CRIMINOLOGY

MODULE 1: THEORY AND METHOD

Crime, Criminal law and Criminals, Theories of Crime, Foundations of
Modern Criminology Theories of Crime Radical, Situational, and Rationality
perspectives, Getting a Line on Crime: The production and Use of Data.
Criminology
The scientific study of the nature, extent, cause, and control of criminal
behavior. Criminology is an interdisciplinary science. Criminologists hold
degrees in a variety of diverse fields—most commonly sociology, but also
criminal justice, political science, psychology, economics, engineering, and the
natural sciences. criminal justice- System made up of the agencies of social
control, such as police departments, the courts, and correctional institutions,
that handle criminal offenders. criminological enterprise- The various subareas
included within the scholarly discipline of criminology, which, taken as a whole,
define the field of study. Criminologists may specialize in one of them in the
same way in which psychologists might specialize in child development,
perception, personality, psycho-pathology, or social psychology.
The following subareas constitute the discipline of criminology.
[Link] Statistics- Gathering valid crime data. Devising new research
methods; measuring crime patterns and trends.
[Link] of Law / Law and Society / Socio-Legal Studies- Determining the
origin of law. Measuring the forces that can change laws and society.
[Link] Construction- Predicting individual behavior. Understanding the
cause of crime rates and trends.
[Link] Behavior Systems- Determining the nature and cause of specific
crime patterns. Studying violence, theft, organized crime, white-collar crime,
and public order crimes.
[Link]: Punishment, Sanctions, and Corrections- Subarea of criminology
that focuses on the correction and control of criminal offenders. Using the
scientific method to assess the effectiveness of criminal sanctions designed to
control crime through the application of criminal punishments.
[Link] Studying the nature and cause of victimization. Aiding crime
victims; understanding the nature and extent of victimization; developing
theories of victimization risk.
Criminologists interested in computing criminal statistics focus on creating
valid and reliable measures of criminal behavior: ▶
To analyze the activities of police and court agencies, they formulate
techniques for collecting and analysing institutional records and activities.
▶ To measure criminal activity not reported to the police by victims, they
develop survey instruments that estimate the percentage of people who
commit crimes but escape detection by the justice system.
▶ To identify the victims of crime, they create surveys designed to have
victims report loss and injury that may not have been reported to the police.
▶ To test theories (for example, the theory that income inequality produces
high crime rates), they create databases that make it possible to investigate
the relationship between an independent variable (such as percentage of
population living in poverty) and a dependent variable (such as neighborhood
violent crime rates).
THE CONCEPT OF CRIME
perspectives maintains its own view of what constitutes criminal behavior and
what causes people to engage in criminality. The three most common concepts
of crime used by criminologists are the consensus view, the conflict view, and
the interactionist view.
CONSENSUS VIEW OF CRIME
According to the consensus view, crimes are behaviors that all elements of
society consider repugnant. The rich and powerful as well as the poor and
indigent are believed to agree on which behaviors are so repugnant that they
should be outlawed and criminalized. Therefore, the criminal law—the written
code that defines crimes and their punishments—reflects the values, beliefs,
and opinions of society’s mainstream. The term “consensus” implies general
agreement among a majority of citizens on what behaviors should be
prohibited by criminal law and hence be viewed as crimes. This approach to
crime implies that it is a function of the beliefs, morality, and rules inherent in
Western civilization. Ideally, the laws apply equally to all members of society,
and their effects are not restricted to any single element of society.
CONFLICT VIEW OF CRIME
The conflict view (take a more political orientation toward its content) depicts
society as a collection of diverse groups—such as owners, workers,
professionals, and students—who are in constant and continuing conflict.
Groups able to assert their political power use the law and the criminal justice
system to advance their economic and social position. Criminal laws, therefore,
are viewed as created to protect the haves from the have-nots. Conflict
criminologists often contrast the harsh penalties inflicted on the poor for their
“street crimes” (burglary, robbery, and larceny) with the minor penalties the
wealthy receive for their white-collar crimes (securities violations and other
illegal business practices). Whereas the poor go to prison for minor law
violations, the wealthy are given lenient sentences for even serious breaches
of law.
