THEORIES OF CRIME CAUSATION
CRIMINOLOGY 2
THEORY
 Plausible; scientifically generally
acceptable principles or body of ideas
offered to explain a phenomena
CRIME
 An act committed or omitted in violation
of public law
CAUSE
 A person or thing that gives rise to an
action, phenomenon, or condition.
UNDERSTANDING THE BASIC
PHILOSOPHY OF SOCIAL NORMS AND
ETHICS
A. Human Mind and Behavior in
Correlation with the Social Norms
and Ethics
Human Being
- are intelligent social animals with
mental capacity to comprehend, infer
and think rationally
FOUR POTENTIALITIES OF A HUMAN
BEING:
1. PHYSICAL POTENTIAL
 the ability of a body or energy
stored in the body to do some
work.
2. MENTAL ABILITY
 power to learn or retain
knowledge, the ability to
understand something
3. COMMUNICATION SKILLS
 person’s ability to read, write,
and talk to others
4. SOCIAL SKILLS
 capacity to build relationships
HUMAN BEHAVIOR
 refers to the way humans act
and interact.
 Response to a stimulus
TWO TYPES OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR
1. INBORN OR INHERITED
 Behavior that genetically passed or
inherited from ancestors
2. LEARNED OR OPERANT
 Develops as a result of experience
HUMAN MIND
 a faculty that manifests itself in mental
phenomena like sensation, perception,
thinking, reasoning, memory, belief,
desire, emotion and motivation
SOCIAL NORMS
 Accepted behavior that an individual is
expected to conform to in a particular
group, community or culture
 NORMS – rule of behavior/principle of
right action
FOUR TYPES OF SOCIAL NORMS
1. FOLKWAYS
 Traditional behavior or way
of life
2. MORES
 Norms of morality
 Most important value
3. TABOO
 strict prohibition of
behavior that society holds
so strongly that violating it
results in extreme disgust or
expulsion from the group or
society.
4. LAWS
 Rules enacted by the state
ETHICS
Etymologies:
 French – ethique
 Latin – ethice
 Greek – ethike; ethos
Defined:
 well-founded standards of right and
wrong that prescribe what humans ought
to do, usually in terms of rights,
obligations, benefits to society, fairness,
or specific virtues.
VALUES
Defined:
 values are the things that you believe are
important in the way you live and work.
PERSPECTIVES OF CRIME CAUSATION
1. CLASSICAL
 Crime is a function of
freewill and choice
 ERNST KRETSCHMER – created the 4
principal types of physique.

ASTHENIC Thin, small, or weak

2. BIOLOGICAL
ATHLETIC Muscular. and strong
 Crime is a product of PYKNIC Stout, round and fat
internal forces  DYSPLASTI  Combination
3. PROCESS C of two
 Crime is a product of WILLIAM HERBERT SHELDON –
socialization and interaction formulated his own group of somatotypes:
4. CONFLICT
 Crime is based on on Physique Appearance Temperamen
political and economic t
forces Endomorphic Fat, short, and stout Viscerotonic
5. BIOSOCIAL (large digestive (extrovert)
viscera)
 Crime is based on the
Mesomorphic Strong or muscular Romotonic
interaction of biological
(with muscles, (aggressive)
factors and social factors large wrists and
provide the perfect playing hands)
ground for an individual to Ectomorphic Skinny, tall, or Cerebrotonic
develop criminal behaviors narrow shoulder (introvert)
6. PSYCHOLOGICAL (fragile bones,
 Crime is a product of small face, droopy
unconscious forces shoulders)

THEORIES OF CRIME CAUSATION

1. BIOLOGICAL THEORIES
 Theories that point to
physical and other natural
factors as the causes for the
commission of the crime
A. PHYSIOGNOMY
 The study of facial features
and their relation to human
behavior
GIAMBATTISTA DELA PORTA – founder
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER – supported
the belief of Della Porta
B. PHRENOLOGY
 The study of the external
formation of the skull in
relation to the person’s
tendencies to link in
criminality.
