Not all offenses against the law are crimes. The laws which set down the punishment for crimes make up the criminal law. The offenses described as crimes are those which are considered most harmful to the community. If one individual murders another, for instance, he threatens the safety of people in general. For this reason the state punishes him for his crime. On the other hand, a man may wrong another person in some other way which offends the civil law. Such offenses are settled when one individual makes restitution to another, either by voluntary agreement or as the result of a court judgment. Civil offenses are called torts.

      In primitive society, all crimes, generally speaking, were torts. Even murder was a private matter between the criminal and the family of the victim. The family might settle the matter either by revenging itself on the murderer or by accepting a payment from him. Later, the idea of crime as an offense against society led to the making of criminal laws. Society thus took over the function of revenge on the individuals who broke its laws. But punishment of crime remained primarily a matter of revenge. Later, people began to think of punishment as a means of keeping people from com-mitting crimes. Modern criminologists believe that society must protect itself against criminals rather than revenge itself on them. This can be done either by re-forming the criminals and teaching them to become useful citizens or by removing them from society altogether.