DATA CENTER COLLEGE OF THE PHILIPPINES

COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE EDUCATION

LAOAG CITY

CHAPTER 1

OVERVIEW OF CRIMINOLOGY AND VICTIMOLOGY

This chapter presented a background of criminology, overview on victimology, etiology of

crime, crime, criminal and criminal behavior. Most significantly, this section provided lessons about two
“school of thoughts” that served as the enduring foundation of past and present criminology.

EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES

At the end of this chapter, students are expected to have:
a. familiarized conceptual overview about theory and criminology, as well as their interconnected
functions;
b. Acquired basic knowledge about victimology, etiology of crime, criminal, and criminal behavior;
c. Understood the “school of thought” that serve as theoretical foundation of criminology, criminal law,
and criminal justice; and
d. Analyzed and evaluated whether or not the “school of thought” are still applicable in this present era.

Lesson 1. Criminology and Victimology: An Overview

Etymology of the word Criminology

The word criminology is essentially the study of crime. Criminology is derived from the Latin
crimen, which means accusation, and the transliterated Greek logia, which denotes the study of.

Criminology is a noun (countable and uncountable), its plural form is criminologies.

Criminology refers to the study of crime and criminals, especially their behavior; the scientific study and
investigation of crime and criminals.

In 1885, Italian law professor Raffaele Garofalo coined the term criminology (in Italian,
criminologia). The French anthropologist Paul Topinard used it for the first time in French
(criminologie) in the same year.
Definitions of Criminology

1. According to Edwin Sutherland, Criminology is the body of knowledge regarding the social problem
of crime.

2. According to Donald Cressey, Criminology is the body of knowledge regarding delinquency and
crime as a social phenomenon. It includes within its scope the following:
a. process of making laws (Sociology of Laws),
b. breaking laws (Etiology of Crimes), and
c. reacting toward the breaking of laws (Penology).

3. Criminology is the scientific study of crime as an individual and social phenomenon. Criminology is
an interdisciplinary field in the behavioral sciences, drawing especially on the research of sociologists
and psychologists, as well as on writings in law

4. According to Marvin Wolfgang and Franco Ferracuti, Criminology is the scientific study of crime,
criminals, and criminal behavior.

5. Criminology is the scientific study of crime, criminals, and criminal behavior. Criminologists
scientifically study the following:
a. nature and extent of crime;
b. patterns of criminality;
c. explanations on the causes of crime and criminal behavior, and
d. the control of crime and criminal behavior.

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6. According to Gennaro F. Vito and Ronald Holmes, Criminology is the study of the causes of crime.

7. According to an eminent criminologist Elliot, Criminology is defined as the scientific study of crime
and its treatment. This definition, besides emphasizing the scientific investigation into the nature and
etiology of crime, stresses the practical or utilitarian nature of this body of knowledge, namely, devising
ways and means to prevent or reduce the incidence of crime and rehabilitate criminals as normal
members of society.

8. According to renowned criminologist D. R. Taft, Criminology is the study which includes all the
subject matter necessary to understanding and prevention of crimes together with the punishment and
treatment of delinquents and criminals. This is a comprehensive definition and describes theoretical as
well as practical aspects of the study. It brings out clearly the fact, which may get overlooked usually,
that criminology is concerned not with the offenses committed by adults only, but also deals with
juvenile offenses.

9. According to Gregg Barak, Criminology is an interdisciplinary study of the various bodies of

knowledge, which focuses on the etiology of crime, the behavior of criminals, and policies and practices
of crime control.

10. According to Webster Dictionary, Criminology may be described to be "the scientific study of
crime as a social phenomenon, or of criminals and their mental traits, habits and discipline." This
definition has the merit of emphasizing equally the sociological as well as psychological crime.

11. According to the European Society of Criminology, Criminology refers to all scholarly, scientific
and professional knowledge concerning the explanation, prevention, control and treatment of criminal
delinquency, offenders and victims, including the measurement and detection of crime, legislation, and
the practice of criminal law, and law enforcement, judicial, and correctional systems.

Criminology Objectives

1. To develop a body of general and verified principles and of other types of knowledge regarding the
process of law, crime, and treatment or prevention.
2. To study criminal behavior and the physical, psychological, and socio-economic factors behind it;
how and why people commit crimes.

Related Definition of Terms

1. Applied Criminology
It is the art of creating typologies, classifications, predictions, and especially profiles of criminal
offenders, their personalities and behavior patterns.
2. Theoretical Criminology
It is a subfield of general criminology most often found in colleges and universities.
3. Constitutional Approach
It is an approach to explaining criminal behavior that assumes that behavior is influenced by the
structure or physical characteristics of persons body.
4. Criminologist
It refers to a person who conducts study about criminology. The word Criminologist is recorded
in 1857. Also, one who is trained in the field of criminology, studies crime, criminals, and criminal
behavior.
5. Criminalist
It refers to a person who reconstructs a crime scene or works with crime scene evidence for
forensic purposes.
6. Dualistic Fallacy
It refers to the assumption that there is a distinct difference between two groups: criminals and
noncriminal.