INTERACTIONIST VIEW OF CRIME
According to the interactionist view, the definition of crime reflects the
preferences and opinions of people who hold social power in a particular legal
jurisdiction. These people use their influence to impose their definition of right
and wrong on the rest of the population. They maintain their power by
stigmatizing or labeling people who fall outside their definition of right and
wrong. Criminals therefore are individuals that society labels as outcasts or
deviants because they have violated social rules. In a classic statement,
sociologist Howard Becker argued, “The deviant is one to whom that label has
successfully been applied; deviant behavior is behavior people so label.”
Crimes are outlawed behaviors because society defines them that way, not
because they are inherently evil or immoral acts. Interactionists see criminal
law as conforming to the beliefs of “moral crusaders,” or moral entrepreneurs,
who use their influence to shape the legal process as they see fit. Laws against
pornography, prostitution, and drugs are believed to be motivated more by
moral crusades than by capitalist sensibilities. Consequently, interactionists are
concerned with shifting moral and legal standards.
DEFINITION OF CRIME
“Crime” is a violation of societal rules of behavior as interpreted and expressed
by the criminal law, which reflects public opinion, traditional values, and the
viewpoint of people currently holding social and political power. Individuals
who violate these rules are subject to sanctions by state authority, social
stigma, and loss of status.
An act, deemed socially harmful or dangerous, that is specifically defi ned,
prohibited, and punished under the criminal law.
History of criminal law
The concept of criminal law has been recognized for more than 3,000 years.
Hammurabi (1792–1750 BC), the sixth king of Babylon, created the most
famous set of written laws of the ancient world, known today as the Code of
Hammurabi. More familiar is the Mosaic Code of the Israelites (1200 BC). The
Mosaic Code is not only the foundation of Judeo-Christian moral teachings but
also a basis for the U.S. legal system. Prohibitions against murder, theft,
perjury, and adultery preceded, by several thousand years, the same laws
found in the modern United States.
Common law- Early English law, developed by judges, which became the
standardized law of the land in England and eventually formed the basis of the
criminal law in the United States.
Procedural law controls the actions of the agencies of justice and define the
rights of criminal defendants. Judicial precedents that defi ne and guarantee
the rights of criminal defendants and control the various components of the
criminal justice system. he justice system is bound by the rule of law, which
ensures that criminal defendants are protected from violations of their civil
rights. procedural rights protect defendants from illegal searches and seizures
and from overly aggressive police interrogations. According to the exclusionary
rule, illegally seized evidence cannot be used during a trial.
CONTEMPORARY CRIMINAL LAW
Criminal laws are now divided into felonies and misdemeanors. The distinction
is based on seriousness: A felony is a serious offense, a misdemeanor a minor
or petty crime. Crimes such as murder, rape, and burglary are felonies; they
are punished with long prison sentences or even death. Crimes such as
unarmed assault and battery, petty larceny, and disturbing the peace are
misdemeanors; they are punished with a fine or a period of incarceration in a
county jail. Acts prohibited by the criminal law constitute behaviors considered
unacceptable and impermissible by those in power. By outlawing these
behaviors, the government expects to achieve a number of social goals:
(ideal characteristics of criminal law )
▶ Enforcing social control. Those who hold political power rely on criminal law
to formally prohibit behaviors believed to threaten societal well-being or to
challenge their authority. For example, U.S. criminal law incorporates
centuries-old prohibitions against the following behaviors harmful to others:
taking another person’s possessions, physically harming another person,
damaging another person’s property, and cheating another person out of his
or her possessions. Similarly, the law prevents actions that challenge the
legitimacy of the government, such as planning its overthrow and collaborating
with its enemies.
▶ Discouraging revenge. By punishing people who infringe on the rights,
property, and freedom of others, the law shifts the burden of revenge from the
individual to the state. As Oliver Wendell Holmes stated, this prevents “the
greater evil of private retribution.”34 Although state retaliation may offend the
sensibilities of many citizens, it is greatly preferable to a system in which
people have to seek justice for themselves.
