FOUNDATION OF

CRIMINOLOGY
“CRIME, SINCE TIME IMMEMORIAL, IS AN INCIDENT OF
THE AFFAIRS OF THE HUMAN BEING. WITHOUT IT,
SOCIETY WOULD HAVE BEEN LEFT INTO ANTIQUITY”.

BY

ROMMEL K. MANWONG
 A Focus Review
on Criminal Sociology
(Introduction to Criminology)
 POINTERS TO REVIEW
 BASIC CONCEPTS
 CLASSICAL VS POSITIVIST VIEWS

 CRIMINOLOGICAL THEORIES & PIONEERS

 JUVENILE DELINQUENCY & CRIME

PREVENTION
 STUDY OF CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR

 CRISIS MANAGEMENT CONCERNS

 PRELIMINARIES
CRIMINOLOGY is a multidisciplinary science that
deals with the study of
CRIMES

CRIMINALS

CRIMINAL JUSTICE

VICTIMS

Others
 Definitions of Criminology
 Crime as a social phenomenon
(Sutherland & Cressey)
 Crime and its treatment (Elliott & Merill)
 Subject matters necessary in
understanding and preventing crimes,
punishment and treatment of criminals
(Taft)
 Including the mental traits, habits and
discipline of criminals (Webster)
 Scope & Divisions
of the Study of Criminology
 Making of laws  Sociology of Law

 Breaking of laws  Criminal Etiology

 Reaction towards the  Penology

breaking of laws
 On Making of Laws
This refers to as the study of
SOCIOLOGY OF LAW

* Focus on the theories of

criminalization
* Look into why some acts, but not
others, come to the attention of
authorities, and why some acts, but
not others, come to be formally
penalized by the state as crimes.
 On Breaking of laws
This scope refers to as CRIMINOGENESIS
(etiology - the study of causes of crime)

* Focus on the most interdisciplinary

nature of criminology
* It is concerned with scientific
theories and methods for uncovering
causes of crimes.
 Reaction Towards the
Breaking of Laws
• This area is the most sociological of the
three, and specialists here tend to refer to
themselves as societal reaction theorists,
social response theorists, normative
theorists, relativity of crime researchers, or
less commonly as criminologists of criminal
justice.

• Crime specialists are interested in whether

there is a consensus of public opinion about
the seriousness of various criminal acts.
 VICTIMOLOGY
(A neglected division of Criminology)

The study of victims and their

role in the causation of crime

“Victimology is simply the study of victims of

crimes and contributory role, if any, in crime
causation. It is also the scientific process of
gaining substantial amounts of knowledge on
offender characteristics by studying the nature
of victims” - Schmalleger, 1997
Objectives of Studying Criminology

 Development of a body of GENERAL and

VERIFIED principles (Theory formulations)

 Immediate applications of these

knowledge (as formulated)
 Importance of Studying
Criminology
 Theoretical Instances
“we investigate and determine the causes
of social disorganization (crime)”

 Practical Instances
“knowing the ways and means of
preventing crimes and reformation of
criminal offenders”
THE IMPORTANCE OF THEORY
What is theory?

A theory is any system of ideas arranged in

rational order that produce general
principles which increase our
understanding and explanations. The
general principles in a theory are derived
from, and representative, of particular
facts, but those principles are not
dependant upon the particular thing to be
explained (Kaplan 1964).
Theory is the foundation of criminology
and of criminal justice, and we study
theory to know why we are doing what we
do (Bohm, 1985).

