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In this assignment we discuss about Criminology and the development of Schools of Criminology which is as below. What is Criminology: Criminology is the scientific study of the nature, extent, causes, and control of criminal behavior in both the individual and in society. Criminology is an interdisciplinary field in the behavioral sciences, drawing especially upon the research of sociologists (particularly in the sociology of deviance), psychologists and psychiatrists, social anthropologists as well as on writings in law. Criminology is a term used for the study of criminal behavior including factors and causes of crime.
This study also deals with the social impact of any crime of the criminal itself and on the victim and his or her family. There are two major classifications in this discipline of social science. First is classicist approach while the other is known as positivist approach of criminal study. The positivist approach of criminology is referred to the state in which a person loses its mental control and will commit a crime. In this discipline the factors of inner and outer circumstances are believed to be responsible for losing control from mind.
On the other hand the classicist approach argues with the factors suggested by positivist. According to this discipline every person has the ability to make a decision under any circumstances this is not to be believed that a person has loses his decision making ability. Every committed crime is a result of Just a wrong decision which can be taken in hurry and with the feeling of rage and anger to take revenge. The answer to this question about what is criminology is answered in many books and literature related to this particular field.
In this modern scenario criminology is now selected as a discipline by many people ND scholar to under all the important factors related to this study of crime. Criminology is now developed as social phenomena to understand the psychology that is working behind committing a crime along with study of mentality of criminal before and after commending a crime. If a person wants to know what is criminology then there are various options that are available to be used by them to get basic and advance knowledge of the factor.
The study of criminology deals with all factors related to crime. Criminology is constituted of various theories and phenomena of crimes to understand it completely. Criminology is developing to be one of the most preferred careers by people of this modern age. It has a unique significance in some of the modern professions like lawyers, Journalists, and police along with all other defense forces which make use of this study to understand the circumstances and Developments of Schools of Criminology By Zimmerman work in any field that is related to it.
Nature of Criminology: Criminology is an exploration of the nature and extent of the problem of crime in society. For years criminologists have been attempting to unravel criminal behavior Most of the research in modern study of criminology in order to understand criminal behavior, what causes it and how it can be prevented and punished is conducted by sociologists (Anglia Risking 2006). , however biological and psychological approach to the causation of crime have been important in the past and continue to do so today.
For example Cesar Lumbago’s theory of the Atavism and William Sheldon theory of Comatose in the history of biological perspective of crime, although found deficient but the emphasis on the collection of data to test hypotheses about criminals became the basis of modern criminology Noon E. Conklin 2004). Biological explanations do not help us understand why crime rates vary from one society to another but do explain for some crime for example in case of brain disorder and learning difficulties.
A criminologist studies the possible explanations of crime causation and how it can be prevented, if not reduced. Criminology allows for a focused and insightful examination of many of the issues that surround offending deviant behavior. After some research on criminology one can see that social, cultural, and economic sources are a major study towards the cause of crime yet illogical and psychological behavior continue to play a strong part in deep understanding of criminology. Criminology also involves law, what the relationship is between law and order, what is the role of law in society?
The role that law plays on one society may differ from that which it plays in another because law in any given society cannot be understood without an understanding of political, social, religious and economic ideologies that may underpin that society. So it almost becomes imperative that in order to understand nature of criminology, one must learn about cultural and social values of the society first (Zeta A. Faith 1997). Crime varies from culture to culture and from one time period to another. What was thought to be normal few years ago in society is considered criminal in legal system today, for example marital rape and slave trade.
Areas of Criminology: Areas of research in criminology include the incidence, forms, causes and consequences of crime, as well as social and governmental regulations and reaction to crime. For studying the distribution and causes of crime, criminology mainly relies upon quantitative methods. The term criminology was coined in 1885 by Italian law professor Rafael Coronal as criminological. Later, French anthropologist Paul Topiary used the analogous French term criminology. Different Schools & Theories of Criminology: There are many schools & theories of Criminology.