▶ Expressing public opinion and morality. Criminal law reflects constantly
changing public opinions and moral values. Murder and forcible rape, are
almost universally prohibited; however, the prohibition of legislatively created
mala prohibitum crimes, such as traffic offenses and gambling violations,
changes according to social conditions and attitudes. Criminal law is used to
codify these changes.
▶ Deterring criminal behavior. Criminal law has a social control function. It can
control, restrain, and direct human behavior through its sanctioning power.
The threat of punishment associated with violating the law is designed to
prevent crimes before they occur. During the Middle Ages, public executions
drove this point home. Today, criminal law’s impact is felt through news
accounts of long prison sentences and an occasional execution.
▶ Punishing wrongdoing. The deterrent power of criminal law is tied to the
authority it gives the state to sanction or punish offenders. Those who violate
criminal law are subject to physical coercion and punishment.
▶ Creating equity. Criminals benefit from their misdeeds. People who violate
business laws make huge profits from their illegal transactions; the drug dealer
accumulates wealth because of his trafficking in illegal substances. Through
fines, forfeiture, and other economic sanctions, the criminal law redistributes
illegal gains back to society, thereby negating the criminal’s unfair advantage.
▶ Maintaining social order. All legal systems are designed to support and
maintain the boundaries of the social system they serve. In medieval England,
the law protected the feudal system by defining an orderly system of property
transfer and ownership. Laws in some socialist nations protect the primacy of
the state by strictly curtailing profiteering and individual enterprise. Our own
capitalist system is also supported and sustained by criminal law. In a sense,
the content of criminal law is more a reflection of the needs of those who
control the existing economic and political system than a representation of
some idealized moral code.
THE EVOLUTION OF CRIMINAL LAW
The criminal law is constantly evolving in an effort to reflect social and
economic conditions.
1. Sometimes legal changes are prompted by highly publicized cases that
generate fear and concern. For example, enacting of stalking statutes; Such
laws prohibit “the willful, malicious, and repeated following and harassing of
another person.”
2. The criminal law may also change because of shifts in culture and social
conventions and thus may reflect a newfound tolerance for behavior
condemned only a few years before. For example, the Supreme Court declared
that laws banning sodomy were unconstitutional because they violated the
due process rights of citizens because of their sexual orientation.
3. The future direction of U.S. criminal law remains unclear. Certain actions,
such as crimes by corporations and political corruption, will be labeled as
criminal and given more attention. Other offenses, such as recreational drug
use, may be reduced in importance or removed entirely from the criminal law
system. In addition, changing technology and its ever-increasing global and
local roles in our lives will require modifications in criminal law.
Developmental theories
Theories that attempt to explain the “natural history” of a criminal career: its
onset, the course it follows, and its termination. These theories maintain that
criminality is a dynamic process, influenced by social experiences as well as
individual characteristics. Two distinct developmental viewpoints have taken
shape: the life-course view and the latent trait view. Those who subscribe to
life-course theories view criminality as a dynamic process, influenced by a
multitude of individual characteristics, traits, and social experiences. As people
travel through the life course, they are constantly bombarded by changing
perceptions and experiences, and as a result their behavior changes direction,
sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. Proponents of latent
trait theories (propensity theories) believe that human development is
controlled by a “master trait,” present at birth or soon after, that, in the case
of criminals, endows them with an increased propensity to commit crime.
1..Developmental propensity theory
▶ Proposed by Lahey and Waldman in (2005)
▶ A theory that aims to explain the factors in development that lead certain
individuals to develop an underlying propensity for conduct disorder and
juvenile delinquency, focusing particularly on childhood and adolescence.
Their key construct is antisocial propensity, which tends to persist over time
and has a wide variety of behavioral manifestations, reflecting the versatility
and comorbidity of antisocial behaviour.
