Essay from the year 2009 in the subject Law - Criminal process, Criminology, Law Enforcement, grade: 2:1, University of Portsmouth, language: English, abstract: There are many perceptions of what defines crime. The definitions appear to change throughout history and are still changing today (Henry, S. and Lanier, M. M., 2001 ,p.139). For example, in the past marital rape was not considered a crime as it was thought that women were believed to be sexual property of the male and, therefore it couldnt be classed as rape (Brownmiller, 1975, cited by Bergen, R.K., 1996, p.3) [...]