Crime and Criminality – Problems of Definition, the Ability to Analyze this Issue in Conceptual and Structural Terms

Abstract

This publication is addressed to students of security studies who attempt to define crime and describe criminogenic phenomena when working on their undergraduate or graduate theses. It is intended to help students decide which specific categories of crime to study and later describe. The main focus of the study is on specific categories of crime, including common crime, organized crime, drug-related crime, and juvenile crime. Students are presented with proposed definitions within selected criminological categories of crime as well as with suggestions on how to describe these phenomena in statistical terms. The hypothesis is that common crime remains the largest category in overall crime statistics, but it does not clearly prevail in terms of actual crime. The contents of this article are the product of the authors’ considerations, supported by many years of police experience, with reference to selected items of literature.