▶ The most important factors that contribute to antisocial propensity are low
cognitive ability (especially verbal ability), and three dispositional dimensions:
prosociality (including sympathy and empathy, as opposed to callous-
unemotional traits); daring (uninhibited or poorly controlled); and genetic
basis, and Lahey and Waldman discuss gene- environment interactions.
2..Moffitt:Adolescence-limited versus life-course-persistent offending
▶ Proposed by Moffitt (1993).
▶ Proposed that there are two different categories of antisocial people
(differing in kind rather than in degree), namely life-course-persistent (LCP)
adolescence-limited (AL) offenders.
▶ Life-course-persistent offending delinguent/antisocial behaviour that
persists throughout an indviduals lifetime, often starting in childhood.
▶ LCPs start offending at an early age and persist beyond their twenties, while
the ALs have a short Iife-course-persistent offending) describes Criminal career
largely limited to their teenage years.
▶ The LCPs commit a wide range of oftences including violence, whereas the
ALs commit predominantly 'rebellious' non-violent offences such vandalism.
The main factors that encourage offending by the LCPs are cognitive deficits,
an under controlled temperment, hyperactivity. poor parenting, disrupted
families, teenage parents, poverty and low socio-economic status (SES).
Genetic and biological factors, such as low heart rate, are important. Theory
suggests that neuropsychological and environmental factors are the key
constructs underlying antisocial behaviour.
▶ The main factors that encourage offending by the ALS are the 'maturity gap'
(their inability to achieve adult rewards such as material goods during their
teenage years) and peer influence (especialhy from the LCPs). Consequently,
the Als stop offending when they enter legitimate adult roles and can achieve
their desires legally. The ALs can easily stop because they have few
neuropsychological deficits.
▶ The theory focuses mainly on the development of offenders and does not
attempt to explain why offences are committed. However, it suggests that the
presence of delinquent peers is an important situational influence on ALs, and
that LCPs seek out opportunities and victims.
▶ LCPs are mainly influenced by utlitarian motives, whereas the ALs are
influenced by teenage boredom.
▶ Adult life events such as getting a job or geting married are hypothesised to
be of little importance, because the LCPs are too committed to an antisocial
lifestyle and the ALs desist naturally as they age into adult roles.
3.. Interactional theory
▶ The interactional theory is proposed by Thornberry and Krohn (2005)
▶ This theory particularly focuses on factors encouraging antisocial behaviour
at different ages.
▶ Thornberry and Krohn do not propose types of offenders but suggest that
the causes of antisocial behaviour vary for children who start at different ages.
▶ At the earliest ages (birth to 6), the three most important factors are
1. Neuropsychological deficit and difficult temperament (e.g. impulsiveness,
negative emotionality, fearlessness, poor emotion regulation)
[Link] deficits (eg. poor monitoring, low affective ties, inconsistent
discipline, physical punishment)
3. Structural adversity (eg. poverty, unemployment, welfare dependency, a
disorganised neighbourhood).
They also suggest that structural adversity might cause poor parenting.
▶ At ages 6-12, neighbourhood and family factors are particularly salient,
▶ while at ages 12-18 school and peer factors dominate. Neuropsychological
deficits are less important for children who start antisocial behaviour at older
ages. Thornberry and Krohn also suggest that deviant opportunities, gangs and
deviant social networks are important for onset at ages 12-18.
▶ They propose that late starters (ages 18-25) have cognitive deficits such as
low intelligence and poor school performance but that they have been
protected from antisocial behaviour at earlier ages by a supportive family and
school environment. At ages 18-25, they find it hard to make a successful
transition to adult roles such as employment and marriage.
4.. : Age-graded informal social control theory
▶ This theory is proposed by Sampson and Laub's (2005)
▶ The key construct in Sampson and Laub's (2005) theory is age-graded
informal social control, which means the strength of bonding to family, peers,
schools and, later, adult social institutions such as marriages and jobs.
Sampson and Laub primarily aimed to explain why people do not commit
offences, on the assumption that why people want to offend is unproblematic
(presumably caused by hedonistic desires) and that offending is inhibited by
the strength of bonding to society.
