Introduction to Criminology and Crime Psychology
Introduction to Criminology and Crime Psychology
CRIMINOLOGY
- any person who is a graduate of the Degree of criminology, who has passed the
examination for criminologists and is registered as such by the Board of
Examiners of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC).
Etymologically, the term criminology came from the Latin word "crimen" meaning crime
and Greek word "Logos" which means "to study"
In 1885, Rafael Garofalo, an Italian Law Professor coined the term criminologia In 1889,
Paul Topinard, French Anthropologist, used the term criminology in French criminologie
for the first time
1. Etiology of Crimes - the scientific analysis of the causes of crimes and the
criminal behavior.
2. Sociology of Law - refers to the investigation of the nature of criminal law
and its administration
3. Penology - the study of the control of crimes and the rehabilitation of
offender
Is criminology a science?
According to George Wilker, criminology cannot become a science because it has not
yet acquired universal validity. Edwin H. Sutherland, the Dean of Modern Criminology,
hoped that it will become a science in the future since the causes of crimes are almost
the same which may be biological, environmental or combination of the two.
Nature of Criminology
CRIME
- refers to an act committed or omitted in violation of public law (Phil. Law Dictionary).
CLASSIFICATION OF CRIMES
LEGAL CLASSIFICATIONS:
a. By means of dolo or deceit - if the crime is committed with deliberate intent. Thus, it
is called intentional felonies
freedom or voluntariness
intelligence
intent
felonies committed by means of culpa (fault)- the act or omission of the offender
is not malicious and the injury caused by the offender is unintentional, it being the
simply the incident of another act performed without malice
lack of foresight
lack of skill
Negligence
Imprudence
4. According to plurality:
5. According to gravity
a) Grave felonies - are those to which the law attaches the capital
punishment or penalties which in any of their period are afflictive.
b) Less grave felonies - are those which the law punishes with penalties
which in their maximum period are correctional.
c) Light felonies - are infraction of laws for the commission of which the
penalty of arresto menor or a fine not exceeding 200 pesos or both is
provided
a) Crimes mala in se - are acts that are inherently evil. Examples are
murder, robbery, etc.
b) Crimes mala prohibita - are acts which are prohibited only because
there are laws forbidding such acts. Examples are Illegal Possession of
firearms, Traffic Violations, etc.
c)
CRIMINAL
in the legal sense, a criminal is any person willo has been found to have committed a
wrongful act in the course of the standard judicial process; there must be a final verdict
of his guilt in the criminological sense, a person is already considered a criminal the
moment he committed a crime
CLASSIFICATIONS OF CRIMINALS
1. According to etiology
b. Chronic criminal - is one who committed a crime with intent or deliberated thinking.
Primitive Tribes
B. EARLY CODES
it provides the first comprehensive view of the laws in the early days
the Code was carved in stone
the law of talion", or the principle of "tit for tat".(an eye for an eye, tooth for a
tooth) appearsthroughout the Code
under the principle of the law of talion, the punishment should be the same as the
harm inflicted on the victim
2. THE HITTITES- the Hittites existed about two centuries after Hammurabi
and eventually conquered Babylon
3. CODE OF DRAKON
4. LAWS OF SOLON
- Solon was appointed archon and was given legislative powers
- Solon repealed all the laws of the Code of Drakon, except the law on homicide
- Solon was one of the first to see that a lawgiver had to make laws that applied
equally to all citizens and also saw that the law of punishment had to maintain
proportionality to the crimes committed
5. ROME'S TWELVE TABLES
- Roman law began with the Twelve Tables which were written in the middle of the
sixth century BC
- the Twelve Tables were the foundation of all laws in Rome and written in tablets
of bronze
CRIMINAL LAW- is that branch of public law which defines crimes treats of their nature
and provides for their punishment.
- book that contains the Philippine Criminal Law and different special laws and decrees
which are penal in nature. It is called as RPC because the old penal code which took
effect in the country on July 14, 1887 and was in force until Dec. 31, 1931 was revised
by the Committee created by Administrative Order No94 of the Department of Justice,
dated Oct. 18, 1927, composed of Anacleto Diaz as Chairman, Alex Reyes and Mariano
de Joya as members. The RPC was approved on Dec. 8, 1930 and took effect on
January 1, 1932.
It is composed of two books; book one which is composed of Articles 1-113 and book
two covering
Articles 114-367.
1. Generality - the law is applicable to all persons within the territory irrespective of
sex, race, nationality or civil status except:
a) Head of state
b) Foreign diplomats, ambassadors, who are duly accredited to our country
c) Foreign troops permitted to march within the territory
2. Territoriality - the RPC is applicable to felonies committed within the Philippine
territorial jurisdiction
a) Philippine archipelago - all the islands that comprise the Philippines
b) Atmosphere water - all bodies of water that connect all the islands
such as bays, rivers and streams
c) Maritime zone - the twelve (12) Nautical Mile limit beyond our shore
measured at low tide.
