Mindoro State College of Agriculture

and Technology- Bongabong Campus

Labasan, Bongabong, Oriental Mindoro
`

COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE EDUCATION

MODULE
IN
CRIM 001- INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINOLOGY
(Week 3-5)

Bachelor of Science in Criminology

First Year

Prepared by:

RAYMOND F. TALADTAD

Module II
Theories of Crime

Learning Outcomes:
At the end of this module, the student should be able to:
a. Explain the define “Freewill Doctrine” of the Classical School of Criminology;
b. Appreciate the approaches in studying criminology;
c. Recognize the contribution of the Positivist School of Criminology;
d. Value the importance of having a theory in explaining criminality;
e. Develop a theoretical concept of crime causation based on their study on the many theories of crimes.

UNIT I
APPROACHES IN THE STUDY OF CRIMINOLOGY

Subjective Approaches

It deals mainly on the biological explanation of crimes, focused on the forms of abnormalities that exist
in the individual criminal before, during and after the commission of the crime (Tadio, 1999). Included under this
approach are:

1. Anthropological Approach- the study of the physical characteristics of an individual offender with
non-offenders in the attempt to discover differences covering criminal behavior (Hooton).
2. Medical Approach- the application of medical examinations on the individual criminal explain the
mental and physical condition of the individual prior and after the commission of the crime (Positivist).
3. Biological Approach- the evaluation of genetic influences on criminal behavior. It is noted that
heredity is one force pushing the criminal to the crime (Positivist).
4. Physiological Approach- the study of the nature of human beings concerning his physical that the
deprivation of the physical body on the basic needs is an important determiner of the commission of
the crime (Maslow).
5. Psychological Approach- it is concerned about the deprivation of the psychological needs of man,
which constitute the development of deviations of normal behavior resulting to unpleasant emotions
(Freud, Maslow).
6. Psychiatric Approach- the explanation of crime through diagnosis of mental diseases as a cause of
the criminal behavior (Positivist).
7. Psychoanalytical Approach- the explanation of crimes based on the Freudian Theory, which traces
behavior as the deviation of the repression of the basic drives (Freud).

Objective Approaches

The objective approaches deal with the study of groups, social processes and institutions as influences
to behavior. They are primarily derived from the social sciences (Tradio, 1999). Under these approaches are:
1. Geographic Approach- this approach considers topography, natural resources, geographical
location, and climate lead an individual to commit crime (Quetelet).
2. Ecological Approach- it is concerned with the biotic grouping of men resulting in migration,
competition, social discrimination, division of labor and social conflict as factor of crime (ParK).
3. Economic Approach- it deals with the explanation of crime concerning financial security of
inadequacy and other necessities to support life as factors to criminality (Merton).
4. Socio-Cultural Approach- those that focus on institutions, economic, financial, education, political,
and religious influences to crime (Cohen).

Contemporary Approaches

Modern days put emphasis on scientific modes of explaining crime and criminal behavior. This
approach focuses on the psychoanalytical, psychiatric, sociological explanations of crime in an integrated
theory- an explanatory perspective that merges concepts drawn from different sources (Schmalleger, 1997).

THE IMPORTANCE OF A THEORY

 A theory is any system of ideas arranged in rational order that produce general principles which
increase our understanding and explanations.

The general principles in a theory are derived from, and representative, of particular facts, but those
principles are not dependent upon the particular thing to be explained. (Kaplan, 1964).

“This means that theories have a life of their own in the ever-increasing generalities they provide.
Theories are like children. Someone gives birth to them, and they go out into the world and no longer belong to
anyone. Some of them become ideologies (get used for political purposes) and other become endless puzzles
that scientists work on for centuries”.

Ideally, the theory should:

a. Focus attention on a particular phenomenon,

b. Fit the known facts about a particular phenomenon;
c. Contribute to scientific paradigms;
d. Provide a way it can be tested or falsified;
e. Establish boundaries and domains by which laws and truth statements can be generalized; and
f. Enable propositions which can be added or compared to those of other theories.

Theory is the foundation of criminology and of criminal justice, and we study theory to know why we
are doing what we do (Bohm, 1985).

Theory without research is not science. All research must be based on theory. People who are
uninterested in theory choosing to move blindly through like, or in the case of criminal justice, intervene in
people’s lives with only vague notions about why they are doing what they are doing.

THE EARLY BEGINNINGS

Demonological Theory

Before the development of more scientific theories of criminal behavior, one of the most popular
explanations was Demonology (Hagan, 1990).
According to this explanation individuals were thought to be possessed by good or evil spirits, which
caused good or evil behavior. The theory maintains that criminal behavior was believed to be the result of evil
spirits and demons something of natural force that controls his/her behavior. Centuries ago, Guilt and
innocence were established by a variety of procedure that presumably called froth the supernatural allies of the
accused. The accused were innocent if they could survive an ordeal, or if miraculous signs appeared. They
were guilty if they died at stake, or if omens were associated with them (Bartol, 1995). Harsh punishment were
also given.

