The theory of Crime

causation
Early criminological theories

 Demonological theory- explained criminality

dominated thinking from early history well into the
17th century. This theory was predominant at a time
when explanation of reality were done through
theological approaches. The criminal was viewed
as a sinner who was possessed by demons or
damned by other wordly forces.
 Classical theory- emphasizes freewill and rationality on
the part of criminal actor. The classical school of
criminology grew out of frustration against barbabaric
system of law and justice.
 This school of thought is based on the assumption that
individuals choose to commit crime after weighing the
consequences of their action.
 Viewed individuals as acting based on freewill and being
motivated by hedonism. The latter refers to pleasure
principle, which consumes that the main purposes of life is
to maximize pleasure while minimizing pain.
 Cesare beccaria-  he was one the founders of classical school of
criminology. He published book entitled “On crimes on punishment”
which presented a coherent and comprehensive design for an
enlightened criminal justice system that was to serve the people
rather than monarch.
 His book made reforms in penal legislation and was influential in
the reforms of penal codes in france, russia, and it influence the first
ten amendments to the constitution.
 Responsible for the abolition of torture as legitimate means of
extracting confession.
 Penalty should be proportionate to the crime dictated by law.
Proposed principle for the proper
operation of CJS
 Law should be used to maintain social contract.
 Only legislator should create law.
 Judges should imposed punishment only in accordance with the
law.
 Punishment should be based on the pleasure and pain principle.
 Punishment should be determined by the crime.
 Capital punishment should be abolished.
 Its better to prevent crimes than to punish criminals.
 Jeremy bentham- he founded the hedonistic concept of utilitarianism, which
assumes that all our action are calculated in accordance with their likelihood of
bringing pleasure and pain. He devised the pseudo-mathematical formula called
felicific calculus which view individuals as human calculator who put all the
factors into equation before deciding whether a particular crime is worth
committing or not.
 Neo-classical- this theory modified the doctrine of free will by stating that
freewill of men may be affected by other factors and crime are committed due to
some compelling reason. These causes are pathology, incompetence, insanity or
any condition that will make it impossible for the individual to exercise freewill
entirely.
Positivism

 Positivist suggest that human behavior is a product of social, biological,

sociological or economic factor. Proponents of positivism and evolutionism
moved the field  of criminology from philosophical to a scientific perspective.
 August comte- introduced positivism who is also credited to having coined the
term sociology.
 Comte proposed the used of emperical and scientific investigation for
improvement of society.
 Cesare Lombroso- he claimed that criminals are distinguishable from non-
criminal due to the presence of atavistic stigmata and crimes committed by those
who are born with certain recognizable heredity traits. 
 Acc. To him criminal are usually in possession of huge jaws and strong canine
teeth, the arm span of criminals is often greater than their height just like that of
apes who use their forearms to push along the ground.
 Other physical stigmata include deviation in head size and shape, asymmetry of
the face, excessive dimension of the jaw and cheekbones, eye defects and
peculiarities, ears of unusual size, nose twisted, upturned or flattened in thieves,
or aquiline or beaklike in murderers, fleshy lips, swollen and protruding, and
pouches in the cheek like those of animals toes.
 Classes of criminal acc to Lombroso
 Born criminal- individual with at least 5
atavistic stigmata
 Insane criminal – those who became criminal
because of some brain defects which affect their
ability to understands and differentiate what is
right from what is wrong.
 Criminaloid- those with makeup of an ambiguous
group that include habitual criminal, criminal by
passion and other diverse type.
Rafael Garofalo- he treated the roots of
the criminal behavior not to physical
features but to their psychology
equivalent which he referred to as a
moral anomalies.
 Classification of criminals by Garofalo
 Murderers- motivated by revenge
 Violent criminal- committed violent crimes
 Deficient criminals- committed crime against
properties
 lascivious criminal- committed crime against
chastity and other sexual crimes.
Enrico Ferri – he was a member of italian parliament
who believed that criminal could not be held morally
responsible because they did not choose to commit crime
but was driven to commit them by condition of their live.
 He focused his study on the influences of psychological
factors and sociological factors such as economic crime.
 Biological factors- an area of positivism which
associates criminal traits or individual’s evil
disposition to inherited genetic like physical
disfigurement or impairment and other biological
causes.
Behavioral theory- the human action are
developed through learning experiences
rather than focus on unconscious personality
traits and cognitive development patterns
produced early in childhood.
 PHYSIOGNOMY 
  the study of the facial features and their relation to human behavior 

 PROPONENTS:
 Giambatista dela Porta  -founder of human physiognomy
 Acc to him, criminal behavior may be predicted based on facial feature of a
person
 Johann Kaspar Lavater –he supported the belief of dela porta
 - he believed that a person's character is revealed through his facial characteristics.
 PHRENOLOGY 
    the study that deals with the relationship between the skull and human behavior
 Study of the external formation of the skull in relation to the person's personality
and tendencies toward criminal behavior.