The Revised Penal Code shall be applicable to all cases committed outside the
Philippine territorial
3. Prospectivity - the provisions of the RPC cannot be applied if the act is not yet
punishable on the time the felony was committed. However, it may have a
retroactive effect if it is favorable to the accused who is not a habitual delinquent.
4. It is specific and definite
Criminal law must give a strict definition of a specific act which constitutes an
offense. Where there is doubt as to whether a definition embodied in the Revised
Penal Code applies to the accused or not, the judge is obligated to decide the
case infavor of the accused. Criminal law must be construed liberally in favor of
the accused and strictly against the state.
5. It is uniform in application.
An act described as a crime is a crime no matter who committed it, wherever committed
in the Philippines and whenever committed. No exceptions must be made as to the
criminal liability. The definition of crimes together with the corresponding punishment
must be uniformly construed, although there may be a difference in the enforcement of
a given specific provision of the penal law.
School of Thought - refers to a group of beliefs or ideas that support a specific theory.
The classical school of criminology grew out of a reaction against the barbaric system of
law, punishment and justice that existed. There was no real system of criminal justice in
Europe at that time. Some crimes were specified, some were not. Judges had
discretionary power to convict a person for an act not even legally defined as criminal.
This school of thought is based on the assumption that individuals choose to commit
crimes after
They can choose legal or illegal means to get what they want, fear of punishment can
deter them from committing crime and society can control behavior by making the pain
of punishment greater than the pleasure of the criminal gains.
This theory, however, does not give any distinction between an adult and a minor or a
mentally-handicapped in as far as free will is concerned. Founders of classical school of
criminology are Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham.
-best known for his essay, "On Crimes and Punishment" which presented key ideas on
the abolition of torture as legitimate means of extracting confession.
- His book contains almost all modern penal reforms but its greatest contribution was
the foundation it laid for subsequent changes in criminal legislation
his book was influential in the reforms of penal code in France, Russia, Prussia and it
influenced the first ten amendments to the US Constitution
1. In forming a human society, men and women sacrifice a portion of their libery
so as to enjoy peace and security
2. Punishments that go beyond the need of preserving the public safety are in
their nature unjust.
3. Criminal laws must be clear and certain. Judges must make uniform judgments
in similar crimes
4. The law must specify the degree of evidence that will justify the detention of an
accused offender prior to his trial.
5. Accusations must be public. False accusations should be severely punished.
6. To torture accused offenders to obtain a confession is inadmissible
7. The promptitude of punishment is one of the most effective curbs on crime
8. The aim of punishment can only be to prevent the criminal from committing
new crimes against his countrymen, and to keep others from doing likewise.
Punishments, therefore, and the method of inflicting them, should be chosen in
due proportion to the crime, so as to make the most lasting impression on the
minds of men.
9. Capital punishment is inefficacious and its place should be substituted life
imprisonment.
10. It is better to prevent crimes than to punish them. That is the chief purpose of
all good legislation.
his contribution to classical school of criminology is the concept of utilitarianism and the
felicific calculus
proposed "Utilitarian Hedonism" which explains that person always acts in such a
way to seek pleasure and avoid pain.
founded the concept of UTILITARIANISM - assumes that all our actions are
calculated in accordance with their likelihood of bringing pleasure and pain
devised the pseudo-mathematical formula called "felicific calculus" which states
that individuals are human calculators who put all the factors into an equation
in order to decide whether a particular crime is worth committing or not
he reasoned that in order to deter individuals from committing crimes, the
punishment, or pain, must be greater than the satisfaction, or pleasure, he
would gain from committing the crime
Utilitarianism
- is a philosophy which argues that what is right is the one that would cause the greatest
good for the greatest number of people.
others refer to it as the greatest happiness principle or the principle of utility. from this
principle, Bentham formulated the "felicific calculus".
1. NEOCLASSICAL CRIMINOLOGY
This theory modified the doctrine of free will by stating that free will of men may
be affected by other factors and crime is committed due to some compelling
reasons that prevail. These causes are pathology, incompetence, insanity or
any condition that will make it impossible for the individual to exercise free will
entirely. In the study of legal provisions, this is termed as either mitigating or
exempting circumstances.
August comte
was a French philosopher and sociologist and is believed to be the one who
reinvented the French term sociologie
he was recognized as the "Father of Sociology and Positivism".
1. Enricco Ferri
2. Raffaelle Garofalo
3. Cesare Lombroso
Cesare Lombroso
he focused his study on the influences of psychological factors and sociological factors
such as economics, on crimes
- He believed that criminals could not be held morally responsible because they did not
choose to commit crimes, but rather were driven to commit crimes by conditions in their
lives.