THE PRE-TWENTIETH CENTURY (18th C- 1738-1798)

In the eighteenth century, criminological literature, whether psychological, sociological, or psychiatric in

bent, has traditionally been divided into three broad schools of thought about the causes of crime: the Classical,
Neo- Classical and the Positivist Schools of Criminology.

THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL

The Classical School of Criminology is a broad label for a group of thinkers of crime and punishment in
the 18th and early 19th centuries. Its most prominent members, Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham, shared
the idea that criminal behavior could be understood and controlled as an outcome of a “human nature” shared
by all of us. Human beings were believed to be hedonistic, acting in terms of their own self-interest, but rational,
capable of considering which course of action was really in their self-interest. A well-ordered state, therefore,
would construct laws and punishments in such a way that people would understand peaceful and non-criminal
actions to be in their self-interest- through strategies of punishment based on deterrence.
Major Principles of the Classical Schools

 Human beings are fundamentally rational, and most human behavior is the result of free will coupled
with rational choice.
 Pain and pleasure are the two central determinants of human behavior.
 Punishment, a necessary evil, is sometimes required to deter law violators and to serve as an example
to others who would also violate the law.
 The root principles of right and wrong are inherent in the nature of things, and cannot be denied.
 Society exist to provide benefits to individuals which they would not receive in isolation.
 When men and women band together for the protection offered by society, they forfeit some of the
benefits which accrue from living in isolation.
 Certain key rights of individuals are inherent in the nature of things, and governments which
contravene those rights should be disbanded.
 Crime disparages the quality of the band that exists between individuals and society, and is therefore
an immoral form of behavior.

The Reformation of Law

The classical school considered in tis thoughts the reformation of the system of law. It was seen that
its mechanisms of enforcement and the forms of punishment used in the eighteenth century were primitive and
inconsistent. Judges were not professionally trained so many of their decisions were unsatisfactory being the
product of incompetence, capriciousness, corruption or political manipulation. The use of torture to extract
confessions and a wide range of cruel punishments such as whipping, mutilation and public executions were
common place. A need for legal rationality and fairness was identified and found an audience among the
emerging middle classes whose economic interests lay in providing better systems for supporting national and
international trade.

Prominent Members of the Classical School

1. CESARE, Marquis de BECCARIA

- Simply known as Cesare Beccaria was an Italian philosopher and economist best known for his
treatise On Crimes and Punishments. He was born on March 15, 1738 in Milan Italy. He
received a Jesuit education, and achieve his degree in 1758.
- Beccaria died in 1794 but he is remembered today as a “Father of the Classical Criminal
Theory”, and as a literally champion of the cause of humanity. His treatise, “On Crimes and
Punishments” had a large and lasting impact on the American Constitution, the Bill of Rights which
subsequently influenced our own criminal justice system.

Beccaria’s Theory

a. Freewill- Beccaria, like other classical theorist, believe that all individuals have freewill and make
choices on that freewill.
b. Rationality- which means that all individuals rationally look out for their own personal satisfaction. This
is key to the relationship between laws and crime. While individuals will rationally look for their best
interest, and this might entails deviant acts and the law, which goal is to preserve the social contract,
will try to stop deviant acts.
c. Manipulability- which means that universally shared human motive of rational self-interest makes
human action predictable, generalable and controllable.

On the Reformation of Criminal Law

Beccaria gave many examples of how the system should work. He gives the particular principles that a
just government would use to maintain the security of the society. He discussed about arrests, court, hearings,
detention, prison, death penalty, specific crimes and crime prevention. Some rules that he proposed are:

1. Laws must be set by legislators;

2. Legislators cannot judge persons;
3. Judges in criminal cases cannot interpret the laws, laws must be clear and in need of no interpretation;
4. Offenders must be judged by its peers (half of the victim half of the criminal);
5. Right of the criminal to refuse some jurors;
6. No secret accusation by government; and
 7. Judges should be an impartial searcher of truths and judges should not become part of the treasury so
that they do not look into criminals to make money.

He also stressed the importance of laws being clear and known because a rational person cannot make a
rational choice not to commit an act if he or she does not know that the act is prohibited. He stated that
“when the number of those who can understand the sacred code of laws and hold it in their hands
increases, the frequency of crimes will be found to decrease, for undoubtedly ignorance and uncertainly of
punishments add much to the eloquence of the passions”.

