The prism of crime: Arguments for an integrated definition of crime*

Abstract

The recent criminological trend toward theoretical integration lacks an integrated definition of crime. Effective integration requires a comprehensive incorporation of the multiple definitions of crime, including moral consensus, rule-relativism, political conflict, power, and social harm, because each contributes important but restricted insights. Rather than alternatives, these definitions are mutually constitutive. Developments in critical theory indicate a new, integrated way forward, which we have incorporated into a prism of crime. This framework consolidates aspects of the continuous dimensions of harm, seriousness, extensiveness, social agreement, social response, context, and visibility. It reframes criminology's subject matter to reflect more clearly the totality of criminal harm, especially that generated by relations of the powerful of their victimization of the powerless.