Such as – 1) Schools of thought a) Classical School b) Positivist School I) Italian School ii) Sociological positivism iii) Differential Association (Subcultures) c) Chicago School I) Social digitization (neighborhoods) it) Social ecology iii) Strain theory (social class) ‘v) Subcultures theory v) Control theories e) Symbolic interactions I) Labeling Theory f) Individual theories I) Trait theories I’) Rational choice theory ii) Routine activity theory g) Bifocals theories h) Marxist Criminology Short description of those schools is as follows:- 1.
Schools of thought: In the mid-18th century criminology arose as social philosophers gave thought to crime and concepts of law. Over time, several schools of thought have developed. There were three main schools of thought in early criminological theory spanning the period from the mid-18th century to the mid-twentieth century: Classical, Positive, and Chicago. These schools of thought were superseded by several contemporary paradigms of criminology, such as the sub-culture, control, strain, labeling, critical ornithology, cultural criminology, postmodern criminology, feminist criminology and others discussed below. ) Classical School: The Classical School, which developed in the mid 18th century, was based on utilitarian philosophy. Cesar Bacteria, author of On Crimes and Punishments (1763- 64), Jeremy Beneath, inventor of the pontific, and other classical school philosophers argued that: 1. People have free will to choose how to act. 2. Deterrence is based upon the notion of the human being as a ‘hedonist’ who seeks pleasure and avoids pain, and a ‘rational calculator’ weighing up the costs and benefits of the consequences of each action.
Thus, it ignores the possibility of irrationality and unconscious drives as motivational factors. 3. Punishment (of sufficient severity) can deter people from crime, as the costs (penalties) outweigh benefits, and that severity of punishment should be proportionate to the crime. 4. The more swift and certain the punishment, the more effective it is in deterring criminal behavior. The Classical school of thought came about at a time when major reform in penology occurred, with prisons developed as a form of punishment.
Also, this time period saw many legal reforms, the French Revolution, and the development f the legal system in the United States. B) Positivist School: 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. Positivism can be broken up into three segments which include biological, psychological and social positivism.
Italian School Cesar Limbos was an Italian prison doctor working in the late 19th century who is contributors to biological positivism and was founder of the Italian school of criminology. Limbos took a scientific approach, insisting on empirical evidence, for tidying crime. Considered as the founder of criminal anthropology he suggested 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.
This approach, influenced by the earlier theory of phrenology and by Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution, has been superseded. Enrich Ferry, a student of Limbos, believed that social as well as biological factors played a role, and held the view that criminals should not be held responsible when factors causing their criminality were beyond their control. Criminologists have since rejected Lumbago’s biological theories, with control groups not used in his studies.
Sociological positivism Sociological positivism suggests that societal factors such as poverty, membership of subcultures, or low levels of education can predispose people to crime. Adolph Quietly made use of data and statistical analysis to gain insight into relationship between crime and sociological factors. He found that age, gender, poverty, education, and alcohol consumption were important factors related to crime. Rawson W. Rawson utilized crime statistics to suggest a link between population density and rime rates, with crowded cities creating an environment conducive for crime.
Joseph Fletcher and John Clyde also presented papers to the Statistical Society of London on their studies of crime and its distribution. Henry Mayhem used empirical methods and an ethnographic approach to address social questions and poverty, and presented his studies in London Labor and the London Poor. ?mile Druthers viewed crime as an inevitable aspect of society, with uneven distribution of wealth and other differences among people. Differential Association (Subcultures) Crime is learned through association.
The criminal acts learned might be generally intoning criminal conduct or be Justifying crime only under specific circumstances. Interacting with antisocial peers is a major cause of crime. Criminal behavior will be repeated and become chronic if reinforced. When criminal subcultures exist, many individuals can learn associatively to commit crime and crime rates may increase in those specific locations. C) Chicago School: The Chicago school arose in the early twentieth century, through the work of Robert E. Park, Ernest Burgess, and other urban sociologists at the University of Chicago.
