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• Criminology


  The study of crimes and criminals and the attempt of analyzing scientifically their causes and control and the treatment of criminals
• Sub-fields of Criminology


  • Sociological Criminology
  • Psychological Criminology
  • Psychiatric Criminology
• Sociological Criminology


  • Focuses on the group of people and society as a whole, examining the relationship of demographic and group variables to crime
• Psychological Criminology


  • Focuses on the individual criminal behavior, how it is acquired, evoked, maintained, and modified, considering both environmental and personality influences
• Psychiatric Criminology


  • Deals with the study of crime through forensic psychiatry, focusing on the motives and drives of the individual criminal
• Scope of the Study of Criminology


  • Criminal Behavior or Criminal Etiology
  • Sociology of Law
  • Penology or Correction
  • Criminalistics or Forensic Science
• Nature of Criminology


  • An Applied Science
  • A Social Science
  • Dynamic
  • Nationalistic
• Crime


  • An act or omission in violation of a criminal law (legal definition)
  • An anti-social act that is injurious, detrimental or harmful to the norms of society (social definition)
  • An act considered undesirable due to behavioral maladjustment of the offender (psychological definition)
• Types of Crime


  • Offense
  • Felony
  • Delinquency/Misdemeanor
• Criminological Classification of Crime

  • Acquisitive and Extinctive Crimes
  • Seasonal and Situational Crimes
  • Episodic and Instant Crimes
  • Static and Continuing Crimes
  • Rational and Irrational Crimes
  • White Collar and Blue Collar Crimes
  • Upper World and Underworld Crimes
  • Crimes by Imitation and Crimes by Passion
  • Service Crimes
• Legal Classification of Crimes

  • Crimes against National Security and the Law of Nations
  • Crimes against the Fundamental Law of the State
  • Crimes against Public Order
  • Crimes against Public Interest
  • Crimes against Public Morals
  • Crimes Committed by Public Officers
  • Crimes against Person
  • Crimes against Properties
  • Crimes against Personal Liberty and Security
  • Crimes against Chastity
  • Crimes against Civil Status of Persons
  • Crimes against Honor
  • Quasi-offenses or Criminal Negligence
• Definitions of a Criminal

  • A person who committed a crime and has been convicted by a court (legal definition)
  • A person who violated a social norm or did an anti-social act (social definition)
  • A person who violated rules of conduct due to behavioral maladjustment (psychological definition)
• Criminological Classification of Criminals

  • Based on Etiology: Acute Criminal, Chronic Criminal
  • Based on Behavioral System: Ordinary Criminal, Organized Criminal, Professional Criminal
  • Based on Activities: Professional Criminals, Accidental Criminals, Habitual Criminals
  • Based on Mental Attitudes: Active Criminals, Passive Inadequate Criminals, Socialized Delinquents
  • Based on Legal Classification: Habitual Delinquent, Recidivist
• Criminal Behavior


  An intentional behavior that violates a criminal code
• Victimology


  The study of victims of crimes and their contributory role, if any, in crime causation
• Penology


  The study that deals with punishment and the treatment of criminals
• Subjective Approaches to Crime

  • Anthropological Approach
  • Medical Approach
  • Biological Approach
  • Physiological Approach
  • Psychological Approach
  • Psychiatric Approach
  • Psychoanalytical Approach
• Objective Approaches to Crime

  • Geographic Approach
  • Ecological Approach
  • Economic Approach
  • Socio-Cultural Approach
• Demonological Theory


  Explanation that criminal behavior was the result of evil spirits and demons controlling the individual's behavior
• Classical School of Criminology

  Advocates that man has absolute free will to choose between good and evil, therefore the focus is on the criminal himself and his responsibility for his actions
• Schools of thought about the causes of crime

  • Classical
  • Neo-classical
  • Positivist
• Classical School of Criminology

  • Advocated by Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham
  • Maintains that man has absolute free will to choose between good and evil
  • Believes in punishment severe enough for people to choose to avoid criminal acts
  • Believes in hedonism - people choose pleasure and avoid pain
• Neo-Classical School of Criminology


  • Argued that situations or circumstances that made it impossible to exercise freewill are reasons to exempt the accused from conviction
  • Maintains the classical doctrine is correct in general but should be modified in certain details
• Positivist/Italian School of Criminology


  • Maintained that crime is a natural phenomenon comparable to disaster or calamity
  • Believed crime should be treated through rehabilitation or individual measures, not punishment
• Cesare Lombroso


  • Italian leader of the positivist school
  • Criticized for his methodology and attention to biological characteristics of offenders
  • Developed a scientific approach to the study of criminal behavior and reform of criminal law
  • Wrote "Crime: Its Causes and Remedies"
• Classifications of Criminals by Lombroso

  • Born Criminals
  • Criminal by Passion
  • Insane Criminals
  • Criminoloid
  • Occasional Criminal
  • Pseudo-criminals
• Enrico Ferri


  • Lombroso's best-known associate
  • Attacked the classical doctrine of free will, argued criminals should not be held morally responsible
• Raffaele Garofalo


  • Follower of Lombroso
  • Rejected the doctrine of free will
  • Traced roots of criminal behavior to "moral anomalies" rather than physical features
• Differences between Classical and Positivist Schools

  • Classical: Legal definition of crime, punishment fits the crime, doctrine of free will, death penalty allowed, no empirical research, definite sentence

  Positivist: No legal definition, punishment fits the criminal, doctrine of determinism, abolition of death penalty, inductive method, indeterminate sentence
• Anomie Theory


  • Advocated by David Emile Durkheim
  • Explains that the absence of norms in a society provides a setting conducive to crimes and other anti-social acts
• Psychoanalytical Theory


  Sigmund Freud's view on criminal behavior, based on using psychology to explain criminal behavior
• Human Ecology Theory


  • Advocated by Robert Ezra Park
  • Maintains that crime is a function of social change that occurs along with environmental change
• Ernest Kretschmer


  • German psychiatrist who distinguished three principal body physique types: asthenic, athletic, pyknic
  • Related these body types to various psychotic behavioral patterns
• William H. Sheldon


  • Influenced by the Somatotype School of Criminology
  • Maintained the belief that inheritance is the primary determinant of behavior and physique is a reliable indicator of personality
• Classification of Body Physique by Sheldon

  • Endomorphy - soft, rounded body
  • Mesomorphy - athletic, muscular body
  • Ectomorphy - thin, delicate body
• Differential Association Theory


  • Advocated by Edwin Sutherland
  • Maintains that criminal behavior is learned through the process of communication, including techniques, motives, and attitudes
• Containment Theory


  • Advocated by Walter Reckless
  • Assumes that for every individual there exists a containing external structure and a protective internal structure that provide defense against crime or delinquency
• Social Class Conflict and Capitalism Theory

  • Advocated by Marx, Engels, and Bonger
  • Maintains that the ruling class creates criminal law and its enforcement to protect their interests, and crime is an inevitable outcome of the profit-motive of capitalism
• Strain Theory


  • Advocated by Robert Merton
  • Maintains that the failure of people to achieve higher status in life causes them to commit crimes in order to attain that status/goal
• Subculture Theory of Delinquency

  • Advocated by Albert Cohen
  • Claims that the lower class cannot effectively socialize in middle class behavior, so they form a subculture that rejects middle class values