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7. Criminality
It refers to a behavioral predisposition that dis-proportionally favors criminal activity.
8. Criminal Justice
It refers to the scientific study of crime, the criminal law, and components of the criminal justice
system, including the police, courts, and correction in the United States of America, also, police,
prosecution, courts, correction and community in the country.
9. Criminal Justice System
It refers to various agencies of justice especially the police, courts, and correction in the United
States of America (or the police, prosecution, courts, correction and community in the country,
Philippines), whose goal is to apprehend [prosecute], convict, punish, and rehabilitate law violators.
10. Experimental Criminology
It refers to a form of contemporary criminology that makes use of rigorous social scientific
techniques, especially randomized controlled experiments and the systematic review of research results.

Nature of Criminology
Generally, criminology cannot be considered as science because it has not yet acquired universal
validity and acceptance. It is not stable and it varies from one time and place to another. However,
considering that science is the systematic and objective study of social phenomenon and other body of
knowledge, criminology is a science when under the following nature:
1. It is an Applied Science
In the study of the causes of crimes, anthropology, psychology, sociology and other natural
science may be applied, while crime detection includes the utilization of chemistry, medicine, physics,
mathematics, ballistics, polygraphy, legal medicine, questioned document examination. This is also
known as Instrumentation.
2. It is a Social Science
In as much as crime is a social creation that exists in a society being a social phenomenon, its
study must be considered a part of social science.
3. It is Dynamic
Criminology changes as social condition changes. It is concomitant with the advancement of
other science that has been applied to it.
4. It is Nationalistic
The study of crimes must be in relation to the existing criminal law within a territory or country.
Finally, the question as to whether an act is a crime is dependent on the criminal law of a state,
therefore, the causes of crime must be determined from its social needs and standards.

Concerns in the Study of Criminology

1. Why do crime rates vary?
2. Why do individuals differ as to criminality?
3. Why there is variation in reactions to crime?
4. What are the possible means of controlling criminality?
Goals of Studying Criminology
1. To describe criminal behavior.
2. To understand criminal behavior.
3. To predict criminal behavior.
4. To control criminal behavior.

Criminology and Other Fields

1. Criminology study of laws.
2. Criminology deals with science, medicine, chemistry, and the like.
3. Criminology study religion in connection to crime or criminality.
4. Criminology study education in connection to crime or criminality
5. Criminology includes study of sociology and psychology.
6. Criminology includes the study of public administration.

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Agencies Associated with the Study of Criminology

1. Legislative bodies
2. Law enforcement agencies
3. Court and prosecution pillars
4. Educational institutions
5. Correctional institution
6. A public charitable and social agency
7. Public welfare agencies

Principal Divisions of Criminology by Edwin Sutherland

1. Sociology of Law (Making of Laws)

It to offer scientific analysis of the conditions under which criminal laws are developed as a
process of formal social control.
2. Criminal Etiology (Breaking of Laws)
It attempts to provide a scientific analysis of the causes of crime.
3. Penology (Reacting toward the breaking of laws)
It is concerned with the control and prevention of crime and the treatment of [youth] offenders.

Components of Criminology by Clarence Ray Jeffery

1. Detection (of the offender),
2. Treatment, and
3. Explanation of crime and criminal behavior

Theory: Its Role in Criminology

What is a Theory?
It is part of an explanation, an attempt to relate two or more variables in ways that can be tested.
If properly constructed and tested, a theory can be either supported or shown to be incorrect or at least
questioned. Thus, a theory is more than an assumption. It involves efforts to test the reality of thoughts
or explanations about how variables (such as gender) are related to phenomena [such as criminal
behavior].

Theory refers also to a series of interrelated propositions that attempt to describe, explain,
predict, and ultimately control some class of events. It gains explanatory power from inherent logical
consistency and is "tested" by how well it describes and predicts reality

Attributes of a Theory
1. Theory Construction
It refers to an informed, creative endeavor which connects something known with something
unknown in a measurable way.
2 Theory Building
It refers to efforts to come up with formal, systematic, logical, and mathematical ways in which
theories are constructed.
2. Theoretical Integration
It refers to efforts to come up with grand, overarching theories which apply to all types of crime
and deviance.
4 Theoretical Specification
It refers to efforts to figure out the details of a theory, how the variables work together, usually
associated with a belief that many, competing theories are better than integrated efforts.
5 Theoretical Elaboration
It refers to efforts to figure out the implications of a theory, what other variables might be added
to the theory.

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6 Variables
It refers to the building blocks of theories; things that vary, things you can have more or less of;
e.g., crime rates, being more or less inclined to criminally (criminality)
7. Hypothesis.
It refers to an explanation that accounts for a set of facts and that can be tested by further
investigation.

Eras of Criminological Theory by John H. Laub

1. First Era: Golden Age of Research (1900 to 1930)

It was this time when data on crime and criminal behavior were largely gathered and evaluated
independent of any particular ideational framework.
2. Second Era: Golden Age of Theory (1930 to 1960)
It was this time when intellectual theorizing "dominated the scene". Strangely, during this period,
there was no systematic attempt to link criminological research to theory.
3. Third Era: Age of Extensive Theory Testing
It was this time when extensive theory testing of the dominant theories was prevalent, using
largely empirical methods. In other words, this era was a time of scientific examination of the accuracy
of criminological theories that had been previously advanced.