In the sass, Park and Burgess identified five concentric zones that often exist as cities row, including the “zone in transition” which was identified as most volatile and subject to disorder. In the sass, Henry McKay and Clifford R. Shaw focused on juvenile delinquents, finding that they were concentrated in the zone of transition. 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 digitization, which reduces the ability of these institutions to matron behavior and creates an environment ripe for deviant behavior. Other researchers suggested an added social-psychological link. Edwin Sutherland suggested that people learn criminal behavior from older, more experienced This theory is applied to a variety of approaches within criminology in particular and in sociology more generally as a conflict theory or structural conflict perspective in sociology and sociology of crime.
As this perspective is itself broad enough, embracing as it does a diversity of positions. Social digitization (neighborhoods) Social digitization theory is based on the work of Henry McKay and Clifford R. Shaw of the Chicago School. Social digitization theory postulates that neighborhoods plagued with poverty and economic deprivation tend to experience high rates of population turnover. These neighborhoods also tend to have high population heterogeneity. With high turnover, informal social structure often fails to develop, which in turn makes it difficult to maintain social order in a community.
Social ecology Since the sass, social ecology studies have built on the social digitization theories. Many studies have found that crime rates are associated with poverty, crosier, high numbers of abandoned buildings, and other signs of community deterioration. As working and middle class people leave deteriorating neighborhoods, the most disadvantaged portions of the population may remain. William Julius Wilson suggested a poverty “concentration effect”, which may cause neighborhoods to be isolated from the mainstream of society and become prone to violence.
Strain theory (social class) Strain theory, (also known as Mortician Anomie), advanced by American sociologist Robert Morton, suggests that mainstream culture, especially in the United States, is treated with dreams of opportunity, freedom and prosperity; as Morton put it, the American Dream. Most people buy into this dream and it becomes a powerful cultural and psychological motivation. Morton also used the term anomie, but it meant something slightly different for him than it did for Druthers. Morton saw the term as meaning a dichotomy between what society expected of its citizens, and what those citizens could actually achieve.
Therefore, if the social structure of opportunities is unequal and prevents the majority from realizing the dream, some of them will turn to illegitimate means (crime) in order to realize it. Others will retreat or drop out into deviant subcultures (gang members, “hobos”: urban homeless drunks and drug abusers). Subcultures theory Following on from the Chicago school and Strain Theory, and also drawing on Edwin Sutherland idea of differential association, subcultures theorists focused on small cultural groups fragmenting away from the mainstream to form their own values and meanings about life.
Albert K. Cohen tied anomie theory with Fraud’s reaction formation idea, suggesting that delinquency among lower class youths is a reaction against the social norms of the middle class. Some youth, especially from poorer areas where opportunities are scarce, might adopt social norms specific to those places which may include “toughness” and disrespect for authority. Criminal acts may result when youths conform to norms of the deviant subculture. Richard Collard and Lloyd Olin suggested that delinquency can result from differential opportunity for lower class youth.
Such youths may be tempted to take up criminal activities, choosing an illegitimate path that provides them more lucrative economic benefits than conventional, over legal options such as minimum wage-paying Jobs class, where some criminal activities were seen as ‘imaginary solutions’ to the robber of belonging to a subordinate class. A further study by the Chicago school looked at gangs and the influence of the interaction of gang leaders under the observation of adults. Sociologists such as Raymond D. Still, have explored the impact of a Southern culture of honor on violent crime rates.
Control theories Another approach is made by the social bond or social control theory. Instead of looking for factors that make people become criminal, these theories try to explain why people do not become criminal. Travis Hirsch identified four main characteristics: “attachment to others”, “belief in moral validity of rules”, commitment to achievement” and “involvement in conventional activities”. The more a person features those characteristics, the less the chances are that he or she becomes deviant (or criminal). On the other hand, if those factors are not present in a person, it is more likely that he or she might become criminal.
