358 PSYCHOLOGY IN HUMAN AFFAIRS
law-abiding community are referred to in space "3." The dotted line
from "3 " through "4" and into "5" again suggests that some or all of
these may continue indefinitely to be thought of as crimes.
New knowledge and changing conditions are producing the belief
held by advanced thinkers that there ought to be a law covering crimes
suggested in space "4." Many of these acts will be crimes under the
law in the future and will continue so to be considered for an indefinite
period extending into the future, as suggested by the dotted line from
"4" into "5."
By the same reasoning, knowledge and conditions not foreseen by
even the most enlightened today will in the future produce definitions
of behavior that will be criminal at some future time.
Under "6" are the theoretically unchanging values which define
acts that always have been and always will be crimes. Our cultural
heritage includes the absolutist tradition that tends to perpetuate the
attitude that right is right and wrong is wrong—and so it always has
been. Modern social science, however, is demonstrating the evolu-
tionary nature of ethical attitudes in human societies.
From the foregoing analysis it develops, then, that those persons
in the community who lead in forming public opinion and translating it
into legislation are constantly attempting, by the process of enacting
new laws and revising old ones, to keep the criminal law up-to-date.
This involves defining as crimes newly recognized forms of antisocial
behavior and newly devised methods of defeating the spirit and pur-
pose of existing laws. In a dynamic society like our own the lag in this
process of keeping the laws abreast of the times is considerable and
understandable.
Contemporary criminologists emphasize the extent of antisocial
behavior that is not prohibited by law but results in greater social
injury than much of recognized conventional crime. They call
attention to the dependence of the professional criminal on the coopera-
tion of respectable people.1
Strictly defined, then, crime is a proved violation of existing law.
Intention to do injury is not necessary nor does it always indicate a
crime. Intention to break a law, however, is frequently important in
establishing guilt in court. Actually, crimes are acts deemed injurious
to society that are forbidden by law. The effective laws are to a degree
determined by police and court officials who interpret and enforce
*See Sutherland,'op. tit., pp. 36-43; Taft, op. c#., pp. 17-19; Tannenbaum,
Frank, Crime and the Community, pp. 191-193, Ginn and Company, Boston, 1938;
Barnes, Harry Elmer, and Teeters, Negley K, New Horizons in Criminology,
Chap. 3, Prentice-Hall, Inc., New York, 1943.