Natural Crime and Legal Crime

Differentiating between natural crime and legal crime is very beneficial for anyone in the criminal justice field. First and foremost one must understand the definition of natural which means, of or dealing with nature. Secondly, the definition of legal means, of or based upon the law. After establishing an understanding of the basic definitions of the two, one now must be able to comprehend the meaning behind natural crime and legal crime. With the consideration of a distinct and somewhat hazy difference between the two, they will find it worthwhile for advancing in their career. By definition natural crime is the crime against the basic laws of nature or personal crimes that may or may not be against the law of the land. Natural crime is in such one should know not to commit the crime. You may also hear natural crime which is also the legal term used as mala in se which means wrong in itself. What this essentially explains is that it is known as being wrong regardless of the circumstances or situations. When you look at legal crime by definition it means it is a crime that occurs and is merely a legal crime, while illegal it does not disrupt the flow of nature. Mala prohibita is a legal term used in association with legal crimes in that the acts violate the constitution of the law.

When a crime is committed it is labeled either a legal or a natural crime. Even though the crime is completed it is the process to determine where it falls into the spectrum. By spectrum I mean the category which lists each major crime in an index that is used daily by the FBI. The Federal Bureau of Investigation labels major crimes as murder and non-negligent manslaughter, forcible rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, larceny-theft, motor vehicle theft, and arson. Many can look at these different crimes and decide for themselves whether they could be labeled as a natural crime or a legal crime. The bottom line is no one is going to stand here and argue that killing, raping, stealing and beating people up are natural crimes. As complicated as it may come for some even as an adolescent we understand that these actions are morally wrong.

All of those so called "black and white thinkers" must consider the gray area when labeling these certain crimes and actually look at what occurred. By no means can I sit here and try to preach that these crimes are ever acceptable but one must look at each case individually. The prime example that comes to my mind when I attempt to decipher between natural and legal crime is murder and non-negligent. As stated above, we all know that committing murder is morally and lawfully wrong. But here comes the but part, in such incident as this you are at home with your family and an intruder enters your home and holds you and your family at gun point. Now in this case you happen to own a hand gun and just so happen to have it on your person when the intruder enters. You feel at that moment