Crime & Criminality

Criminological Theories

Criminality: the state or quality of being criminal

Crime: an act or omission prohibited and punished by law
 Crime & Criminality
Crime
Crime is a violation of societal rules of behavior as interpreted and expressed by the
criminal law, which reflects public opinion, traditional values, and the viewpoint of people
currently holding social and political power.
Four definitional perspectives of Crime
Legalistic
Political
Sociological
Psychological
The definition combines all three criminological perspectives (consensus, conflict,
and interactionist)
Code of Hammurabi (eye for an eye)
Mosaic Code (basis for U.S. legal system)
Compurgation (use of oath-helpers)
Trials by ordeal (divine intervention)
 Explanation
The Code of The Code of Hammurabi is a well-preserved Babylonian code
Hammurabi of law of ancient Mesopotamia, dated back to about 1754 BCE
(Middle Chronology). It is one of the oldest deciphered
writings of significant length in the world. The sixth
Babylonian king, Hammurabi, enacted the code.
Mosaic Law Mosaic law. The law that, according to the Old Testament, God
gave to the Israelites through Moses. The Mosaic law begins with
the Ten Commandments and includes the many rules of religious
observance given in the first five books of the Old Testament. In
Judaism, these books are called the Torah, or “the Law.”
Compurgation acquittal from a charge or accusation obtained by statements of
innocence given by witnesses under oath.
Trial by Trial by ordeal was an ancient judicial practice by which the guilt or
Ordeal innocence of the accused was determined by subjecting them to a
painful, or at least an unpleasant, usually dangerous experience. The
test was one of life or death, and the proof of innocence was
survival. In some cases, the accused was considered innocent if they
escaped injury or if their injuries healed.
 Perspectives of Crime
Legalistic Perspective Political Perspective
Human conduct in violation of The result of criteria that have been
built into the law by powerful groups
the criminal laws of a state, the and are then used to label selected
federal government, or a local undesirable forms of behavior as
jurisdiction that has the power to illegal
Laws serve the interests of the politically
make such laws powerful. Crimes are behaviors those in
power perceive as threats to their interests
Sociological (Sociolegal) Psychological (Maladaptive)
Perspective Perspective
An antisocial act of such a nature that its Problem behavior, especially human activity
repression is necessary or is supposed to be that contravenes the criminal law and results
necessary to the preservation of the existing in difficulties in living within a framework
system of society. of generally acceptable social arrangements
Crime is an offense against human Any behavior which is maladaptive would
relationships first, a violation of law second be considered crime
Includes any harmful or potentially harmful
behaviors
Crime & Deviance
Deviant behavior: Human activity that violates social norms
Delinquency: Violations of the criminal law and other misbehavior
committed by young people
Deviance and crime overlap – not identical
 Criminology & Criminal Justice
Criminology Criminal Justice
is the scientific study of
the nature, extent, cause,
and control of criminal
behavior.

