Crime: causes, intentions and religious responses

Theme E1 covers religious and non-religious views on the nature and causes of crime, the role of good and evil intentions, and how religious communities respond to lawbreakers.

What is crime?

A crime is an act (or omission) that breaks the law of a state and may result in punishment by the state. Distinct from a sin (an offence against God's law) — though many crimes overlap with sins (murder, theft), and some sins are not crimes (lying to a friend) and some crimes are not sins (civil disobedience for justice).

Causes of crime

Religious and secular thinkers identify multiple causes:

• Poverty and inequality — lack of resources leads to theft and survival crime. Liberation theologians argue systemic injustice creates criminals.
• Mental illness — diminished responsibility; some offences are symptoms of untreated illness.
• Addiction — dependency on substances drives acquisitive crime (theft to fund habits).
• Hate (prejudice) — crimes motivated by racism, homophobia, religious hatred.
• Opposition to unjust law — civil disobedience; Martin Luther King Jr. argued people have a moral duty to break unjust laws (following Augustine: "An unjust law is no law at all").
• Upbringing and environment — childhood trauma, exposure to violence, peer pressure.
• Greed and selfishness — choice to prioritise self over others and the law.

Good and evil intentions

Intention matters in both religious ethics and the law.

• In English law, mens rea ("guilty mind") is required for most serious crimes — the intention to commit the act makes it criminal.
• Christianity: Jesus taught that intention matters — "Anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matthew 5:28). Sin begins in the will, not just the action.
• Islam: Prophet Muhammad: "Actions are judged by intentions (niyyah); every person will get what they intended" (Hadith, Bukhari). Sincere repentance (tawbah) requires genuine intention to change.
• Kant's deontological ethics: The moral worth of an action depends entirely on the intention (good will) behind it — not on consequences.

Religious views on lawbreakers

Christianity

• Compassion and redemption: Every person, however guilty, is imago Dei and capable of redemption.
• Romans 3:23 — "All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." No one is beyond grace.
• The Parable of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15) — God welcomes back even those who have grossly failed.
• Prison Fellowship (founded by Charles Colson, 1976 — a Watergate criminal turned Christian) works to rehabilitate prisoners and support their families.
• Restorative justice: an approach promoted by many Christian organisations — bringing victim and offender together to repair harm rather than simply punish.

Islam

• Compassion within justice: Allah is simultaneously Al-Adl (the Just) and Al-Ghaffar (the Most Forgiving). Both must be reflected in human justice.
• The Qur'an: "And whoever repents and does righteousness does indeed turn to Allah with [accepted] repentance" (Qur'an 25:71).
• Islamic law (Shari'a) aims to protect five essential values: life, intellect, progeny, property and religion. Crime threatens these; punishment protects them.
• Zakat (obligatory almsgiving) addresses poverty as a structural cause of crime.

Humanism

• Crime is primarily a social and psychological phenomenon — caused by environmental factors.
• The response should be rehabilitation, education and addressing poverty — not punishment for its own sake.
• Peter Singer: suffering is bad regardless of who causes it; reducing suffering must guide criminal justice.

Civil disobedience

Civil disobedience is the deliberate, non-violent breaking of a law considered unjust, to draw attention to the injustice.

• Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Gandhi — all engaged in civil disobedience and appealed to a higher moral law.
• Augustine: "An unjust law is no law at all."
• Christian tradition: Acts 5:29 — "We must obey God rather than human beings." Early Christians refused emperor worship; modern examples include churches sheltering undocumented refugees.
• Islam: Obedience to rulers is required unless they order sin — the Prophet said, "There is no obedience to a creature in disobedience of the Creator."

Examiner tips

• Always distinguish crime (breaking state law) from sin (breaking God's law).
• For causes of crime, name at least three: poverty, addiction, mental illness, hate, unjust law.
• Civil disobedience links to both the crime topic and wider ethics — mention MLK and Augustine.
• For 12-mark questions, contrast religious responses (redemption, restorative justice) with secular responses (rehabilitation, deterrence).