What is a crime? — the three classic answers (learn all three): The legal-positivist (procedural): an act or omission prohibited by law and punishable by the State through criminal process — if the State prosecutes and the court may punish, it is a crime; The moral/social: a public wrong — conduct offending the community's shared moral conscience and threatening social order; The sanction-based (Austin): conduct for which the law provides PUNISHMENT — the operative difference from civil wrongs being the KIND of consequence.
The nature of crime — the four attributes: (i) a public wrong (prosecuted in the State's name — Government of Nepal v. X); (ii) State sanction (imprisonment, fine — under the Muluki Criminal Code 2074's sentencing scheme); (iii) moral condemnation (the conviction brands); (iv) a strict procedural regime (guilt beyond reasonable doubt — Article 20's guarantees). And the historicity point: crime is a social construct — the criminalization decision is a political-moral choice (marital rape criminalized in Nepal only in 2002; adultery, gambling and witchcraft- accusation illustrate the flux). Criminal law — the body of law defining crimes, prescribing punishments and regulating the criminal process's substantive guarantees: in Nepal, the Muluki Criminal Code, 2074 and the Criminal Procedure Code, 2074 (together replacing the Muluki Ain 2020's criminal halves) plus the special statutes (organised crime, anti-corruption, narcotics, banking, electronic transactions).
The classification of crime (the exam's catalogue): By gravity: serious/heinous vs. ordinary (bail, procedure and sentencing consequences); By moral quality: mala in se (wrong in itself — murder, rape) vs. mala prohibita (wrong because prohibited — regulatory offences); By the object harmed: against the State; public order/justice; the person; property; reputation; chastity/morality; public health; By conduct: result crimes (homicide), conduct crimes (drunk driving), state-of-affairs offences; By mental element: intentional, knowledge/recklessness, negligence, strict liability; Compoundable vs. non-compoundable (the Nepali practice classification).