Schools of Criminology PDF

CRIMINOLOGY SCHOOLS MEANING OF CRIMINOLOGY The term criminology is derived from the combination of two words – crimen, which means crime and logia, which means study. Thus, it refers to the scientific study of the nature, extent, causes, and control of criminal behaviour. It is the s...

CRIMINOLOGY SCHOOLS MEANING OF CRIMINOLOGY The term criminology is derived from the combination of two words – crimen, which means crime and logia, which means study. Thus, it refers to the scientific study of the nature, extent, causes, and control of criminal behaviour. It is the scientific study of the causes of crime and suggests appropriate remedies. SCHOOLS OF CRIMINOLOGY In the different stages of time, various criminologists gave their perspectives on the meaning of crime, criminals, and causes of crime, and there is a variation in the opinions of every criminologist. This variation further led to formulations of different criminal behaviour. As a result, the scientific explanation of criminal behaviour is stated in the form of different theories, known as schools of criminology. The schools of criminology can be divided as: 1. Pre- Classical School of Criminology 2. The Classical School 3. The Neo – Classical School of Criminology 4. The Positive School 5. Clinical School of Criminology 6. Sociological School of Criminology 1. Pre-classical School Jeremy Bentham During the 17th and 18th centuries, religion, worshipping and sacrifices were at their peak level. There was no or very little existence of scientific explanations. There was a belief that there existed another part of the world that is full of evil powers, and every individual is controlled by the supreme power of that world. Therefore, the people are influenced by those evil powers, due to which the person loses their sense of morality and then commits crimes. This school believed that an individual is not in a position to differentiate between what is right and what is wrong because when the person commits a crime, the sense of understanding is influenced by evil powers. The treatment suggested in this school was of giving extreme torture to the person who committed the crime. 2. Classical School Cesare Beccaria propounded this theory in the 18th century Based upon the free will concept and determinism, that the person commits the crime based on pleasure and pain, i.e. the notion of causation in terms of one’s free choice to commit crime by rational man seeking pleasure and avoiding pain. The greatest achievement of this school lies in the fact that it suggested a substantial criminal policy which was easy to administer without resort to the imposition of arbitrary punishment. Punishment should be directly proportional to the intensity of crime. This school completely focused on crime. Classical school ignored the difference between the first offender and habitual offender, which later became the reason for its criticism. Also, it erred in relying solely on the act without devoting any attention to the state of mind of the criminal.  3. Neo-classical School Neo-classical school is developed from the classical school of criminology. It is also known as the upgraded version of the classical school. Neo-classical school is supported by Prof. Gillin. During the neo-classical era, the need for variation in sentencing on the basis of age, sex, mental conditions, etc. was recognized. Focused on understanding the facts and circumstances of the case and the mental state of the offender. It divided criminals into different categories such as first offender, habitual offender, minor, insane etc. Punishment should be given as per the category of the offender, which means the mental capacity of an individual. Criticised because it specifically focused on providing punishment to the offender and did not focus on the reformation of an offender. 4. Positivist School Founded in the 19th century. Also known as Italian school. It rejected the free will theory of the classical school. Established that it was neither ‘free will’ of the offender nor his innate depravity which actuated him to commit crime, but the real cause of criminality lay in anthropological features of the criminals. It tried to demonstrate the organic functioning of brain and established the relationship between criminality and the structure and functioning of the brain. The three main exponents of this school were: Cesare Lombroso Enrico Ferri Raffaele Garofalo  4.1 Lombroso’s Theory Cesare Lombroso is also regarded as the originator of modern criminology. A person who commits a crime is a born criminal. The theory focused on the biological characteristics of the commission of a crime. After studying the physical characteristics of criminals, he came to a conclusion that criminals were physically inferior in the standard of growth and therefore, developed a tendency for inferior acts. He further generalized that criminal are less sensitive to pain and therefore, they have little regard for the suffering of others. According to this school, the criminals were divided into three categories: I. Born criminal: The criminals in whom the criminal behaviour is genetically transferred. II. Insane criminal: The criminal who is of unsound mind and mind is not in a position to understand the circumstances of the act; that what is wrong or right. III. Criminoids: The criminals that have more of an inferiority complex of biological structure. 4.2 Enrico Ferri’s Theory He challenged Lombroso’s view by proving that mere biological reasons were not enough to account for criminality. He firmly believed that other factors such as emotional reaction, social infirmity or geographical conditions also play a vital role in determining criminal tendencies. This theory presupposes that the crime is the synthetic product of three main factors: a. Physical or geographical; b. Anthropological; and c. Psychological or social. Thus, Ferri emphasized that criminal behavior is an outcome of a variety of factors having their combined effect on the individual. According to him, social change, which is inevitable in a dynamic society; results in disharmony, conflict, and cultural variations. As a result of this, social disorganization takes place and traditional patterns of social control mechanism totally break down. In the wake of such rapid social changes, the incidence of crime is bound to increase tremendously. 4.2..continued Enrico Ferri divided the criminals into five categories: I. Born criminal II. Occasional criminal: The criminals who occasionally commit the crime due to circumstances. III. Passionate criminal: The criminals who commit crimes out of their passion. IV. Insane criminal V. Habitual criminal: The criminals who are habitual of committing crimes.  