Crime is one of the problems about which Americans are most concerned. Technically, crime is any violation of the criminal law. Therefore, the acts defined by law as crime vary over time. We classify crime into four broad types: (1) Predatory crime, which includes white-collar crime, is an act that causes a victim to suffer loss of property or physical harm. (2) Illegal service crimes involve things such as drugs or prostitution. (3) Public disorder crimes have no definite victim but are acts that offend the public. (4) Crimes of negligence involve an unintended victim or potential victim. Computer crime may be either predatory or illegal service, while white-collar crime is primarily predatory. Organized crime involves groups of people in an ongoing organization who provide illegal goods and services and who use predatory crime and political corruption to maintain their activities. The term juvenile delinquency covers a broad range of behavior, frequently including fighting, truancy, and running away from home. Juvenile gangs may get involved in a range of criminal activities, from predatory crime to illegal goods and services.

Crime and delinquency are widespread, as measured by various indexes--official records, victimization studies, or self-reports. One-fourth or more of Americans may have been the victims, or intended victims, of a crime in any one year. Crime is not uniformly distributed, however; the likelihood of being a victim depends on the kind of crime; where the person lives; and his or her sex, race, age, education, and income.

Crime diminishes the quality of life and exacts physical, psychological, and economic costs. Crime threatens physical and mental health. It generates fear, which restricts the activities of people. White-collar crime can lead to pervasive cynicism and alienation. Crime costs the nation billions of dollars yearly, and the costs are increasing because the amount of crime is increasing.

Norms are an important sociocultural factor contributing to the problem of crime and delinquency because they encourage members of certain groups to engage in criminal behavior. In particular, norms that are counter to the law have developed among lower-class youths and groups of businesspeople and professionals.

The political aspects of crime control contribute to the problem, especially through the nation's prison system. Prisons make rehabilitation unlikely because they tend to dehumanize offenders, remove them further from noncriminal social control, and make them more competent in criminal activity.

The family may be a factor in crime. A disproportionate number of delinquents come from families with poor relationships between parents and children or from broken homes. Adult offenders are likely to have had troubled family backgrounds.

The stratification system also relates to crime. Monetary exploitation of others is more likely to be defined as crime among lower-class people than among middle- and upper-class people. The lower class has a greater proportion of violent crime and delinquency, while middle and upper classes have more white-collar crime. A lower-class individual is more likely to be defined as a criminal by the processes of the criminal justice system.

Emotionally, crime may provide a certain thrill or reward to offenders. Many attitudes tend to perpetuate crime. Crimes are facilitated by the attitudes of respectable people about their own behavior--especially their use of the services offered by criminals. Stigmatizing criminals tends to keep them in criminal careers. Minimizing the seriousness of white-collar crime also encourages it. Finally, the attitudes, values, and other social psychological characteristics of some criminals and delinquents form a consistent set that makes for a way of life. Having deviant values and attitudes and thinking of themselves as people who engage in criminal or delinquent behavior, they tend to maintain their way of life even when they are punished.