DIVINE WORD COLLEGE OF VIGAN

COLLEGE OF CRIMINOLOGY
Vigan City, Ilocos Sur

MODULE 1
UNIT 1
CRIMINOLOGY: CONCEPT, NATURE AND SCOPE

At the end of the module, you should able to:

 explain the concept of criminology
 discuss the general and criminological classification of crimes
 apply the theories related to the causes of crime and criminality

BASIC CONCEPTS
CRIMINOLOGY
It is a body of knowledge regarding crime as a social phenomenon (Tradio)
Is also a multidisciplinary study of crimes (Bartol, 1995). This means that many
disciplines are involved in the collection of knowledge about criminal action, including
psychology, sociology, anthropology, biology, neurology, political science and
economics. But over the years, sociology, psychology and psychiatry have
dominated the study of crime.
It is the study of crime as a social phenomenon, or of criminals – the mental trait
habits and discipline. (Sutherland and Cressey)
It is the study of crimes and its treatment. (Elliot and Merill)
The study of all subject matters necessary in understanding and preventing crime,
the punishment and treatment of criminals. (Taft)
 DIVINE WORD COLLEGE OF VIGAN
COLLEGE OF CRIMINOLOGY
Vigan City, Ilocos Sur

CRIMINOLOGY vs. CRIMINAL JUSTICE

Criminal justice may be defined as the system of law enforcement, adjudication, and
correction that is directly involved in the apprehension, prosecution, and control of those
charged with criminal offenses. This loosely organized collection of agencies is responsible for,
among other matters, protecting the public, maintaining order, enforcing the law, identifying
transgressors, bringing the guilty to justice, and treating criminal behavior (Siegel, 2011)

Criminology focuses on law-breaking (nature, extent & causes); Criminal Justice focuses
on the response to criminal behavior (policing, courts, and corrections). These two may be
different in terms of their subject of study but since both fields are crime-related, they do
overlap.
Some criminologists devote their research to justice and social control and are
concerned with how the agencies of justice operate, how they influence crime and
criminals, and how justice policies shape crime rates and trends.
Conversely, criminal justice experts often want to design effective programs of
crime prevention or rehabilitation and to do so must develop an understanding of
the nature of crime and its causation.
It is common, therefore, for criminal justice programs to feature courses on
criminology and for criminology courses to evaluate the agencies of justice.

CRIMINOLOGY vs. CRIMINALISTICS

Criminology is a social science while Criminalistics is an applied science.
Criminology deals more on theories while Criminalistics use practical and
technological theories.
Criminology is the study of criminal people while Criminalistics is the study of
criminal things.
A Criminologist is distinct from a Criminalist. Who is a Criminalist?
 A CRIMINALIST is a person who is trained in the application of instruments and
methods essential in detecting and investigating crimes.

CRIMINOLOGY: It’s Significance to the Society

Criminology is part of the pro-active and reactive system of governance. We study
criminology as part of crime prevention programs to prevent the occurrence of crimes and to
give preventive or permanent measures that it may not happen again, as they say “those who
fail to study history are doomed to repeat it”. Criminology should help the society; it should be a
partner in the growth and development of a nation or society.

In the Philippines where there are many criminologists, it is ironic to note that these
graduates do not contribute to the prevention and control of crime. It is saddening that our
government lacks the necessary programs to combat crime, or even worse, we have wrong
priorities in fighting crime.

Criminology should be a partner in designing a model or an ideal society. It should

recommend to the government the efficient and effective ways of modern crime fighting in a
total pro-active crime prevention program for the country.

IMPORTANCE AND PURPOSES OF STUDYNG CRIMINOLOGY

 DIVINE WORD COLLEGE OF VIGAN
COLLEGE OF CRIMINOLOGY
Vigan City, Ilocos Sur

Studying crime is very important, not only to criminologists. Criminologists and non-
criminologists study crime because of various reasons. If we generalize these, they fall on any
of these reasons:

Criminology can be a source of philosophy of life. The knowledge derived from

studying crime is a good foundation for an individual’s philosophy and lifestyle.
Criminology is a profession not only for social service but for legal practice as well.
People, study criminology because criminals are legitimate object of interest. They
should be understood in order to know how to control them.
Authorities should know a bit of criminology because crime is a very expensive
problem of the society. The value of property lost, medical expenses, insurances,
moving costs, and intangible costs of pain and suffering is too high as a result of
victimization.