Hirsch’ expanded on this theory, with the idea that a person with low self control is more likely to become criminal. A simple example: someone wants to have a big yacht, but does not have the means to buy one. If the person cannot exert self-control, he or she might try to et the yacht (or the means for it) in an illegal way; whereas someone with high self- control will (more likely) either wait or deny themselves that want, or seek an intelligent intermediate solution such as to Join a yacht club to obtain access to using a yacht by group consolidation of resources without violating social norms.
Social bonds, through peers, parents, and others, can have a countering effect on one’s low self-control. For families of low socio-economic status, a factor that distinguishes families with delinquent children from those who are not delinquent is the control exerted by parents or chaperonage. In addition, theorists such as Matzo and Sykes argued that criminals are able to temporarily neutralize internal moral and social behavioral constraints through techniques of naturalization. ) Symbolic interactions: Symbolic interactions draws on the phenomenology of Edmund Huskers and George Herbert Mead, as well as subcultures theory and conflict theory. This school of thought focused on the relationship between the powerful state, media and conservative ruling elite on the one hand, and the less powerful groups on the other. The powerful groups had the ability to become the ‘significant other’ in the less rueful groups’ processes of generating meaning. The former could to some extent impose their meanings on the latter, and therefore they were able to ‘label’ minor delinquent youngsters as criminal.
These youngsters would often take on board the label, indulge in crime more readily and become actors in the ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ of the powerful groups. Later developments in this set of theories were by Howard Becker and Edwin Element, in the mid 20th century. Stanley Cohen who developed the concept of “moral panic” (describing societal reaction to spectacular, alarming social phenomena such as post-World War Two youth cultures (e. . The Moods and Rockers in the UK in 1964, AIDS and football hooliganism).
Labeling Theory: Labeling theory refers to an individual being labeled in a particular way and was studied in great detail by Howard Becker. It arrives originally from sociology but is regularly used in criminological studies. It is said that when someone is given the those that initially reject the label can eventually accept it as the label becomes more well known particularly amongst their peers. This can become even more profound when the labels are about deviancy and it is said they can lead to deviancy amplification.
Klein (1986) conducted a test which showed that labeling theory affected some youth offenders but not others. F) Individual theories: Trait theories At the other side of the spectrum, criminologist Lonnie Athens developed a theory about how a process of brutalizing by parents or peers that usually occurs in childhood results in violent crimes in adulthood. Richard Rhodes’ Why They Kill describes Athens’ observations about domestic and societal violence in the criminals’ backgrounds.
Both Athens and Rhodes reject the genetic inheritance theories. Rational choice theory: Rational choice theory is based on the utilitarian, classical school philosophies of Cesar Bacteria, which were popularized by Jeremy Beneath. They argued that punishment, if certain, swift, and proportionate to the crime, was a deterrent for crime, with risks outweighing possible benefits to the offender. In Die delimit e dell pen (On Crimes and Punishments, 1763-1764), Bacteria advocated a rational penology.
Bacteria conceived of punishment as the necessary application of the law for a crime: thus, the Judge was simply to conform his sentence to the law. Bacteria also distinguished between crime and sin, and advocated against the death penalty, as well as torture and inhumane treatments, as he did not consider them as rational deterrents. This philosophy was replaced by the Positivist and Chicago Schools, and not revived until the sass with the writings of James Q. Wilson, Gary Backer’s 1965 article titled “Crime and Punishment” and George Stiller’s 1970 article “The Optimum Enforcement of Laws”.
Rational choice theory argues that criminals, like other people, weigh costs/risks and benefits when deciding whether or not to commit crime and wink in economic terms. They will also try to minimize risks of crime by considering the time, place, and other situational factors. Gary Becker, for example, acknowledged that many people operate under a high moral and ethical constraint, but considered that criminals rationally see that the benefits of their crime outweigh the cost such as the probability of apprehension, conviction, punishment, as well as their current set of opportunities.