 NOTE:  CRANIOSCOPY, PHRENOLOGY AND CRANIOLOGY are used

interchangeably 
 PHRENOLOGY 
    the study that deals with the relationship between the skull and human
behavior 

 NOTE:  CRANIOSCOPY, PHRENOLOGY AND CRANIOLOGY are used

interchangeably 
 Franzjoseph gall- he developed cranioscopy which later
renamed as phrenology.
 Thestudy that deals with the relationship between the
skull and human behavior.

 Johanns kaspar spurzheim- he was assistant of gall in

the study of phrenology. They studied the shape of the
skull and bumps on the heads to determine whether these
physical attributes were linked to criminal behavior.
 Hewas the man most responsible  for popularizing and
spreading phrenology to a wide audience.
 Samuel G. morton – he developed the idea of polygenism.
 Polygenism- a theory of human origins positing that the human races are of
different lineages as opposed to monogenism, which posits a single origin of
humanity.
 Morton claimed that he could judge the intellectual capacity of race by the skull
size.
 Earnest Hooton- Harvard anthropologist who in CRIME AND MAN claimed
that, on the basis of a very detailed and extensive study of physical differences
between criminal and non-criminal. He had discovered the causes of criminality-
PHYSICAL INFERIORITY. His 12 year study of 14,000 prisoner and 3,200
college student, firemen and others, led to him to this conclusion.
 Charles darwin- he published the book Origin of species which put forth this
concept that human beings, as part of nature, evolved, from other species over a
long period of time and the evolution occurs through variation, adaptation and
natural selection.
 PHYSIOLOGY OR SOMATYPE 
    refers to the study of the body build of a person in relation to his
temperament and personality and the type of offense he is most prone to
commit 
   also called somatology and body-type theories
 ERNST KRETSCHMER 
 Asthenic-  lean, slightly built, narrow shoulders, their
crimes are petty thievery and fraud.
 Athletic– medium to tall, strong, muscular, coarse
bone: they are usually connected with the crimes of
violence
 pyknic - medium height, rounded figures, massive
neck , broad face: they tend to commit fraud deception
and violence
 2) WILLIAM SHELDON 
  Ectomorph- have small skeleton and weak muscles. The
body shape is fragile and thin
  Mesomorph- have well developed muscles and an
athletic appearance. Body shape is hard and round
  Endomorph-  have heavily builds and slow moving .
Body shape is soft and round
 HEREDITY 
   the transmission of traits from parents to offsprings 
   findings of the early studies done on adoption and twin studies support the
idea that criminality can be inherited
 Nature theory- it argues that intelligence is largely
determined genetically, that ancestry determines
I,Q and that low intelligence as demonstrated by
low I,Q is linked to criminal behavior.
 Nurture theory- it refers to all the environmental variables that impact who were
are including our childhood experiences, how we were raised, our social
relationship and our surrounding culture.

 It assumes that correlation between environmental factors and psychological

outcomes are caused environmentally.
 RICHARD DUGDALE -
 studied the Jukes Family  