Categories of Theory According to Scope

1. General Theory.
It refers to a theory that attempts to explain all (or at least most) forms of criminal conduct
through a single, overarching approach.
2. Unicausal Theory
It refers to a theory that posits only one source for all that they attempt to explain.
3. Integrated Theory
It refers to a theory that provides explanatory perspective that merges (or attempts to merge)
concepts drawn from different sources. This is in contrast to the General Theory.

Victimology: An Overview
Victimology is the scientific study of victimization, including the relationships between victims
and offenders, the interactions between victims and the criminal justice system - that is, the police and
courts, and corrections officials and the connections between victims and other societal groups and
institutions, such as the media, businesses, and social movements. The concept of victim dates back to
ancient cultures and civilizations, such as the ancient Hebrews. Its original meaning was rooted in the
idea of sacrifice or scapegoat (the execution or casting out of a person or animal to satisfy a deity or
hierarchy). During the founding of victimology in the 1940s, victimologists such as Benjamin
Mendelson, Hans Von Hentig, and Marvin Wolfgang tended to use textbook or dictionary definitions
of victims as hapless dupes who instigated their own victimizations which is known as victim
precipitation.
Over the years, ideas about victim precipitation have come to be perceived as a negative thing;
victim blaming it is called. Research into ways in which victims "contribute" to their own victimization
is considered by victims and victim advocates as both unacceptable and destructive.

Who is a Victim?
A victim, in general, means any person who, by reason of natural disaster or man-made cause,
individually or I collectively, has suffered harm, including physical or mental injury, emotional
suffering, economic loss or substantial impairment of his/her fundamental rights, through acts or
omissions that are in violation of criminal laws, including those proscribing abuse of power.

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Who is a Crime Victim?

It generally refers to any person, group, or entity who has suffered injury or loss due to illegal
activity. The consequences or harms caused by crime are the following:
1. Physical.
It includes physical injury; generally, it involves physical pain.
2. Psychological
It refers to the following psychological reactions:
a. increase in the belief of personal vulnerability,
b. perception of the world as meaningless and incomprehensible,
c. viewing themselves in a negative light,
d. fear, anxiety, nervousness, anger, shame, and others.

Problems often result in the development of chronic PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder). Post
crime distress is also linked to pre-existing emotional problems and socio-demographic variables. This is
known as the leading cause of the elderly to be more adversely affected.
3. Economic
It includes loss of property like family house, business establishment and the like.
Legally, crime victim refers to a person who has suffered direct, or threatened, physical,
emotional or pecuniary harm due to commission of a crime; or in the case of a victim being an
institutional entity, any of the same harms by an individual or authorized representative of another
entity.

Kinds of Crime Victim

1. Direct or Primary Crime Victim
It refers to victim directly suffers the harm or injury which is physical, psychological, and
economic losses.
2. Indirect or Secondary Crime Victim
It refers to victim who experience the harm second hand, such as intimate partner or family
members of the primary victim. It also included first responders and rescue workers who race to crime
scenes (such as police officers, forensic evidence technicians, paramedics, fire fighters and the like)
because they are also exposed to emergencies and trauma on such a routine basis and that they also need
emotional support themselves.
3. Tertiary Crime Victim
It refers to victims who experience the harm vicariously, such as through media accounts, the
scared public or community due to watching news regarding crime incidents,

Note:
A broader presentation about victimology is incorporated in the subject Human Behavior and
Victimology. It included history, theories, models, as well as legal concepts of victimization.

Lesson 2. Etiology of Crime, Crime, and Criminal

A. Etiology of Crime

What is Etiology?
It refers to the cause, set of causes, or manner of causation of a disease or condition: "a disease of
unknown etiology", the causation of diseases and disorders as a subject of investigation. Similarly, it
refers to the investigation or attribution of the cause or reason for something, often expressed in terms of
historical or mythical explanation.

What is Etiology of Crime (Criminal Etiology)?

It analyzes and studies causal links between circumstance and different factors of criminality.
Also, criminal etiology makes studies and research of causes and circumstances that deal with all
criminal behaviors and other negative phenomena in society. Similarly, it refers to the division of
criminology which attempts to provide scientific analysis on the causes of crimes.

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What is Causes of Crime?

It refers to the factors or circumstances. that apply significantly more to offenders than to non-
offenders and that potentially a direct but not necessarily immediate link to crime. In any attempt at
scientific studies of the causes of crime, two things or objects should be considered, and these are man
and his criminal behavior, in relation to criminal or penal law.

Approaches in Criminal Etiology

1. Single or Unitary.
This approach views that criminal behavior is caused only by one factor or variable which is any
of the following: social, biological (psychological or mental).
2. Multiple Factor Approach.
This approach views that criminal conduct is not a product of a single cause or factor but a
combination of several factors. Thus, some factors are playing major and minor roles.
3. Eclectic Theory Approach.
This approach views that criminal behavior is at one instance caused by one or more factors,
while in other instances, it is caused by another set of factors.

