“Natural Crimes” and “Legal Crimes” Introduction Crimes can be regarded in two different ways, “natural crimes” and “legal crimes.” The first is known in Latin as mala in se and is crime that is simply always wrong; while the second is known as mala prohibita and is wrong because it is prohibited by law. This paper considers these two concepts and then examines the FBI crime index to see which crimes might be put into which category. Discussion Davis argues that neither definition serves the legal community particularly well, because of the changes that have occurred in society over the years since the terms first came into common usage (Davis, 2006). However, mala in se is the more problematic of the two, because it requires that judgments be made on the basis of morality, and people don’t always agree on what is moral and immoral. Davis notes that today, people still argue cases based on concepts set forth by William Blackstone in the mid-18th century, specifically mala in se and mala prohibita (2006). The problem is that “the distinction between malum in se and malum prohibitum breaks down when the concepts are applied to specific crimes” (Davis, 2006, p. 270). For instance, Davis argues that it’s difficult to classify statutory rape, since the criminal aspects of the offense lie in the age of the victim, not in the conduct of the actors per se (Davis, 2006). This is, a man or boy can be charged with statutory rape even if the gi