Publisher Summary The use of physical force against a person or property is a crime of violence. Violent crimes include murders, robberies, rapes, and assaults that frighten people. Three behaviors generally are viewed as serious violent crimes—homicide, assault, and rape. Conventional forms of homicide are a by-product of social interaction; their incidence increases on weekends, holidays, and other times of more intense social activity. A homicide is viewed as a completed assault and an assault as an unfinished murder. Rape has undergone from a sex crime to a crime of violence, although it has a strong sexual component. This component involves the use of sexual dominance as an indication of power and superiority. Domestic violence causes serious harm to women and children. Sibling violence plays a role in socialization into the use of violence. Business, government, and professional violence form a very large part of the roster of serious harm-inflicting offenses. Injuries are often brought about by a failure to take proper precautions or by deceit in validating tests, as with new drugs. Organized crime is a term used to categorize groups of offenders, usually of similar ethnic identification, who use force to get their way. Organized criminals engage in activities such as extortion, drug trafficking, money laundering, and protection rackets in which for a certain payoff they will “protect” a merchant from their own willingness to wreck his or her store and from predation by other mobsters.