Theory without research is not science. All

research must be based on theory. People
who are uninterested in theory choose to
move blindly through life, or in the case of
criminal justice, intervene in people's lives
with only vague notions about why they
are doing what they are doing.
 GROUP OF
CRIMINOLOGICAL THEORIES
Pre-20th Century Theories

The Classical School – 1600-1850

(Baccaria-Bentham years)

The Positivist School – 1850-1920’s

(Lombroso-Ferri-Garofalo years)
Sociological Theories

Formative Sociology – 1900’s -1950

Main Features includes:
 The Chicago School
 Social Ecology/Disorganization
 Differential Association
 Strain/Anomie Theories

Sociological Development – 1950 to late 1990’s

Main Features includes:
 Etiology (Opportunity Theories, Control Theories)
 Critical Criminology (Labeling Theories, Conflict
Theories)
Biological and Psychoanalytic Perspectives

Biological Theories
Main Features:
 Lombrosian Theory on Born Criminals & Atavism
 Sheldon’s Theory on Somatotypes
 Hooton’s General Inferiority Theory
 Genetic Theories

Psychological Theories
Main Features:
 Freud’s Psychoanalytical Theory
 Maslow’s Psychological Need Theories
 THE EARLY BEGINNING
 DEMONOLOGICAL THEORY

“the belief that criminal behavior is controlled and

directed by evil spirits”

Features:
 No clear system of Criminal Justice
 Imposition of harsh punishment
 Trial by ordeal concept
THE CLASSICAL PERIOD
 The period of human rationalism and
freewill (Beccaria)

“humans are rational creatures with

freewill to choose between good and
evil”

 The period of hedonism (Bentham)

 The Classical "School" of Criminology is a broad label
for a group of thinkers of crime and punishment in the
18th and early 19th centuries.

Its most prominent members, Cesare Beccaria and

Jeremy Bentham, shared the idea that criminal behavior
could be understood and controlled as an outcome of a
"human nature" shared by all of us. Human beings were
believed to be hedonistic, acting in terms of their own
self-interest, but rational, capable of considering which
course of action was really in their self-interest.

A well-ordered state, therefore, would construct

laws and punishments in such a way that people would
understand peaceful and non-criminal actions to be in
their self-interest--through strategies of punishment
based on deterrence.
In this era, the following features are emphasized:

 Laws should be used to maintain the social contract –

“ laws are the conditions under which men united
themselves in society”.
 Only legislators should create laws – “ the authority
of making penal laws can only reside with the
legislator, who represent the whole society united by
the social compact”.
 Judges should impose punishment only in accordance
with law.
 Punishment should be based on the pleasure-pain
principle – “ pleasure and pain are the only springs of
actions in being endowed with sensibility. If an equal
punishment be ordained in two crimes that injure
society in different degrees, there is nothing to deter
men from committing the greater as often as it is
intended with greater advantage”.
 The punishment should be determined by the crime – “ if
mathematical calculations could be applied to the obscure and
infinite combinations of human actions, there might be a
corresponding scale of punishments descending from the
greatest to the least”.
 Punishment should be based on the act, not on the actor – “
crimes are only to be measured by the injuries done to the
society”.
 Punishment should be prompt and effective – “ the more
immediate after the commission of a crime a punishment is
inflicted, the more just and useful it will be”.
 All people should be treated equally – “ the punishment of a
nobleman is no differ from that of the lowest member of
society”.
 Capital punishment should be applied only to serious crimes
against the state (Schmalleger, 1997)
 The use of torture to gain confession should be abolished.
 It is better to prevent crimes than to punish them
Arguments about the classical theory

Unfair – it treats all men as if they were robot

without regard to the individual differences
and the surrounding circumstances when the
crime is committed.

Unjust – having the same punishment for first

and recidivists.

The nature and definition of punishment is not

individualized

It considers only the injury caused not the

mental condition of the offender.
 THE NEOCLASSICAL ERA
The Classicist maintained that human are totally
responsible for their actions

The Neoclassicist said “not always”. They argue

that freewill can be mitigated by pathology,
incompetence, mental disorder.

