1.

Schools of Criminology

Criminology is a socio-legal study which strives to discover the causes of criminality and suggests
appropriate remedies. The schools of criminology developed majorly during the 18th and 19th
century.

There are four popular schools of Criminology, they are:

1. Pre-Classical School
2. Classical School
3. Neo-Classical School
4. Positivist School

Pre-Classical School:

The pre-classical school is also known as demonological school. During the 17th century, the
demonological theory flourished in Europe with the dominance of the church and religion. During
this time there were not much of scientific explanations for the causation of crime and the concept
of crime was vague and obscure.

Hence, the explanations for criminal behaviour were sought through spirits, demons and unknown
power. They believed that a man commits a crime due to the influence of some external force and is
beyond the control and understanding of man. The wrath of God was considered to give punishment
to the offenders. The trail of the offenders was through battles, pelting of stones and was believed
that no harm would be caused if the offender was innocent. The pre-classical thinking, however,
withered away with the lapse of time and advancement of knowledge.

Classical School:

The pioneers of the classical school of criminology are Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham. The
main belief of this school is that people have free will in making decisions, and that punishment can
be a deterrent for crime, so long as the punishment is proportional, fits the crime, and is carried out
promptly. The use of torture to extract confessions and a wide range of cruel punishments such as
whipping, mutilation and public executions were commonplace.

The main beliefs of classical school of criminology are:

1. It is the act ‘of an individual and not his intent which forms the basis for determining criminality
within him. Still, they could never think that there could be something like crime causation.

2. Punishment is a principal method of infliction of pain, humiliation and disgrace to create fear in
man to control his behaviour.

3. Prevention of crime is more important than the punishment for it and there is a need for a well-
defined criminal justice system.

4. The State had a right to punish the offenders in the interest of public security. However, there
must also be equalization of justice which meant equal punishment for the same offence.

The classical school did not devote any attention to the state of mind of the criminal. Also, it erred in
prescribing equal punishment for same offence thus making no distinction between first offenders
and habitual criminals and varying degrees of gravity of the offence.
Neo-Classical School:

The Neo-Classical School continues the traditions of the Classical School within the framework of
Right Realism. The free will ‘theory of classical school did not survive for long.

a) Neo-classists were the first in point of time to bring out a distinction between the first offenders
and the recidivists. They supported individualization of offender, a treatment method which
required the punishment to suit the psychopathic circumstances of the accused.

b) They also asserted that certain categories of offenders such as minors, idiots, insane or
incompetent had to be treated leniently in matters of punishment irrespective of the similarity
of their criminal act because these persons were incapable of appreciating the difference
between right and wrong.

c) They have adopted subjective approach to criminology and concentrated their attention on the
conditions under which an individual commits crime and suggested different correctional
institutions such as parole, probation, reformatories, open-air camps etc.

However, the exponents of this theory believed that the criminal, whether responsible or
irresponsible, a criminal is a menace to society and therefore, needs to be eliminated from it.

Positive School:

The Positivist School has attempted to find scientific objectivity for the measurement and
quantification of criminal behaviour. The main exponents of this school were three eminent Italian
criminologists namely: Cesare Lombroso, Raffaele Garofalo and Enrico Ferri. It is for this reason that
this school is also called the Italian School of Criminology.

Cesare Lombroso:

 Criminals were physically inferior in the standard of growth and therefore, developed a tendency
for inferior acts
 Criminals are less sensitive to pain and therefore they have little regard for the sufferings of
others
 He classified criminals into three main categories
o The Atavists or Hereditary Criminals - both mentally and physically inferior
o Insane Criminals – Ones with certain mental depravity or disorder
o Criminoids – Commited crime to overcome their inferiority to meet the needs of survival

Enrico Ferri (1856-1928):

Enrico Ferri, a chief exponent of positive school, challenged Lombrosian view of criminality and
proved that mere biological reasons were not enough to account for criminality. He firmly believed
that, other factors such as emotional reaction, social infirmity or geographical conditions also play a
vital role in determining criminal tendencies. It is for this reason that he is sometimes called the
‘founder of criminal sociology.’

