[216] See Kautsky, op. cit., p. 47, and Grotjahn, op. cit., pp. 20 ff. [↑]
BOOK II.
CRIMINALITY.
CHAPTER I.
GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.[1]
A. Definition of Crime.[2]
Crime belongs to the category of punishable acts. However, as the term is applicable to only a part of such acts, it is necessary to be more exact. The best way to do this, in my opinion, is to exclude successively all the groups of acts which are punishable without being crimes.
The first exclusion is in connection with the question, “Who is it that punishes?” You cannot call that a crime against which one or several individuals take action of their own motion, and where the social group to which they belong does not move as such. In this case the word “punish” is an improper term, for the act in question is one of personal vengeance. Nor can you apply the name of crime to the act of a group of persons forming a social entity, against an analogous group. The reaction of the second group called forth by such act is not properly punishment, but “blood-” or “group-vengeance”, and is in reality nothing but a kind of war.[3]