A criminal offense (a crime) is a type of wrongdoing that we distinguish from a civil wrong. Crimes are behaviors that society views as offending not just the specific victim, but also the sensibilities of society as a whole. Another way of explaining a crime is to say that the behavior violates society’s moral standards. By contrast, a civil wrong involves misbehavior towards specific victims, but society doesn’t consider the act to be an affront to the public or widely held moral beliefs.For example, why is robbery a crime? Robbery is considered a crime not only because the victim has been forcefully deprived of his property, but because society as a whole will not tolerate violent personal thefts. Or, when a clerk embezzles money from her boss, the business is harmed, but so is the public (society depends on honest dealings between owners and employees).
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