From the public policy perspective, since the cost of increasing the fine is marginal to that of the cost of increasing surveillance, one an conclude that the best policy is to maximize the fine and minimize surveillance. With this perspective, crime prevention or reduction measures can be devised that increase effort required to commit the crime, such as target hardening. Rational choice theories also suggest that increasing risk of offending and likelihood of being caught, through added surveillance, police or security guard presence, added street lighting, and other measures, are effective in reducing crime.
One of the main differences between this theory and Jeremy Bantam’s rational choice theory, which ad been abandoned in criminology, is that if Beneath considered it possible to completely annihilate crime (through the pontific), Backer’s theory acknowledged that a society could not eradicate crime beneath a certain level. For example, if 25% of a supermarket’s products were stolen, it would be very easy to reduce this rate to impossible to reduce it to zero (a feat which would cost the supermarket so much in surveillance, etc. , that it would outweigh the benefits).
This reveals that the goals of utilitarianism and classical liberalism have to be tempered and reduced to more modest proposals to be practically applicable. Such rational choice theories, linked to unilateralism, have been at the basics of crime prevention through environmental design and underpin the Market Reduction Approach to theft by Mike Sutton, which is a systematic toolkit for those seeking to focus attention on “crime facilitators” by tackling the markets for stolen goods that provide motivation for thieves to supply them by theft.
Routine activity theory: Routine activity theory, developed by Marcus Felon and Lawrence Cohen, draws upon control theories and explains crime in terms of crime opportunities that occur in everyday life. A crime opportunity requires that elements converge in time and place including (1) a motivated offender (2) suitable target or victim (3) lack of a capable guardian. A guardian at a place, such as a street, could include security guards or even ordinary pedestrians who would witness the criminal act and possibly intervene or report it to police.
Routine activity theory was expanded by John Eek, who added a fourth element of “place manager” such as rental property managers who can take nuisance abatement measures. G) Bifocals theories: Bifocals criminology is an interdisciplinary field that aims to explain crime and antisocial behavior by exploring both biological factors and environmental factors. While contemporary criminology has been dominated by sociological theories, bifocals criminology also recognizes the potential contributions of fields such as genetics, neurophysiology, and evolutionary psychology. ) Marxist Criminology: In 1968, young British sociologists formed the National Deviance Conference (AND) group. The group was restricted to academics and consisted of 300 members. Ian Taylor, Paul Walton and Sock Young – members of the AND – rejecting previous explanations of crime and deviance. Thus, they decided to pursue a new Marxist ornithological approach. In The New Criminology, they argued against the biological “positivism” perspective represented by Limbos, Hans Essence and Gordon Trailer.
According to the Marxist perspective on crime, “defiance is normal – the sense that men are now consciously involved… In assuring their human diversity. ” Thus Marxist criminologists argued in support of society in which the facts of human diversity, be it social or personal, would not be criminality. They, further, attributed the processes of crime-creation not to genetic or psychological facts, but rather to the material basis of a given society. Development of Theories: To understand criminal Justice, it is necessary to understand crime.
Most policymaking in criminal Justice is based on criminological theory, whether the people making those policies know it or not. In fact, most of the failed policies (what doesn’t work) in criminal Justice are due to misinterpretation, partial implementation, or ignorance of criminological theory. Much time and money could be saved if only policymakers had a thorough understanding of criminological theory. At one time, criminological theory was rather pure and abstract, with few practical implications, but that is not the case anymore.
For example, almost all criminologists today use a legalistic rather than normative definition of crime. A legalistic definition of crime statutes or ordinances. A crime is a crime because the law says so. Sure, there are concerns about oversimplification (too many laws) and internationalization (not enough laws), but at least on the surface, a legalistic approach seems practical. It is also advantageous to a normative definition, which sees crime as a violation of norms (social standards of how humans ought to think and behave), although there are times when criminology can shed light on norms and norm violators.