Historical Overview on Crime Causation

1. Antique Philosophy
In the 4th Century BC, Aristotle offered a philosophical standpoint on crime causation. Aristotle
stated that the crime is poverty related. He described poverty as a mother of all revolutions and crimes.
2. Medieval Philosophy
In the 17th Century Francis Bacon stated that "Opportunity makes a thief." He cited that human
behavior of criminality depends on social situations.
3. French Renaissance Philosophy
In the 18th Century, encyclopedists Voltaire and Rousseau introduce the concept of free will.
Crime is the same as hedonistic behavior and failure to fulfill the social contract obligations.
4. Classical Criminology
It states that crime is a product of belief that benefits of committing crimes are far greater. Crime
is a behavioral human characteristic and a choice. It is based on the "doctrine of free will."
5. Positivist Criminology
It tries to fully explain crime causation using determinism or positivism. It uses biological
determinism or evolutionary atavism. It states that criminal behavior is inherited and criminals are born.
6. Sociological Criminology
It states that crime is a result of social factors and conditions that affect human behavior.
7. Psychological Criminology
It states that, in reference to Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytical theory, crime causation was
based on the notion that hidden unconscious motives affect human behavior.
8. Biological Criminology
It posits that genetics, chromosome aberrations, neurotransmitters, hormonal imbalance, blood
sugar levels, and other biological aspects are possible causes of crime.

Note:
A broader presentation about criminal etiology is provided in the subject Theories of Crime
Causation.
B. Crime

Definitions of Crime:
1. Legal Definition.
Crime is a violation of law. Under the Philippine law, it refers to the act committed or omitted in
violation of public law forbidding or commanding it. Crime could be in the form of:
a. Felonies.
It refers to those in violation of the Revised Penal Code.
b. Offenses

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It refers to those in violation of special penal laws.

c. Misdemeanors
It refers to those in violation of ordinances.
2. Political Definition
Crime refers to an act perceived by those in power as direct or indirect threats to their interests.
3. Sociological Definition
Crime refers to an anti-social act of such a nature that its repression is necessary or is supposed
to be necessary to the preservation of the existing system of society.
4. Psychological Definition.
Crime refers to a form of social maladjustment which could be designated as a more or less
pronounced difficulty that the individual has in reacting to the stimuli of his environment in such a way
as to remain in harmony with that environment.

When does Crime Exist?

Legally, crime exists when an act or omission which is alleged as crime or offense, filed in court
either through information or complaint, and the court has decided that such act or omission was indeed
a violation of a criminal law.

Why does Crime Exist?

Crime exists because of the existence of law. The principle of Logomacy states that, there is no
crime if there is no law punishing it; similar to Latin phrase, nullum crimen nulla poena sine lege.

In essence, it means that eliminating crime requires the abolition of criminal law. However, law
is a form of social control and the absence of regulation in the community leads to chaos among the
people; without any decree to control the people, the Law of the Jungle would prevail.
Law of the Jungle speaks about Survival of the Fittest or in ordinary parlance, Matira ang
Matibay. In the forest, there is no law applicable to control the animals which lead to the preying of the
weak creatures by the tough animals. It is, therefore, assumed that only the Lion (the king in the forest)
will survive in the jungle because it can physically outsmart other being.

The Elements of Crime

1. Motive (M)
It refers to the moving power which impels one to act for a definite result. Motive is different
from intent; intent refers to the purpose in using a particular means to affect such result. Intent is an
element of an Intentional Felony while motive is not. Motive becomes important only if the identity of
the felon has not been clearly established
3. Opportunity (O)
It refers to the chance or time given to the offender in order for him/her to commit a crime.
4. Instrumentality or Capability (I/C)
It refers to the use of materials or other means in the commission of crime while Capability speaks of the
physical ability of a person to commit a crime. For example, Pedro, an impotent, cannot be convicted of
rape through forcible sexual intercourse since his sexual organ has no capacity to erect, Pedro is
incapable (figure 1)

M I/C

O
Figure 1: The Triangle of Crime

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The figure simply shows that crime will only occur if all (motive, opportunity, and capability or
instrumentality) the elements are present.

Between Crime and Sin

1. Crime is an act or omission against the penal law of a state while sin is an act or omission
against the spiritual or divine law
2. The penalty for a crime is imprisonment or fine or both, or even death while for a sinner, to
Christian believers, is an inferno.

Between Crime and Immorality:

1. Crime is committed against the law of the state while immorality is committed against the
unwritten social norms in the locality.
2. Crime is fixed by statute, while immorality is not.
3. Crime is nationalistic while immorality is regionalistic.

Characteristics of Crime
1. Crime is pervasive
People in a society were once upon a time a victim or criminal offender. Crime as an associate of
the society, it affects almost all people regardless of age, sex, race, nationality, religion, financial
condition, education and other personal circumstances.
2. Crime is expensive
The government and private sector spend an enormous amount of money for crime detection,
prosecution, correction and prevention. Those expenses are either.
a. Direct expenses
It refers to those spent by the government or private sector for the maintenance of the police and
security guards for crime detection, prosecution, judiciary, and prison system.
b. Indirect expenses
It refers to those expenses utilized to prevent the commission of crimes like the construction of
window grills, fences, gates, purchase of door locks, safety vaults, and the like.

Crime is destructive
It means that many lives have been lost because of crimes like murder, homicide, and other
violent deaths, as well as properties have been lost or destroyed on account of robbery, theft, and arson.

3. Crime is reflective
It means that crime rate of incidence in a given locality is reflective of the effectiveness of the
social defenses employed by the people primarily of the police system 5. Crime is progressive. It means
that crime increases in volume on account of the increasing population. The increase of crime rates and
employment of advance techniques by criminals show the progressive thinking of the society.

