Compare and contrast ideas developed in Crime and Punishment, and The Essay

Compare and contrast ideas developed in Crime and Punishment, and The Trial - Essay Example In The Trial, by Franz Kafka, the defendant, K, is put through an ordeal that has no meaning attached to it because his crime is not revealed to him. The nature of crime is in the knowledge of it, but often the concept of crime is divorced from society through an inability for the people within a society to connect to it. Crime can be defined, then, as the acts of individuals that are against the desires of the authority and elite of society. The nature of crime is controversial. According to Henry and Lanier (2001), when asked about the nature of crime one of the burning questions is whether or not a crime is a crime if the law that designates it a crime is repealed. There was a time when racially motivated actions, domestic abuse, and white collar crimes were not designated as crime through law. Did this mean that they were not crimes? If it was legal to beat one’s wife, was it criminal to do so? By defining crime through strictly law structured contexts, then anything not d efined as illegal is not a crime. The definition of crime is then seen as something that defies a law. Crime can be defined by looking at the context of an action as well. ... Few, however, would define theft of food as anything other than a crime. Taking resources that belong to someone else is considered theft, even when one party has abundance and the other is in need. Defining crime is important because, as Henry and Lanier (2001) write, â€Å"policy decisions concerning social control are made based on a particular definition of crime† (p. 1). An example can be seen through defining what is considered to be a right within a society. In American society there are no rights to food, shelter, or health care. In other societies there are a number of rights afforded to human beings through various structures that entitle them to those rights. If someone were denied health care in the United Kingdom where healthcare is socialized it might be considered a crime under the right circumstances. In the United States, if a doctor refuses to see a patient who cannot pay it is simply considered good business. Crime, then, is defined by the social priorities of a society as they address their beliefs and needs in relationship to how they structure their law. There are a number of approaches through which law is addressed. The first is through the consensus view of crime. This view suggests that crime is defined by what all members of a society designate as criminal. Victimless crimes, such as drug abuse, are defined as crime because the belief systems in society have determined that such an act deserves attention by the courts and is criminal. Society chooses to address the actions of people that are believed to be harmful, even when harm is individual. The conflict view sees society of a number of groups that are in conflict with one another. In this case â€Å"Criminal laws†¦are viewed as acts created to protect the haves from the