FRANZ JOSEPH GALL – introduced
JOHANN KASPAR SPURZHEIM –
popularized
C. PHYSIOLOGY OR
SOMATOTYPE
 Refers to human body shape
and physique type that are
associated with their
personality traits.
D. HEREDITY
 Passing of traits from parents to
their offspring
RICHARD LOUIS DUGDALE
 Studied the Juke Family Tree as
far back 200 years
ADA JUKE – Mother of all criminals
Discovered that most of the
ascendants of the Jukes were
criminals
HENRY GODDARD
 Traced the descendants of
Martin Kallikak from each of
his two wives and found distinct
result
 Coined the term “MORON”
CHARLES GORING
 Proposed that individuals who
posess criminal characteristics
should be prohibited from
having a children.
INTELLIGENCE AS A FACTOR IN
CRIMINALITY
 the classic studies of the Juke
and Kallikak families were
among the first to show that
feeblemindedness can be
inherited and transferred from
one generation to the next.
 ALFRED BINET – French
psychologist developed the first I.Q test.
Note: IQ test measured the capacity of
individual children to perform tasks or solve
problems in relation to the average capacity of
their peers
NATURE THEORY – believed
that intelligence can be inherited
NURTURE THEORY – believed
that intelligence can be developed
2. SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES
A. ANOMIE THEORY
 theory that attempts to
explain deviant or criminal
behavior as a result of the
lack of social norms and
regulations.
EMILE DURKHEIM – French sociologist and
famous for his work “ANOMIE THEORY”
- He believed that crime is normal part of
the society.
B. THEORY OF IMITATION
 Individuals imitate the
criminal behavior of other
individual.
GABRIEL TARDE - French sociologist and
the one who introduced the theory of imitation.
C. SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION
THEORY
 a person’s social
environments are primarily
responsible for the
behavioral choices that a
person makes.
 Crimes in urban areas are
more prevalent because
residents have impersonal
relationships with each
other
CLIFFORD SHAW AND HENRY MCKAY
- personalities who popularized this theory
D. STRAIN THEORY
 Crime exists because there
is a conflict between the
goals and the means on how
they can legally obtain
them.
F- rustration
A- nger
R-esentment
S-tress
ROBERT K. MERTON – American
sociologist and who introduced the strain theory
E. CULTURAL DEVIANCE
THEORY
 Give emphasis on the
concept of culture and sub-
culture
 According to this theory,
people in the lower class
feel isolated due to extreme
deprivation or poverty, they
tend to create subculture
with it’s own set of rules
and values
CLIFFORD SHAW AND HENRY MCKAY
- personalities who popularized this theory
F. DIFFERENTIAL
ASSOCIATION THEORY
 This theory states that criminal behavior
is learned through socialization
 One of the most influential theory in the
theories of crime causation
EDWIN H. SUTHERLAND – formulated
G. DIFFERENTIAL
OPPORTUNITY THEORY
 The limited opportunity may cause
criminality.
LLOYD OHLIN – introduced
H. DIFFERENTIAL
REINFORCEMENT THEORY
 Individual’s behavior depends on how
people around him react towards his
behavior
RONALD AKER – introduced
I. SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
 People are not actually born with the
ability to act violently but they learn to
be aggressive through their life
experiences
 Behavioral modelling
ALBERT BANDURA – Canadian Psychologist
and the one who introduced this theory
J. NEUTRALIZATION THEORY
 According to this theory, people know
when they are doing something wrong,
however, they rationalize and justify
their actions
DAVID MATZA AND GRESHAM SYKES
- Personalities behind neutralization
theory
K. LABELING THEORY
 States that people become criminals
when significant members of the society
label them as such and they accept those
labels as a personal identity
HOWARD S. BECKER – introduced
L. SOCIAL CONTROL THEORIES
 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
such as family, school, religion or
church, government and laws.