The Neoclassical school does not represent any

break with the classical view of human nature. It
merely challenges the classical position of
absolute freewill.
 THE POSITIVIST SCHOOL

The period of Scientific Study of crimes

and criminal behavior

The era of criminal reformation (treatment

of criminal offenders)

LOMBROSO – FERRI - GAROFALO

The Positivist School of Criminology rejected the
Classical School's idea that all crime resulted from a
choice that could potentially be made anyone. Though
they did not disagree with the Classical School that most
crime could be explained through "human nature," 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 positivists understood themselves as scientists:

while the classical thinkers were concerned with legal
reform, constructing an environment in which crime was
seen to be not in an individual's self-interest, the
positivists were concerned with scientifically isolating
and identifying the determining causes of criminal
behavior in individual offenders.
The Positivists maintained that crime as any
other act is a natural phenomenon and is
comparable to disaster or calamity.

That crime as a social and moral phenomenon

cannot be treated and checked by the imposition
of punishment but rather rehabilitation or the
enforcement of individual measures.
 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 the 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.

Member of Parliament, accomplished public lecturer,
brilliant lawyer, editor, and scholar. Although he agreed
with Lombroso on the biological bases of criminal
behavior, his interest in socialism led him to recognize
the importance of social, economic, and political
determinants.

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”.
(According to his theory, natural crimes are
found in all human societies, regardless of the
views of the lawmakers, and no civilized society
can afford to disregard them)
 Main Features of the Positivist View

 Crime is natural comparable with calamities

 Criminal behavior cannot be treated by the
imposition of punishment
 Biologically, man is an atavist
 Genetically, man can be a “born criminal”
 Crime prone persons can be seen through
their physical features alone
 CLASSICAL VS POSITIVIST
CLASSICAL POSITIVIST
 Legal Definition of  Not to Legal Definition
Crime of Crime
 Punishment fit the  Punishment fit the
crime criminal
 Doctrine of free will  Doctine of Determinism
 Death Penalty allowed  No to Death Penalty
 No Imperical Research  Inductive Method
 Definite Sentence  Indefinite Sentence
 RISE OF THE SOCIAL
PERSPECTIVES
The Rise of the Sociological Perspectives
on crimes, criminals and their behavior
The shift of the blame to the social and
environmental circumstances

This also includes the theories which

promotes that people’s behavior bears
some relationship to their biological and
psychological constitution
Human Nature vs. Human Normality
( A Shift of Perspective)
Until the 20th century, criminality was
primarily thought about in terms of human
nature. However, despite the persistence of the
term in criminological research, sociological
research shifted the discussion from human
nature to human normality. That is, theories of
criminality were no longer based on abstract
discussions of traits that were present or absent
in human beings, but were based on empirical
research about patterns of the behavior of
particular individuals in particular contexts.
 ..for example..
The "social ecology" of the late Chicago School
can be read as a sociological response to
theories of crime based on constitutional
theories, but Edwin H. Sutherland's Differential
Association Theory and Robert K. Merton's Strain
Theory also stressed the importance of
examining the cultural and structural
environments which individuals not only respond
to, but which shape their particular ways of
looking at the world.
 Since 1950, criminological theorists have traveled
down two different paths. Many continue with the
positivist orientation of the early sociologists, concerned
with developing these early theories in order to
determine the etiology of criminal behavior. Their
opportunity theories and control theories all carry on
these themes.

Others have revived the legal perspective that

criminologists associate with the classical school,
questioning how the state identifies and responds to
criminal behavior. "Conflict" theories which dates back
to Karl Marx, while more recent labeling theories and
feminist theories raise questions about the relationship
between social power and the role that the state and
even the criminologist plays in defining and/or creating
criminal behavior in society.
The Sociological Perspectives
The Differential Association Theory
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.”
 The theory maintains that society is
composed of different group organization,
the societies consist of a group of people
having criminalistic tradition and anti-
criminalistic tradition

And that criminal behavior is learned and

not inherited. It is learned through the
process of communication, and learning
process includes technique of committing
the crime, motive and attitude.
 Nine DAT Propositions

