Crimes and Criminality


     Crime is any criminal offence committed by a person or group either directly or indirectly, knowingly or unknowingly that is punishable under criminal law. Igbo, E.U.M. (2007:10), also defines crime as “any act or conduct of an individual or group which violates the criminal law.” He went further to say that “if the act or conduct does not violate the criminal law of society, then that act or conduct does not constitute a crime”. Similarly, Eneh-Onyeji (2011:39), rightly opined that “a crime (or an offence), is an act or omission punishable by the state”.

     Moreover, one should note that before any act or conduct of individuals can be defined as a crime the following two conditions must be fulfilled or stand obvious:

1. The conduct or act must be prohibited by the Criminal law 
2. The “mens rea “ (guilty mind or mental element) must correspond with “actus reus” ( guilty act or physical element).
    Therefore, the above analysis shows that, if there is no criminal law there would be no crime because crime is what criminal law says it is. (See, criminal law, constitution, law

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