Studying criminology is aimed towards the following:

 The primary aim is to prevent the crime problem.
 To understand crimes and criminals this is basic to knowing the actions to be done to
prevent them.
 To prepare for a career in law enforcement and scientific crime detection.
 To develop an understanding of the constitutional guarantees and due process of
law in the administration of justice.
 To foster a higher concept of citizenry and leadership together with an understanding
of one moral and legal responsibilities to his fellowmen, his community and the
nation.

In reality, there are many and varied purpose of studying criminology. However, all
these purposes fall on either of the two (2) primary aims of studying criminology.

 To understand crimes and criminals.

 To prevent the occurrence of crime.

OBJECT OF INTEREST IN CRIMINOLOGY

The four major object of interest in criminology are:
1. Crimes (Criminal Acts)
2. Criminals (Perpetrators of crime)
3. Criminal Behavior, and
4. The study of victims

Is Criminology a Science?
Proponents of the view that criminology is not a science base their argument on the
standards of quality and validity of what can be classified as science. To this end they argue
that the validity of a science is based on two concepts:
Stability i.e. it must be firmly established with unlikelihood of ad hoc and
unpredictable changes
Homogeneity, i.e. the quality of being alike all of the same type.

Since crime is not stable, nor is it homogenous, i.e. not all actions amounting to a crime
in one jurisdiction will amount to crime in all jurisdictions, it is therefore concluded by the said
proponents that criminology cannot be a science.
 DIVINE WORD COLLEGE OF VIGAN
COLLEGE OF CRIMINOLOGY
Vigan City, Ilocos Sur

Edwin Sutherland and Donald Cressey – Not a science but has the hope of
becoming a science for the reason that man is the subject of the study.
George Wilker – Absolutely not a science due to the variations of behaviour.
Cirilo Tradio – It is a science for the causes of crimes are universally alike such as
biological, physical, psychological, and economical. Criminology is not a science but
has the hope of becoming a science Criminology is not a perfect science.

Dichotomous View on Criminology

With the complex view on criminology today, criminology can be viewed as
Theoretical Criminology - denoting a focus on crime causation or the etiology of
crime
Applied Criminology - denoting work that is prevention, enforcement, or treatment
oriented

In studying criminology, there are three important components namely:

Criminal Etiology
Criminal Etiology involved the application of scientific analysis of the causes of crime.
An individual perpetrating a crime had no single reason; hence, there is no single and only
explanation of causes of crimes. A different theory has evolved in studying the causes of crime
such as Biological, Sociological and Psychological Theories.

Sociology of Law
Sociology of law entails the importance of law or the criminal law as a process of formal
social control. Criminal law seeks to protect the public from harm by inflicting punishment upon
those who are tempted to do harm. Thus, criminal law often strives to avoid harm by forbidding
conduct that may lead to harmful results.

Penology
Penology, the study of criminal punishment, is a sub-field of criminology. Criminologists
theorize about why people commit crimes and deviate from society’s norms of behavior. They
also study how society punishes criminals because different methods of punishment may cause
people to alter their behavior in different ways. Thus, criminologists devise theories that not
only explain the causes of crime but also address its prevention, control and treatment.
Today, one more area of concern in Criminology is crime detection and investigation.
Criminologists are also engaged in studying the criminal things. Forensic Science, sometimes
referred to as Criminalistics, is therefore covered in the broad field of criminology.

As defined by Sutherland, the scope of Criminology covers:

the making of laws

the breaking of laws
the reaction towards the breaking of laws

The making of laws should be made by the legislative body of the Government, should
be specific and firm. While the breaking of laws is the commission or failure to perform acts that
is acceptable to the community or to the public and reaction towards the breaking of laws is the
acts made by the law enforcement body to arrest, apprehend and react.
Search on the meaning of the Latin maxim “Nullum Crimen Nulla Poena Sine Lege”.
 DIVINE WORD COLLEGE OF VIGAN
COLLEGE OF CRIMINOLOGY
Vigan City, Ilocos Sur

Study of the different factors that enhanced the development of criminal behavior such
as:

Criminal Demography - study of the relationship between criminality and

population.
Criminal Epidemiology – study of the relationship between environment and
criminality.
Criminal Ecology – study of criminality in relations to spatial distribution in a
community.
Criminal Physical Anthropology – study of criminality in relation to physical
constitution of men.
Criminal Psychology – study of human behavior in relation to criminality.
Criminal Psychiatry – study of human mind in relation to criminality.
Victimology – study of the role of the victim in the commission of a crime.

