimes against the person can be classified as fatal or non-fatal.

Crimes against property

These are the most common type of crime in Australia and refer to the unlawful interference, damage, theft or destruction of someone else's possessions, including buildings, vehicles, belongings or intellectual property.

Victimless crimes

Victimless crimes are crimes which refer to an illegal behaviour or action being undertaken which doesn't violate or threaten the rights of another individual.

It involves acts where an individual acts alone or a consensual act where two or more people agree to commit a criminal offence which doesnt impact an external individual.

An example being driving without wearing your seatbelt.

White-collar crime

A term developed by Edwin H.Sutherland in 1939 which outlined White Collar Crimes as "a crime committed in the course of their occupation".

This term was introduced to shift the idea that crime was only undertaken by people of lower SES backgrounds.

Generally speaking White Collar Crime involves criminal acts of a generally non violent nature, perpetrated in order to obtain money, or to gain some types of personal, professional or political advantage.

Corporate crime

Corporate crimes are those committed by large corporations. These crimes can impact individuals, groups, other corporations and society.

There are six types of corporate crime violations:

Administrative (paperwork or non-compliance)
Enviromental (pollution, permit violations)
Financial (tax violations, illegal payments)
Labour (working conditions, hiring practices)
Manufacturing (product Safety, labelling)
Unfair trade practices (Anti-competition, flase advertising)

Hate Crime

Hate crimes are criminal acts committed against a person based on their race, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or other protected characteristics. motivated by prejudice, bias or hate.

For these to be criminally charged the following these elements must be met:

The act must be done in a public place
The act must be done with intention to offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate.

Organised crime

Organised crime is a structured and ongoing criminal business that involves multiple individuals or groups collaborating to engage in illegal activities for financial gain or exerting control over illicit markets.

Types of organised crime involve:

Illicit drug acitivity
tax or other fraud
identity or cybercrime
money laundering
crimes against people

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