On the Principles of Human Rights

Beccaria gave rules and principles for the rights of the offender once arrested. Some of these include:

1. Imprisonment before conviction is important and accepted; certainty is demanded if they deserve
punishment.
2. Laws should forbid leading or suggestive questions during trial.
3. No torture to receive a confession and the right for the criminal to defend himself if certainty is found,
but not so long as to make the punishment not prompt.
4. If an individual is doing to be imprisoned before the trial the offenders of harsh crimes should be have
less time in trial but more time in prison if found guilty.
5. In an individual is imprisoned for a less harsh crime, they should be afforded longer time in trial but
less time in prison after found guilty. This is because the offender of the harsh crime is more likely to
be found not guilty, and thus the time imprisoned while in trial should be minimized.

When it comes to torture to obtain a confession, Beccaria had very strong words against this practice. He
believes that torture to obtain a confession makes an innocent man suffer a punishment he did not deserve or
was not yet proved. Torture also makes a weak person more likely to confess to a crime than a strong person,
without consideration of guilt. The confession from torture should not be valid because an innocent man might
confess just to stop torture, and a person might implicate innocent accomplices. Confessions obtained with
torture might make a weak innocent individual suffers punishment he did not deserve, and it might make a
strong, guilty man by not confessing be rewarded for committing a crime.

On the Principles of Punishment

Beccaria stated that, “the certainty of a punishment, even if it be moderate, will always make a
stronger impression than the fear of another which is more terrible but combined with the hope of impunity”. To
build the connection between the crime and the punishment it is essential that the punishment is prompt, “the
more promptly and the more closely punishment follow upon the commission of a crime, the more just and
useful will it be”.

Other principles of punishments are written in the treatise are:

1. There should be a set amount of incarceration for each crime.

2. Individuals should be punished for attempting to commit a crime.
3. Accomplices working together on a crime should be punished equally, harsher the crime the harsher
the punishment.
4. Crimes against persons should be corporal and crimes of theft should be fine.

Beccaria was a strong opponent to the death penalty, for he felt that a laborious loss of liberty was more
harsh that a quick death. He also stated about the death penalty that, “it seems to me absurd that the laws,
which are an expression of the public will, which detest and punish homicide, should themselves commit it, and
that to deter citizens from murder they order a public one”. He felt that the death penalty, while cruel and
excessive, it also was an ineffective measure to reduce or punish crime.

On the Principles of Crime Prevention

Beccaria wrote a short chapter in his “On Crimes and Punishments” on preventing crime because he
thought that preventing crime was better than punishing them. He gave nine principles that need to be in place
in order to effectively prevent crime. To prevent crime a society must:

1. Make sure laws are clear and simple;

2. Make sure that the entire nation is united in defense
 3. Laws not against classes of men, but of men
4. Men must fear laws and nothing else
5. Certainty of outcome of crime
6. Member of society must have knowledge because enlightenment accompanies liberty
7. Reward virtue
8. Perfect education
9. Direct the interest of the magistracy as a whole to observe the law rather than corruption of the laws.

2. JEREMY BENTHAM

- An English philosopher and lawyer best known for the theory of Utilitarianism. Thus, given the
fame as “Father of Utilitarianism”. He was born in London on February 15, 1748 and lived at
Queen’s Square Place in Westminster.

The Theory of Utilitarianism is a philosophy which states that a moral act is one which produces the greatest
happiness for the greatest number of people.

- He claimed that it was possible to decide by scientific means what was morally justifiable by
applying the principle of utility.
- He said that actions were right if they tended to produce “greatest happiness for the greatest
number of people”.
- He planned the “panopticon” prison, a design which allows a watchman to observe (-opticon) all
(pan-) inmates of an institution without them being able to tell whether or not they are being
watched.

Bentham’s Advocacies

Bentham was a strong advocate of:

1. individual and economic freedom,
2. the separation of church and state,
3. freedom of expression,
4. equal rights for women,
5. the right to divorce,
6. the decriminalizing of homosexual acts.
7. Abolition of slavery and death penalty, and
8. The abolition of physical punishment including that of children.

THE NEO- CLASSICAL SCHOOL

The Neo-Classical school maintains the following:

1. People must be protected from actions that would kill them, take their liberty and violate their privacy.
They must never be arbitrarily arrested and must always be informed of the reason for imprisonment.
2. Innocence must be presumed until proved guilty.
3. People have a right to reasonable bail and trial by jury.
4. It accepts mitigating circumstances. It contends that people are allowed conditional sentences and
alternative forms of incapacitation.
5. It holds that people are more often deterred from committing a crime when it is more certain that they
will be caught, rather than due to the severity of the punishment.
6. It has less of a punitive tone and seeks to rehabilitate people that to punish them.