Criminology explains the Criminal justice refers to

origin, extent, and nature of agencies of social
crime in society control
Both discipline areas
overlap
 Introduction to Criminological Theory
• An assumption (or set of assumptions) that attempt to explain
why or how things are related to each other.
• The explanation of criminal behavior, as well as the
behavior of police, attorneys, prosecutors, judges,
correctional personnel, victims, and other actors in the
criminal justice system.
• Several theories attempt to explain criminal behavior. Some
theories assume:
(a) Crime is part of human nature.
(b) Crime is based on biological, psychological, sociological,
and/or economic aspects.
• Critical Thinking
• What is a theory? Why is it important to understand the
various theories of criminal behavior?
 Classical and Neoclassical Approaches to
Explaining Crime
• The causes of crime have been the subject of much speculation,
theorizing, research, and debate. Theories about the cause of
crime are based on religion, philosophy, politics, economic, and
social forces.
 Classical Theory
• One of the earliest secular approaches to explaining the
causes of crime was the classical theory.
• A product of the Enlightenment, based on the assumption
that people exercise free will and are thus completely
responsible for their actions. In classical theory, human
behavior, including criminal behavior, is motivated by a
hedonistic rationality, in which actors weigh the potential
pleasure of an action against the possible pain associated with
it.
• In 1764, criminologist Cesare Beccaria wrote An Essay on
Crimes and Punishments, which set forth classical criminological
theory.
• He argued that the only justified rationale for laws and
punishments was the principle of utility.
• Utility: The principle that a policy should provide “the greatest
happiness shared by the greatest number.”
 Classical Theory
• Beccaria believed the basis of society, as well as the
origin of punishments and the right to punish, is
the social contract.
• The only legitimate purpose of punishment is
special deterrence and general deterrence.
• Social Contract: An imaginary agreement to
sacrifice the minimum amount of liberty to prevent
anarchy and chaos.
• Special Deterrence: The prevention of individuals
from committing crime again by punishing them.
• General Deterrence: The prevention of people in
general or society at large from engaging in crime
by punishing specific individuals and making
examples of them.
 Classical Theory
• Beccaria believed the best way to prevent and deter crime was to:
1. Enact laws that are clear, simple, and unbiased, and that
reflect the consensus of the population.
2. Educate the public.
3. Eliminate corruption from the administration of justice.
4. Reward virtue.
The main real-world drawbacks of Beccaria’s theory are:
(a) Not all offenders are alike—juveniles are treated the
same as adults.
(b) Similar crimes are not always as similar as they might
appear—first-time offenders are treated the same as
repeat offenders.
 Neoclassical Theory
• Classical theory was difficult to apply in practice.
It was modified in the early 1800s and became
known as neoclassical theory.
• A modification of classical theory in which it
was conceded that certain factors, such as
insanity, might inhibit the exercise of free will.
• Neoclassical theory introduced the idea of:
i. Premeditation as a measure of the
degree of free will.
ii. Mitigating circumstances as legitimate
grounds for diminished responsibility.
 Positivist Approaches to Explaining Crime
The theory of the positivist school of criminology grew out of positive
philosophy and the logic and methodology of experimental science. The key
assumptions of the positivist school of thought were:
a) Human behavior is determined and not a matter of free will.
b) Criminals are fundamentally different from non-criminals.
c) Social scientists can be objective in their work.
d) Crime is frequently caused by multiple factors.
e) Society is based on consensus, but not on a social contract.
The problems with positivist assumptions are that they:
a) Account for too much crime.
b) Ignore the process by which behaviors are made illegal.
c) Assume that most people agree about most things most of the time.
d) Believe that action is determined by causes independent of a person’s
free will.
e) Believe that social scientists will be objective in their work.
 Biological Theory
Biological theories of crime causation (biological positivism) are
based on the belief that criminals are physiologically different from
non-criminals. The cause of crime is biological inferiority.
Biological Inferiority: According to biological theories, a
criminal’s innate physiological makeup produces certain physical or
genetic characteristics that distinguish criminals from non-criminals.
 Criminal Anthropology
The study of “criminal” human beings.
Criminal anthropology is associated with the work of Cesare
Lombroso, who published his theory of a physical criminal type
in 1876.
1) Criminals are, by birth, a distinct type.
2) That type can be recognized by physical characteristics, or
stigmata, such as enormous jaws, high cheekbones, and
insensitivity to pain.
3) The criminal type is clearly distinguished in a person with
more than five stigmata, perhaps exists in a person with three
to five stigmata, and does not necessarily exist in a person
with fewer than three stigmata.
4) Physical stigmata do not cause crime; they only indicate an
individual who is predisposed to crime. Such a person is
either an atavist or a result of degeneration. Because of
their personal natures, such persons cannot desist from
crime unless they experience very favorable lives.
• Atavist: A person who reverts to a savage type.
 Body-Type Theory
Body-type theory is an extension of Lombroso’s criminal
anthropology, developed by Ernst Kretchmer and later
William Sheldon. It says that human beings can be divided
into three basic body types, or somatotypes:
1) Endomorphic (soft, fat)
2) Mesomorphic (athletically built)
3) Ectomorphic (tall, skinny)
Sheldon found that delinquents were more mesomorphic
than nondelinquents, and serious delinquents were more
mesomorphic than less severe delinquents.
Sheldon did not consider that delinquents are more likely to
be mesomorphic because, for example, mesomorphs are
more likely to be selected for gang membership.
 Sociological Theory
Sociologists emphasize that human beings live in social groups
and that those groups and the social structure they create
influence behavior.
Most sociological theories of crime causation assume that a
criminal’s behavior is determined by his or her social
environment and reject the notion of the born criminal.
Many sociological theories of crime causation stem from the
work of Emile Durkheim who rejected the idea that the world
is simply the product of individual actions.
Social laws and institutions are “social facts” and all people
can do is submit to them.
 The Contribution of Durkheim
Durkheim argued that crime is also a social fact. The cause of crime
is anomie.
Crime is functional for society and marks the boundaries of
morality. He advocated containing crime within reasonable
boundaries.
Anomie: For Durkheim, the dissociation of the individual from the
collective conscience.
Collective Conscience: The general sense of morality of the
times.
 The Theory of Chicago School/Social
Disorganization
In the 1920s, a group of sociologists known as the Chicago
School attempted to uncover the relationship between a
neighborhood’s crime rate and the characteristics of the
neighborhood.
A group of sociologists at the University of Chicago who assumed
in their research that delinquent behavior was a product of social
disorganization.
The Chicago School described American cities in ecological terms,
saying growth occurs through a process of:
Invasion: A cultural or ethnic group invades a territory.
Domination: The group dominates that territory.
Succession: The group is succeeded by another group and the
cycle repeats itself.
Other studies found that neighborhoods that experienced high
delinquency rates also experienced social disorganization.
 Social Disorganization
The condition in which the usual controls over
delinquents are largely absent, delinquent behavior is
often approved of by parents and neighbors, there are
many opportunities for delinquent behavior, and there is
little encouragement, training, or opportunity for
legitimate employment.

