Schools of Criminology

CRIME

Does the law cover all acts that are injurious to public welfare?
Does that include disastrous economic decisions taken by the
government?
Does the law forbid all the sins of this world?
The definition combines at least two ways of thinking about
crime which are often in practical conflict with each other
 CRIME

On the one hand, crimes can be thought of as acts which break the law –
the legal definition of crime
On the other hand, crimes are acts which can offend against a set of
norms like a moral code – the normative definition of crime
So, the two meanings of crime cannot be reconciled because a great deal
of legally-defined crime is not considered to be normatively-defined
crime
 BRIEF HISTORY
•Middle ages (1200-1600)
•Superstition and fear of satanic possession dominated thinking
•Witches or individuals possessed by demons were believed to violate
religious practice/social norms

•Witch doctor or medicine man or shaman became the interpreter of

supernatural happenings
•Cruel torture to extract confessions was in use and those convicted of
violent or theft crimes suffered extremely harsh penalties
•On occasions “a sacrifice to the gods was made of a baby, a young virgin, a
son or other persons in order to keep the tribe on good terms with god and
spirits”
 BRIEF HISTORY
•The lower part of irrational soul was located in the body below the
diaphragm and rational soul which is a better part located in the heart and in
mental faculties
•Aristotle said that body and soul are different - Man is good by nature but
when he fails to follow the reasons, sin results

•Thomas Hobbes concluded that all phenomenons were subjected to

scientific laws including human behaviour
•According to Rene Descartes “natural laws governed not only events
external to man but events occurring within him. Therefore, free will
becomes more important than divine law in crime causation”
 BRIEF HISTORY
To understand the classical writers and their contributions to criminology we
must know the social conditions that existed at that time. The classical writers
were rebelling against an arbitrary and corrupt system of law in which judges
held an absolute and almost tyrannical power over those who came before
them.

Laws were often vague, and the judges took it upon themselves to interpret the
spirit of the law if the vagueness did not suit their purposes.

Accusations were often secret and trials a farce. The law was applied unequally
to citizens and corruption was rampant. Confessions were obtained by the use
of hideous torture, and death penalty was used for many offenses. Due process
of law and equality before the law were unknown concepts.
 CLASSICAL SCHOOL OF
CRIMINOLOGY

•The motto was nullum crimen sine lege - no crime without law.
•Man is hedonistic - seeking pleasure and avoiding pain and has sufficient free
will to choose between good and evil, when he knows what the consequences
might be
•Focus of the classical school was on crime and it adopted the legal approach
 CLASSICAL SCHOOL OF
CRIMINOLOGY

Mid 18th Century

Driven by utilitarian philosophy- Greatest Good for the Greatest Number

Three prime proponents
Cesare Beccaria
Jeremy Bentham
John Stuart Mills
 CLASSICAL SCHOOL OF
CRIMINOLOGY
CESARE BECCARIA

Crime must be considered an injury to society

There must be a proper proportion between crime and punishments
The more promptly and the more closely punishment follows upon the
commission of crime, the more just and useful will it be
One of the greatest curbs on crime is not the cruelty of punishments, but their
infallibility
The certainty of punishment, even if be moderate, will always make a stronger
impression than the fear of another but combined with the hope of impunity
 CLASSICAL SCHOOL OF
CRIMINOLOGY
CESARE BECCARIA
Prevention of crime is more important than the punishment, which means
that publishing the laws is very important
Secret Accusations and tortures should be abolished in favor of humane
and speedy trial
Purpose of punishment is to deter individuals from committing crimes
rather then to seek revenge from them
 CLASSICAL SCHOOL OF
CRIMINOLOGY
JEREMY BENTHAM
♦Hedonistic Calculus
The weighing of pleasure versus pain.
If the expected pleasure outweighs the expected pain, a rational person will
engage in the act.
♦ Panopticon Prison Design
This model of prisons involved using a type of “wagon wheel” design, in
which a post at the center allowed 360-degree visual observation point for
the various “spokes” of hallways that contained all of the inmate cells.
Used in several countries, including the United States in early Pennsylvania
penitentiaries
 CLASSICAL SCHOOL OF
CRIMINOLOGY
JEREMY BENTHAM
Capital Punishment, or death penalty
Afflictive punishment, which includes whipping and starvation
Indelible punishment, such as branding, amputation and mutilation
Ignominious punishment, such as public punishment involving use of the
stocks or pillory
Penitential punishment (Priest to monitor- repenting)
Chronic punishment, such as banishment
Restrictive punishment, such as sanction
 CLASSICAL SCHOOL OF
CRIMINOLOGY
JEREMY BENTHAM
Compulsive punishment, which requires an offender to perform a certain
action, such as to make restitution or to keep in touch with a probation officer
Pecuniary punishment, involving the use of fines
Quasi-pecuniary punishment, in that the offender is denied services that
would otherwise be available to him or her
Characteristic punishment, such as mandating that prison uniforms be worn
by incarcerated offenders
 CONTRIBUTIONS OF
CLASSICAL SCHOOL

