352 words essay on the professional crime

A professional crime is one in which crime is committed in a specialized way with prime motive of economic gain. According to Sutherland (1965: 232), the term ‘professional’, when applied to a criminal, refers to the following four things: the pursuit of crime as a regular normal occupation, the development of skilled techniques, careful planning, and status among criminals.

It is on the basis of factors like these that the professional criminal is differentiated from the occasional criminal, the amateur criminal, and the unskilled criminal. Walter Reckless (The crime Problem, 1955: 148-50) has used the term ‘career criminals’ for professional criminals.

Professional criminals who commit crime as a regular business use techniques which have been developed over a long period of time and transmitted to them through personal association.

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With their codes of behaviour and consensus, they tend to look down upon amateur criminals as ‘kids’. What is important in professional crimes like burglary, robbery, dacoity, picking people’s pockets, etc. is the skill with which crime is committed.

For example, committing robbery in a professional way involves finding a person carrying a good amount of money, ornaments, jewels, etc., locating a place for the holdup, planning the hold-up, and executing the job. Generally speaking, a professional crime is committed in a non-violent way, though sometimes it involves violence too.

Professionalisation extends beyond the execution of a crime. It involves prior location of spots and prior preparation for escaping punishment in case of the detection of crime. Arrangements are made in advance for bail, legal service, and fixing the case.

It is in these advance arrangements, quite as much as in the technique of executing the crime, that professionalisation is found.

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Similarity has been noticed in the behaviour patterns of professional criminals and businessmen engaged in legitimate activities.

Both are engaged in a full-time pursuit; both are self-employed; both take their activities as the main means of earning their livelihood; both work for economic profit; both use specialised skills in their activities; both enjoy respect and reputation in their own worlds; and both have their own philosophy of life pertaining to their profession.