Exactly what is crime? Simply put, crime is an act that violates the rights of a person, or persons, or their property. That's a rather simplified definition. The actual definition is much too long for this article. But crime is not only a violation of a person or persons; it can also be an act that could endanger the lives or safety of the public in general. An example of that type of crime could include the firing of a weapon inside the city limits. By discharging a firearm in a populated area, you endanger the lives of all who live within the range of that particular weapon. The bullet could ricochet and hurt an innocent bystander, or if fired into the air, it could come down and injure someone. By firing the weapon in a populated area, the person who fired it has demonstrated a wanton and reckless disregard for the safety of others. Crime affects us all in one way or another. Because of that, society has enacted laws designed to protect every man, woman and child. For instance, the person who shoplifts from the local department store causes all of us to pay higher prices for the products or services we need. Let me explain. When people shoplift it costs the company they steal from money because they had to pay for that product and they got nothing for it. They just lost money. Now imagine four people a day shoplift products totaling $20. In seven days they lost $140. But what if that company has 100 stores nationwide and each store loses $20 a day. That comes to $2000 a day, $14,000 a week. Multiply by 52 weeks a year and you get a whopping $728,000 lost every year. Now they have to implement security measures to control their losses. And it isn't cheap. They have to install cameras, hire security people to watch the cameras and walk the floor, insurance for those people not to mention the salaries for each of them. On top of all that there is the cost of prosecuting all those shoplifters. Many companies spend millions every year to prevent theft. The money lost from stolen products, money spent on security and wages for the security staff has to be made up somewhere. Guess who has to make up the shortage? You guessed it. You, the honest shopper, ends up having to pay higher prices for the products and services you want. But the price you pay for crime doesn't stop there. You don't get off that easy. Once the lawbreaker is prosecuted he/she has to be incarcerated. Housing, clothing and feeding criminals is expensive. In 2007 a local newspaper, The Sacramento Bee, reported that the average annual cost of housing prison inmates in the California prison system was $43,287 per inmate. In 2008 TV station WHAS in Louisville, Ky. reported that the average cost of housing an inmate in Ky. was $20,000. WHAS also reported that Kentucky has the fastest rising inmate population in the country, causing huge money problems for the people of Kentucky. Crime costs all of us in higher prices for food, clothing, etc. and in taxes to pay for housing criminals once they are prosecuted. For more information on crime, visit http://policemicroblog.com and http://lawfirmmicroblog.com