THE POSITIVIST OR ITALIAN SCHOOL (1838-1909)

The term “positivism” refers to a method of analysis based on the collection of observable scientific
facts. Its aim is to explain and most importantly predict the way facts occur in uniform patterns. Positivism is the
basis of most natural sciences, and positivist criminology is the application of positivist methods to the study of
people.
 Sometimes it is called the Italian School of Thought because of its composition which are mostly
Italians who agreed that in the study of crime the emphasis should be on scientific treatment of the criminal, not
on the penalties to be imposed after conviction.

The Positivist School of Thought maintains the following:

1. That crime as any other act is a natural phenomenon and is comparable to disasters or calamity.
2. That crime as a social and moral phenomenon which cannot be treated and checked by the imposition
of punishment but rather rehabilitation or the enforcement of individual measures.
3. That the most serious crimes were committed by individuals who were “primitive” or “atavistics” that
is, who failed to evolve to a fully human and civilized state.
4. That crime resulted not from what criminals have in common with other in society, but from their
distinctive physical or mental defects.

Other than the above ideas, some of the defining features of the positivist school include:

1. The demand for facts, for scientific proof (determinism)

2. There are body and mind differences between people (of these, the mens rea, or reasons for
committing crime are important)
3. Punishment should fit the individual criminal not the crime (indeterminate sentencing, disparate
sentencing, parole)
4. The criminal justice system should be guided by scientific experts (rule by scientific elite, technocracy)
5. Criminals can be treated, rehabilitated, or corrected (if not, then they are incurable and should be put
to death).

THE POSITIVIST TRIO

CESARE LOMBROSO and his two students, ENRICO FERRI and RAFAELE GAROFALO were the
primary personalities in the positivist school of thought.

Cesare Lombroso (1836-1909) - An Italian university professor and criminologist,

born on November 6, 1835, in Verona, who became popular for his studies and
theories in the field of Characterology, or the relation between mental and physical
characteristics of a person.

Lombroso is the founder of the Positivist school of thought and commonly

considered today as the “Father of Modern Criminology”.

He received a degree in in medicine from the University of Pavia in 1858 and a

degree in surgery from the University of Genoa in 1859. At various times he was an
army physician and in charge of the insane at several hospitals, but worked mainly as a professor at the
University of Turin in the area of legal medicine and public hygiene, 1876; psychiatry and clinical psychiatry,
1896; and criminal anthropology, 1906.

Lombroso was influenced by Auguste Comte (founder of sociology and positivism); Charles Darwin;
Benedict Morel, the French Alienist who developed a theory of degeneracy; Bartolomeo Panizza, a
comparative anatomist; Carl Rokitanski, a pathologist; and Enrico Ferri, his principal younger colleague, who
coined and suggested to him the term “the born criminal”.

Classification of Criminals by Lombroso

1. The Born Criminal- those that had pathological symptoms common with imbecile and the epileptic.
He argued that if criminal behavior is inherited then the “born criminal” could be distinguished by
associated physical characteristics such as:
a. Large jaws, forward projection of jaw
b. Low sloping forehead
 c. High cheekbones
d. Flattened or upturned nose
e. Handle-shaped ears
f. Hawk-like noses or fleshy lips
g. Hard shifty eyes
h. Scanty beard or baldness
i. Insensitivity to pain
j. Long arms relative to lower limbs

2. The Insane Criminal- those who commit crime due to abnormalities or psychological disorders. This
criminal type includes the alcoholic, kleptomaniac, nymphomaniac, child molester and the hysterical.

3. The Criminoloid- one who commits crime due to less physical stamina/self-control. A criminal type
qualitatively similar to the born who had become a criminal more from precipitating external factors that
n from predisposing internal ones.

4. The Occasional Criminal- one who commits crime due to insignificant reasons that pushed them to
do on a given occasion.

5. The Pseudo-Criminal- one who kill in self-defense.

6. The Criminal by Passion- individuals who are easily influenced by great emotions like fit of anger.

Enrico Ferri (1856-1929) was best-known Lombroso’s associate. Although he

agreed with Lombroso on the biological bases of criminal behavior, his interest in
socialism led him to recognize the importance of social, economic, and political
determinants of crime.

He was an Italian criminologist and socialist. He worked on the social and economic
factors to crimes. He authored Criminal Sociology published in 1884 which
influenced much of Argentina’s penal code of 1921.

Ferri was born in Lombardy in 1856, and worked first as a lecturer and later
as a professor of Criminal law, having spent time as a student of Cesare Lombroso. His research led to
postulating theories for crime prevention methods to be the mainstay of law enforcement, as opposed to
punishment of criminals after their crimes had taken place. He became one among the founder of the positivist
school but more focused on psychological and social positivism as opposed to the biological positivism of
Lombroso.

