General Classification of

Criminals
1. Criminals classified on the basis of
etiology:
 a. Acute criminal– person who violate criminal law because
of the impulse of the moment, fit of passion or anger or spell
of extreme jealousy.
 b. Chronic criminal– person who acted in consonance with
deliberate thinking, such as:
 b.1. Neurotic criminal– person whose action arise from
intra-psychic conflict between the social and anti-social
components of his personality. Ex. Kleptomania
 b.2. Normal criminal– person whose psychic organization
resembles that of normal individuals except that he identified
himself with criminal prototype.
 b.3. Criminality – caused by an organic pathological process.
2. Criminal classified on the basis of
behavioral system:
 a. 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.
 b. 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.
 c. 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:
 a. Professional criminal– those who earn their living
through criminals activities.
 b. Accidental criminal– those who commit criminal acts
as a result of unanticipated circumstances.
 c. Habitual criminal– those who continue to commit
criminal acts for such diverse reason due to deficiency of
intelligence and lack of self control
 d. 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.
4. Criminal classified as a basis of
mental attitudes:
 a. 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.
 b. 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”
 c. 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.