Still operative today

Constituent of modern day perspective on crime and punishment
Provides a justification for the use of punishment in the control of crime
Rational Punishments
Deterrent Principle
Equality before the Law
Written laws
LIMITATIONS OF CLASSICAL SCHOOL

Ignorance of individual differences

Significance of particular situation
First Offender and repeaters were to be treated similarly
Minors, insane and other incompetents were treated similarly
Inequality and power dynamics
NEO - CLASSICAL SCHOOL OF
CRIMINOLOGY
Knowledge and intent of man at the time of crime

The only significant difference between the Neoclassical School and the
Classical School of Criminology is that the Neoclassical School takes into
account contextual circumstances of the individual or situation that allows for
increases or decreases in the punishment.
The French system found that sentencing a first-time offender the same as a
repeat offender did not make much sense, especially if the first-time offender
was a juvenile.
NEO - CLASSICAL SCHOOL OF
CRIMINOLOGY
Modification of the doctrine of free will which could be affected by pathology,
incompetence, insanity or other conditions
Modification of the doctrine of responsibility in such cases like insanity, age etc
Admission into court procedures of expert testimony on the question of degree
of responsibility
Acceptance of the validity of mitigating circumstances
 POSITIVE SCHOOL OF
CRIMINOLOGY
The Positive School of Criminology is a theoretical framework that originated in
the late 19th century and became widely recognized in the early 20th century.
This perspective posits that criminal behavior is shaped by biological,
psychological, and social influences, rather than by free will or rational choice.

This school of thought highlights the significance of empirical research and

scientific approaches in examining criminal behavior. It regards crime as a
social phenomenon that can be analyzed and anticipated by investigating
individual and environmental factors.
 POSITIVE SCHOOL OF
CRIMINOLOGY
Puts perpetrators at the centre
Created at the time of revolutionary changes in the mid-19th century; the
emergence of sociology as a science (1839) and Darwin's theory of evolution
Advocate for determinism and reject the concept of free will
School advocates that a man is totally determined by biological, psychological
and sociological factors
Also advocate for individualized treatment of perpetrators and indeterminate
sentences
 POSITIVE SCHOOL OF
CRIMINOLOGY

Sentences with indefinite durations are ideal for authorities eager for excuses to
get rid of undesirable individuals

The state/authority in this case takes the care about a delinquent, and since he
is unable to control own behavior, it is totally uncertain how long will the
imprisonment treatment/rehabilitation take
POSITIVE SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY
Cesare Lombroso

Proposed that criminals were biological throwbacks and used the term
“atavistic”
He studied troublesome soldiers and criminals in Italian Prisons and identified
following physical characteristics of a criminal
Slanting forehead
Long earlobes or none at all
A large jaw
Heavy supraorbital ridges
Excess hairiness or absence of hair
Extreme sensitivity to pain or lack of sensitivity to pain
POSITIVE SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY

Enrico Ferri

Emphasized the interrelatedness of social, economic and political factors.

He argued that criminality can be explained by interactive factors:
1)Physical factors – race, geography
2) Individual factors – age, sex, psychological variables (anthropological)
POSITIVE SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY

3) Social factors – population, religion and culture

Crime can be controlled by social changes like subsidised houses,
birth control, freedom of marriage and divorce, public recreation
facilities
Attempted to integrate his positivistic approach to crime with
political changes
POSITIVE SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY

Enrico Ferri

Pioneer of – Criminal Sociology

Book on Principles of Criminal Law- Systematic representation of
Positive school
Demonstrated that the concept of freedom of will has no place in
criminal law, social defense is the purpose of criminal justice
POSITIVE SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY

Enrico Ferri

Book Sociologia Criminale, he had only five classes

The born criminal or Instinctive criminal
Insane criminal (mentally ill)
Passion criminal (prolonged and chronic mental problems or an
emotional state)
Occasional criminal
Habitual criminal
POSITIVE SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY
Raffaelo Garofalo

Law Professor
Follower of Lombroso
A natural crime violates two basic human sentiments found among
people of all ages:
Pity – sentiment of revulsion against the voluntary inflictions of
suffering on other
Probity – refers to the respect for the property rights of others,
honesty, morality
Pity and probity is present in advanced form in all civilized societies
POSITIVE SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY

Sometimes, physical abnormalities are present, sometimes not

True criminals lacked proper development of altruistic sentiments
Had psychic or moral anomalies that could be transmitted through
heredity
Reasoned that true criminal action revealed an inability to live by
basic human sentiments necessary for society to survive, they should
be eliminated, their death would contribute to the survival of society
POSITIVE SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY

Life imprisonment, overseas transportation exile

Deterrence and rehabilitation are secondary
Favored forced participation- indeterminate sentences- modeled on
psychic characteristics of the offender
By giving society or the group supremacy over the individual,
Garofalo and Ferri were willing to sacrifice individual rights to the
opinion of ‘scientific experts’
POSITIVE SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY

