Crime (Legal)
Definition
An act or omission punishable by penal law; under BNS 2023 Section 2(15), an 'offence' is any act made punishable by the Sanhita or any other law in force.
- Definition
- Act or omission punishable by penal law
- Statutory basis
- BNS 2023 Section 2(15), 'offence'
- Comparable term
- UK, US and EU penal codes define crime/offence the same way: state-punishable act
Common questions
How does the legal definition of crime differ from a criminological definition?+
The legal definition is fixed by what a statute punishes at a given time, while criminology also studies harmful acts that are not currently criminalised or that vary in criminalisation across jurisdictions, so the two definitions do not always align.
Why does BNS 2023 define 'offence' rather than 'crime' directly?+
Indian penal statutes traditionally use 'offence' as the operative legal term for a punishable act, with 'crime' used more as a general descriptive term in criminology and everyday language rather than as the statute's defined term.
Related terms
- Actus Reus
- The guilty act: the physical conduct, the consequence, and the surrounding circumstances that the law forbids. Without a voluntary act there is...
- Civil Wrong (Tort)
- A breach of a private duty where the remedy is damages or injunction rather than imprisonment. A negligent driver may face both...
- Criminology
- The scientific study of crime, its causes and distribution across populations, the operation of criminal justice institutions, and strategies for prevention and...
- Mens Rea
- The guilty mind: intention, knowledge, recklessness, or negligence as required by the section charged. BNS Section 3 sets out general explanations of...
- Strict Liability
- A narrow class of offences (food adulteration, motor vehicle regulation, NDPS Section 35 presumption) where mens rea is presumed or not required.