Introduction to Criminology

Presented by
Md. Ahsan Kabir
Assistant Professor
Department of Law and Justice
Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University
 What is crime?

 What constitutes crime varies from culture to

culture, and from time to time.
 It is a constant phenomenon changing with the
social change.
 Some people regard the definitional problem
as the most important task in criminology.
 Here's a list of some of the most common
definitional approaches:
 Cont..
 Crime is an act of commission or omission which is harmful to the society
in general.
 But all acts tending to prejudice the community are not ‘crime’ unless they
are punishable by law.
 Blackstone- Crime is an act committed or omitted in violation of public
law either forbidding or committing it.
 Maxim- Ignortia Juris Niminem means Ignorance of law is no excuse.
 Blacks Law Dictionary (8th Edition)- An act that the law makes
punishable..
 S. 40 of PC, 1860- the word "offence" denotes a thing made punishable by
this Code.
 Actus rea + Mens rea = Crime
Legalistic

 -- In this view, crime is defined as behavior

that violates the criminal code. It’s by far the
most common approach in criminology, and it
makes the field inherently conservative. It's
associated with the arguments made in 1947
by Paul Tappan ("Who is the Criminal?"
American Sociological Review 12,1, 96-102)
Conduct norms
 -- In this view, popularized by a 1938 book written by
Thorstein Sellin (Culture Conflict and Crime : Social
Science Research Council), crime is just one form of
conduct norm violations. Every group one belongs to,
regardless of political boundaries, regardless of embodiment
in law, has conduct norms. Norms are the unspoken rules of
right (normal) and wrong (abnormal) that are contained in
custom, tradition, ethics, religion, family, and other social
institutions. The importance of the Sellin definition is that it
frees criminologists as scientists to define their own subject
matter.
Social harm

 -- Criminologists adhering to this sense (like

Sutherland, ) tend to believe that crime is any
socially harmful act or analogous social injury,
whether legally permissible or not. In this
view, crime includes untimely death, illness or
disease, deprivation of food, shelter, clothing,
medical care, racism, sexism, and tobacco, etc.
 Human rights violation

 --This view is most closely associated with the

arguments made by Herman and Julia (1975,
"Defenders of Order or Guardians of Human Rights"
in Critical Criminology, ed. by Ian Taylor, Paul
Walton & Jock Young, pp. 113-46, London, Routledge
& Kegan Paul) although there are other
influences. For the Schwendinger, not only anything
that causes social injury (imperialism, sexism, racism,
poverty) is crime, but also anything that towards the
right to a dignified human existence (freedom of
movement, free speech, a good education,
employment, the right to unionize, life, liberty,
happiness, and so on).
 Characteristics of Crime:
1. External Consequences: Crime always have a harmful impact on
society may it be social, personal, emotional or mental
2. Act (Actus Rea): There should be an act or omission to constitute a
crime. Only intention or mens rea may not constitute a crime unless
it is followed by some external or overt act.
3. Guilty Mind (Mens rea): Intention is needed.
Maxim: Actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea. Means- An act alone
done not constitute a crime unless there is a guilty mind.
4. Forbidden / Prohibited by Law
5. Punishment: The act in order to constitute a crime should not only
be prohibited by the law but also be punishable by the State.
 Cont….
 According to Sutherland crime has 7 interrelated and overlapping
phenomenon:
1. Before a behavior can be called crime there must be some external
consequences or “harm”. A crime has a harmful impact on social interests.
2. that harm must be legally forbidden
3. there must be “conduct”. i. e. there must be an intentional or reckless action
or inaction which brings the harmful consequences. One who is physically
forced to pull the trigger of a gun does not commit murder, even if
someone dies from the bullet
4. mens rea or “criminal intent” must be there.
5. there must be concurrence of mens rea and conduct.
6. there must be causal relationship between voluntary misconduct and
forbidden ham.
7. there must be legally prescribed punishment.
 DIFFERENCES BETWEEN CRIMINOLOGY AND
CRIMINAL JUSTICE

1. Criminology is an older, larger field of study than

criminal justice. Criminology adheres to the natural
science model, trying to be like Biology, Chemistry,
or Physics.
 Criminal justice adheres to the social science model,
and is more receptive to disciplines like business, the
arts, and humanities.
2. Criminology borrows heavily from philosophy,
psychology and sociology.
 Criminal justice borrows heavily from administrative
public policy and sciences like, police science or
investigative science.
Characteristics of criminal Law
 The criminal Law is defined as a body of specific rules
regarding human conduct
 which have been promulgated by political authority,
 which apply uniformly to all members of the classes to which
the rules refer, and
 which are enforced by punishment administered by the society
✓ The characteristics which distinguish this body of rules
regarding human conduct from other rules are as follows:
 Politicality
 Specificity
 uniformity
 penal sanction
Criminology: Definition and Origin
 Criminology is the scientific study of the non-legal aspects of crime
 It is the study of the causation of crime
 A method to control the crime
 Raffaele Garofalo- Italian Law Professor- was the first to coin the term
criminology in 1885
 In Italic term- Crimonologia
 Sutherland (1934)- Criminology is the body of knowledge regarding crime as a
social phenomenon.
 Mannheim- Criminology involves the study of crime, the forms of crime, their
extent and the causative factors responsible for them.
 Criminology is a discipline which concentrates upon forms of crime, causes
and definition of crime, social reaction to criminal activity and the study of
victims
 Cont..
 Black- The study of crime and criminal punishment
as social phenomena. The study of the causes of
crime and the treatment of offenders.
 Illustrated Oxford Dictionary- The scientific study of
the crime.
 Emerging in the 18th century
 Classical school focuses on crime
 Positive school has its origin in the 19th and 20th
century and studies criminal
 Importance of the Study of Criminology:

1. To know the society, crime, crime index, criminals and criminality in

country
2. To take the mechanism to avoid the crime
3. To understand the moral notion Charters, laws, treaties
4. Alternatives to the prison system relating to prisoner
5. Separate judicial system..(est. Juvenile Court)
6. For reformative approaches towards the offender
7. To bring development in the administration of justice
8. For making laws
9. Helpful for formulation and rational and humane laws regarding
crime and punishment
Nature and Scope of Criminology:
 Criminology in its narrower sense, studies forms and
extents of crimes and the factors responsible for criminality
 In its wider sense, criminology includes method of
punishment, prevention and correction of criminals and
study of victimology
 Penology, prevention and correction may be brought within
the horizon of criminology, if scientific studies, analysis,
experiments and interpretations employed in these areas.
 For change the human behavior
 In recent time, it works for the environment and also for the
world peace
 Cont…
 It has great interest in finding out the causes and
suggesting the ways of prevention of genocide of wars of
crime, crime against humanity and war crimes
 Great concern about civil war, crimes related to ethnicity
and natural disaster
 In the threshold of 21 century the int’l terrorism and state
sponsored terrorism make the criminologists aware of the
volatile global situation
 Now, criminology has wide jurisdiction to study the
crime in its int’l context.
 Cont…

Criminology
I
Theoretical/ Pure Criminology Applied/ Practical
Criminology
1. Criminal Anthropology
2. Criminal Sociology
3. Criminal Psychology
4. Criminal Psycho-neuro Pathology
5. Penology
Thank You