Criminological Classifications of Crime

1. As to the result:
a. Acquisitive crime
It occurs when the offender acquires something as a consequence of his criminal act.
b. Extinctive crime
It occurs when the end result of a criminal act is destructive.

2. As to the time or period of commission:

a. Seasonal crime
It refers to crime that is committed only during a certain period of the year like violation of tax
law.
b. Situational crime
It refers to crime that is committed only when given the situation conducive to its commission.

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3. As to the length of time of commission:

a. Instant crime
It refers to crime that is committed in the shortest possible time.
b. Episodic crime
It refers to crime that is committed by series of acts in a lengthy space of time.

4. As to the place or location of the commission:

a. Static crime
It refers to crime that is committed only in one place.
b. Continuing crime
It refers to crime that is committed in several places.

5. As to the use of mental faculty:

a. Rational crime.
It refers to crime that is committed with intent and the offender is in full possession of his sanity.
b. Irrational crime.
It refers to crime that is committed by a person who does not know the nature and quality of
his/her act due the disease of the mind.

6. As to the social status of the offender:

a. White collar crime
It refers to crime that is committed by a person of respectability or belonging to the upper socio
economic class in the course of his/her occupation.
b. Blue collar crime
It refers to crime that is committed by an ordinary criminal to maintain his/her livelihood.

7. As to the standard of living of the criminals:

a. Crime of the upper world
It refers to crime that is committed by a person requiring high degree of skill.
b. Crime of the underworld
It refers to crime that is committed by a person requiring limited ability or skill.

C. Criminal
Who is a Criminal?
In the legal sense, it refers to any person who has been found to have committed a wrongful act
in the course of the standard judicial processes. There must be a final verdict of person's guilt. However,
in the criminology perspective, a person is already considered as criminal the moment that person has
violated a law even without conviction.

What is the legal definition of Criminal Behavior?

It refers to a behavior in violation of the criminal law.... it should be prohibited by a criminal
law. Similarly, it refers to actions that are prohibited by the State and punished under the law.

What is the moral definition of Criminal Behavior?

It refers to an action that may be rewarding to the actor, but that inflicts pain or loss to others.
Criminal Behavior is antisocial behavior.

The Top Risk Factors for Criminal Behavior

1. Family Issues
2. Mental Illness
3. Peer Pressure
4. Socioeconomic Status

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Criminality and Delinquency Criminality

is defined as the breaking of penal or criminal laws while delinquency is defined as behavior that
is illegal immoral or deviant with respect to societal values.

Similarly, a criminal refers to a person who has violated a penal law and has been found guilty of
the crime charged upon observing the standard judicial procedure while a delinquent is a person who
merely committed an act not in conformity with the norms of society.

Classifications of Criminal

1. On the basis of etiology:

a. Acute criminal
It refers to a person who violates criminal law because of the impulse of the moment, fit of
passion or anger or spell of extreme jealousy. This is also known as criminal by passion.
b. Chronic criminal
It refers to a person who acted in consonance with deliberate thinking.

2. On the basis of behavioral system:

a. Ordinary criminal
It refers to a person who engages only on conventional crimes which requires limited skill. The
person lacks organization or planning to avoid arrest and conviction.
b. Organized criminal
It refers to a group of persons who have a high degree of organization to enable them to commit
crimes without being detected and committed to specialized activities which can be operated in large
scale business. Force, violence, intimidation to gain and maintain control over economic activities.
Special types of this include various forms of racketeering, control of gambling, prostitution and
distribution of prohibited drugs.
c. Professional criminal.
It refers to a person who possesses skill or cleverness which enables him/her to successfully
commit a crime. This criminal always escape conviction. A criminal with skill may include committing
the following: pick-pocketing, shoplifting, theft, counterfeiting and others without being detected.

3. On the basis of activities:

a. Professional criminal.
It refers to a person who earn their living through criminal activities.
b. Accidental criminal
It refers to a person who commits crime due to unanticipated circumstances.
c. Habitual criminal
It refers to a person who continue to commit criminal acts for such diverse reasons due to
deficiency of intelligence and lack of self-control.
d. Situational criminal.
It refers to a person who is actually not a criminal, but constantly in trouble with legal authorities
because they commit robberies, larcenies, and embezzlement, which are intermixed with legitimate
economic activities.

4. On the basis of mental attitudes:

a. Active aggressive criminal
It refers to a person who commits crime in an impulsive way due to the aggressive behavior of
the offender.
b. Passive inadequate criminal
It refers to a person who commits crime because he/she is pushed to it by inducement, by reward
or promise without considering its consequence.
c. Socialized delinquent criminal
It refers to a person who has normal behavior, but merely defective in his/her socialization
processes.

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Lesson 3. Schools of Thought

What is School of Thought?

It is also called as intellectual tradition; it is the perspective of a group of people who share
common characteristics of opinion or outlook of a philosophy, discipline, belief, social movement,
economics, cultural movement, or art movement.
In the field of criminology and for purposes of this presentation, the only Schools of Thought are
the Classical and Positivist schools.

