What is a criminal?

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by Allen Teal

Created on: February 27, 2009 Last Updated: March 18, 2009

A criminal is someone who commit a crime. The person must be found guilty of committing the crime to have the legal label of criminal. The application of this simple description is not so easy. If every crime was prosecuted, most of society would be branded as criminals. The reality is that the term criminal is reserved for those who either commit a crime of significant proportions, or those who make a lifestyle out of crime. To grasp the true meaning of criminal, several criteria need to be examined.

1. Under the idea of "innocent until proved guilty," successful prosecution is necessary to establish the title of criminal.

Legally, a person cannot be a criminal if they have not been convicted of a crime. Society and the media may use a lower standard than this. However, until sufficient evidence can be presented to prove that the person committed the crime, he or she must be viewed as innocent. Being convicted by a jury of peers is not an easy task to achieve. Many people are given a free pass because the evidence is not strong enough to convict. This may be in spite of the appearance that the person committed the crime.

2. Small crimes rarely result in the label of "criminal" being attached.

Everyone who has paid a traffic ticket has committed and frequently has admitted to being guilty of a crime. However, even if someone has garnered 50 parking tickets and a dozen or more speeding tickets, they are almost never seen as a criminal by society. Those who are guilty of lesser forms of violence escape being called criminals for the most part. Punching someone in the nose will not usually be prosecuted. If it is, a legal slap on the wrist will usually follow. With a decent attorney, it will stay on the record as a low-level misdemeanor and is frequently expunged within a year or two.

3. White collar criminals are not usually called criminals until their offense gains national notoriety.

Various types of businesses fire employees everyday for petty theft, embezzlement, and other fairly significant crimes without seeking prosecution. They do this to avoid negative publicity for their company. Banks, for example, do not want depositors to think that their employees are stealing the customer's money even though this might be the case. They will quietly move the offending employee out of the company and continue as if nothing had happened. Until the crime reaches into hundreds of thousands and sometimes millions of dollars, prosecution is not considered the best option.