Ferri was also instrumental in formulating the concept of “social defense” as a justification for
punishment. This theory of punishment assets that its purpose is not to deter or to rehabilitate, for how could
behavior, not based, on rational calculus be deterred, and how could born criminals be rehabilitated? He
asserted that the only reasonable rationale for punishing offenders is to incapacitate them for as long as
possible so that they no longer posed a threat to the peace and security of society. He was also an ardent
proponent of measures to prevent crime among “occasional criminals” through social reform, and of effort to
rehabilitate them.

Ferri’s Classification of Criminals

1. The born or instinctive criminal- who carries from birth, through unfortunate heredity from his
progenitors, a reduced resistance to criminal stimuli and also an evident and precocious propensity to
crime.

2. The insane criminal- affected by a clinically identified mental disease or by a neuro-psychopathic

condition which groups him with mentally diseased.

3. The passional criminal- who, in two varieties, the criminal through passion( a prolonged and chronic
mental state), or through emotion ( explosive and unexpected mental state), represents a type at the
opposite pole from the criminal due to congenital tendencies.
 4. The occasional criminal- who constitutes the majority of lawbreakers and is the product of family and
social milieu more than that of abnormal personal physio-mental conditions.

5. The habitual criminal- or the criminal by acquired habit, who is mostly a product of the social
environment in which, due to abandonment of his family, lack of education, poverty, and bad
companions, and already in his childhood begins as an occasional offender.

RAFFAELE GAROFALO (1852-1934), born of Italian Nobility in Naples in 1852.

He was magistrate and professor of law and was Lombroso’s student.

Like Lombroso and Ferri, he rejected the doctrine of free will and supported the
position that the only way to understand crime was to study it by scientific methods.

Influenced by the Lombroso’s theory of atavistic stigmata (man’s inferior/

animalistic behavior), he traced the roots of criminal behavior not to physical
features but to their psychological equivalents, which he called “moral
anomalies”.

He attempted to formulate a sociological definition of crime that would designate those acts which can
be repressed by punishment. These constituted “Natural Crime”- that conduct that would offend the society’s
basic altruistic sentiments common to all people, namely: probity (revulsion against the voluntary infliction of
suffering on others) and pity (respect for property rights of others). Crime is an immoral act that is injurious to
society. This was more of a psychological orientation that Lombroso’s physical- type anthropology.

Garofalo advanced the concept of psychic or moral anomaly. That is, he believed that the true criminal
is abnormal and “lacks a proper development of altruistic sensibilities. This lack or deficiency is not simply the
product of circumstance or environmental conditioning but has an organic basis”.

Significantly, Garofalo suggested the following:

1. Death for those whose criminal acts grew out of a permanent psychological anomaly, rendering them
incapable of social life.
2. Partial elimination or long time imprisonment for those fit only for the life of nomadic hordes or primitive
tribes and
3. Enforced reparation on the part of those who lack altruistic sentiments but who have committed their
crimes under the pressure of exceptional circumstances is not likely to do so again.

Types of Criminals by Garofalo

1. Murderers- those who are satisfied from vengeance/revenge.

2. Violent Criminals- those who commit very serious crimes.
3. Deficient Criminals- those who commit crime against property.
4. Lascivious Criminals- those who commit crime against chastity.

CLASSICAL versus POSITIVIST CRIMINOLOGY

CLASSICAL SCHOOL POSITIVIST SCHOOL

a. Emphasis on agency and personal free will a. Emphasis on structure and circumstances
(Free will doctrine) (Doctrine of determinism)
b. Focuses on crime deterrence and b. Focuses on the causal factors associated
punishment (Determinate Sentence) with offending (Indeterminate Sentence)
c. Reformation through punishment of c. Reformation through correction of criminals
criminals
d. Enduring influence on the criminal justice d. Enduring influence on research and
system especially punishment rehabilitation
THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY

This is the period of Psychological Criminology and the Rise of the Sociological Perspective on
crimes and criminals. This era was a shift of the blame for crimes on human behavior and the social and
environmental circumstances.

Sigmund Freud (May 6, 1856 – September 23, 1939), was an Austrian neurologist
and psychiatrist who founded the Psychoanalytic School of Psychology. In
criminology, he is best known for his Psychoanalytic Theory.

Psychoanalytic criminology is a method of studying crime and criminal behavior

that draws form psychoanalysis theory of Freud. It examines the personality and
the psyche of a person (particularly the unconscious) for motive in crime. Other
areas of interest in this perspective are the fear of crime and the act of punishment.
According to this theory, criminal behavior is attributed to maladjustment and
dysfunctional personality.

