The Nature Of Crime

The article is completed in the context which the nature of crime has beenthe vexed issue of criminal law.Hope that this thesis can be helpful tolegal theory and legal practice. The following article is divided intofour parts:Part Ⅰ: The concept of crime and the nature of crime. The nature ofcrime is rooted in the rational positioning of the concept of crime. Theconcept of crime is both the cornerstone of the nature of crime and thecommon property of all crimes. Nearly a century, the development of theconcept of crime can be divided into three periods: the classical school,the neoclassical school, the theory of purpose of behavior. Generallyspeaking, the concept of crime can be divided into two categories: oneis the formal concept of crime, the other is the real concept of crime.The nature of crime is largely reflected by the concept of crime and thecrime establishment system is the specific of the concept of crime, whichrequires both the formal characteristics and the essentialcharacteristics of crime.Part Ⅱ: The evolution of criminal nature theory. This section isdivided into two sections. Section I combed the civil law theory of natureof crime. In the slave society and feudal society of the Middle Ages, theknowledge of the nature of crime is ambiguous and unscientific and thereis no in-depth discussion in this period. Until the bourgeois era,criminal law became an independent discipline. The article focuses onBeccaria, Bentham, Hegel, Feuerbach, Lombroso, Philip, Garofalo andLiszt’s point of view of this period. Section II of this part providesan overview of the Soviet Union and China’s social harm theory and cites reasons of both supporters and opponents.Part Ⅲ: evaluation of China’s recent theory of criminal nature.First of all, evaluate the theory of legal interest infringement,considering that the scope of criminal legal interest is uncertain. Thetheory of legal interest infringement which is difficult to control thebasic principles and scope of criminal law has no real sense. Then evaluatethe theory of breach of criminal law, considering that scholars whoadvocate this theory just simply apply the relationship between“substantive reasonableness” and “formal reasonableness” to “socialharm” and “criminal law breach”. Finally, evaluate the dualism of crimenature, considering that dangerousness is difficult to play a role in thefield of criminal legislation. There is no legal basis regardingdangerousness as the nature of crime and it may distort the convictionand sentencing, and so on.Part Ⅳ: the nature of crime-the promotion of criminal harm. Crimeis neither a purely social behavior nor a mere legal act. Due to volatilityand ambiguity are two basic characteristics of social harm, whilestability and clarity are two basic features of criminal law breach, soregard either of them as the nature of crime is biased. On this basis,the article advocates the “criminal harm”as the nature of crime.