Criminology
by
Muhammad Akram Mehar
M.Sc Sociology
In 1885, Italian law professor Raffaele Garofalo coined the term “criminology” (in Italian, criminologia). The French anthropologist Paul Topinard used it for the first time in French (criminologie) around the same time. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in the behavioral sciences. As we know that; any act punishable by law is a crime and its scientific study is criminology. So, “Criminology is the scientific study of crime, criminal behavior of an individual or a social phenomenon”. We can say that it is the study of crime and its related matters.Criminology includes the study of;
o Characteristics of the criminal law
o The extent of the crime
o The effects of crimes on victims and on society
o Methods of crime prevention
o The attributes of criminals
o The characteristics and workings of the criminal justice system
Although not everyone agrees on the meanings of crime and criminals, there is considerable controversy in criminology.
o Some suggested that the proper subject matter encompasses only those persons convicted in a criminal court of criminal violations of law.
o Other criminologists include with the populations of criminal persons who have been arrested but not convicted.
But majority of people associated with criminality focus on individuals who have violated criminal laws. < S.P. Singh, Encyclopedia of Criminology >
School of Thoughts
In the mid-eighteenth century, criminology arose as social philosophers gave thought to crime and concepts of law. Several criminological schools have been created over time, including Classical school, Positivist school, and the Chicago School.
(i)- Classical (ii) - Positive (iii) - Chicago
Classical School of Thought
It was developed in the middle of 18th century and it was based on utilitarian philosophy. It means that the theorists of this school belief on utilitarian philosophy, (which things provide utility and which not). The theorists of this school of thought are Cesare Beccaria, Jeremy Bentham, (These are classical theorists).
Beccaria’s underlying philosophy was free will. He maintained that behavior is purposive and is based on hedonism; the pleasure-pain principle: Human beings choose those actions that give pleasure and avoid those that bring pain. Therefore, punishment should be assigned to each crime in a degree that results in more pain than pleasure for those who commit the forbidden acts.
“The punishment should fit the crime”
Beccaria has been praised for helping to make the law impartial. The major weakness of Beccaria’s ideas was the rigidity of his concepts.
Bentham’s philosophy was to “let the punishment fit the crime,” for he believed that people act rationally. We choose certain acts because they bring us pleasure; likewise, we avoid acts that result in pain. Our choice is a rational one.
Now, we can conclude that they believe;
o People have free will to choose how to act.
o Deterrence is based on the idea of human being who seeks pleasure and avoids pain. In doing so, the human being weighs the costs and benefits of the consequences of each action. So, a human being with this thinking follows consciously what is bad/good for him.
o Punishment can deter people from crime.
o The more swift and certain is the punishment, the more effective it is in deterring criminal behavior.
Positivist School of Thought (University of Phoenix)
Like the Classical School, the Positivist School had its origins in Italy. Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909) is regarded as its founder / leader, with his theory of the “born criminal”. He is also called the father of modern criminology. Lombroso rejected the classical doctrine of free will. Lombroso described himself as a “slave of facts”.
The Positivist School presumes that criminal behavior is caused by internal and external factors outside of the individual’s control. The scientific method was introduced and applied to study human behavior. We can say that it is the school which follows scientific study and scientific methods, i.e. we study internal and external factors of different types of crime such as murder, theft, etc. Simply, It tells us that; how positive thinkers address criminology? Positivism can be broken up into three segments which include biological, psychological and social positivism. (Jillondria Thomas)
• Biological Positivism
Cesare Lombroso, an Italian prison doctor working in the late 19th century and sometimes regarded as the “father” of criminology, was on of the largest contributors to biological positivism, which alleged that physiological traits such as the measurements of one’s cheek bones or hairline, or a cleft palate, considered to be throwbacks to Neanderthal man, were indicative of “atavistic” criminal tendencies.
• Psychological Positivism
Hans Eysenck (1964-1977), a British psychologist, claimed that psychological factors such as Extraversion and Neuroticism made a person more likely to commit criminal acts.
• Social Positivism
Sociological positivism postulates that societal factors such as poverty, membership of subcultures, or low levels of education can predispose people to crime. Adolphe Quetelet made use of data and statistical analysis to gain insight into relationship between crime and sociological factors. Emile Durkheim viewed crime as an inevitable aspect of society, with uneven distribution of wealth and other differences among people.
Enrico Ferri said that; the positive school consists of the following:
o Study first the natural origin of crime and then its social and legal consequences in order to provide, by social and legal means, the various remedies which will have the greatest effect on the various causes that produce it.
o Both the positivist and classical schools take a consensus view of crime – that a crime is an act that violates the basic values and beliefs of society.
Thus, we can conclude that the Positivist School of Criminology rejected the Classical School’s idea that all crime resulted from a choice. Though they did not disagree with the Classical School, they argued that the most serious crimes were committed by individuals who were “primitive” or “atavistic” – that is, who failed to evolve to a fully human and civilized state. Crime therefore resulted not from what criminals had in common with others in society, but from their distinctive physical or mental defects.
The Classical and Positive Schools Compared
The positive and the classical schools had an important impact on the emergence and development of criminology. The comparison of both is presented below;
Chicago School
The Chicago School arose in the early twentieth century, through the work of Robert Ezra Park, Ernest Burgess, and other urban sociologists at University of Chicago. In the 1920s, Park and Burgess identified five concentric zones that often exist as cities grow, including the “zone in transition” which was identified as most volatile and subject to disorder. Simply, they make ecological zones to study the criminality in the society.
Chicago School sociologists adopted a social ecology approach to studying cities, and postulated that urban neighborhoods with high levels of poverty often experience breakdown in the social structure and institutions such as family and schools. This results in social disorganization, which reduces the ability of these institutions to control behavior and creates an environment ripe for deviant behavior.
The Chicago School of criminological theory aimed to move past the simple hard-line classical explanations of crime. The Chicago School introduced the idea of socialization as an explanation for criminal activity. These theories hold that people are not simply born good or bad – they are influenced by the people, social situations, and other external forces that surround them.