Psychoanalysis is used to refer to many aspects of Freud’s work and research, including Freudian
therapy and the research methodology he used to develop his theories. Freud relied heavily upon his
observations and case studies of his patients when he formed his theory of personality development.

Under this theory, the mind is divided into two main parts: the conscious mind- includes everything
that we are aware of. This is the aspect of our mental processing that we can think and talk about rationally and
the unconscious mind- a reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that outside of our conscious
awareness. Most of the contents of the unconscious are unacceptable or unpleasant, such as feelings of pain,
anxiety, or conflict.

Elements of Personality according to Freud

There are three elements of personality based on Freud’s Psychoanalytic, known as the id, the ego,
and the superego that are working together to create a complex human behavior.

1. The Id- is the only component of personality that is present from birth. This aspect of personality is
entirely unconscious and includes of the instinctive and primitive behaviors.

The id is driven by the pleasure principle, which strives for immediate gratification of all desires, wants,
and needs. If these needs are not satisfied immediately, the result is a state anxiety or tension. Also, if
we were ruled entirely by pleasure, we might find ourselves grabbing things we want out of other
people’s hands to satisfy our own cravings. This sort of behavior would be disruptive and socially
unacceptable.

2. The Ego- is the component of personality that is responsible for dealing with reality. According to
Freud the ego develops from the id and ensures that the impulses of the id can be expressed in a
manner acceptable in the real world. The ego functions in both the conscious, preconscious, and
unconscious mind.

The ego operates based on the reality principle, which strives to satisfy the id’s desires in realistic and
socially appropriate ways. The reality principle weighs the costs and benefits of an action before
deciding to act upon or abandon impulses. In many cases, the id’s impulses can be satisfied through a
process of delayed gratification, the ego will eventually allow the behavior, but only at the appropriate
time and place.

The ego also discharges tension created by unmet impulses through the secondary process, in which
the ego tries to find an object in the real world that matches the mental image created by the id’s
primary process.

3. The Superego- the last component of personality to develop is the superego. The superego is the
aspect of personality that holds all of our internalized moral standards and ideals that we acquire
from both parents and society- our sense of right and wrong. The superego and provides guidelines for
making judgments.
 The superego acts to perfect and civilize our behavior. It works to suppress all unacceptable urges of
the id and struggles to make the ego act upon idealistic standards rather that upon realistic principles.
The superego is present in the conscious, preconscious, and unconscious.

Psychoanalytical Theory of Crime

Sigmund Freud hypothesized that the most common element that contributed to criminal behavior
include faulty identification of a child with his or her parents. The improperly socialized child may develop a
personality disturbance that causes her or him to direct antisocial impulses inward or outward. The child who
directs them outward becomes a criminal, and the child that directs them inward becomes neurotic.
Furthermore, he maintains that:

1. Criminal behavior is a form neurosis, that criminality may result from an overactive conscience.
2. Crime is the result of the compulsive need for punishment to alleviate guilt and anxiety.
3. Criminal behavior is a means of obtaining gratification of need
4. Criminal conducts represent a displaced hostility. Criminality is essentially a representation of
psychological conflict.

David Emile Durkheim, was a French sociologist, born in France in 1858. He

studied in Paris and taught sociology at the University of Bordeaux and Sorbonne
in Paris, France. In the field of criminology, he was famous for his work on the
“Anomie Theory”.

The Anomie Theory focused on the sociological point of the positivist school which
explains that the absence of norms in a society provides a setting conductive to
crimes and other anti-social acts. Durkheim used the term anomie to describe the
lack of social regulation in modern societies as one manner that could elevate
higher suicide rates. He believed that crime was not only normal in any society, but
was also functional. It was normal because no society existed in which some level of crime was not evident, and
functional as it served to reinforce social norms provided the raw material for social change and provide a kind
of “safety valve” for social discontent, wherein people can simply disobey the law, rather than seeking to change
it.

Durkheim’s view on crime was a departure from conventional notions. He believed that crime is
“bound up with the fundamental conditions of all social life” and serves a social function. He stated that crime
implies, “not only that the way remains open to necessary change, but that in certain cases it directly proposes
these changes, crime [can thus be] a useful prelude to reforms”. In this sense he saw crime as being able to
release certain social tensions and so have a cleansing or purging effect in society.

Durkheim proposed the following principles:

1. Crime is a natural thing in the society,

2. The concept of wrong is necessary to give meaning to right,
3. Crime help society for changes- it means that a society to be flexible to permit positive deviation must
permit negative deviations as well.

Robert Ezra Park was an American sociologist, born on February 14, 1864,
Pennsylvania. He is a major contributor in the field of American sociology, however,
he is best known for his Human Ecology Theory.