1. Criminal behavior is learned.

2. Crime is learned by participation with others
in verbal and non- verbal communications.
3. Families and friends have the most influence
on the learning process.
4. The learning process includes the techniques
of committing the crime and the specific
direction of motives, drive and attitude.
5. Not everyone in the society agrees that the
laws should be obeyed; some people define
it unimportant.
6. A person becomes delinquent because of an excess
definition favorable to the violation of laws over to
the definitions unfavorable to the violation of laws.
7. Differential associations vary in frequency, duration,
priority and intensity. The extent to which
associations and definitions will result in criminality
is related to the frequency of contacts and their
meaning to the individual.
8. The process of learning criminal behavior by
association with criminal and anti-criminal patterns
involves all the mechanisms that are involved in any
other learning.
9. While criminal behavior is an expression of general
needs and value, it is not explained by those general
needs and values, since non-criminal behavior is an
expression of the same needs and values.
 The Anomie Theory
David Emile Durkheim (1858 - 1917)

He advocated the “Anomie Theory”, the theory

that focused on the sociological point of the
positivist school which explains that the absence
of norms in a society provides a setting
conductive to crimes and other anti-social acts.
According to him, the explanation of human
conduct lies not in the individual but in the
group and the social organization.
Durkheim proposed the following principles:

 Crime is a natural thing in the society,

 The concept of wrong is necessary to give

meaning to right,
 Crime help society for changes – it means

that a society to be flexible to permit

positive deviation must permit negative
deviations as well.
 The Strain Theory
Robert King Merton (1910)

Robert Merton is the premier sociologist of

the modern days who, after Durkheim,
also related the crime problem to anomie.
The Strain Theory maintains that the failure of
man to achieve a higher status of life caused
them to commit crimes in order for that
status/goal to be attained.

Merton argued that crime is a means to achieve

goals and the social structure is the root of the
crime problem. Merton’s explanation to criminal
behavior assumes that people are law abiding
but when under great pressure will result to
crime.
Bio-Psychological Perspectives
These are groups of theories which claimed that
physical appearance reveals the character in a
manner that criminals have distinctive physical
characteristics that makes them identifiable as a
delinquent.

And the theories regarding the psychological

make-up of a person that determines their way
of desiring or resisting criminal conduct.
 Somatotyping Theory
William H. Sheldon - 1898 – 1977

Sheldon is an influenced of the Somatotype

School of Criminology, which related body built to
behavior. He became popular of his own Somatotyping
Theory. His key ideas are concentrated on the principle
of “Survival of the Fittest” as a behavioral science. He
combines the biological and psychological explanation to
understand deviant behavior.

Sheldon’s “Somatotyping Theory” maintains the

belief of inheritance as the primary determinants of
behavior and the physique is a reliable indicator of
personality.
 Classification of Body Physique by Sheldon

 Endomorphy – a type with relatively predominance

of soft, roundness through out the regions of the
body. They have low specific gravity. Persons with
typically relaxed and comfortable disposition.

 Mesomorphy – athletic type, predominance of

muscle, bone and connective tissue, normally heavy,
hard and firm, sting and tough. They are the people
who are routinely active and aggressive, and they are
the most likely to commit crimes.

 Ectomorphy – thin physique, flat chest, delicacy

through the body, slender, poorly muscled. They tend
to look more fatigue and withdrawn.
 Ernest Kretschmer (1888 – 1964)

 The idea of somatotyping was originated from the

work of a German Psychiatrist, Ernest Kretschmer,
who distinguished three principal types of physique as:
 Asthenic – lean, slightly built, narrow shoulders
 Athletic – medium to tall, strong, muscular,
course bones
 Pyknic – medium height, rounded figure,
massive neck, broad face

 Kretschmer related these body physique to various

pychotic behavioral patterns: Pyknic to manic
depression, asthenics and athletics to schizophrenia.
 Charles Goring’s Theory (1870 - 1919)

 The medical officer in prison in England who

accepted the Lombroso’s challenge that body
physique is a determinant to behavior. Goring
concluded that there is no such thing a physical
criminal type. He contradicted the Lombroso’s
idea that criminality can be seen through
features alone.
 Nevertheless, Goring accepted that criminals are
physically inferior to normal individuals in the
sense that criminals tend to be shorter and have
less weight than non-criminals.
 General Inferiority Theory
Earnest Hooton’s Theory (1887 - 1954)

