Abstract

Crime is a human behavior that has captivated the thoughts of scholars of various disciplines throughout history. Philosophers, sociologists, psychologists and others have investigated and analyzed the concept of crime from different aspects. Crime is the main topic of criminal law, and in its legal meaning is a well-known term with a certain conceptual load that should not be confused with similar concepts such as guilt, civil crime, and particularly, the disciplinary transgression. Although crime has common points with all the above, it is an independent concept with unique effects, features, and descriptions that distinguish it from similar acts. This article aims to determine the difference between the concepts of crime, guilt, civil crime and disciplinary transgression through enumeration of the related issues as well as examples of medical disciplinary crimes and transgressions. Identifying and distinguishing these concepts can improve the procedure of prosecuting crimes and disciplinary transgression, bring punishment to criminals and transgressors, and facilitate compensation of pecuniary and non-pecuniary losses due to committers’ fault or failure. Thus we may avoid taking a wrong route that can lead to infringement of individuals’ rights.