INTRODUCTION TO

CRIMINOLOGY

Prepared by: John Patrick B. De Jesus

BASIC CONCEPT OF CRIMINOLOGY

• Criminology definition
• Etiology of the word Criminology
• Definition of Criminology under R.A
11131
• Schools of thought in Criminology
 WHAT IS CRIMINOLOGY?

• Latin word “crimen” offense/crime Greek word “logos” study.

• Italian law professor Raffaele Garofalo coined the term criminologia in
1885.
• French anthropologist Paul Topinard - “ Criminologie” in 1887.
• criminology the scientific study of crime as a social phenomenon.
• Criminology is considered as the scientific study which relates both the
individual and society to the criminal behavior, including the nature,
extent, causes, and control of this behavior.
 WHAT IS CRIMINOLOGY?
• Criminology in broadest sense, is defined as the entire body of
knowledge regarding crimes and criminals and the effort of society
to prevent and suppress them.
• Criminology is also defined as the study of crimes, criminals and
their behavior as a social phenomenon.
• Phenomenon
• appearance or observed features of something experienced as
distinguished from reality or the thing itself;
• any extremely unusual or extraordinary things or occurrence or
any fact, circumstances or an experience that is apparent to the
sense and that can be scientifically described or appraised
 THIS SCIENTIFIC STUDY IS CONFINED ON THE
THREE BASIC LINES:

1. Application of criminal laws and its administration.

2. Analysis of crime causation and criminal behavior.
3. The prevention and control of crimes and rehabilitation
of offenders
 WHAT IS CRIMINOLOGY?
• Criminology in broadest sense, is defined as the entire body of
knowledge regarding crimes and criminals and the effort of society
to prevent and suppress them.
• On the other hand, criminology is also defined as the study of
crimes, criminals and their behavior as a social phenomenon.
• Phenomenon
• appearance or observed features of something experienced as
distinguished from reality or the thing itself;
• any extremely unusual or extraordinary things or occurrence or
any fact, circumstances or an experience that is apparent to the
sense and that can be scientifically described or appraised
 C R I M I N O LO G Y I S A S C I E N C E I N I T S E L F U N D E R T H E F O LL O W I N G
N AT U R E:

1. it is an applied science
2. it is a social science
3. it is dynamic
4. it is nationalistic
 IT IS AN APPLIED SCIENCE

• To further understand crime causation anthropology,

psychology, sociology and other natural sciences may be
applied.
• While in so far as crime detection, prevention and
investigation are concerned forensic chemistry, legal
medicine, physics and other applied sciences including
polygraph examination, questioned document examination,
fingerprint identification, ballistics and firearm examination
and forensic photography
 IT IS A SOCIAL SCIENCE

• In so far as crime as a social phenomenon, its

study could be considered as a part of social
science to the extent of understanding the nature
and application of existing law.
 IT IS DYNAMIC

• The study of crime changes as to pace and

social conditions.
• It is parallel with the development of other
sciences which have been applied to it.
 IT IS NATIONALISTIC

• The study of crimes should be correlated with the existing

laws within the territory.
• The issue as to whether an act committed is a crime reliant on
the existing criminal laws of the state.
• Therefore, the causes of crime must be determined from its
social need, standard and /or norms.
 SOCIOLOGICAL DEFINITION OF CRIMINOLOGY
(EDWIN SUTHERLAND AND DONALD CRESSEY)

• Body of knowledge regarding crime as a social phenomenon

• It includes within its study are the:
• Processes of making laws (sociology of law)
• Of breaking laws (etiology of crime)
• And the reactions toward the breaking of the laws
(penology)
 ORIGIN OF THE WORD CRIMINOLOGY

• The term Criminology was originated from the Greek

word “crimin” which means “crime” and ology which
means “a science, academic field or a study”. Literally
Criminology means the scientific study of crime.
 DEFINITION OD CRIMINOLOGY UNDER R.A 11131

• refers to the scientific study of crimes, criminals,

and victims, it also deals with the prevention, and
solution of crimes.
 WHAT IS CRIME?