Stated society could guarantee the survival of the fittest through

criminal law and penal practice
Society is a ‘natural body’
Crimes are offences ‘against the law of nature’
Moral anomalies - deviation from norm
Society is a natural body - people either adapt or they should be
eliminated from the society
LIMITATIONS OF POSITIVE SCHOOL

Work of positivists was not very statistically sophisticated

Conclusions about real or significant differences between criminals
and non criminals were in fact highly speculative
Positivists held that criminal behavior is learned and proposed
association and learning as explanations of crime in contrast to the
biological approaches of Lombroso
 CARTOGRAPHIC SCHOOL OF
CRIMINOLOGY

Lambert Adolphe Jacques Quételet (Belgium mathematician) and

Andre-Michel Guerre (French Statistician)
Europe 1830-1840 - First statistical study of crime
Strong correlation between rates of crime and factors such as
Illiteracy
Poverty
Other similar variables
 CARTOGRAPHIC SCHOOL OF
CRIMINOLOGY

Used maps to plot crimes within a certain geographic area

Work of statisticians analyzed data on population and crime
Researchers compiled detailed, statistical information relating to
crime and also attempted to identify the circumstances that
predisposed people to commit crimes
This school is both theoretical as well as pragmatic
This role is visible in modern policing
 CARTOGRAPHIC SCHOOL OF
CRIMINOLOGY

Can contribute valuable information to criminal research- crime

prevention
First school focusing on the spatial and ecological perspectives on
crime
Crime maps inform interested parties of the spatial distribution of
particular crimes and help shape policies to combat the crime
problem
 CARTOGRAPHIC SCHOOL OF
CRIMINOLOGY
In addition to analysing distributions of general crime rates and
correlating them with distributions of other conditions, the proponents
of this school made special studies of juvenile delinquency and
professional crime
Concluded - that the crime is a necessary expression of social
conditions
Basic idea - crime is caused by the conflicts of values that arise when
legal norms do not take into consideration the behavioural norms that
are specific to the lower socioeconomic classes as well as to various age
groups, religious groups, and interest groups living in certain geographic
areas
 CARTOGRAPHIC SCHOOL OF
CRIMINOLOGY

The two greatest contributions attributed to the ‘cartographic school’

rest in the method of employing official statistics to ‘explain’ crime, and
the general finding that crime is unevenly distributed across cities and
regions
Findings tended to center on the influence of variables such as wealth
and population density on levels of crime
With the assumption that geographic variations in social conditions
under the assumption that they were related to patterns of crime
SOCIAL SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY

Shaw and McKay’s contribution to sociology and the social school of

Criminology:
Analysis of distribution of delinquency areas in Chicago and other
cities through the ecological approach
Creation of the delinquency prevention programme (the Chicago
Area Project) and
A collection of life histories of delinquents
SOCIAL SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY

Their studies showed that the highest rates of delinquency are found in
or around the districts of the city zoned for industry and commerce
These are areas of physical deterioration and decreasing residential
populations
These areas are characterized by low rents in old dilapidated buildings,
low family incomes and a high percentage of immigrant and black
populations
However they attributed this co-relation to poverty and poor living
conditions and not to any inherent traits of these communities
SOCIAL SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY

Criminal activity is associated with:

Lower property values
Impoverished lifestyle
General lack of privacy
Environmental, rather than personal factors predominate in the
causation of crime.
Population changes with time - but crime rate doesn’t - environment is
the problem.
SOCIAL SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY

Problem of ‘ecological fallacy’ – it is not able to explain why some

people in crime prone zones become criminal while others remain law
abiding.
Fails to establish link between criminality and environment.
What about people who have criminal tendencies and live on the
outskirts?
SOCIAL SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY

DIALECTIC MATERIALISM - Marxist Criminology

According to Marxist theory, the bourgeoisie will remain in power
unjustly oppressing the proletariat until the poor masses cooperate with
one another to violently overthrow the capitalist government and
economy and replace it with a classless, socialist system
SOCIAL SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY

Condemns Western capitalist society as an unjust divide between two

classes:
The ruling bourgeoisie (control means of production, political state,
hence position of power) who own the means of production (the
capitalists), and
The proletariat, the poor masses with nothing to offer but their own
labor (Power differential- leaves proletariats oppressed)
SOCIAL SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY

The theme dominating Marxist criminology is the “contention that

criminal legislation is determined not by moral consensus or the
common interests of the entire society, but by the relative power of
groups determined to use the criminal law to advance their own
special interests or to impose their moral preferences on others”
For Marxists then, the cause of crime is dictated by social forces,
namely capitalism, and thus remains beyond the control of individuals
SOCIAL SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY

Competition and profit motive emphasized by capitalistic societies

produces “egoistic tendencies” and greed in the individuals within
those societies
As the bourgeoisie own the means of production and control the law,
they can afford to be greedy and pursue their egoistic desires
It is the poor proletariat whose egoistic actions are labeled as criminal
because of their lower position in capitalist societies