Criminology is the study of crime and its various aspects. According to Edwin
Sutherland, it is the science regarding crime and delinquency as a social phenomenon. This is
a field that addresses the issue of crime and criminal behavior and attempts to define explain
and predict it.
Understanding crime is a complicated matter just like other social broad sciences. It
requires therefore a systematic and balanced knowledge in the examination of why crime exists.
In this sense, criminology is:

An Applied Science – anthropology, psychology, sociology and other natural

sciences may be applied in the study of the causes of crime while chemistry,
medicine, physics, mathematics, etc. may be utilized in crime detection.

A Social Science – in as much as crime is a creation of the society and that it exists
in a society, its study must be considered a part of social science.

Dynamic – Criminology changes as social condition changes. That means the

progress of criminology is concordant with the advancement of other sciences that
has been applied to it.

Nationalistic – the study of crime must always conform to the existing criminal law
of the land.

Criminology is a multidisciplinary study of crimes. This means that many disciplines are
involved in the collection of knowledge about criminal action, including, psychology, sociology,
anthropology, biology, neurology, political science and economics. But over the years, the
study of crime has been dominated by:

SOCIOLOGY (SOCIOLOGICAL CRIMINOLOGY). This is the study of crime focused on the

group of people and society as a whole. It is primarily based on the examination of the
relationship of demographic and group variables to crime. Variables such as socioeconomic
status, interpersonal relationships, age, race, gender, and cultural groups of people are
probed in relation to the environmental factors that are most conducive to criminal action,
such as time, place, and circumstances surrounding the crime.
 DIVINE WORD COLLEGE OF VIGAN
COLLEGE OF CRIMINOLOGY
Vigan City, Ilocos Sur

Example of it is the Social control theory that describes internal means of social
control. It argues that relationships, commitments, values, and beliefs encourage conformity—if
moral codes are internalized and individuals are tied into broader communities, individuals will
voluntarily limit deviant acts. This interpretation suggests the power of internal means of control,
such as one’s own conscious, ego, and sensibilities about right and wrong, are powerful in
mitigating the likelihood that one will deviate from social norms. This stands in contrast to
external means of control, in which individuals conform because an authority figure (such as the
state) threatens sanctions should the individual disobey.
Social control theory seeks to understand how to reduce deviance. Ultimately, social
control theory is Hobbesian; it presupposes that all choices are constrained by social relations
and contracts between parties. Like Hobbes, adherents to social control theory suggest that
morality is created within a social order by assigning costs and consequences to certain actions
that are marked as evil, wrong, illegal, or deviant.

In this illustration above, the teacher has this social control on his students because
merely looking in the photograph nobody was not participating. Just like in the definition of
social control theory, it eliminates the deviance in a certain group of people and understands the
behavior of each individual.

PSYCHOLOGY (PSYCHOLOGICAL CRIMINOLOGY). This is the science of behavior and

mental processes of the criminal. It is focused on the individual criminal behavior – how it is
acquired, evoked, maintained and modified.

One example of it is the earliest psychological approaches to crime were based on

Sigmund Freud's (1870–1937) psychoanalytic theory, which divided the human personality
into id, ego, and superego. The id (the Latin word for "it") described all the instinctual drives that
come from our biological heritage. The "ego" (Latin for "I") is the rational and conscious self that
mediates between the drives of the id and the restraints of the superego. The "superego"
consists in the restraints on behavior ("conscience") that children internalize as a result of their
great love for and attachment to their parents. Criminality largely was explained as a failure of
the superego, a consequence of a failure to form healthy and loving attachments to parents.

Mental illness does not cause very many crimes, but mentally ill people occasionally
commit crimes that are extreme or bizarre, and thus highly publicized. Thus, the public might get
the impression that mental illness is a major cause of crime.
 DIVINE WORD COLLEGE OF VIGAN
COLLEGE OF CRIMINOLOGY
Vigan City, Ilocos Sur

The ego, super-ego, and id are the divisions of the psyche according to the
psychoanalytic theory developed by Sigmund Freud. The id contains "primitive desires" (hunger,
rage and sex), the super-ego contains internalized norms, morality and taboos, and the ego
mediates between the two and may include or give rise to the sense of self.

