CRIMINAL ETIOLOGY

WHAT IS CRIME?

In the legal point of view, it refers to any violation or infraction of the existing policies,
laws, rules and regulations of the society.

Crime is an act committed or omitted in violation of law, commanding or forbidding it. An

act that is injurious, detrimental or harmful to the norms of the society. It is generic term
that refers to offense, felony and delinquency or misdemeanor.

There is a difference between an act committed and an act omitted. An act committed
refers to a crime of commission. There is a crime of commission when the act
performed is in violation of a law forbidding it. On the other hand, an act omitted refers
to crime of omission. It is a crime of omission when the person failed to performed an
act that is commanded by law.

Criminal laws explicitly state what actions are prohibited, what actions are required to be
done and provided for the penalties or punishments to be imposed in case of violation of
the laws. Without laws that prohibit the act, the act cannot be called a crime. This is the
essence of the Latin principle,” nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege, that is, there is
no crime where there is no law punishing it.

Anatomy of Crime
For any crime to happen, there are three elements or ingredients that must be present
at the same time and same place. These are:
Offense – An act or omission that is punishable by special laws (E.g. RA 9165).
Felony – An act or omission that is punishable by the Revised Penal Code
(Act # 3815).
Misdemeanor/Infraction – Acts that are in violation of simple rules and regulations.

Elements of Crime:
a. There must be an act or omission;
b. The act or omission must be in violation of law; and
c. The act is committed either by dolo (malice) or culpa (fault)

ELEMENTS OF A FELONY
a) INTENTIONAL FELONIES:
- felonies committed by means of dolo (deceit)
- the act or omission is performed with deliberate intent or malice

Elements of Crime by Dolo:

• Freedom/Voluntariness - voluntariness on the part of the person to commit the act
or omission.
• Intelligence - means the capacity to know and understand the consequences of
one's act.  
• Criminal Intent - the purpose to use a particular means to effect such result. Intent
to commit an act with malice being purely a mental process is presumed. Such
presumption arises from the proof of commission of an unlawful act. A mental state,
hence, its existence is shown by overt acts.

b) CULPABLE FELONIES:
- 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
Elements of Crime by Culpa:
a. Freedom
b. Intelligence
c. Negligence/Imprudence (Lack of Skill/ Foresight) - Negligence indicates deficiency of
perception or failure to pay attention and to use diligence in foreseeing the injury or
damage impending to be caused. It usually involves lack of foresight. Imprudence
indicates deficiency of action or failure to take the necessary precaution to avoid injury
to person or damage to property. It usually involves lack of skill.

CLASSIFICATION OF FELONIES:

Felonies according to their gravity

 Grave – those to which the law attaches the capital punishment or penalties which in
any of their periods are afflictive.
 Less grave – those which the law punishes with penalties which in their maximum
period are correctional.
 Light – those infractions of law for the commission of which the penalty of arresto
menor or a fine not exceeding forty thousand pesos (40,000) or both. As amended
by R.A. 10951, August 29, 2017

Classifications of felonies according to the stage of execution

 A felony is consummated when all the acts necessary for its accomplishment and
execution are present.
 A felony is frustrated if the offender performs all the acts of execution, all the acts
performed would produce the felony as a consequence but the felony is not
produced by the reason of causes independent of the will of the perpetrator.
 The felony is attempted if the offender commences the commission of the felony
directly by overt act and he does not perform all the acts of execution which should
produce the felony. The non‐performance of all acts of execution was due to a cause
or accident other than the offender's own spontaneous desistance.
According to the Nature of the Act

Crime Mala inse –  are acts or omissions which are wrong or evil in its very nature
Crime Mala prohibita - are acts or omissions that are not wrong or evil in essence, but
they are wrong or evil because they are prohibited such as tax, traffic and drug
laws.

According to Plurality
A. Simple crime – single act constituting only one offense
Ex. Theft, Robbery, Homicide, Murder, Libel
B. Complex crime – single act constituting two or more grave felonies (compound
crime) or an is a necessary means for committing the other (complex crime proper).
Ex. Robbery with Homicide, Rape with homicide, Arson resulting in death
and damage to propert.

As to the result of crime:

a. acquisitive crime - is one which when committed, the offender acquires something
as a consequence of his criminal act. e.g. theft, robbery and estafa.
b. extinctive crime - when the end result of a criminal act is destruction. e.g. homicide,
murder, parricide and arson.

As to the crime or period of commission:

A. Seasonal Crime: those who committed only during a particular season certain
period of the year like violation of tax law.
B. situational crime: crime committed only when given a situation conductive to its
commission.

As to the length of the commission

A. Instant crime: those committed in short time.
B. Episodic crime: those committed by a series of act in a length space of time.