Raffaelle Garofallo
- He treated the roots of the criminals' behavior not to physical features but to their
psychology equivalent, which he referred to as moral anomalies.
1. BIOLOGICAL THEORIES
this refers to the set of theories that point tophysical, physiological and other natural
factors as the causes for the commission of crimes of certain individuals.
- This explanation for the existence of criminal traits associates an individual's evil
disposition to physical disfigurement or impairment.
a. Physiognomy - the study of facial features and their relation to human behavior.
- he was the man most responsible for popularizing and spreading phrenology to a wide
audience
c. Physiology or Somatotype - refers to the study of body build of a person in relation
to his temperament and personality and the type of offense he is most prone to commit.
1. Ernst Kretschmer
- he distinguished three (3) principal types of physiques: asthenic, athletic, pyknik and
dysplastic.
a. ectomorph - tall and thin and less social and more intellectual than the other types.
b.mesomorph - have well-developed muscles and an athletic appearance.
- conducted a study of the Jukes family by researching their family tree as far back 200
years
2. Henry Goddard
- he traced the descendants of the Martin Kallikak from each of his two wives and found
a distinct difference in termsof quality of lives of descendants. He coined the term
"moron".
3. Charles Goring
he believed that criminal traits can be passed from parents to offspring through
the genes.
he proposed that individuals who possess criminal characteristics should be
prohibited from having children.
The classic studies of the Juke and Kallikak families were among the first to show that
feeblemindedness or low-intelligence can be inherited and transferred from one
generation to the next.
Numerous test were also conducted that lead to the development of the use of IQ tests
as a testing procedure for offenders. The very first results seemed to confirm that
offenders had low mental abilities and they were found to be mentally impaired.
- the test measured the capacity of individual children to perform tasks or solve
problems in relation to the average capacity of their peers.
2. PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES
refers to the theories that attribute criminal behavior of individuals to psychological
factors, such as emotion and mental problems.
a. Sigmund Freud
3. SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES
- sociological factors refer to things, places and people with whom we come in contact
with and which play a part in determining our actions and conduct. These causes may
bring about the development of criminal behavior.
a. Emile Durkheim
he stated that crime is a normal part of the society just like birth and death.
proposed the concept of "anomie" or the absence of social norms. It is
characterized by disorder due to lack of common values shared by individuals,
lack of respect for authority and lack of appreciation for what is acceptable and
not acceptable in a society.
b. Gabriel Tarde
introduced the theory of imitation which proposes the process by which people
become criminals.
according to this theory, individuals imitate the behavior of other individuals
based on the degree of their association with other individuals and it is inferior
or weak who tend to imitate the superior and strong.
refers not only to the physical features of the communities but also to the way society is
organized include such things as level of poverty and unemployment and the amount of
crowded housing which are believed to affect behavior and attitudes of individuals which
in turn contribute to their commission of crimes. also called social environment
includes social disorganization theory, strain theory and cultural deviance theory.
according to this theory, crimes in urban areas are more prevalent because
residents have impersonal relationships with each other.
increase in the number of broken families and single parenthood are also very
common in disorganized communities.
another feature of disorganized community is poverty as evidenced by poor living
conditions such as rundown houses, unsanitary and unsightly streets and high
unemployment rates.
b. Strain Theory
according to this theory, because people in the lower class feel isolated due to extreme
deprivation or poverty, they tend to create a sub-culture with its own set of rules and
values.
This is characterized by deviant behavior which results in criminal behavior among its
members.
it states that people become criminals when significant members of society label them
as such and they accept those labels as a personal identity.
maintain that everyone has the potential to become criminal but most people are
controlled by their bonds to society.
social control refers to the agencies of social control such as family, school,
religion or church, government and laws and other identified authorities in
society.
there are two (2) sub-theories: containment theory and social bond theory.
a. Containment Theory
- proposed by Walter Reckless
-he stated that inner and outer containments help prevent juvenile offending.
containment means the forces within and outside the individual that has the
power to influence his actions.
inner containments include positive self-concept, tolerance for frustration and an
ability to set realistic goals.
outer containments include family.
a. attachment - refers to the degree to which an individual care about the opinions
of others
b. commitment - refers to an individual's investment of energy and emotion in
conventional pursuits, such as getting good grades.
c. involvement - refers to the amount of time an individual spends on a
conventional pursuit.
d. belief - refers to acceptance of the norms of conventional society.
CRIME STATISTICS
Index crimes- are crimes which are sufficiently significant and which occur with
sufficient regularity to be meaningful, such as murder, homicide, physical injury,
robbery, theft and rape.
Non-index crimes -are crimes that are not classified as index crimes. Violations of
special laws and other crimes against moral and order. These crimes are generated
from the result of positive police initiated operations.