WEEK 2- Understanding Criminology

WEEK 2: DEFINING CRIMINOLOGY What is Criminology? Criminology is the scientific study of criminals, criminal behavior and its causes. Criminologists attempt to build theories that explain why crimes occur and test those theories by observing behavior. Criminological theories help shape s...

WEEK 2: DEFINING CRIMINOLOGY What is Criminology? Criminology is the scientific study of criminals, criminal behavior and its causes. Criminologists attempt to build theories that explain why crimes occur and test those theories by observing behavior. Criminological theories help shape society’s response to crime both in terms of preventing criminal behavior and responding to it after it occurs. In its broadest sense, criminology is the entire body of knowledge regarding crimes, criminals and the effort of society to prevent and repress them. In the narrower sense, Criminology is the scientific study of crimes and criminals. This scientific study is extended only on three basic lines. a. Investigation of the nature of criminal law and its administration. b. Analysis of the causation of crimes and the behavior of criminals; and c. Study of the control of crimes and the rehabilitation of offenders (criminals) According to Edwin H. Sutherland & Donald R. Cressey “Criminology is the body of knowledge regarding crime as a social phenomenon”. It includes within its scope the processes of making laws, of breaking laws, and of reacting toward the breaking of laws. This definition exhibits sociological bias and regards crimes to be a reaction to certain sets of social factors and causes. According to them, the objective of criminology is the development of a body of general and verified principles and other types of knowledge regarding the process of law, crimes, and treatment. To simplify things, criminology is an interdisciplinary science. Why? Because criminologists are trained in various fields, most commonly are sociology, criminal justice, political science, psychology, economics, and natural science. The word Phenomenon is refers to the appearance or observed features of something experienced as distinguished from reality, or the thing itself; any extremely unusual or extraordinary thing or occurrence; or any fact, circumstances, or experiences that is apparent to the sense and that can be scientifically described or appraised (Webster’s New World Dictionary). ELLIOT, M. A & MERILL, F. E ``Criminology may be defined as the scientific study of crimes and its treatment.” This definition, besides emphasizing the scientific investigation into the nature and etiology of crime, stresses the practical or utilitarian nature of this body of knowledge, namely, devising ways and means to prevent or reduce the incidence of crime and to rehabilitate criminals as normal members of the society. DONALD R. TAFT “Criminology is the study which includes all the subject matter necessary to the understanding and prevention of crimes together with the punishment and treatment of delinquents and criminals.” This is a comprehensive definition and describes theoretical as well as practical aspects of the study. It brings out clearly the fact, which may get overlooked usually, that criminology is concerned not with the offences committed by adults only but also with juvenile offences. WEBSTER’S DICTIONARY Criminology may be described to be “the scientific study of crime as a social phenomenon, or of criminals in their mental traits, habits and discipline etc.” This definition has the merit of emphasizing equality in the sociological as well as psychological aspects of the crime and the criminal. Criminologist (R.A. 6506) Any person who is a graduate of the Degree of Criminology, who has passed the examination for criminologists and is registered as such by the Board of Examiners of the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC ). Origin of the Word CRIMINOLOGY Criminology is about much more than just looking at criminal behavior. It analyzes how crime affects victims and society as a whole. Criminology considers various theories and ideas around how and why crimes occur. It also looks at ways to control and prevent criminal behavior – in addition to the way law enforcement operates, and the mechanism of the criminal justice system. The study of criminology dates back to the beginning of the 18th century. Scholars began to realize that defining criminal behavior as simply a “sin” was not a sufficient way to understand this phenomenon. Criminology (from Latin crīmen, "accusation"; and Greek logia, study) is the scientific study of the nature, extent, causes, and control of criminal behavior in both the individual and in society. The term criminology was coined in 1885 by Italian law professor Raffaele Garofalo as criminologia. Around the same time, but later, French anthropologist Paul Topinard used the analogous French term criminologie. Furthermore, criminology