▶ The strength of bonding depends on attachments to parents, schools,
delinguent fiends and delinquent siblings, and also on parental soctalisation
processes such as discipline and supervision. Structural background variables
(e g. social class, ethnicity, large family size, criminal parents, disrupted
families) and individual factors (eg low intelligence, dificult temperament, early
conduct disorder) have indirect effects on offending through their effects on
informal social control (attachment and socialisation processes).
▶ Sampson and Laub are concerned with the whole life course. They
emphasise change over time rather than consistency, and the poor ability of
early childhood risk factors to predict later life outcomes. They focus on
importance of later life events (adult turning points) such as joining the
military, getting a stable job and married, in fostering desistance and 'knifing
off the past from the present.
▶ They also suggest that neighbourhood changes can cause changes in
offending. Because of their emphasis on change and unpredictability, they
deny importance of types of offenders such as "life-course per sisters. They
suggest that offending decreases with for all types of offenders.
▶ They also propose that official labelling influences offending through its
effects on job instability and unemployment.
▶ They argue that early delinquency can cause weak adult social bonds, which
in turn fail to inhibit adult offending.
PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES
Psychological theories aim to explain why some individuals become offenders
rather than others. They always include postulates about psychological or
individual difference factors such as impulsiveness, personality factors or
intelligence, and about family factors such as parental supervision or discipline.
1..Attachment theory
Proposed by Bowlby (1969). Bowlby (1969) emphasised the importance of
attachment between a child and a primary caretaker (usually the mother). He
argued that it was very important for a child to have a continuous, warm,
loving relationship with a mother figure during the first five years of child's life,
and especially during the first two years.
▶ If a child suffered a prolonged period of maternal deprivation during the
first five years of life (especially a broken home), this was likely to have
irreversible negative effects, including becoming a cold affectionless character'
and a delinquent.
▶ Studies found that boys from single-parent families were particularly likely
to be convicted.
2..Eysenck: Personality theory
▶ It is assumed that this behavioural consistency depends primarily on the of
underlying tendencies to behave in particular ways in particular situations.
These tendencies are termed personality traits, such as impulsiveness,
excitement seeking, assertiveness, modesty and dutifulness. Larger the
personality dimensions, such as extraversion, refer to reported that both
parental conflict and many changes clusters' of personality traits.
▶He viewed offending as natural and even rational, on the assumption that
human beings were hedonistic, sought pleasure and avoided pain. He assumed
that delinquent acts, such as theft, violence and vandalism, were essentially
pleasurable or beneficial to the offender.
▶ In order to explain why everyone was not a criminal, Eysenck suggested that
hedonistic tendency to commit crimes was opposed by the conscience, which
was viewed as a conditioned fear response.
▶On the Eysenck theory, people who commit offences are those who have not
built up strong consciences, mainly because they have inherently poor
conditionability. Poor conditionability is linked to Eysenck's three dimensions
of personality: extraversion (E), neuroticism (N) and psychoticism (P).
▶ People who are high on the E dimension build up conditioned responses less
well, because they have low levels of cortical arousal. People who are high on
the N dimension condition less well, because their high resting level of anxiety
interferes with their conditioning. Also, since N acts as a drive reinforcing
existing behavioural tendencies, neurotic extraverts should be particularly
criminal. Eysenck also predicted that people who are high on P would tend to
be offenders, because the traits included in his definition of psychoticism
(emotional coldness, low empathy, high hostility and inhumanity) were typical
of criminals.
3..Social learning theory
▶ Proposed by Patterson (1982).
▶ The basic idea of social learning theory is very simple: actions that are
rewarded are more likely to occur subsequently and actions that are punished
are less likely to occur subsequently.
▶ Patterson found that parents of antisocial children failed to tell their
children how they were expected to behave, failed to monitor their behaviour
to ensure that it was desirable, and failed to enforce rules promptly and
unambiguously with appropriate rewards and penalties. The parents of
antisocial children used more punishment (such as scolding, shouting or
threatening) but failed to use it consistently or make it contingent on the
child's behaviour.
