THEORIES OF CRIME

CAUSATION
WEEK 1 AND 2 (INTRODUCTION TO THEORIES
OF CRIME CAUSATION AND ITS FOUNDATION)
INTRODUCTION
• There is no single source of crime. Crime is
a multifaceted phenomenon that varies
across cultures and over time.

• There is no single source of crime. Crime is

a multifaceted phenomenon that varies
across cultures and over time.
THEORY
This is the process of connecting
facts in order to explain something.
It serves as an explanation. It
explains why or how a certain thing
or things are linked to criminal
behavior
ELEMENTS OF THEORY
1. CONCEPT
 Theories are built from concepts. Generally,

concepts denote phenomena. A concept

embraces the aspects of the social world that
are considered essential for a particular
purpose.
2. VARIABLES
 Once the measurement system has been

specified by the operational definition,

different values of the concept can be observed.
ELEMENTS OF THEORY
3. STATEMENTS AND FORMATS
 To be useful, the concepts of theory must be

connected to one another. Such connections

among concepts constitute theoretical
statements.
 These statements specify the way in which

events denoted by concepts are interrelated, and

at the same time, they provide an interpretation
of how and why events should be connected.
When these theoretical statements are grouped
together, they constitute a theoretical format.
PURPOSE OF STUDYING CRIME
CAUSATION THEORY
• We study theory to try to understand why
wedo what we do. People who are uninterested
in theory are those who go through life blindly
or, in the case of criminal justice, intervene in
the lives of others with only hazy ideas about
why they do what they do. The goal of
studying crime causation theories is to explain
and comprehend crime and criminal behavior
WHY PEOPLE COMMIT CRIME ?
Understanding why someone commits a crime
allows one to devise methods to control crime or
rehabilitate the offender. In criminology, there
are numerous theories. Some attribute crime to
the individual, believing that an individual weighs
the pros and cons before deciding whether or
not to commit a crime. Others believe it is the
responsibility of the community to ensure that
their citizens do not commit crimes.
MAJOR PERSPECTIVE OF CRIME
CAUSATION/CRIMINOLOGY
1.Rational Perspective – free will and personal choice
2. Biological Perspective- Genetic, Physical
characteristics and Structure
3.Social Structural Perspective- Neighborhood
4.Social Process Perspective – Learning of one’s
behavior
5. Conflict Perspective- Resources and power
6.Developmental Perspective – Combination of Socio-
economic, political and process.
7. PSYCHOLOGICAL- HUMAN BEHAVIOR/MIND
Foundational Theories
A.CLASSICAL
B.NEO- CLASSICAL
C.POSITIVIST THEORY
SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT IN
CRIMINOLOGY
• School of Thought – refers to a group
of beliefs or ideas that support a
specific theory
• DEMONOLOGICAL THEORY - asserts
that a person commits wrongful acts
due to the fact that he was possessed
by demons.
CLASSICAL SCHOOL
 This school of thought is based on the
assumption that individuals choose to commit
crimes after weighing the consequences of
their actions.
 According to classical criminologists,
individuals have free will. They can choose
legal or illegal means to get what they want,
fear of punishment can deter them from
committing crime and society can control
behavior by making the pain of punishment
greater than the pleasure of the criminal gains
CESARE BECCARIA
• ON CRIMES AND PUNISHMENT
• His book contains almost all modern penal reforms
but its greatest contribution was the foundation it
laid for subsequent changes in criminal legislation
• His book was influential in the reforms of penal
code in France, Russia, Prussia and it
influenced the first ten amendments to the US
Constitution
PRINCIPLE OF BECARRIA
a. people want to achieve pleasure and avoid
pain.
b. Crime provides some pleasure to the criminal.
c. To deter crime, he believed that one must
administer pain in an appropriate amount to
counterbalance the pleasure obtain from crime.
d. Famous in sayings “ Let the punishment fit the
crime
Jeremy Bentham
• Proposed “Utilitarian Hedonism” which explains that
person always acts in such a way to seek pleasure and
avoid pain.
• UTILITARIANISM – assumes that all our actions are
calculated in accordance with their likelihood of
bringing pleasure and pain
• Felicific Calculus or the pleasure-and-pain principle – is
a theory that proposes that individuals calculate
the consequences of his actions by weighing the
pleasure (gain) and the pain (suffering) he would derive
from doing the action
NEOCLASSICAL CRIMINOLOGY
• This theory modified the doctrine of free will
by stating that free will of men may be affected
by other factors and crime is committed due to
some compelling reasons that prevail.
• These causes are pathology, incompetence,
insanity or any condition that will make it
impossible for the individual to exercise free
will entirely. In the study of legal provisions,
this is termed as either mitigating or
exempting circumstances
POSITIVIST SCHOOL OF THOUGHT
The term “positivism”, refers to a method of
analysis based on the collection of observable
scientific facts.
 Positivists believe that causes of behavior
can be measured and observed.
 It demands for facts and scientific proof,
thus, changing the study of crimes and
criminals into scientific approach.
POSITIVIST SCHOOL OF THOUGHT
 Positive theorists were the first to claim the
importance of looking at individual
difference among criminals.
 These theorists who concentrated on the
individual structures of a person, stated that
people are passive and controlled, whose
behaviors are imposed upon them by
biological and environmental factors.
AUGUST COMTE
 French philosopher and sociologist
and is believed to be the one who
reinvented the French term
sociologie.
 He was recognized as the “Father of
Sociology and Positivism”.
CESARE LOMBROSO
 Recognized as the “Father of Modern and
Empirical Criminology” due to his application
of modern scientific methods to trace
criminal behavior, however, most of his ideas
are now discredited.
 Concept of atavistic stigmata (the physical
features of creatures at an earlier stage of
development).
 According to his theory, criminals are usually
in possession of so called physical stigmata
PHYSICAL STIGMATA
 Huge jaws and strong canine teeth
 The arm span of criminals is often greater than their height, just like
that of apes who use their forearms to push themselves along the
ground.
 Deviation in head size and shape,
 Asymmetry of the face,
 Excessive dimensions of the jaw and cheekbones,
 Eye defects and peculiarities,
 Ears of unusual size,
 Nose twisted, upturned or flattened in thieves, or aquiline or beaklike
in murderers,
 Fleshy lips
 Swollen and protruding, and pouches in the cheek like those of
animal’s toes
3 CLASSES OF CRIMINALS (ACCORDING
TO CESARE LOMBROSO)
a. born criminals – individuals with at least five
(5) atavistic stigmata
b. insane criminals – those who became
criminals because of some brain defect which
affected their ability to understand and
differentiate what is right from what is wrong.
c. criminaloids - those with makeup of an
ambiguous group that includes habitual
criminals, criminals by passion and other
diverse types
ENRICCO FERRI
• He focused his study on the influences of
psychological factors and sociological
factors such as economics, on crimes.
• He believed that criminals could not be held
morally responsible because they did not
choose to commit crimes, but rather were
driven to commit crimes by conditions in
their lives.
CLASSIFICATION OF CRIMINALS
ACCORDING TO FERRI ARE:
1. Born Criminals - criminal neurosis
2. Insane Criminals - clinical form of mental
alienation.
3. Habitual Criminals - The one who has acquired
his habit of crime
4. Occasional Criminals - The one who commits
insignificant criminal acts because of them
circumstances in which he lives.
5. Passionate Criminals. Passion is excusable when
the moral sense of man is normal, when his past
record is clear, and when his crime is due to social
passion, which makes it excusable.
RAFFAELLE GAROFALLO
• He treated the roots of the criminals’
behavior not to physical features but to their
psychology equivalent, which he referred to
as moral anomalies.
• He rejected the doctrine of freewill.
• Classified criminals as Murderers, Violent
Criminals, Deficient Criminals, and
Lascivious Criminals.
3 TYPES OF CRIMINAL BEHAVIOR
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.
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
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
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
PHYSIOLOGY OR SOMATOTYPE
2. William Herbert Sheldon
He 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.
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 termsof 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.
INTELLIGENCE AS A FACTOR IN
CRIMINALITY
- The classic studies of the Juke and Kallikak
families were among the first to show that
feeblemindedness or low-intelligence can be
inherited and transferred from one generation to
the next. Numerous test were also conducted that
lead to the development of the use of IQ tests as
a testing procedure for offenders. The very first
results seemed to confirm that offenders had low
mental abilities and they were found to be
mentally impaired
ALFRED BINET
- a French psychologist who developed the
first IQ test.
- the test measured the capacity of individual
children to perform tasks or solve problems in
relation to the average capacity of their peers
PSYCHOLOGICAL THEORIES
- Refers to the theories that attribute criminal
behavior of individuals to psychological factors,
such as emotion and mental problems.