The major contribution of Ferri to the field of criminology is his ’Law of Criminal Saturation.’ This
theory presupposes that the crime is the synthetic product of three main factors:

1. Physical or geographical;
2. Anthropological; and
3. Psychological or social.

Ferri worked out a five-fold classification of criminals, namely:

a) Born criminals;
b) Occasional criminals
c) Passionate criminals
d) Insane criminal and
e) Habitual criminals

Raffaele Garofalo (1852-1934):

Raffaele Garofalo defined crime as an act which offends the sentiments of pity and probity
possessed by an average person and which are injurious to the society. He emphasized that lack of
pity generates crimes against person while lack of probity leads to crimes against property. As to the
classification of criminals, he rejected Ferri‘s classification and placed offenders into four main
categories, namely:

1. Murders whom he called ―endemic criminals

2. Violent criminals who are affected by environmental influences such as prejudices of honour,
politics and religion
3. Criminals lacking in sentiment of probity and
4. Lascivious or lustful criminals who commit crimes against sex and chastity.

Gabriel Tarde (1843-94):

Gabriel Tarde was a critic of positive school of criminology. He asserted that the members of society
are prone to imitate the behaviour of their associates. Also, the impact of movie, cinema and
television is so great on teenagers that it perverts their mind and actions which eventually makes
them delinquents. There is considerable truth in Tarde‘s assertion that, ―”crime, like other social
phenomenon starts as a fashion and becomes a custom.” He classified criminals into urban and rural
types and expressed a view that crimes in urban areas are far more serious in nature than those of
rural places.

2. Robert Merton’s Theory

In sociology, Anomie is a societal condition defined by an uprooting or breakdown of any moral

values, standards or guidance for individuals to follow.

The American sociologist Robert K. Merton studied the causes of anomie, or normlessness, finding it
severest in people who lack an acceptable means of achieving their personal goals. Goals may
become so important that if the means acceptable according to the standards of the society fail,
illegitimate means might be used leading to a breakdown in the regulatory structure—i.e., anomie.

Merton defined a continuum of responses to anomie and also said that delinquency, crime, and
suicide are often reactions to anomie. Merton’s Deviance Therory states that the below two criteria
promote deviant behaviour:

a. A motivation of a person to adhere to culture goals

b. A person’s belief in how to obtain personal goals

He also believed that there are five types of deviances:

a. Conformity – When a person/ group accepts cultural goals and the means of attaining them
 b. Innovation –accepts cultural goals but rejects the traditional/legitimate means to obtain
them.
c. Ritualism – Rejects cultural goals but accepts traditional /legitimate means to obtain them
d. Retreatism – is the rejection of both cultural goals and traditional / legitimate means to
obtain them
e. Rebellion – When a person/ group rejects both cultural goals and traditional / legitimate
means to obtain them.

There are plenty of examples of Dr. Merton’s theory in today’s news headlines with criminal cases
involving banking, investors, politicians, organized crime, etc. The need for greed to achieve goals
had caused too many intentional break laws to achieve financial success.

4. Miller’s Theory

Cultural Deviance Theory combines elements of both Strain and Social Disorganization Theory to
explain how people living in slum neighbourhoods react to isolation from the rest of society and
economic deprivation.

Lower Class Focal Concerns:

Walter Miller (1958) believed that delinquency was created directly from the value system of the
lower-class culture that had developed as a response to the environmental conditions of slum life.
He argued that the lower-class had a unique identifiable culture with values quite different from the
middle class and delinquency occurs as a by-product of lower-class goal achievement. He also stated
that the middle-class culture emphasizes hard work, delayed gratification, and education and the
lower-class subculture emphasizes on the below six focal concerns:

i. Excitement – They seek out excitement particularly when not at work

ii. Toughness – They wish to prove that they are tough / hard
iii. Smartness – They use ‘wit’ which might include smart remarks
iv. Trouble – Linked to excitement and toughness, they might well find themselves in
trouble.
v. Autonomy – They wish to be independent and not rely on others
vi. Fate – They believe that their future is already decided and what they do won’t
influence it.

None of these values on their own mean that crime is inevitable but they do make crime more likely.
In essence, the theory suggests that delinquency is in fact part of the learned cultural values rather
than an anomic reaction to unattainable goals.