One of the problems with the theory of the Chicago

School is the presumption that social disorganization is a
cause of delinquency. Both social disorganization and
delinquency may be the product of other, more basic
factors.
 Anomie or Strain Theory
Robert Merton in 1938 wrote about a major contradiction in the
U.S. between cultural goals and social structure. He called the
contradiction anomie.
Anomie: For Merton, the contradiction between the cultural
goal of achieving wealth and the social structure’s inability to
provide legitimate institutional means for achieving the goal.
Merton argued that the limited availability of legitimate
institutionalized means to wealth puts a strain on people. People
adapt through:
1. Conformity—playing the game.
2. Innovation—pursuing wealth by illegitimate means.
3. Ritualism—not actively pursuing wealth.
4. Retreatism—dropping out.
5. Rebellion—rejecting the goal of wealth and the institutional
means of getting it.
 Anomie or Strain Theory

In the mid-1950s, Albert K. Cohen adapted Merton’s

anomie or strain theory to explain gang delinquency.
Anomie: For Cohen, it is caused by the inability of juveniles
to achieve status among peers by socially acceptable means.
Juveniles unable to achieve status through socially
acceptable means either:
1) conform to middle-class values and resign themselves to
their inferior status, or
2) rebel and establish their own value structures, then find
others like themselves and form groups to validate and
reinforce the new values.
 Anomie or Strain Theory
Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin further argued
that the type of adaptation made by juvenile gang
members depends on the illegitimate opportunity
structure available to them. They identified three
gang subcultures:
1) Criminal—formed to make money.
2) Violent—formed to vent anger if they can’t
make money.
3) Retreatist—formed by those who can’t join the
other gangs, and become alcoholics and drug
addicts.
 Learning Theory
Gabriel Tarde was one of the first theorists to believe that crime
was something learned by normal people as they adapted to
other people and the conditions of their environment.
Writing in Penal Philosophy in 1890, Tarde viewed all social
phenomena as the product of imitation or modeling.
Imitation or Modeling: A means by which a person can learn
new responses by observing others without performing any overt
act or receiving direct reinforcement or reward.
Edwin H. Sutherland—in his theory of differential
association—was the first 20th-century criminologist to argue
that criminal behavior was learned. This theory, modified,
remains one of the most influential theories of crime causation.
Differential Association: Sutherland’s theory that persons who
become criminal do so because of contacts with criminal
patterns and isolation from anticriminal patterns.
Sutherland’s theory was modified by several researchers and
became generally known as learning theory.
 Learning Theory
A theory that explains criminal behavior and its prevention with
the concepts of positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement,
extinction, punishment, and modeling or imitation.
Learning theory argues that people commit crimes because they
get positive reinforcement or negative reinforcement.
Positive Reinforcement: The presentation of a stimulus that
increases or maintains a response.
Negative Reinforcement: The removal or reduction of a
stimulus whose removal or reduction increases or maintains a
response.
According to learning theory, criminal behavior is reduced, but
not eliminated, through extinction or punishment.
Extinction: A process in which behavior that previously was
positively reinforced is no longer reinforced.
Punishment: The presentation of an aversive stimulus to reduce
a response.
 Social Control Theory
The key question in the social control theory is not why people commit
crime and delinquency, but rather why don’t they? Why do people
conform?
A view in which people are expected to commit crime and delinquency
unless they are prevented from doing so.
The most detailed elaboration of modern social control theory is
attributed to Travis Hirschi who wrote the 1969 book, Causes of
Delinquency.
Hirschi argued that delinquency should be expected if a juvenile is not
properly socialized by establishing a strong bond to society, consisting of:
1. Attachment to others
2. Commitment to conventional lines of action
3. Involvement in conventional activities
4. Belief in the moral order and law
More recently, Hirschi wrote with Michael Gottfredson that the principal
cause of deviant behaviors is ineffective child rearing, which produces
people with low self-control.
 Labelling Theory
The focus of labeling theory is the criminalization process
rather than the positivist concern with the peculiarities of the
criminal. It’s a theory that emphasizes the criminalization process as
the cause of some crime.
Criminalization Process: The way people and actions are defined as criminal.
The labeling theory argues that once a person commits a first criminal act, they are labeled
negatively as a criminal. The label becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
A policy implication of labeling theory is simply not to label, through:
a) Decriminalization—The elimination of behaviors from the scope of criminal law.
b) Diversion—Removing offenders from the criminal justice process.
c) Greater due-process protections—Replacing discretion with the rule of law.
d) Deinstitutionalization—Reducing jail and prison populations.
e) An alternative policy is reintegrative shaming:
f) Disappointment is expressed for the offender’s actions.
g) The offender is shamed and punished.
h) Then the community makes a concerted effort to reintegrate the offender back
into society.
 Conflict Theory
Conflict theory focuses on the conflict in society between rich and poor,
management and labor, race/whites and minorities.
A theory that assumes society is based primarily on conflict between
competing interest groups and that criminal law and the criminal justice
system are used to control subordinate groups. Crime is caused by relative
powerlessness.
According to conflict theory, criminal law and the criminal justice system
are used by dominant groups to control subordinate ones.
All behavior occurs because people act in ways consistent with their social
positions. Subordinate groups appear in official criminal statistics more
frequently because dominant groups have control over the definition of
criminality.
The amount of crime in a society is a function of the extent of conflict
generated by power differentials.
Crime is caused by relative powerlessness.
Power Differentials: The ability of some groups to dominate other
groups in a society.
Relative Powerlessness: The inability to dominate other groups in
society.
 Radical Theory
Theories of crime causation that are generally based
on a Marxist theory of class struggle.
Radical theories argue that capitalism requires people to
compete against each other in the pursuit of material
wealth. The more unevenly wealth is distributed, the more
likely people are to find persons weaker than themselves
that they can take advantage of in their pursuit of wealth.
Radical theory defines crime as a violation of human
rights. Under a radical definition of crime
Gambling Drug use Racism Sexism Imperialism
 British or Left Realism Theory

