CRIMES
Acts or omissions that are in violation of law.
Each state in the United States, as well as the
federal government, maintains a body of criminal
laws. As populations have increased and personal
interactions and business transactions
have grown more complicated, criminal laws
have likewise grown in number and complexity.
Most jurisdictions codify criminal statutes in a
separate section in their laws. However, some
crimes are placed in chapters or titles outside the
designated criminal code. Generally, criminal
laws are divided into several broad categories:
offenses affecting public order, health, and
morals; offenses involving trade, business, and
professions; and offenses against the family.
These categories often overlap. Juveniles and minors generally receive special treatment under
criminal statutes.
Offenses Affecting Public Order,
Health, and Morals
A number of acts are made criminal to preserve
public order, health, and morals. Some of
these laws are based in the COMMON LAW but
have undergone significant changes over the
years. Prostitution, if discreet and practiced
indoors, was generally tolerated in colonial
America, but streetwalkers were charged under
lewdness, VAGRANCY, or similar laws. In the late
nineteenth century, states began to identify and
prohibit all prostitution, in criminal statutes,
where it was defined as engaging in sex for hire.
Prostitution is now illegal in all states except
Nevada, where it is strictly regulated.
Pandering, or inducing another into prostitution,
is illegal in all states, including Nevada.
The solicitation of prostitution is illegal in all
states except Nevada, where it is allowed only in
licensed brothels.
Public OBSCENITY laws find their roots in
the religious prohibitions of blasphemy and
heresy, or defiance of the church. Laws prohibiting
blasphemy and heresy were passed in colonial
America, but after the passage of the FIRST
AMENDMENT in 1791, states began to focus
obscenity statutes on material with a sexual content.
In 1996, the U.S. Congress passed the
Telecommunications Act of 1996, Pub. L. 104-
104, Feb. 8, 1996, 110 Stat. 56, which included
criminal punishment for the transmission of
obscenity through cyberspace.
The definition of obscenity is generally a
matter of contemporary community standards.
In New York, for example, any material or performance
is obscene if “the average person,
applying contemporary community standards,”
would find that the predominant effect of the
work as a whole appeals “to the prurient interest
in sex” (N.Y. Penal Law § 235.00 [McKinney
1995]). To be defined as obscene, the material or
performance must also depict or describe “in an
offensive manner, actual or simulated: sexual
intercourse, sexual bestiality, masturbation,
sadism, masochism, excretion or lewd exhibition
of the genitals.” Finally, the material or performance
must lack “serious literary, artistic,
political and scientific value” before its creator
can be punished for obscenity.
Obscenity laws include the prohibition of
public profanity. The federal government, for
example, outlaws visible written profanity in the
mails and profanity on radio and television. The
FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION
makes some exceptions for certain words during
nighttime hours. Profanity, like obscenity, is a
fluid concept, and its treatment is frequently the
subject of legislation.
Gambling is illegal in some states. Other
states allow only certain forms of gambling.
Even where gambling is legal, it is strictly regulated,
and the regulations are enforced by criminal
statutes. For example, persons who maintain
an unlicensed gambling operation in New Jersey
may be charged with a crime of the fourth
degree. Fourth-degree crimes in New Jersey normally
carry a penalty of a $7,500 fine or eighteen
months’ imprisonment, or both; when the crime
is unlicensed gambling, fines may reach $25,000
for individuals and $100,000 for organizations.
The U.S. Congress and state legislatures prohibit
the manufacture, possession, and sale of
certain mood-altering substances, such as marijuana,
cocaine, heroin, and hallucinogens.Many
manufactured drugs yielding psychotropic
effects are legal, but only under the administration
of a physician.
All states maintain laws that prohibit the
driving of motorized vehicles while under the
influence of alcohol or other mood-altering
substances. These driving-under-the-influence
(DUI) and driving-while-intoxicated (DWI)
statutes outlaw or prohibit the drunken driving
of boats and snowmobiles in addition to passenger
vehicles and motorcycles. The range of vehicles
subject to these laws is ever expanding: in
1996, a Texas man was charged with riding a
bicycle while intoxicated. Intoxication is defined
by statute at a specified blood-alcohol ratio.
Some criminal statutes are mainly designed
to preserve public order. For example, many
states criminalize loitering or prowling. In New
Hampshire, no person is allowed to appear “at a
place, or at a time, under circumstances that
warrant alarm for the safety of persons or property
in the vicinity” (N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. §
644:6).When challenged, however, many loitering
statutes are held by courts to be unconstitutionally
vague.