A. Classical School
The Classical School is a criminological perspective of the late 1700s and early 1800s that had
its roots in the Enlightenment and that held that humans are rational beings, that crime is the result of the
exercise of free will, and that punishment can be effective in reducing the incidence of crime, as it
negates the pleasure to be derived from crime commission

Definition of Terms Related to the Classical School:

1. Age of Enlightenment (Age of Reason)
It is a social movement that arose during the eighteenth century and that built upon ideas like
empiricism, rationality, free will, humanism, and natural law.
2. Social Contract
It is an Enlightenment-era concept that human beings abandon their natural state of individual
freedom to join together and form society. In the process of forming a social contract, individuals
surrender some freedoms to society as a whole, are obligated to assume responsibilities toward its
citizens and provide for their protection and welfare.
3. Natural Law
It is a philosophical perspective that certain immutable laws are fundamental to human nature
and can be readily ascertained through reason. Human-made laws, in contrast, are said to have been
derived from human experience and history-both of which are subject to continual change.
4. Hedonistic Calculus
It is a belief that behavior holds value to any individual undertaking according to the amount of
pleasure or pain that can be expected to produce for that person. This is also known as Utilitarianism.
5. Natural Rights
It is a right that, according to natural law theorists, individuals retain in the face of government
action and interests.
6. Panopticon
It is a prison design which is a circular building with cells along the circumference, each clearly
visible from central location staffed by guards.
7. Neoclassical Criminology
It is a contemporary version of classical criminology that emphasizes deterrence and retribution,
with reduced emphasis on rehabilitation.
8. General Deterrence
It is a goal of criminal sentencing that seeks to prevent others from committing crime similar to
the one for which a particular offender is being sentenced.
9. Specific Deterrence
It is a goal of criminal sentencing that seeks to prevent a particular offender from engaging in
repeat criminality.
10. Mala In Se
It refers to acts that are thought to be wrong in and of themselves. It refers to felonies that are
prohibited by Revised Penal Code.
11. Mala Prohibita.
It refers to acts that are wrong only because they are prohibited. It refers to offenses that are
prohibited by special penal laws.

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12. Freewill
It refers to the ability of human beings to purposely and deliberately choose to follow a
calculated course of action.

The Classical School Philosophers:

1. Cesare, Marquis of Beccaria -Bonesana.
He is an Italian philosopher and politician known for his Essay on Crimes and Punishments
(Dei delitti e delle pene) in 1746. His Essay is a seminal treatise on legal reform and widely considered
one of the founding texts of Classical Criminology, proposing many reforms to the criminal justice
system such as the following:
a. The prompt administration of clearly prescribed and consistent punishments.
b. Well-publicized laws made by the legislature rather than individual courts or judges.
c. The abolition of torture in prisons.
d. The use of the penal system to deter would-be offenders, rather than simply punishing those
convicted.

The Essay is one of the earliest and most famous works against death penalty. The main reason
put forward against that measure is that the State, by putting people to death, was committing a crime to
punish another one. It also advocated a substantial difference between crime and sin, and was for this
reason put in the List of Banished Books by the Catholic Church in 1766.
The work had a great success in the whole Europe, especially in France and at the court of
Catherine II of Russia. The judiciary reform advocated by Beccaria led to the abolition of death
punishment in the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, the first Italian state taking this measure.

Three Types of Crime by Beccaria

a. Those that threaten the security of the state.
b. Those that injure citizens or their property.
c. Those that run contrary to the social order.

Two Types of Proof by Beccaria

a. Perfect Proof
It is a proof where there is no possibility of innocence.
b. Imperfect Proof
It is a proof where possibility of innocence remained
Note:
Cesare Beccaria was considered as the father of criminal justice system.

2. Jeremy Bentham
Bentham is an English jurist, philosopher, legal and social reformer. He is best known as an early
advocate of utilitarianism and fair treatment of animals that influenced the development of liberalism.
Bentham wrote in his Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation in 1789 that
"nature has placed mankind under the governance of two sovereign masters, pain and pleasure". Also, it
is essentially a philosophy of social control based on the principle of utility or utilitarianism, which
prescribed the greatest happiness for the greatest number. He also contended the following:
a. People have free will to choose how to act.
b. Deterrence is based upon the utilitarian ontological notion of the human being 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.
c. 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.
d. The swifter and more certain the punishment, the more effective it is in deterring criminal
behavior.

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Utilitarianism Principle
The philosophy of utilitarianism was developed by intellectuals who were concerned with the
idea of social contract. Social Contract consisted of doctrine that an individual is only bound to society
by their consent and that through this consent (often implied if the person remains in that society and
doesn't move), society has a reciprocal responsibility to them (such as protecting their life, property and
welfare). The intellectuals are Montesquieu, Voltaire, Rousseau, Beccaria, and Bentham; they all played
vital role in shaping the philosophy of utilitarianism.
The root word in utilitarianism is utility which means useful. Punishment exists to ensure the
continuance of society and to deter people from committing crimes. Deterrence comes, not in trying to
be harsh, but in imposing punishment that is:
a. appropriate (severity);
b. prompt (celerity or swiftness); and
c. inevitable (certainty).
Kinds of Deterrence
a. Specific Deterrence (Individual Deterrence)
This often takes incapacitation (the idea is to make it impossible for an individual to commit
another crime, at least, while they're in prison). Specific deterrence calls for inmates to be closely
guarded and monitored at all times. In fact, Bentham proposed a type of prison system known as the
panopticon design or panopticon prison. The word panopticon means all-seeing eye.

b. General Deterrence (Societal Deterrence)

This is what most people mean when they speak of deterrence. The principle is that others
(potential criminals) would avoid criminal behavior because of the example provided by punishment.
Classical school of thought came about at a time when major reform in penology occurred, with
prisons developed as a form of punishment.