Most people who identify with the contemporary school of ego psychology place its
beginnings with Sigmund Freud's 1923 book The Ego and the Id, in which Freud introduced
what

PSYCHIATRY (PSYCHIATRIC CRIMINOLOGY). This is the science that deals with the
study of criminal behavior in terms of motives and drives; better known today as forensic
psychiatry.

Example are the Cesare Lombroso theories that extremely important in the history of
criminology. His theory on the classification of criminals was the main tool people used to profile
them for a long time. Some of his ideas are actually still being discussed.

Cesare Lombroso was a doctor and anthropologist. Some people consider him to be the
father of criminology. His book Criminal Man, According to the Classification of Cesare
Lombroso is considered the first systematic list of criminal profiles. Alongside Enrico Ferri and
Raffaele Garofalo, he was a major proponent of positivist criminology.

THREE PHASES

The discipline of criminology has evolved in three phases, beginning in the 18 th century.
Although crime and criminals have been around for as long as societies have existed, the
systematic study of these phenomena did not begin until the late 1700s. Prior to that time, most
explanations of crime equated it with sin – the violation of a sacred obligation.

The first phase involved when scholars first distinguished crime from sin, they made
possible explanations of criminal behavior that were not theological (religious). This, in turn,
allowed for the dispassionate, scientific study of why crime occurs. The development of this
study is now known as the era of classical criminology.

The second phase, which began in the 19 th century, is referred to as modern

criminology. During this era, criminology distinguished itself as a subspecialty within the
emerging disciplines of psychology, sociology, and economics. Scholars formed criminological
societies and founded criminology journals. Criminologists conducted empirical tests
(observations or experiments) of their theories, rather than relying solely on speculation, and
consequently developed a wide range of theories.

The third phase, beginning in the second half of the 20th century, may best be called
independent criminology. During this period, criminology began to assert its independence from
the traditional disciplines that spawned it. In Western Europe, the United States, and Canada,
criminologists expanded their professional associations and published an increasing number of
journals. A number of universities developed graduate programs in criminology. Criminological
theories have become more multidisciplinary (spanning various fields of study) because
 DIVINE WORD COLLEGE OF VIGAN
COLLEGE OF CRIMINOLOGY
Vigan City, Ilocos Sur

independent criminologists seek to understand crime itself rather than study crime as one
aspect of an overall sociological or psychological theory.

THE GOALS OF CRIMINOLOGY

The classical criminologists of the 18th century were primarily concerned with ending
brutality and inequality against criminals by enforcing limitations on government power. They
believed that criminal behavior was the product of the offender’s rational choice, and that crime
could be prevented through the speedy and certain application of penalties that attached painful
and unattractive consequences to such behavior.

Beginning in the era of modern criminology, the emphasis of the discipline shifted.
Criminologists sought to develop theories to explain why crime occurred. They no longer relied
as strongly on explanations of crime based on the offender’s rational choice. Instead, they
attributed criminal behavior to the motivation to commit crime and the social context that allows
people to pursue criminal inclinations.

Contemporary scholars believe that criminal motivation is the product of one or more of
a complex set of factors. These factors are so numerous and so varied that no system of
classification can describe the current theories of crime causation with complete accuracy.
However, broadly speaking, these theories may be considered in one of the following three
categories:

theories attributing criminal behavior to biological or congenital (inherited) defects of

the offender,
theories relating crime to psychological factors or mental disorders, and
theories relating crime to environmental or social factors.

Many criminologists have suggested theories of multiple causation involving factors from more
than one of these categories.

IMPORTANT AREAS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF CRIMINOLOGY

 DIVINE WORD COLLEGE OF VIGAN
COLLEGE OF CRIMINOLOGY
Vigan City, Ilocos Sur

The development of criminal law and in defining crime.

The cause of law violation, and
Methods used in controlling criminal behavior.
MODULE 1
UNIT 2
CRIME AND CRIMINAL

At the end of the unit, you should be able to:

 Explain the criminal etiology

 Explain how crime will be committed
 Discuss the criminological and general classification of crimes

WHAT IS CRIME?
Sociologically, it is an act which violates social norms or an anti-social act.
Psychologically, it is an act resulting from an abnormal behavior of man.
Legally, it is an act committed or omitted in violation of a public law forbidding or
commanding it.