The Human Ecology Theory is the study of the interrelationship of people and their
environment, a way of looking at the interactions of humans with their environments
and considering this relationship as a system. The biological, social, and physical
aspects of the people are considered within the context of their environments. In
this context, the human created environments affect our behavior, and how
individuals and families in turn, influence these environments. Thus, in this
perspective, the person and the environment are viewed as being interconnected in an active process of mutual
influence and change.
 Human Ecology Theory maintains that crime is a function of social change that occurs along with
environmental change. It also maintains that the isolation, segregation, competition, conflict, social contract,
interaction and social hierarchy of people are the major influences of criminal behavior and crimes.

Edwin H. Sutherland was an American Sociologist, born on August 13, 1883,

Nebraska, United States, and died in 1950.

He is best known for his Differential Association Theory (DAT) and for defining
white-collar crimes.

Sutherland has been referred to as “the most important criminologist of the

twentieth century” because his explanation about crime and criminal behavior can
be seen as a corrected extension of social perspective. For this reason, he was
famous as the “Dean of Modern Criminology”.

Sutherland rejected biological determinism and the extreme individualism of psychiatry, as well as
economic explanations of crime. His research for an alternative understanding of crime led to the development
of differential association theory. The principle of differential association asserts that criminal behavior is
learned through differential associations.

In his book, Principles of Criminology, he presented the nine (9) basic principles of DAT:

1. Criminal behavior is learned and not inherited.

2. Criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other persons in a process of communication.
3. The principal part of the learning of criminal behavior occurs within intimate personal groups. This
means the impersonal communication, such as movies or newspaper play an important part in
committing criminal behavior.
4. The learning includes (a) techniques of committing the crime (b) the specific direction of motives,
drives, rationalizations, and attitudes.
5. The specific direction of the motives and drives is learned from definitions of the legal codes as
favorable or unfavorable.
6. One becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to violation of law over
definitions unfavorable to violation of law.
7. Differential association may vary in frequency, duration, priority, and intensity.
8. The process of learning criminal behavior by association with criminal and anti-criminal patterns
involve all of the mechanisms that are involved in any other learning.
9. While criminal behavior is an expression of general needs and values, it is not explained by those
general needs and values since non-criminal behavior is an expression of the same needs and values.

ERNEST W. BURGESS (1886-1966) was an American Sociologist, born on May 16, 1886 in Tilbury,
Ontario and died December 27, 1966. He was educated at Kingfisher College in Oklahoman and took graduate
studies in sociology at the University of Chicago and became one of the prominent contributor as Urban
Sociologist at the university.

Burgess is an advocate of the Social Disorganization Theory which link crime rates to neighborhood
ecological characteristics, youths from disadvantage neighborhoods were participants in a subculture in which
delinquency was approved behavior and that criminality was acquired in social and cultural settings through a
process of interaction. A core principle of social disorganization theory is that place matters. For example, one’s
residential location, as much or more than one’s individual characteristics (age, gender, race) in shaping the
likelihood that a person will become involved in illegal activities.
 Together with Part, Burgess developed the Concentric Zone Theory which predicted that cities will take
the form of five concentric rings with areas of social and physical deterioration concentrated near the city center
and more prosperous areas located near the city’s edge. This theory seeks to explain the existence of social
problems such as unemployment and crimes, making extensive use of mapping to reveal the spatial distribution
of social problems and to permit comparison between areas. They argued that “neighborhood conditions, be the
wealth or poverty, had a much greater determinant effect on criminal behavior than ethnicity, race, or religion”.

OTHER PERSONALITIES OF POSITIVIST SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY

Biological Determinism

1. BIOLOGICAL THEORIES
– this refers to the set of theories that point to physical, physiological and other natural factors as the
causes for the commission of crimes of certain individuals.
- This explanation for the existence of criminal traits associates an individual’s evil disposition to physical
disfigurement or impairment.

a. Physiognomy – the study of facial features and their relation to human behavior.

1. Giambiatista dela Porta

- founder of human physiognomy
- according to him criminal behavior may be predicted based on facial features of the person.
2. Johann Kaspar Lavater
- supported the belief of dela Porta
- he believed that a person’s character is revealed through his facial characteristics.

b. Phrenology, Craniology or Cranioscopy – the study of the external formation of the skull in relation to
the person’s personality and tendencies toward criminal behavior.

