Despite mountains of statutes enacted by governments making things illegal, there are really only eight crimes:
- Murder – Forcing death upon someone else against their will
- Rape – Forcing sex upon someone else against their will
- Assault – Forcing combat upon someone else against their will
- Kidnapping – Forcing detention upon someone else against their will
- Extortion – Using threats to force someone to do something against their will.
- Trespass – Intruding into space that you aren’t permitted to be in against the will of the owner.
- Theft – Taking something that doesn’t belong to you against the will of the owner.
- Fraud – Lying to create deception, misconception, loss, or harm.
The first five are straightforward uses of power to directly coerce someone to do something they don’t want to do. The next two subvert the will of another, often in a way that doesn’t require their presence. And then there is fraud, which directly uses untruth to subvert another’s will.
Accomplished criminals can weave these eight crimes together to create a repugnant tapestry of antipathy, but crime itself is not innovative.