 2) HENRY GODDARD 
 - studied the Kallikak Family
 3) CHARLES GORING 
 - studied the physical traits of convicted offenders and proposed that
individuals who possess criminal characteristics should be prohibited from
having children
 PSYCHOLOGICAL DETERMINISM 
   refers to the theories that attribute criminal behavior of individuals to
psychological factors 
 PSCHOANALYTIC THEORY 
    formulated by SIGMUND FREUD 
    according to this theory, personality has three (3) components: the id, ego
and superego 
    the imbalance among the three (3) components causes abnormal behavior 
 SOCIOLOGICAL DETERMINISM 
 - refers to things, places, events, conditions in the environment and people
that can influence the behavior of an individual 
 EMILE DURKHEIM 
    stated that crime is a normal part of society 
 - introduced the concept of ANOMIE, the absence of social norms, 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 in society
 GABRIEL TARDE 
 - introduced the THEORY OF IMITATION
 CARTOGRAPHIC SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY 
    studied the influence of social statistical data such as population, age,
gender, occupation and economic status to criminality 
 PROPONENTS: 
 1) ADOLPHE QUETELET AND 
 2) ANDRE MICHEL GUERRY 
 SOCIAL STRUCTURE THEORIES 
 hold that delinquency is a function of a person’s place in the economic
structure 
 sub-theories are the following: 
 Social Disorganization Theory
 Strain Theory 
 Cultural Deviance Theory 
 SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION THEORY

   popularized by Clifford Shaw     and Henry McKay

   according to this theory, crimes in the urban areas are more prevalent
because residents have impersonal relationships with each other
  there is increase in the   number of broken families and single parenthood
are also very common in disorganized communities 
    another feature is poverty as evidenced by poor living conditions, such as
unsightly and unsanitary streets and high unemployment rate 
 STRAIN THEORY 
    strain refers to the     individual’s frustrations, anger and resentment
 - strain is caused by their inability to have, achieve and possess their desires
in life , whether material or non-material things 
   this inability is brought about by poverty 

   as a result, they are pushed into doing illegal activities to survive
 CULTURAL DEVIANCE THEORY 
    give emphasis on the concept of culture and sub- culture 
 -  because people in the lower class feel isolated due to extreme deprivation
and poverty, they tend to create a sub-culture with its own set of rules and
values 
    combines the elements of social disorganization theory and strain theory 

 CULTURE 
 - refers to the system of values and meanings and social norms shared by a
group of individuals; way of life of the majority of people 
 SUB-CULTURE 

- a sub-group within an    existing culture that maintains a unique set of
values and beliefs that are in conflict with conventional social norms 
 SOCIAL PROCESS THEORIES 
 view delinquency as a result of poor or faulty socialization or upbringing 

 Differential Association Theory 

 Differential Reinforcement Theory 
 Neutralization Theory
 DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION THEORY 
    formulated by Edwin Sutherland  
    This theory states that criminality can be learned through socialization 
    Criminal behavior is influenced by the people with whom the individual has
regular and frequent contact with 
 DIFFERENTIAL REINFORCEMENT THEORY 
    individual’s behavior depends on how people around him react towards his
behavior
    a behavior is reinforced when the individual gains something from it 
    a behavior will be extinguished if the individual is punished for his
behavior 
 NEUTRALIZATION THEORY 
    introduced by David Matza and Gresham Sykes 
    people know when they are doing something wrong, however, they
rationalize and justify their actions 
    this rationalizing is what is called “neutralization” 
    also referred to as DRIFT THEORY 
 SOCIAL REACTION THEORY 
 view delinquent acts and criminality as products of stigma and labeling 
 states that people become criminals when significant members of society
label them as such and they accept those labels as a personal identity 
 also called LABELING THEORY
 SOCIAL CONTROL THEORIES 
 -   maintain that everybody has the potential to become a criminal but most
people are controlled by their bonds to society 
 - the social control being referred to are the agencies of social control, such as
family, school, religion or church, government and other institutions
 CONTAINMENT THEORY 
   proposed by Walter Reckless 
   containment means the forces within and outside the individual that has the
power to influence his actions 
   inner containments refer to  positive self-concept, tolerance for frustration
and ability to set realistic goals
   outer containments include the family and other institutions 
    both inner and outer containments help prevent juvenile offending 
 SOCIAL BOND THEORY 
    formulated by Travis Hirschi 
    views crime as a result of individuals with weakened bonds to social
institutions 
    according to this theory, there are four (4) elements of social bonds: 
ATTACHMENT, COMMITMENT, INVOLVEMENT and BELIEF 
 ATTACHMENT 
 refers to the degree to which individuals care about the opinions of others 

 2) COMMITMENT 
 refers to an individual’s investment of energy and emotion in conventional
pursuits 
 3) INVOLVEMENT 
    refers to the amount of time an individual spends on a conventional
pursuit 

 4) BELIEF 
 - refers to acceptance of the norms of conventional society