Criminality is a serious problem. This may be explained by the following characteristics of

crime:
It does not respect age, sex, culture, customs and tradition, race, and religion of the
society.
Crime is a worldwide phenomenon.
It occurs in all the existing economic strata.
Its causes are multifarious.
It is difficult to eradicate.

People cannot avoid offending others. Some offensive actions are considered abnormal
behavior while some are classified as crime. What therefore is the requirement before an act is
considered a crime? The following is the “Differentiae” of crime (Sutherland, n.d.):

An act maybe called crime if there is a certain external consequence or harm. Physical
injury is the most obvious external consequence of an offensive action.
The harm must be legally forbidden and prescribed by law.
There must be a conduct; that is, there must be an intentional or reckless action that
results to harmful consequence.
“Mens Rea” must be present.
There must be a fusion or concurrence of mens rea and conduct (actus reus).
There must be a casual relationship between the legally forbidden harm and the
voluntary misconduct.
There must be legally prescribed punishment of the misconduct.

CLOSE EXAMINATION OF CRIME

Before saying that a crime has been committed, you must have a “personal knowledge”
of its actual commission or that you must have caught the offender “in flagrante delicto”.
 DIVINE WORD COLLEGE OF VIGAN
COLLEGE OF CRIMINOLOGY
Vigan City, Ilocos Sur

An act can only be called as crime if there is a law that defines it, prohibit its
commission, and provides punishment for its commission.
In a criminal act, there should be malicious intent – a harmful consequence (oppressive
outcome of an act) is an inherent result.
There should be a continuity of the criminal act before an offender is criminally charged.
RELATIVITY OF CRIME
What are the changing concepts of crime and criminal laws?
1. Most of the existing laws define acts as crimes when some acts were not crimes a few years
ago.
2. Laws differ from jurisdiction to another and so with acts, which are considered as crimes.
3. Interpretation and implementation of laws vary in terms of:
a. characteristics of crime c. status of offenders
b. age d. status of enforcers

HOW ARE CRIMES COMMITTED UNDER THE RPC?

Crimes are committed by means of:
Dolo – deceit
Culpa – fault (when wrongful act results from imprudence, negligence, lack of foresight
or lack of skill)

GENERAL CLASSIFICATIONS OF CRIMES

1. As to atrocity – severity of the criminal act or offense

grave offense
less grave offense
minor or light offense

2. As to intent
crime mala in se – acts which are evil in themselves
crime mala prohibita – acts which are prohibited because the law has defined it to be a
crime.
3. As to Motive
economic crimes
sexual crimes
political crimes
miscellaneous crimes

4. As to Statistical Purpose
crimes against property
crimes against persons
crimes against morals
crimes against public order
crime against security
crimes against chastity

5. As to Penalty
crimes punishable by afflictive penalties
crimes punishable by correctional penalties
crimes punishable by light penalties
 DIVINE WORD COLLEGE OF VIGAN
COLLEGE OF CRIMINOLOGY
Vigan City, Ilocos Sur

CRIMINOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION OF CRIMES

1. As to the result of crimes:
Acquisitive crime– when the offender acquires something as a consequence of his
criminal acts.
Extinctive crime– when the end result of a criminal act is destructive.

2. As to the time or period of commission:

Seasonal crime– those committed only during a certain period of the year like violation
of tax law.
Situational Crime– those committed only when given the situation conducive to its
commission.

3. As to the length of time of commission:

Instant crime– those committed in a shortest possible time.
Episodic crime– those committed by a series of act in a lengthy space of time.

4. As to the place of location of the commission:

Static crimes- those committed in one place.
Continuing crime– those committed in several places.

5. As to the use of mental faculties:

Rational crime – those committed by a normal person
Irrational crime – those crimes committed by person deprived of intelligence who do not
know the consequence of his/her action.

6. As to the type of the offenders:

White collar crime – those committed by person of respectability and upper socio-
economic class in the course of their occupation activities.
Blue collar crime– those committed by ordinary professional criminal to maintain their
livelihood.

7. As to the standard of living of the criminals:

Crime of the upper world– falsification cases
Crime of the underworld– bag snatching

8. Crime by Imitation – “copycat” crime, committed by mere duplication of what was done by
others.

9. Crime by Passion – committed because of the fit of great emotion, such as anger

10. Occupational (service related) Crime – committed by rendering all service to satisfy the
desire of another.

WHAT IS A VICTIMLESS CRIME?