4.3 Garofalo’s Theory He stressed the need for a closer study of the circumstances and living condition of criminals. He firmly believed that a criminal is a creature of his own environment. Garofalo’s theory divided the criminals into four categories: I. Endemic criminals: The criminals who commit murder. II. Violent criminals: They are those criminals who immediately get influenced by others and commit the crime. They are of violent nature (short-tempered). III. Criminals lacking in sentiment of probity: The criminals who lack emotional feelings. IV. Lustful criminals: The criminals who commit rape.  5. Clinical School There was a greater emphasis on emotional aspect of human nature with development in the field of psychology. This newly equipped knowledge enabled modern criminologists to understand the criminal behavior of offenders in its proper perspective. clinical school takes into account variety of factors. The theory of modern clinical school of crimogenesis presupposes offender as a product of his biological inheritance conditioned in his development by experiences of life to which he has been exposed from infancy up to the time of commission of crime. Criminals who do not respond in a positive manner to correctional methods must be punished with imprisonment or transportation for life. The victims of social conditions should be subjected to correctional methods such as parole, probation, reformatories, open-air camps etc. The main theme of clinical school is that personality of man is a combination of internal and external factors therefore, punishment should depend upon the personality of the accused. 6. Sociological School This school seeks to locate causation of crime in social environment. Sociologists successfully established that factors such as mobility, culture, religion, economy, political ideologies, density of population, employment situation, etc., have a direct bearing on the incidence of crime in a given society. Placing reliance on these multiple causes, Sutherland sought to explain various processes through which a person become criminal. In his theory of Differential Association, he suggested that human personality and culture are directly related and a person becomes a criminal mostly by the chain of events in which he associates. It is for this reason that sociological school is often called ‘rational school of criminology’ which recommends the application of humanitarian methods for treatment of offenders. The person prone to criminality must be treated by persuasive methods rather than traditional punitive methods. SUTHERLAND’S THEORY/MODEL How do people become criminals?  The theory states people learn to become criminals through interactions with others (friends, peers, and family members). Motives for criminal behaviour are learned through the values, attitudes, and methods of others. In criminology, differential association is a theory developed by Edwin Sutherland proposing that through interaction with others, individuals learn the values, attitudes, techniques, and motives for criminal behavior. This theory focuses on how individuals learn to become criminals, but does not concern itself with why they become criminals. The theory suggests that criminal behaviour is learned through communication and association with other criminals/delinquents, where techniques and methods are learnt, as well as new attitudes and motives to commit a crime. Nine critical factors Sutherland’s differential association theory of crime proposes nine critical factors in how a person becomes an offender: 1. Criminal behavior is learned from other individuals. It assumes that we are born with a genetic predisposition, drives, and impulses, but the direction in which these go must be learned. 2. Criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other persons in a process of communication. 3. The principle part of the learning of criminal behavior occurs within intimate personal groups. 4. When criminal behavior is learned, the learning includes (a) techniques of committing the crime, which are sometimes very complicated, sometimes simple; (b) the specific direction of motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes.  5. The specific direction of motives and drives is learned by interpreting legal norms as favourable or unfavourable 6. A person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to violation of law over definitions unfavorable to violation of the law. 7. Differential associations may vary in frequency (how often a person interacts with criminal influencers), duration, priority(age at which criminal interactions are first experienced and strength of influence), and intensity (prestige to people/groups with whom someone is associated). 8. The process of learning criminal behavior by association/interactions with criminal and anti-criminal patterns involves all of the mechanisms that are involved in any other learning like observation, imitation. 9. While criminal behavior is an expression of general needs and values, it is not explained by those needs and values, since non-criminal behavior is an expression of the same needs and values. no distinction exists between the two behaviours. Anyone can become a criminal, essentially.  Examples: If Jagdish is sent to prison for stealing a phone and wallet from an elderly woman, they are now close to other criminals. These criminals may have committed more severe crimes, such as drug offences and sexual offences. Jagdish may learn techniques and methods relating to these more severe offences and, upon release, may commit more serious crimes. Someone grows up knowing it is wrong to commit a crime (unfavourable to breaking the law) but gets into a bad society that encourages him to commit a crime, may tell him it is okay and rewards him for criminal behaviour (favourable to breaking the law). Thieves may steal because they need money, but honest workers also need money and work for that money.  Examples: A child grows up in a home where the parents routinely commit criminal acts. The child would grow up believing these acts are not as wrong as society says. To illustrate the influence of associations, imagine two boys living in a neighbourhood conducive to crime. One is outgoing and associates with other criminals in the area. The other is shy and reserved, so he does not get involved with criminals. The first child often sees the older kids engaging in antisocial, criminal behaviours, such as breaking windows and vandalising buildings. He is encouraged to join them as he grows, and they teach him how to rob a house. Positives of Differential Theory of Sutherland Differential association theory can explain different crimes, and crimes people from different socioeconomic backgrounds commit, example - Middle-class people learn to commit ‘white-collar crimes’ by association. Differential association theory successfully moved away from biological reasons for crime. The theory changed people’s view of crime from blaming individual (genetic) factors to blaming social factors, which has real-world applications. A person’s environment can be changed, but genetics cannot. Critique of Differential Theory The research is based on correlations, so we do not know if interactions and associations with others are the real cause of crime. It could be that people who already have delinquent attitudes seek out people similar to them.