According to the type of Offender

a. white-collar crime – committed by a person belonging to the upper socio-economic

class in the course of his occupational activities.
ex. Graft and Corruption, Plunder, Money Laundering, etc.
b) Blue-collar crime – committed by ordinary professional criminal to maintain his
livelihood.
ex. Shoplifting, theft etc.

According to the use of mental faculties:

a) rational crime – committed with intent and the offender is in full
possession of his sanity.
b) irrational crime – committed by an offender who does not know the
nature and quality of his act on account of the disease of the mind.

CRIMINAL
In the legal sense, a criminal is any person who 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.

Based on Etiology
 Acute Criminal – is a person who violated the law as a result of reacting to a
situation, such as during a moment of anger or burst of feeling.

 Chronic Criminal – one who committed a crime with intention and deliberated
thinking.
Based on Behavioral System
a) Ordinary criminals – the lowest form of criminal career; they engage only in
conventional crimes which require limited skill
b) Organized criminals – these criminals have a high degree of organization that
enables them to commit crimes without being detected and committed to specialized
activities which can be operated in large scale businesses.
c) Professional criminals – these are highly skilled and able to obtain considerable
amount of money without being detected because of organization and contact with other
professional criminals

Based on Activities
 Professional Criminals - those who practice crime as a profession for a living.
Criminal activity is constant in order to earn skill and develop ability in their
commission.
 Accidental Criminals - those who commit crimes when the situation is conducive to
its commission.
 Habitual Criminals - those who continue to commit crime because of deficiency of
intelligence and lack of self – control.

Based on Mental Attitude

 Active Aggressive Criminal - one who commits crime due to aggressiveness
 Passive Inadequate Criminal - one who commits crime because they are forced
by a reward or promise.
 Socialized Delinquent - individual with defective socialization process or
development thus he lacks proper moral values or ethical standards.

CRIMINAL LAW
Criminal Law is defined as that branch of public law which defines crimes, treats of
their nature and provides for their punishment. It also sometimes referred to as penal
law.

The sources of the Philippine criminal law are the Revised Penal Code (RPC), the
special penal laws enacted by the Congress and the presidential decrees issued by the
former Pres. Marcos regime.

Criminal laws have evolved from ancient laws established by the early civilizational over
the world. In order to better understand how criminal laws have become what they are
today, it is necessary to look back at how criminal laws originated.

CHARACTERISTICS OF CRIMINAL LAW

1) It is general in application/ GENERALITY:
2) It is territorial in character/ TERRITORIALITY:
3) It is prospective or irretrospective/PROSPECTIVITY:
4) It is specific and definite.
5) It is uniform in application.
6) There must be a penal sanction or punishment.

A) PREHISTORIC CRIME AND PUNISHMENT

Primitive Tribes
 - Punishment may be in the form of ostracism and expulsion.
- Adultery may be punished by the aggrieved husband who may kill
the adulterer and his own offending wife.
- Crime may be avenged by the victim himself or by the victim’s
family.

Sumerian Code = (King Dungi) hundred years earlier than Code of Hammurabi made
from clay tablets.

1) CODE OF HAMMURABI
- Hammurabi, the king of Babylon during the eighteenth century BC, is recognized
as the first codifier of laws
- It provides the first comprehensive view of the laws in the early days.
- The Code was carved in stone.
- Principle of “Lex Taliones” or “Oculo pro oculo, dente pro dente” or the principle
of “tit for tat”,(an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth) = the principle which is basically
describing the Code of Hammurabi.
- 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
Highlights of the laws of the Hittites:
- Capital punishment was used for many offenses, except for homicide or robbery.
- Rape, sexual intercourse with animals, defiance of the authority and sorcery
were all punishable by death.
- The law of homicide provided for the restitution to the victim’s heirs.
- Law enforcement and judicial functions were placed in the hands of commanders
of military garrisons.
3) CODE OF DRAKON
- knows as the “ultimate in severity”
- codified by Drakon, the Athenian lawgiver of the seventh century BC
Highlights of the Code of Drakon:
- Death was the punishment for almost every offense
- Murderers might avoid execution by going into exile; if they return to Athens, it
was not a crime to kill them
- Death penalty was administered with great brutality
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
Highlights of the Laws of Solon:
- The thief was required to return stolen property and pay the victim a sum equal to
twice its value.
- For the crime of temple robbery, the penalty was death.
- For rape of a woman, the penalty was a fine of certain amount.
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.
- The Twelve Tables were drafted by the Decemvirs, a body of men composed of
patricians.

Highlights of the Twelve Tables:

- if a man break another’s limb and does not compensate the injury, he shall be
liable to retaliation
- a person who committed arson of a house or a stack of corn shall be burned
alive
- judges who accepted bribes as well as those who bribed them were subject to
execution
- any act of treason was punishable by crucifixion