1. Franz Joseph Gall

- he developed cranioscopy which was later renamed as phrenology.
2. Johann Kaspar Spurzheim
- assistant of Gall in the study of phrenology.
- he was the man most responsible for popularizing and spreading phrenology to a wide
audience

Physical Anthropology Charles Darwin- Theory of Evolution of Species

Human Physiognomy Giambattista Dela Porta (1535-1615), an Italian

(Facial Features) Physicist.
Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741-1801), Swiss
Theologian

Crainoscopy (Old) Franz Joseph Gall (1738-1828), a renowned

Phrenology (New) neuro- anatomist and physiologist.
(Skull-HB) Johann K. Spurzheim (1776-1832) an Charles
Crainometry Goring (1870-1919)
Physiology or Somatoform- Body Type

Physiology or Somatotype – refers to the study of body build of a person in relation to his temperament
and personality and the type of offense he is most prone to commit.

1. Ernst Kretschmer
– he distinguished three (3) principal types of physiques: asthenic, athletic, pyknik and
dysplastic.

a. asthenic – characterized as thin, small and weak.

b. athletic – muscular and strong.
c. pyknic – stout, round and fat.
d. dysplastic – combination of two body types

2. William Herbert Sheldon

-formulated his own group of somatotype: ectomorph, mesomorph and endomorph.

a. ectomorph – tall and thin and less social and more intellectual than the other types.
b. mesomorph – have well-developed muscles and an athletic appearance.
c. endomorph – heavy builds and slow moving.

ERNST KRETCHMER (1888-1964), WILLIAM HERBERT SHELDON (1898-1977), American Psychologist

A German Psychiatrist and Physician

Body Built Temperament

Pyknic Endomorph Viscerotonic
Athletic Mesomorph Romotonic
Asthenic Ectomorph Cerebrotonic

HEREDITY- Transmission of Physical/ Mental Traits

Heredity – the transmission of traits from parents to offspring.

1. Richard Louis Dugdale

- conducted a study of the Jukes family by researching their family tree as far back 200 years.
He discovered that most of the ascendants of the Jukes were criminals.
2. Henry Goddard
- he traced the descendants of the Martin Kallikak from each of his two wives and found a
distinct difference in terms of quality of lives of descendants. He coined the term “moron”.
3. Charles Goring
- he believed that criminal traits can be passed from parents to offspring through the genes.
 - he proposed that individuals who possess criminal characteristics should be prohibited from
having children.

RICHARD LOUIS DUGDALE (1841-1883), English- Juke Family

born American sociologist “Ada Juke”

HENRY H. GODDARD (1866-1957), American Kallikak Family

Psychologist “Moron”

EARNEST ALBERT HOOTON (1887-1954), Hereditary and physical inferiority to criminality

American Physical Anthropologist

Psychological Determinism

PHILIPPE PINEL (one of the founders of French Psychiatry)- Link between human
mind and Criminal Behavior pattern.
Coined the term “manie sans delire”.
HENRY MAUDSLEY (1835-1918), “Homicidal Insanity” (1863) and “Insanity and Crime” (1864)
British Psychiatrist were the first and later “the Physiology and Pathology of Mind
(1867)”.
GABRIEL TRADE Penal Philosophy (1912)

WILLIAM HEALY The Individual Delinquent (1915)

SIGMUND FREUD Gen. Introduction of Psychoanalysis/ Psychodynamic (1920)

ID- Instinctive Drives “Pleasure”
EGO- Gateway to Action “Reality”
SUPER EGO- “Conscience”

Sociological Determinism

DAVID EMILE DURKHEIM (1858-1917), French “Anomie Theory” or the Absence of Social Norms.
Sociologist - Crime is a normal part of the society just like birth
and death.
GABRIEL TRADE “Theory of Imitation”
-Individuals imitate the behavior of other individuals
based on the degree of their association with other
individuals
Adolphe J. Quetelet (1796-1874) -Founder of “cartographic school of criminology”.
-He repudiated the free will doctrine of the classicists
-Cartographic school of criminology made use of
statistical data such as population, age, gender,
occupation, religious affiliations and social economic
status and studies their influences and relationship to
criminality.

Learning Activity:
Make a reflection paper regarding social issues or problems in the Philippines and give the most appropriate
theories which introduced by different personalities in studying crime causation that could explain to it.

Assessment:

Essay/Discussion

1. Describe both the subjective and objective approaches of understanding crime and its causes
2. Explain the focus or emphasis of the contemporary approach
3. What is the Demonological Theory? How does it influence the classical era?
4. What is the Free Will Doctrine?
5. Distinguish the classical view from the positivist view on crime causation.
6. What are the arguments against the classical theory? Explain each.
7. Who is Cesare Lombroso? Discuss his contribution in the field of criminology
8. What are the classifications of criminals according to Cesare Lombroso? Describe each.
9. What is the Differential Association Theory? Discuss its sociological impact on the in understanding
crime causation.