Every ornithological theory contains a set of assumptions (about human nature, social structure, and the principles of causation, to name a few), a description of the phenomena to be explained (facts a theory must fit), and an explanation, or prediction, of that phenomenon. The assumptions are also called meta-theoretical issues, and deal with debates like those over free will v. Determinism or consensus v. Conflict. The description is a statistical profile, figure, diagram, or table of numbers representing the patterns, trends, and correlates of the type of crime taken as an exemplar (most appropriate example) of all crime.
The explanation is a set of variables (things that can be tweaked or changed) arranged in some kind of causal order so that they have statistical and meaningful significance. Criminological theories are primarily concerned with etiology (the study of causes or reasons for crime), but occasionally have important things to say about actors in the criminal justice system, such as police, attorneys, correctional personnel, and victims. There are basically thirteen (13) identifiable types of criminological theory, only three (3) of which are considered “mainstream” or conventional criminology (strain, learning, matron).
The oldest theory (biochemistry) goes back to 1876 and the last four theories (left realism, peacemaking, feminist, postmodern) have only developed in the past twenty-five years. The following table illustrates, with more information about each theory below the table: 1) Biochemistry is known by many names: biological, constitutional (having to do with the structure of the body’s morphology), genetic, and anthropological criminology. The oldest field is criminal anthropology, founded by the father of modern criminology, Cesar Limbos, in 1876.
He was one of the first exponents of the activist approach to explaining crime, positivism meaning a search for the causes of crime using scientific method, as opposed to the classical approach, which relies upon free will as the main cause of crime. Historically, theories of the biochemistry type have tried to establish the biological inferiority of criminals, but modern bacteriology simply says that heredity and body organ dysfunctions produce a predisposition toward crime. ) Psychological criminology has been around since 1914, and attempts to explain the consistent finding that there is an eight-point IQ difference between criminals and noncommercial. That gap isn’t enough to notice, but it might make them more impulsive and foolhardy, and even smart people with high IIS are vulnerable to folly. Other carcinogenicity’s focus on personality disorders, like the psychopaths, sociopaths, and antisocial personalities. 3) Ecological criminology was the first sociological criminology, developed during the sass at the Department of Sociology at the University of Chicago.
Hence, it is also called Chicago School sociology. Ecology is the study of relationships between an organism and its where people live rather than by the kind of people who live there. ) Strain, sometimes called by the French word anomie, is a 1938 American version of French sociology, invented by the father of modern sociology, Mile Druthers (1858 – 1917). This type of theory sees crime as the normal result of an “American dream” in which people set their aspirations (for wealth, education, occupation, any status symbol) too high, and inevitably discover strain, or goal blockages, along the way.
The only two things to do are reduce aspirations or increase opportunities. 5) Learning theories tend to follow the lead of Edwin Sutherland theory of differential association, plopped in 1947, although ideas about imitation or modeling go back to 1890. Often oversimplified as “peer group” theories, learning is much more than that, and involves the analysis of what is positively and negatively rewarding (reinforcing) for individuals. 6) Control theories in criminology are all about social control.
Only those called containment or low-self control theories have to do with individual psychology. Control theory has pretty much dominated the criminological landscape since 1969. It focuses upon a person’s relationships to their agents of colonization, such as arenas, teachers, preachers, coaches, scout leaders, or police officers. It studies how effective bonding with such authority figures translates into bonding with society, hence keeping people out of trouble with the law. ) Labeling theory was a child of the sass and sass which saw criminals as underdogs who initially did something out of the ordinary, and then got swept up in a huge, government-sponsored labeling or shunning reaction. It argues that anyone facing such an overwhelming, negative labeling social reaction will eventually become more like the label because that is the only way out for their identify formation. It points out that sometimes its best to do nothing (for minor offending), and that there are few reintegration rituals designed to help people fit back into their communities. ) Conflict theory holds that society is based on conflict between competing interest groups; for example, rich against poor, management against labor, whites against minorities, men against women, adults against children, etc. These kind of dog-eat-dog theories also have their origins in the sass and sass, and are characterized by the study of power and powerlessness. 9) Radical theories, also from the sass and sass, typically involve Marxist