 There are 2 sub theories:
 CONTAINMENT THEORY
 Inner and outer
containments help prevent
juvenile offending
 Containment – forces to
influence actions
WALTER RECKLESS – proposed
 SOCIAL BOND THEORY
 Crime as a result of
individuals with weaker
bonds to social institutions
 4 elements of social bond
ATTACHMENT – good relationship
COMMITMENT – investment of energy and
emotion in conventional pursuits
INVOLVEMENT – amount of time an
individual spends on a conventional pursuit
BELIEF – acceptance of norms of the society
TRAVIS HIRSCHI – introduced
3. PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES
A. PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
 Criminality is caused by the
imbalance of the three
components of personality:
 ID, EGO, SUPER-EGO
THREE PARTS OF PERSONALITY
 ID – governed by the “pleasure
principle” which strives for
immediate gratification of all
desires, wants, and needs. And if
these needs are not satisfied
immediately, the result is state of
anxiety or tension
 EGO – this is considered to be the
sensible and responsible part of an
individual’s personality and is
governed by “reality principle” it
is developed early in life and
compensates for the demands of the
ID by helping individual to guide
his actions to remain within the
boundaries of accepted social
behavior.
 SUPER-EGO – the aspect of our
personality that internalized moral
standards and ideals that we acquire
from parent, church, and society. It
also called the “conscience
principle”
SIGMUND FREUD – Father of Psychoanalysis
and created the 3 Level of Awareness.
LEVEL OF AWARENESS
A. CONSCIOUS LEVEL –
immediate awareness
B. PRECONSCIOUS LEVEL-
storage point of recent memories
C. UNCONCIOUS LEVEL -all
memories and past experience reside
4. ENVIRONMENTAL/
ECOLOGICAL THEORIES
A. CHICAGO SCHOOL
 A group of urban sociologist
who studied the relationship
between environmental and
conditions of crime
B. CARTOGRAPHIC SCHOOL
 Use of statistical data such as
population, age, gender,
occupation, religious
affiliations, and social economic
status and their influences and
relationship to criminality
ADOLPHE QUETELET AND ANDRE
MICHAEL GURRY – founded
C. BROKEN WINDOW THEORY
 Signs of decay, such as
abnormal buildings, broken
street lights and graffiti,
influences or invite potential
criminals in an area.
5. THEORIES ON WOMEN
OFFENDER
  Born criminal syndrome
A. LIBERAL FEMINIST THEORY 10. HYPOGLYCEMIA
 a view of crime that suggests  Lowering of blood sugar
that the social and economic 11. AGING-OUT PHENOMENON
role of woman in society  The process by which
controls their crime rates individuals reduce the frequency
B. CHIVALRY HYPHOTHESIS of their offending behavior as
 the idea that low female crime they age.
and delinquency rates are a
reflection of the leniency with
which police treat female
offenders.
C. MASCULINITY HYPHOTHESIS
 the view that women who
commit crimes have biological
and psychological traits similar
to those of men.
CONTEMPORARY TERMS AND
THEORIES
1. DEVELOPMENTAL THEORY
 the view that criminality is a
dynamic process. Influenced by
social experiences as well as
individual characteristic
2. RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY
 the view that crime is a function
of a decision-making process
3. INSTRUMENTALIST THEORY
 higher classes use the law of the
state to exploit the lower class
enacting laws for their won
4. JUS DESERT
 the philosophy of justice that
asserts that those who violate
the rights of others deserved to
be punished.
5. ROAD RAGE
 a term used to describe
motorists who assault each other
6. CYCLE OF VIOLENCE
 victims of crime, especially
victims of childhood abuse, are
more likely to commit crime
themselves
7. POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS
DISORDER
 Psychological reaction to highly
stressful event:
8. ATTENTION DEFICIT
HYPERACTIVITY DISORDER
 a psychological disorder in
which a child shows
developmentally inappropriate
impulsivity, hyperactivity, and
lack of attention
9. XYY SYNDROME