Eleven Types of Punishment by Bentham

a. Capital punishment, or death.
b. Afflictive punishment, which includes whipping and starvation.
c. Indelible punishment, such as branding, amputation, and mutilation.
d. Ignominious punishment, such as public punishment involving use of stocks or pillory.
e. Penitential punishment, whereby an offender might be censured by his or her community.
f. Chronic punishment, such as banishment, exile, and imprisonment.
g. Restrictive punishment, such as license revocation or administrative sanction.
h. Compulsive punishment, which requires an offender to perform a certain action, such as to make
restitution or keep in touch with a probation officer.
i. Pecuniary punishment, involving the use of fines.
j. Quasi-pecuniary punishment, in that the offender is denied services that would otherwise be available
to him or her.
k. Characteristic punishment, such as mandating that prison uniforms be worn by incarcerated
offenders.

Principles of Classical School that are Operative at Present

a. Rationality
It means that human beings have free will, and the actions they undertake are the result of their
choice.
b. Hedonism
It entails that pleasure and pain, or reward and punishment, are the major determinants of choice.
c. Punishment
It signifies that criminal punishment is a deterrent to unlawful behavior, and deterrence is the
best justification for punishment.
d. Due Process
It means that an accused should be presumed innocent until proven otherwise, and an accused
should not be subject to punishment before guilt is lawfully established.

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e. Human Rights
It states that society is made possible by individuals cooperating together. Hence, society owes to
its citizens respect for their rights in the face of government action and for their autonomy insofar as
such autonomy can be secured without endangering others or menacing the greater good.
Note:
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Charles Montesquieu, and Francois Voltaire are also philosophers
under the Classical School. However, it was Beccaria and Bentham who contributed the most.

B. Positivist School
The Positivist School presumed that criminal behavior is caused by internal (subjective or
nature) and external (objective or nurtured) factors outside of the individual's control. The School
introduced Scientific Method and was applied to study human behavior. The School emphasized
Positivism that explains the causes of criminal behavior which include biological, psychological and
social positivism.

Definition of Terms Related to Positivist School:

a. Criminal Anthropology
It states that physical constitution of man has relationship with criminality like the Atavism (born
criminal).
b. Positivism
It refers to the application of scientific techniques to the study of crime and criminals.
c. Biological Positivism
It refers to the belief that criminal behavior is caused by nature; it is within the person which
means that criminal behavior inherited.
d. Psychological Positivism
It refers to the belief that criminal behavior is by psychological factors.
e. Sociological Positivism
It refers to the belief that criminal behavior is caused by social factors or environment. This
means that criminal behavior is learned.
f. Hard Determinism
It refers to the belief that crime results from forces that are beyond the control of an individual.
g. Soft Determinism
It refers to the belief that human behavior is the result of choices and decisions made within a
context of situational constraints and opportunities.

The Positivist School Theorists:

1. Cesare Lombroso
He is an Italian criminologist and founder of the Italian School or Positivist Criminology.
Lombroso rejected the concepts of Classical School, instead, he used ideas drawn from physiognomy,
early eugenics, psychiatry and Social Darwinism. Lombroso's theory of anthropological criminology
essentially stated that criminality is inherited, and that someone born criminal could be identified by
physical defects, which confirmed a criminal as savage, or atavistic.

Lombroso is regarded as the father of criminology, father of modern criminology, or father of scientific
criminology due to his largest contribution to biological positivism. He took a scientific approach,
insisting on empirical evidence, for studying crime.
Also, he was considered as the founder of criminal anthropology who 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, are 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, but more modern research examines genetic characteristics and the
chemistry of nutrition to determine whether there is an effect on violent behavior.

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Three Types of Criminal According to Lombroso

a. Atavistic
It refers to criminal who is considered as born criminal.
b. Insane Criminal
It refers to a person who becomes criminal due to alcoholism, kleptomaniacs, nymphomaniacs,
and child molesters. This person became criminal as a result "of an alteration of the brain, which
completely upsets the person's moral nature."
c. Criminaloid
It refers to a person categorized as habitual criminal, who become so by contact with other
criminals, the abuse of alcohol, or other "distressing circumstances." This category included juridical
criminal, who fall afoul of the law by accident; and the criminal by passion, hot-headed and impulsive
person who commit violent acts when provoked.