is considered a branch of sociology. It draws on aspects of psychology and anthropology. In other terms criminology came from the Latin word “crimen” meaning crime and Greek word “logos” which means study. Thus, criminology is the study of crime. The discipline of criminology has evolved in three phases, beginning in the 18th 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 explanations of criminal behavior that were not theological (religious). This, in possible urn, 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 19th 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 independent criminologists seek to understand crime itself rather than study crime as one aspect of an overall sociological or psychological theory. IMPORTANT PERSONALITIES Cesare Beccaria in his “Essay on Crimes and Punishment” presented his key ideas on the abolition of torture as a legitimate means of extracting confessions. The Classical theory maintains that man is essentially a moral creature with absolute free will to choose between good and evil therefore tress is placed upon the criminal himself; that every man is responsible for his act.H explains that the greatest deterrent was the certainty of detection: the more swift and certain the punishment, the more effective it would be. It would also allow a less serious punishment to be effective if shame and an acknowledgement of wrongdoing was a guaranteed response to society's judgment. Thus, the prevention of crime was achieved through a proportional system that was clear and simple to understand, and if the entire nation united in their own defense. Cesare Lombroso (1836 – 1909) – The Italian leader of the positivist school of criminology, was criticized for his methodology and his attention to the biological characteristics of offenders, but his emphasis on the need to study offenders scientifically earned him the “father of modern criminology.” His major contribution is the development of a scientific approach to the study of criminal behavior and to reform criminal law. He wrote the essay entitled “Crime: Its Causes and Remedies” that contains his key ideas and the classifications of criminals. Enrico Ferri (1856 – 1929) – He was the best-known Lombroso’s associate. His greatest contribution was his attack on the classical doctrine of free will, which argued that criminals should be held morally responsible for their crimes because they must have made a rational decision to commit the crime. Raffaele Garofalo ( 1852 – 1934) – Another follower of Lombroso, an Italian nobleman, magistrate, senator, and professor of law. Like Lombroso and Ferri, he rejected the doctrine of free will and supported the position that the only way to understand crime was to study it by scientific methods. Influenced on Lombroso’s theory of atavistic stigmata (man’s inferior/ animalistic behavior), he traced the roots of criminal behavior not to physical features but to their psychological equivalents, which he called “moral anomalies”. Edwin Sutherland (1883 - 1950) - Sutherland has been referred to as “the most important criminologist of the twentieth century” because his explanation about crime and criminal behavior can be seen as a corrected extension of social perspective. For this reason, he was considered as the “Dean of Modern Criminology.” He said that crime is learned and not inherited Adolphe Quetelet and Andre Michael Guerry They repudiated the free will doctrine of the classicists. They are the founders of the cartographic school of criminology and moral statistics. The Cartographic school of criminology makes use of statistical data such as population, age, gender, occupation, religious affiliations and socioeconomic status and studies their influences and relationship to criminality. Rawson W. Rawson - utilized crime statistics to suggest a link between population density and crime rates, with crowded cities creating an environment conducive for crime Henry Mayhew used empirical methods and an ethnographic approach to address social questions and poverty, and presented his studies in London Labour and the London Poor. Emile Durkheim- viewed crime as an inevitable aspect of society, with uneven distribution of wealth and other differences among people. Sir Alec John Jeffreys (in criminalistics) - fellow of the Royal Society (FRS), born 9 January 1950 at Oxford in Oxfordshire is a British Geneticist, who developed techniques for DNA fingerprinting and DNA profiling. Alphonse Bertillon- April 23, 1853 -February 13, 1914 was a French law enforcement officer and biometrics researcher, who created anthropometry, an identification system based on physical measurements. Dr. Charles Goring- his research published in 1913, which was based on a statistical analysis of prisoners. The researcher argued from his findings that criminals were not qualitatively different from other people but were simply on the extremes of the line of normality.