Crime
            
             Criminology is the study of crime and criminal offenders in many
            
             different settings and from many different points of view. All countries make
            
             rules, or laws, which forbid certain types of behavior. A crime is an act that
            
             is forbidden by law because it is harmful to a person, to property, or to
            
             society in general. Attitudes towards crime do not always stay the same. Laws
            
             may be changed as society develops. The definition of crime also varies from
            
             country to country. Sometimes an act that is considered criminal is only
            
             considered to be so because it defies or goes against social mores. In making
            
             decisions about what types of acts or behavior are categorized as criminal, a
            
             society's government has to evaluate the harshness or extremity of the act.
            
             Criminal activity of all kinds has existed since people began to live
            
             together in societies. "People in the earliest societies were as much
            
             concerned as we are today with such harmful acts as stealing and
            
             killing"(Kirkham 20). They realized, as we do, that respect for life and
            
             property is essential to the survival of any society. In latter days, there
            
             were no written laws. The consequences for behaving in a criminal manner were
            
             somehow known. Many times when criminal acts were committed, they were done so
            
             in desperation. As time has progressed, we have seen where people have thought
            
             less of punishment and done things out of radical behavior. Therefore, when
            
             the lack of respect for word of mouth came about, societies developed
            
             governments to protect their interests. In these governments, leaders wrote
            
             down what acts were considered criminal and in turn gave the appropriate
            
             consequences for them all. Today, most countries have a certain code of laws
            
             that all citizens have to obey. All of the laws are created from research into
            
             the severity of crimes, the factors that cause them...