The Criminal Man (1876) by Cesare Lombroso

Lombroso conducted an autopsy (Giuseppe Villela) and identified various physical stigmata;
hence, he concluded that those identified numbers of physical stigmata were indicative of the born
criminal or atavistic criminal.
a. Deviation in head size and shape from type common to race and region from which the
criminal came.
b. Asymmetry of the face.
c. Eye defects and peculiarities.
d. Excessive dimensions of the jaw and cheekbones.
e. Ears of unusual size, or occasionally very small, or standing out from the head as to those of a
chimpanzee.
f. Nose twisted, upturned, or flattened in thieves, or aquiline or beak like in murderers, or with a
tip rising like a peak from swollen nostrils.
g. Lips fleshy, swollen, and protruding.
h. Pouches in the cheek like those of some animals.
i. Peculiarities in the plate, such as are found in reptiles, and cleft palate.
j. Chin protruding, or excessively long, or short and flat, as in apes.
k. Abnormal dentition.
l. Abundance, variety, and precocity of wrinkles.
m. Abnormalities of the hair, marked by characteristics of the opposite sex.
n. Defects of the thorax, such as too many or too few ribs, or supernumerary nipples.
o. Inversion of sex characters in the pelvic organs.
p. Excessive length of arms.
q. Supernumerary fingers and toes.
r. Imbalance of the hemisphere of the brain (asymmetry of the cranium).

Summary of Lombroso's Work

a. He consistently emphasized the need for direct study of the individual, utilizing measurements and
statistical methods in anthropological, social, and economic data.
b. He began with the basic assumption of biological nature of human character and behavior, such as:
1.He first conceived of the criminal as a throwback to a more primitive type of brain structure,
and therefore, of behavior;
2.He later modified this to include degeneracy of defectiveness; and
3.He never claimed that the born criminal constituted more than 40% probably less, only about
1/3 of the total criminal population.

c.With successive years of study, discussion, and contact with critics, he modified his theory and
method. He included all kinds of social, economic, and environmental data. Through it all, he always
attempted to be:
1. Objective, in method, often statistical;
2. Positive in the scene of deterministic; and

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3. Faithful to the basic idea of cause as a chain of interrelated events, not the more familiar and
popular doctrine of self determinism of human behavior, to say nothing of the demonistic.

d. He emphasized that criminality or criminal behavior is caused by biological, sociological, and

psychological factors.

2. Enrico Ferri
He was a student of Lombroso who believed that social as well as biological factors played a
role to criminality or criminal behavior. Also, he held the view that criminals should not be held
responsible for the factors causing their criminality were beyond their control.

3. Raffaele Garofalo
He was an Italian jurist and a student of Cesare Lombroso. He also rejected the doctrine of
freewill and supported the position that crime can be understood only if it is studied by scientific
methods. Garofalo mentioned about Natural Crime which refers to offenses violating the two basic
altruistic sentiments common to all people, namely, probity (integrity, honesty) and pity (compassion,
sympathy).
Garofalo believed that crime is an immoral act that is injurious to society. He proposed the law
of adoption that followed the biological principle of Darwin in terms of adoption and the elimination of
those unable to adapt in a kind of social natural selection. Consequently, he suggested the following:
a. Death for those whose criminal acts grew out of a permanent psychological anomaly,
rendering them incapable of social life.
b. Partial elimination or long-time imprisonment for those fit only for the life of nomadic hordes
or primitive tribes.
c. Enforced reparation on the part of those who lack altruistic sentiments, but who have
committed their crimes under the pressure of exceptional circumstances are not likely to do so again.

Table 1. Classical versus Positivist: A Summary

Area Classical School Positivist School
1. Focus The focus is the crime or the The focus is the man.
criminal act.
2.View of Human Nature Hedonistic; free willed rationality, Malleable; determined by
morally responsible for own biological, psychological, and
behavior social environment; no moral
responsibility.
3. View of Justice System Social contract; exists to protect Scientific treatment system to cure
society; due process and concern pathologies and rehabilitate
with civil rights; restrictions on offenders; no concern with civil
system. rights.

4. Form of Law Statutory law; exact Social law; illegal acts defined by
specialization of illegal acts and analogy; scientific experts
sanctions. determine social harm and proper
form of treatment.
5. Purpose of Sentencing Punishment for deterrence; Treatment and reform; sentences
sentences are determinate (fixed are indeterminate (variable length
length). until cured).
6. Purpose of School Reform and humanize the legal Apply the scientific method to the
and penal systems. study of crime and criminality.
7.Criminological Experts Philosophers; social reformers. Scientists; treatment experts
8. Age Existed Both existed Enlightenment

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C. Chicago School
The Chicago School arose in the early twentieth century, through the work of Robert Ezra
Park, Ernest Burgess, and other urban sociologists at University of Chicago. In the 1920s, Park and
Burgess identified five concentric zones that often exist as cities grow, including the "zone in transition"
which was identified as most volatile and subject to disorder.
Relative thereto, in the 1940s, 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 disorganization, which
reduces the ability of these institutions to control behavior and creates an environment ripe for deviant
behavior.
The Chicago School is also known as Ecological School because it takes into account
psychological and environmental factors in seeking to determine the causes of deviant behavior.

The Chicago School notes that human beings adapt to their environment. A destructive social
environment, such as community poverty, for instance, leads to a breakdown in the social structure. This
environment both hampers the ability of a society to deal effectively with the crime that results and
fosters a criminal mentality in the community that drives crime within it.

Note:
The Chicago School is just an offshoot of Positivist School since its concept or framework was
based on social positivism by Lombroso. It was called as Chicago School because the researchers or
sociologists who conducted the studies were professors of the University of Chicago. Hence, the only
Schools of Thought that served as the foundation of criminology are the Classical and Positivist
Schools.

References: The Basics of Criminology

Author: Jesster P. Eduardo, Ph. D
2020

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