a. Sigmund Freud
- He is recognized as the FATHER OF
PSYCHOANALYSIS
- known for his psychoanalytic theory
- According to him, criminality is caused by the
imbalance of the three (3) components of personality:
the id, the ego, and the superego.
THREE PARTS OF PERSONALITY
1. ID – this stands for instinctual drives; it is governed by the
“pleasure principle”; the id impulses are not social and must be
repressed or adapted so that they may become socially acceptable
2. EGO – this is considered to be the sensible and responsible part
of an individual’s personality and is governed by the “reality
principle”; it is developed early in life and compensates for the
demands of the id by helping the individual guide his actions to
remain within the boundaries of accepted social behavior; it is the
objective, rational part of the personality
3. SUPEREGO – serves as the moral conscience of an individual; it is
structured by what values were taught by the parents, the school
and the community, as well as belief in God; it is largely
responsible for making a person follow the moral codes of society
SOCIOLOGICAL THEORIES
- Sociological factors refer to things,
places and people with whom we
come in contact with and which play a
part in determining our actions and
conduct. These causes may bring
about the development of criminal
behavior.
EDWIN SUTHERLAND
 An American sociologist.
 He is considered one of the most influential

criminologists of the 20th century.

 He was a sociologist of the symbolic

interactionist school of thought and is best

known for defining white-collar crime and
differential association, a general theory of crime
and delinquency.
 Sutherland earned his Ph.D. in sociology from the

University of Chicago in 1913. In 1939 Edwin was

the first who introduced White Collar Crime.
Emile Durkheim
- He stated that crime is a normal part of the
society just like birth and death.
- proposed the concept of “anomie” or the
absence of social norms. It is characterized by
disorder due to lack of common values shared
by individuals, lack of respect for authority
and lack of appreciation for what is
acceptable and not acceptable in a society
GABRIEL TARDE
- Introduced the theory of imitation which
proposes the process by which people
become criminals.
- According to this theory, individuals imitate
the behavior of other individuals based on
the degree of their association with other
individuals and it is inferior or weak who
tend to imitate the superior and strong
Adolphe Quetelet and Andre Michael
Guerry
- He repudiated the free will doctrine of the classicists
- Founder of cartographic school of criminology.
- Founder of moral statistics

- 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.