Many critical criminologists focus on crimes committed by

the powerful. In the mid-1980s a group of social scientists
in Great Britain, known as left realists, began focusing on
crime by and against the working class.
Left realists want to give more power to police to combat
crime, but also want to make the police more accountable
for their actions.
Left Realists: A group of social scientists who argue that
critical criminologists need to redirect their attention to the
fear and the very real victimization experienced by working-
class people.
 Feminist theory looks at crime from a
feminine perspective.
A group of social scientists who argue that critical criminologists need to redirect their
attention to the fear and the very real victimization experienced by working-class
people. The principal goal of the feminist theory is to abolish patriarchy by ensuring
women equal opportunity and equal rights.
The focus is on three areas of crime and justice:

•The victimization of women

•Gender differences in crime

•Gendered justice (differing treatment of female and male offenders and victims by the criminal
justice system)
Criticisms of feminist theory include:

•The failure to appreciate differences between women

•A contradictory position regarding police

Patriarchy: Men’s control over women’s labor and sexuality.
 Postmodernism
Postmodernism grew out of the 1960s as a
rejection of the Enlightenment belief in scientific
rationality as the route to knowledge and progress.
An area of critical thought which, among other
things, attempts to understand the creation of
knowledge, and how knowledge and language create
hierarchy and domination.
Postmodernist criminologists argue that
interpretations of the law are dependent on the
particular social context in which they arise. They
would change the criminal justice apparatus with
informal social controls.
 PART – II Year 2017
SECTION - I
Q.2. Write a critical note on the increasing importance of criminology in Pakistan. Also discuss
the historical development of criminology as a scientific discipline.
Q.3. Enlist the criminological perspectives. Briefly describe the three criminological perspectives
on the study of crime and criminal behaviour.
SECTION - II
Q.4. Write a comprehensive note on the juvenile justice system of Pakistan. Suggest measures
for the improvement of Juvenile justice system of Pakistan.
Q.5. Write short notes on:
a) Causes of juvenile delinquency in Pakistan
b) Probation and parole
SECTION - III
Q.6. Write a comprehensive note on the principles of criminal investigation. Illustrate with
examples from Pakistan.
Q.7. Elaborate importance of legal and ethical guidelines for the criminal investigation of gender
based crimes. Support your answer with examples from Pakistani society.
SECTION - IV
Q.8. Write a critical note on the rule of law enforcement agencies in the control of terrorism in
Pakistan.Suggest measures to minimize radicalization in Pakistan.

Q.9. Write notes on:

a) Money-laundering in Pakistan
b) Gender and Crime