Chapter 2: The Nature and Causes of Crime

First of all the problem began when a nineteen-year-old boy named Shawn Fanning created a program called "Napster," for users to download their favorite music. Usually, it is illegal for people to download music because it can affect the recording industry, but it is legal to make copies of cd's. Now, the recording companies sued individuals for downloading illegal copies songs for free, rather from pursuing only the Internet sites that offered the music. Since Napster controversy has became a modern example of how rules or norms develop in society. Norms are the Social expectations about what constitutes appropriate behavior under different circumstance. Deviance is the Violation of a social norm which includes rudeness disobedience, and gossiping about others. It is usually known that crimes prohibit only acts or omissions of acts and it is a crime to strike or steal from someone without a compelling justification. The primary source of U.S. criminal law is the England's common law. There are two types of common law which are the Mala in se which acts are considered evil in themselves which are example of assault and theft and Mala Prohibita which are acts that are considered undesirable although not inherently evil, example is drug use. If acts are viewed as a threat to the government it is known as a political crime which involves treason, sedition, espionage, sabotage, and bribery; these are political crimes are not mala in se offenses, because they are not evil. The Mala prohibita offenses of alcohol consumption, commercialized sex, gambling, and drug use have drawn the most attention, because throughout the nations history, alcohol consumption has been viewed alternately as a vice, an evil, a crime, or a leisure activity. As alcohol consumption became active during the 1980s a new campaign  was formed which is the Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). It was founded by a mother whose teenage daughter had been killed in an automobile crash. The accident was caused by a man with two prior drunk driving convictions who was out on bail; which this is a felony because it is very serious. Legalization are decisions to remove a prohibited behavior from the criminal law; E.G. marijuana. Crimes are usually questionable, they have to make it clear that we have a long way to understand the causes of crimes such as "How can a mother kill her own children?" and "How can children kill their own parents?" There are four general types of explanation of crimes which are classical, positivistic, ethical, and structural. Classical school is a perspective in criminology that sees crime as resulting from the conscious exercise of an individual's free will. Positivism is the perspective in criminology that sees human behavior as determined by internal and external influences, such as biological, psychological, and/or social factors. Ethical View is the perspective that sees crimes as a moral failure in decision making. Structural/conflict view is the perspective that sees the criminal law as reflecting the will of those in power, and behaviors that threaten the interests of the powerful are punished most severely. Dealing with Guns, Drugs, and Crime, incidence on guns are very high but it is not necessarily known if it will reduce the rate of violence.