An Anthropologist who reexamined the

work of Goring and found out that

“Tall thin men tend to commit forgery and fraud,

undersized men are thieves and burglars, short
heavy person commit assault, rape and other sex
crimes; where as mediocre (average) physique
flounder around among other crimes.”
 Hooton believed that crime is the result of
the impact of the environment on low-grade
human beings and that criminals were
organically inferior people. In his GIT, he
maintained that crime exist because there are
some inferior people who are responsible for
them. His description of the inferior are:

 Sneaky little constitutional inferiors – thieves

 Wiry, narrow, hard bitten, tough and notably
undersized – robbers
 Tall, Thin men – murderers
 Tall, Heavy men – forgers
 Short, heavy men - rapists
 Psychoanalytical Theory
Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1969)

Psychologists have considered a variety of

possibilities to account for individual differences
– defective conscience, emotional immaturity,
inadequate childhood socialization, maternal
deprivation, and poor moral development.

The Freudian view on criminal behavior was

based on the use of Psychology in explaining an
approach in understanding criminal behavior
sometimes called the “Psychogenetic theory”
Sigmund Freud in his Psychoanalytical
Theory maintains that:

 Criminal behavior is a form neurosis, that

criminality may result from an over active
conscience.
 Crime is the result of the compulsive need for

punishment to alleviate guilt and anxiety

 Criminal behavior is a means of obtaining

gratification of need
 Criminal conducts represent a displaced hostility.

Criminality is essentially a representation of

psychological conflict.
 MENTAL DEFICIENCY THEORY

Group of theories which are primarily

focused on the Psychiatric make-up of
the individual criminal, stating among
others that human intelligence is the big
factor in criminality.
 Focus of the Mental Deficiency Theory

The question on whether or not intelligence and criminality

are significantly related has also been the focus of
several researchers and a subject of debates.

Finding of researches vary resulting to the different

opinions about the matter. Early researches however
found out a good majority of criminals tested for
intelligence were shown to have low IQ. (Adler, 1998)

Resent investigations on the matter have revealed the

following findings:
 The effect of low IQ on criminal behavior is more significant
than those educated and with high IQs
 A strong relationship exists between low IQ and crime
independent of social class
 IQ is more closely related to crime than that of social class
 The Low IQ Theory

Some theories claimed that people with low

intelligence are:
 easily led into law breaking activities
than more clever people
 unable to realize that committing crimes
in certain ways may lead to getting
caught and eventual punishment
 PART TWO
POINTERS ON THE
Criminal Behavior & Crisis Mgmt
1. Basic Concepts
2. Determinants of Criminal behavior
3. The Criminal Formula
4. Patterns of Criminal Behavior
5. The Sexual Deviations
6. Concepts of Crisis Management
 Basic Concepts
 Behaviors (actions)
 Classification of Behavior
 Attributes of Behavior

 Aspects
 Determinants of Behavior
Heredity (Genetic/Biological factors
vs.
Environment (Socio-Cultural Influences)

Note on the following:

 Born Criminals
 Pathogenic Family Structures
 Frustrations and Conflicts
 The Criminal Formula

C=T+S
R
C = Act (criminal action)
T = Criminal tendency (Desire)
S = Total Situation (opportunity)
R = Resistance to Temptation (Self Control)
 Patterns of Criminal Behavior

 The Neurotic Patters (Psychoneurotic)

 The Psychopathic Patterns
 The Psychotic Patterns
 Other Patterns (Addictive Behaviors and the
Sexual disorders)

Note on: Phobic Disorders, Personality Disorders,

Schizophrenic Disorders, Sexual Dysfunctions
 On Crisis Management
Focus on the following concepts:
 Crisis vs Emergency
 Proactive vs Reactive Crisis Mgmt

 Nature of Hostage Taking

 Characteristics of Terrorism

 Title of the R.A 9372

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