• Crime is an act committed or omitted in violation of public

law forbidding or commanding it.
• Crime can be committed once an individual, who is sojourning
in a territory where the law is enforceable, perform an act
punishable by existing laws.
• Crime can also be omitted once an individual failed to perform
an act or accomplish the same in which the existing laws bond
 THE CRIME TRIANGLE THEORY

• It is a paradigm used to explain a crime which is committed with deliberate

intent linking it essential which includes:
1. Motive
• The moving power which impels one to action for a definite result.
2. Intent
• The purpose to use a particular means to affect such result.
3. Opportunity
• May be defined as the chance or probability for an individual to carry
out his motive to commit wrongful ac
 WHEN DOES CRIME EXIST?

• In legal parlance, crime exists when the person charged of an

offense has been proven guilty beyond reasonable doubt of a
legitimate court.
• In layman’s term and scientific view point, crime exists once
it is reported to proper authorities. This view point is more
realistic but it is argued that not all reported care is with
sound basis that it was happened and some of these are
unproven and/or not establish
 WHO DECIDES WHAT ACT WILL BE CONSIDERED
AS CRIME?

• The Majority
• The rich
• Those with social status
 MOST COMMON CONCEPTS OF CRIME USED BY
CRIMINOLOGISTS ACCORDING TO SIEGEL (2016)

• consensus view of crime - defined by majority. (from

agreement among the members of a society as to what
constitutes wrongdoing.)
• conflict view of crime - those in power. (the definition of
crime is assumed to reflect the wishes of the most powerful
interest groups)
• Interactionist view of crime (crime is defined by those with
social power)
 WHO IS A CRIMINAL?

Legal definition
• Any person who has been convicted by final
judgement in a court of law of the crime charged
against him/her beyond reasonable doubt.
Criminological definition
• Any person who had committed a crime.
 WHO IS A VICTIM?

• Offended party
• One who suffers injury or harm caused by an act of another
person
• Two forms of victim:
• Victims of crime – (harmed and injured by someone who
committed crime under the law)
• Natural disaster victims – (victimized by natural disasters)
 SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT IN CRIMINOLOGY

Demonological School of Thought

• Criminals are possessed by evil or demons
• MIDDLE AGE (1200-1600): In Middle Ages, there was a
profound influence of the theology on human conceptualization
of the world. The Middle Ages observed the end of the Greek-
inspired "crime as vice" philosophy and thereafter the
theological-inspired "crime as sin" philosophy was emerged.
 CLASSICAL CRIMINOLOGY

• Classical criminology was presented in a reaction to the barbaric system of

law, justice and punishment that existed before 1789.
• It emphasizes largely on human rationality and free will.
• The Classical School was more interested in law-making and legal
processing rather than studying criminals.
• This school of thought believed that engagement in any crime was because
of the total free will and that individuals evaluated the consequences of their
actions.
• Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794) and Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) were the
two famous writers during this classical period, both were the leaders of the
movement to human rights and free-will.
 CLASSICAL CRIMINOLOGY

• These new theories were more related to the philosophy of

rationalism and humanitarianism of the Age of Enlightenment.
• Beccaria wanted to make a more rational punishment for a crime.
• He believed that the punishments should be in hierarchal form
depending on the number of times a criminal had been charged
previously and more on the severity, and seriousness of the crimes.
• He believed that conditions under which the death penalty was given
should completely depend on the severity of the crime and it should
not depend on actual act committed or the level of involvement of
the act.
 CLASSICAL CRIMINOLOGY

• In 1764 his book "An Essay on Crimes and Punishment" was

published, in which he discussed that why crime occurs and
what is the role of society in committing such crimes.
• He argued that all the people should be treated equally by the
law and to avoid the misuse of judicial power then the
punishments for particular crimes must be standardized by
legislatures.
 CLASSICAL CRIMINOLOGY

• British Lawyer and Philosopher Jeremy Bentham - who

wrote “principles of Morals and Legislation”.
• He was concerned with achieving “the greatest happiness of
the greatest number”.
• He argued that a pain involved in the potential punishment for
a crime must be greater than any pleasure in that crime in
order to stop the people from committing such a crime for
that pleasure.
 CLASSICAL CRIMINOLOGY

• Utilitarianism - It assumes that all human

actions are calculated in accordance with their
likelihood of bringing happiness (pleasure) or
unhappiness (pain).
• Hedonism - It is a doctrine whose central idea is
that pleasure is the main of goal.
 NEO – CLASSICAL SCHOOL