Victimless crime refers to acts committed by consenting adults in private. In victimless
crimes, the acts involve only the participants and do not directly harm others.

WHAT ARE INDEX CRIMES?

 DIVINE WORD COLLEGE OF VIGAN
COLLEGE OF CRIMINOLOGY
Vigan City, Ilocos Sur

Index crimes are violent crimes. It is criminal acts that involve threats or actual physical
harm to a victim by an offender. It presents not only offenses that we recognize as violent
(murder, rape, robbery) or other acts involving force and intimidation but also “violent crimes”
that are commonly considered as “social problems” such as domestic violence, child abuse,
elder abuse, etc.
On the basis of the definition of crime, a criminal may be defined in three ways:

A Criminal is a person who has committed a crime and has been convicted of final
judgment by a competent court.
A Criminal is a person who violated a social norm or one who acted an anti-social act.
A Criminal is one who violated rules of conduct due to behavioral maladjustment.

CLASSIFICATIONS OF CRIMINALS

1. Criminals classified on the basis of etiology:

Acute criminal– person who violate criminal law because of the impulse of the moment,
fit of passion or anger or spell of extreme jealousy.

Chronic criminal– person who acted in consonance with deliberate thinking, such as:
i. Neurotic criminal– person whose actions arise from intra-psychic conflict between
the social and anti-social components of his personality. Ex. Kleptomania
ii. Normal criminal– person whose psychic organization resembles that of normal
individuals except that he identified himself with criminal prototype.
iii. Criminality – caused by an organic pathological process.

2. Criminal classified on the basis of behavioral system:

Ordinary criminal– the lowest form of criminal career, they engage only on
conventional crimes which require limited skill and they lack organization to avoid arrest
and convictions.

Organized criminal- these criminal has a high degree of organization to enable them to
commit crimes without being detected and committed to specialized activities which can
be operated in large scale business such as racketeering, control of gambling,
prostitution and distribution of prohibited drugs.

Professional criminal– they are highly skilled and able to obtain considerable amount
of money without being detected because of organization and contract with other
professional criminals. These offenders are always able to escape conviction. They
specialize in the crime which requires skill games, pick-pocketing, shoplifting sneak
thievery counterfeiting and others.

3. Criminals classified on the basis of activities:

Professional criminal– those who earn their living through criminal activities.

Accidental criminal– those who commit criminal acts as a result of unanticipated

circumstances.

Habitual criminal– those who continue to commit criminal acts for such diverse reason
due to deficiency of intelligence and lack of self-control
 DIVINE WORD COLLEGE OF VIGAN
COLLEGE OF CRIMINOLOGY
Vigan City, Ilocos Sur

Situational criminal– those who are actually not criminals but constantly in trouble with
legal authorities because they commit robberies, larcenies, and embezzlement which
are intermixed with legitimate economic activities.

1. Criminal classified as a basis of mental attitudes:

Active aggressive criminal– those who commit crime in an impulsive manner usually
due to the aggressive behavior of the offender. Such attitude is clearly shown in crimes
of passion, revenge and resentments.

Passive inadequate criminal– those who commit crimes because they are pushed to
it by inducement, by reward or promise without considering its consequence. They are
called “ulukan”

Socialized delinquent– those who are normal in their behavior but merely defective in
their socialization processes. To this group belongs the educated respectable
member of society who may turn criminal on account of the situation they are involved.

APPROACHES AND METHODS IN CRIMINOLOGY FOR STUDY OF CRIMES

1. The Biological Approach - It studies criminal through biological perspectives.

2. Psychogenic Approach - Emphasis is based on linking criminal behavior to mental state,

especially mental evidence disease; mental disorders, pathologies, and emotional problems
and they repeatedly assert that crime is outcome of criminal mind. The root cause of the
criminal behavior neither environmental nor biological than question seems to be unclear.

3. Multifactor Approach - Different crimes are result of different combination of the factors.

TYPES OF EXPLANATION TO CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR

Single or Unitary Cause – Crime is produce only by one factor or variable, they are
either social, biological or mental. This theory is no longer in use at present.

Multiple Factor Theory – Crime is a combination of several factors. Some factors are
playing a major reason while the other is playing the minor role. This is the accepted
theory of crime causation.

Eclectic Theory – Crime is one instance maybe caused by one or more factors, while in
other instances it is cause by another set of factors.