▶ Patterson especially emphasised the importance of coercive actions by
parents and children. If a parent behaves coercively towards a child (shouting
or threatening), the effect depends on the reaction of the child. If the child
reacts coercively (yelling or arguing), and if the parent then stops being
coercive, the child learns to use hostile reactions to terminate hostile
situations. The main idea is that children raised in coercive families learn to use
coercive behaviour.
4..Lifestyle theory
▶Walters (2006) proposed a theory that mainly aimed to explain the
development of a criminal lifestyle and subsequent change and desistance
processes.
▶He defined the principal features of a criminal lifestyle as including social
rule-breaking ( offending), irresponsibility (in jobs and relationships), self-
indulgence ( in substance abuse, tattoos) and interpersonal intrusiveness
( supervision in childhood was the best predictor of both in violence).
▶ His functional model explained how this lifestyle developed, focusing on
hedonistic motivation, excitement-seeking, a desire for personal advantage,
and constructive or defensive reactions to fears and threats. Defensive
reactions include aggression, withdrawal, immobilisation and appeasement.
▶Finally his change model explained how people gave up the criminal lifestyle,
focusing on changes in self concept, taking responsibility; increases in self
confidence and understanding the impact of actions.
5..THE ICAP THEORY
▶The integrated cognitive antisocial potential (ICAP) theory was primarily
designed to explain Long-term risk factors offending by lower-class males.
▶The key construct underlying offending is antisocial potential (AP), which
refers to the potential to commit antisocial acts.
▶ Long-term AP depends on
impulsiveness, on strain,
modelling and socialisation
processes, and on life events,
while short-term variations in
AP depend on motivating and
situational factors.
▶People with high AP are
more likely to commit many
different types of antisocial
acts, including different types
of offences.
▶The relative ordering of
people on AP (long-term
between-individual variation)
tends to be consistent over
time, but absolute levels of AP
vary with age, peaking in the
teenage years, because of
changes within individuals in the factors that influence long term AP ( from
childhood to adolescence, the increasing importance of peers and decreasing
importance of parents).
6..Rational choice theory (choice theory)
The view that crime is a function of a decision-making process in which the
potential offender weighs the potential costs and benefits of an illegal act.
Becker argued that except for a few mentally ill people, criminals behave in a
predictable or rational way when deciding to commit crime . The decision to
commit crime may lie in a variety of personal reasons, including greed,
revenge, need, anger, lust, jealousy, thrill-seeking, or vanity. According to
rational choice theory, potential criminals calculate the possible benefits of
committing crime and choose not to commit a crime if the disadvantages of
doing so outweigh the benefits. Crime can therefore be prevented if people
are convinced that it is not in their best interest to violate the law. Before
choosing to commit a crime, reasoning criminals carefully select targets, and
their behavior is systematic and selective. Burglars seem to choose targets on
the basis of their value, novelty, and resale potential. The decision to commit
crime is enhanced by the promise of easy gain with low risk. In contrast, the
decision to forgo crime is reached when the potential criminal believes that
the risks outweigh the rewards: ▶ They stand a good chance of getting caught
and being punished. ▶ They fear the consequences of punishment. ▶ They
risk losing the respect of their peers, damaging their reputations, and
experiencing feelings of guilt or shame. ▶ The risk of apprehension outweighs
the profit and/or pleasure of crime.
Scientific method
The use of verifiable principles and procedures for the systematic acquisition of
knowledge. Typically involves formulating a problem, creating hypotheses, and
collecting data, through observation and experiment, to verify the hypotheses.
▶ Scientific method is used to conduct research. The scientific method is
objective, universal, and culture-free.
▶ Predicting and explaining social phenomena in a logical manner. This means
identifying necessary and sufficient conditions under which a phenomenon
may or may not occur.
▶ Empirical verification. All beliefs or statements must be proved through
empirical investigation guided by the scientific method. Such concepts as
“God” and the “soul” cannot be measured empirically and therefore are not
the subject of scientific inquiry; they remain a matter of faith.
▶ Science must be value-free and should not be influenced by the
observer/scientist’s biases or political point of view.