• The school disagreed and contested the result on the study of

Beccaria’s group that there is an absence of free will among
mentally underdeveloped persons, those having psychological
imbalance or with the personality disorders or mentally and
physically disabled to commit crimes. Included are children
and insane persons who were exempted from punishments.
 SOCIAL CONTRACT AND DETERMINATE SENTENCING

Specific deterrence - a goal of criminal sentencing which seeks to

prevent a particular offender from engaging in repeat criminality.
• General deterrence - a goal of criminal sentencing which seeks to
prevent others from committing crimes similar to the one for which a
particular offender is being sentenced.
• Just desert – “she got what her due, he got what was coming to him”
• offenders deserve the punishment they receive at the hands of the law.
 POSITIVIST CRIMINOLOGY

• In the 19th century, the positivist school of thought came into existence
due to the "scientific revolution“.
• The positivist presented the deterministic view of the world, to explain
the criminal behavior rather considering the legal issues, and believed
that the crime could be prevented through the treatment of offenders or
through the reformation of the offenders.
• They observed that the biological, psychological, and social qualities
determined the criminal behavior.
• It governs the principle “Let the punishment fit the criminal”.
 POSITIVIST CRIMINOLOGY

• Determinism – It means that events have causes that

preceded them.
• Positivism – the branch of social science that uses the
scientific method of the natural sciences and suggests that
human behavior is a product of social, biological, or
economic forces that can be empirically measured.
• Scientific Method – the use of verifiable principles and
procedures for the systematic acquisition of knowledge.
 CESARE LOMBROSO

• Lombroso, Influenced by Darwinian theory of

evolution, started to calculate the physical features of
prisoner and concluded that specific physical
characteristics, such as skeletal, cranial, and
neurological malformations were more correlated to
the criminal behavior.
 CESARE LOMBROSO

• An Italian Criminologist, known as the father of Empirical

Criminology, who advanced the theory that crime is the result of a
hereditary predisposition in certain individuals.
• He claimed that criminals are a distinctive physical and biological
type.
• He believed that the true criminal could be recognized by observing
definite physical features and traits, including a long lower jaw,
asymmetric cranium and other noticeable circumstances.
• These features and traits, according to him, did not cause criminal
behavior, but they revealed an inclination or tendency to crime.
 TYPES OF CRIMINALS BY LOMBROSO

• Atavism, criminals are physiological throwbacks to earlier stages of

human evolution
Three (3) classes of criminals:
• born criminals – individuals with at least five (5) atavistic stigmata
• insane criminals – those who are not criminals by birth; they become
criminals as a result of some changes in their brains which interfere with
their ability to distinguish between right and wrong
• criminaloids - those with make up of an ambiguous group that includes
habitual criminals, criminals by passion and other diverse types
 RAFFAELE GAROFALO

• An Italian nobleman, magistrate, senator, and professor

of law who rejected the classical principle that
punishment should fit the crime, arguing that instead it
should fit the criminal.
• He explained criminal behavior, not to physical
features, but to their psychological equivalents that he
called “moral anomalies”
 TYPES OF CRIMINAL BY GAROFALO

• Extreme criminal – who commit violent acts who shows a lack

of pity.
• Impulsive criminal – alcoholics and insane
• Professional criminal – who choose to commit crime and
require elimination by life imprisonment or transportation to a
penal colony
• Endemic criminal – who commit crimes or acts that are
prohibited by law.
 ENRICO FERRI

• Best known associate of Lombroso, a member of a

parliament, a public lecturer and a lawyer.
• Criminals should not be held morally responsible for
their crimes because they did not choose to commit it,
but rather they were driven to commit them by
conditions of their lives.
• Most common characteristics of criminals were moral
insensibility combined with low intelligence.
 SUMMARY

There are three schools of though in criminology:

1. Classical Criminology – anchored in the doctrine of free will
and hedonism (advocated by Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy
Bentham)
2. Neo-classical criminology – states that children and lunatics
should be exempted from punishment.
3. Positivist criminology – anchored in the doctrine of
determinism (advocated by Cesare Lombroso, Raffaele
Garofalo and Enrico Ferri).