Breach of the peace is a generic description
for a range of DISORDERLY CONDUCT.Generally,
breach-of-the-peace crimes consist of acts that
disturb public tranquility and order. STALKING,
or menacing, is the related crime of continually
following or forcing unwanted contact on
another.
The federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt
Organizations Act (RICO) (18 U.S.C.A. §§
1961 et seq.) is designed to investigate, control,
and prosecute ORGANIZED CRIME. Many states
have enacted their own RACKETEERING laws to
mirror RICO. Essentially, RICO punishes a pattern
of racketeering activity that is accomplished
through an organized enterprise. Prosecutors
have broadened the use of RICO to support an
additional criminal charge for even the most
loosely organized crimes. For example, a person
who conspires with another to commit FRAUD
may be charged with fraud and violation of
RICO, if the conspiracy was the product of an
organized enterprise. Youth GANGS are among
the organizations subject to RICO laws.
State and federal statutes criminalize the
unlicensed possession of firearms. Firearm
statutes prevent convicted felons from owning a
gun. State and federal laws also place an outright
ban on some models of automatic firearms.
Other criminal laws respecting public order,
health, and morals are many and varied. State
and federal election laws have burgeoned since
the nineteenth century to prohibit a wide range
of acts in connection with the public vote, such
as campaigning on election day, coercing voters,
and engaging in fraud. Immigration laws provide
criminal penalties for immigrating illegally
and for hiring illegal immigrants. All states
maintain statutes to punish littering and the
unauthorized dumping or storage of toxic
waste. In Mississippi, DUELING is outlawed
(Miss. Code Ann. § 97-39-1), as is cruelty to animals
(§ 97-41-1). In New Hampshire, desecration
of the U.S. flag is punishable as a
misdemeanor (N.H. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 646-A:4).
Offenses Involving Trade, Business,
and Professions
Fraud, theft, and MISREPRESENTATION are
extensively covered in state and federal statutes
concerning virtually every occupation. These
laws prohibit a wide variety of acts ranging from
simulating gemstones and rigging weight scales
to impersonating a doctor or a police officer,
breaching confidentiality, and engaging in
insider trading (the buying or selling of publicly
held corporate shares by persons with inside or
advance information regarding the corporation).
The fraudulent use of credit cards is also
the subject of criminal statutes. And CABLE TELEVISION
and computers have inspired a number
of criminal statutes punishing their abuse; state
statutes, for example, punish the theft of cable
television services.
Offenses Against the Family
State legislatures enact numerous statutes to
protect people against members of their own
family. CHILD ABUSE laws make criminal the
physical or mental abuse of a child. Spousal
abuse is also punished under state statutes.
The failure of a parent to pay court-ordered
CHILD SUPPORT is made criminal in state
statutes. States work together in apprehending
so-called deadbeat parents through a uniform
statute called the Uniform Interstate Family
Support Act (U.L.A. Unif. Interstate Family Support
Act [1995]). A divorced parent who flees
with a child may be criminally charged under
state and federal KIDNAPPING statutes as well as
CHILD CUSTODY statutes.
Juveniles and Minors
Persons under the age of eighteen, known as
juveniles, are presumed incapable of forming
the criminal intent to commit criminal acts.
They are, then, generally immune from prosecution
for their crimes. They can still be held
responsible in juvenile court for committing
“delinquent acts,”which, if they were committed
as an adult, would be considered crimes. However,
a juvenile may be tried for a crime if the
prosecution is able to convince the court to certify
the juvenile as an adult. A prosecutor generally
reserves certification of a juvenile for serious
crimes, such as murder or rape. In the 1990s,
some state legislatures passed statutes allowing
prosecutors to certify for criminal trial juveniles
as young as age 14.
Minors also warrant special protection from
society. Criminal statutes punish adults for contributing
to the delinquency of a minor. This
crime can be any act that tends to make a child
delinquent. For example, giving a minor illegal
drugs or PORNOGRAPHY is criminal under these
statutes. State statutes also criminalize the sale of
other adult materials, such as tobacco and alcohol,
to minors.
FURTHER READINGS
Douglas, John E., and Mark Olshaker. 1996. Mindhunters:
Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit. New York:
Pocket Books.
Richardson, Jeb J. 1998. The Ten Worst Frauds Against America’s
Seniors. Fairfax, Va: Seniors Coalition.
CROSS-REFERENCES
Computer Crime; Domestic Violence; Drugs and Narcotics;
Gaming; Juvenile Law.
