Module 01 - Midterm Coverage

Overview:
- Classical Criminology
- Positive Criminology
- Biological Theory
- Sociological Theory
- Definition of Criminal Psychology
- Criminal Behavior Formula
- Classification of Behavior
- Aspect of Behavior

TOPIC 1: EARLY EXPLANATIONS OF THE EXISTENCE OF CRIMINALITY

1. Crime is caused by demon (Paganism era). Men violate social norms and religious
practices because they are possessed by demons or evil spirits.
2. Crime is caused by divine will. Men manifest criminal behavior because they are sinful.
3. Crime is a matter of personal offense and retribution (Ancient World, Early Greek Law)
4. Crime is equal to sin (Middle Ages) crimes and sins were treated as the same substance
and nature.

SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT
A. Classical Criminology
• Relationship between crime and punishment should be balanced and fair.
• Cesare Beccaria pioneered the development of a systematic understanding of why
people committed crime.
• According to him, the crime problem could not be traced to bad people but to bad
laws, that a modern criminal justice system should guarantee all people equal
treatment before the law.
• Cesare Beccaria was an Italian philosopher and politician best known for his
treaties on “Essay on Crime and Punishment”.
• Beccaria believed that the behavior of people with regard to their choice of action
is based on HEDONISM, the pleasure-pain principle.
TOPIC 2: BASIC ELEMENTS OF CLASSICAL CRIMINOLOGY
 In every society, people have free will to choose criminal or law solutions to meet their
needs or settle their problems.
  Criminal solutions may be more attractive than lawful ones because they usually require
less work for a greater payoff; if left unsanctioned, crime has greater utility than
conformity.
 A person’s choice of criminal solutions may be controlled by his fear of punishment.
 The more severe, certain, and swift the punishment, the better able it is to control
criminal behavior.
JEREMY BENTHAM, a contemporary of Becarria.
o He devoted his life to developing scientific approach to the making and breaking
of laws.
o He was concerned with achieving “the greatest happiness of the greatest number.”
UTILITARIANISM – philosophy of social control by Bentham.
o It assumes that all human actions are calculated in accordance with their
likelihood of bringing happiness (pleasure) or unhappiness (Pain).

THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY’S PRINCIPLES

1. All human beings, including criminals, will freely choose either criminal ways or non-
criminal ways, depending on which way they believe will benefit them.
2. Criminals will avoid behaviors that will bring pain and will engage in behaviors that will
bring pleasure.
3. Before deciding which course of action to take, criminals will weigh the expected pains.
4. Criminals are responsible for their behaviors. They are seen as human beings who are
able to interpret, analyze, and understand the situations in which they find themselves.
5. Criminals act over and against their environments. They are not victims of their
environment.
6. Criminals go through a thinking process whereby they take a variety of factors into
account before they make a final decision on whether or not to commit a criminal act.
7. Criminals are totally responsible for their behaviors.
8. Environmental forces do not push, pull, or propel individuals to act.
9. Offenders are not helpless, passive, or propelled by forces beyond their control.
10. Each criminal act is a deliberate one, committed by a rational, choosing person who is
motivated primarily by the pleasure-pain principle.

NEOCLASSICAL CRIMINOLOGY
• It flourished in the 19th century, had the same basis as the classical school – a belief in
free will.
• Modification of classical theory; it is believed that certain factors such as INSANITY
will inhibit the exercise of free will.
TOPIC 3: POSITIVIST CRIMINOLOGY
• The positivist school originated in the 19th century in the context of the “scientific
revolution”.
• Doctrine of “DETERMINISM” focused on the constitutional approach to crime,
advocating that structure or physical characteristics of an individual determine that
person’s behavior.
• The positivist school presumes that criminal behavior is caused by internal and external
factors outside of the individual’s control.
AUGUSTE COMTE
 He is considered the founder of positivist school and sociology.
 He applied scientific methods in the study of society, from where he adopted the word
sociology.
• UNHOLY THREE
• CESARE LOMBROSO (founder of Italian School of Thought)
• ENRICO FERRI
• RAFAELLE GAROFALO
- They were called “unholy three” by the religious leaders during the time of positivism because
of their belief in evolution as contrasted to biblical interpretation of the origin of man and
woman.
KEY ASSUMPTIONS OF THE POSITIVIST SCHOOL OF THOUGHT
1. Human behavior is determined and not a matter of free will.
2. Criminals are fundamentally different from non-criminals.
3. Positivists search for such differences by scientific methods.
4. Social scientists (including criminologists) can be objective, or values-neutral, in their
work.
5. Crime is frequently caused by multiple factors.
6. Society is based on consensus, and not on social contract.
 Positivist criminology is distinguished by three main elements: (1) the search for the causes
of crime, whether biological, psychological, or sociological; (2) the use of the scientific
method to test theories against observations of the world; and (3) the rejection of punishment
as a response to law-violating or deviant behavior, replaced with treatment based on the
medical (rehabilitation) model.
TOPIC 4: BIOLOGICAL POSITIVISM
• CESARE LOMBROSO
- One of the largest contributors to biological positivism and founder of Italian School of
Criminology.
- Known as the father of modern criminology
• Lombroso’s work closely followed Charles Darwin’s theory of man’s evolution.
• The criminal was a product of biology, and not much could be done for this “born
criminal”.
• His approach was scientific, anthropological and biological.
LOMBROSO’S MAJOR CONTRIBUTIONS TO POSITIVIST CRIMINOLOGY
1. THE THEORY OF ATAVISM – criminals were developed from primitive or subhuman
individuals characterized by some inferior mental and physical characteristics such as
asymmetrical cranium, long jaw, flattened nose, scanty beard, low sensitivity to pain,
long earlobes, bulging eyes, thick eyebrows, curly hair.
2. The application of the experimental or scientific method to the study of criminal.
3. The development of a criminal typology.
a. BORN CRIMINALS – these refer to individuals who are born with a genetic
predilection toward criminality.
b. EPILEPTIC CRIMINALS – these are criminals who commit crime because they
are affected by epilepsy.
c. INSANE CRIMINALS – these are those who commit crimes due to abnormalities or
psychological disorders. These criminals are not criminal from birth; they become
criminal as a result of some changes in their brains which interfere with their ability
to distinguish between right and wrong.
d. OCCASIONAL CRIMINALS – these are criminals who commit crime due to
insignificant reasons that push them to do at a given occasion.
• LOMBROSO ALSO IDENTIFIED THE VARIOUS TYPES OF OCCASIONAL
CRIMINALS AS:
a. PSEUDO CRIMINALS – these individuals are not real criminals. They have neither
any inborn tendency towards crime nor are they under the influence of any bad crime-
inducing habit. They do something criminal on account of acute pressure of
circumstances that leave them with no choice.
 b. CRIMINALOIDS – means “like a criminal” or “having resemblance with the
criminal”. They are not born criminals but non criminals who have adopted criminal
activity due to pressure of circumstances and less physical stamina or self-control.
A. HABITUAL CRIMINALS – they have no organic criminal tendency, but in the
course of their lives they have developed some foul habits that force them into
criminality. Some attributing factors are poor parenting and education, or contact with
other criminals.
d. PASSIONATE CRIMINALS – these are individuals who are easily influenced by
great emotions like fit of anger.
4. The belief in the indeterminate sentence.
5. The application of statistical techniques to criminology.
ENRICO FERRI
• a student of Lombroso
• His interest in socialism led him to recognize the importance of social, and environmental
factors in the study of criminal behavior.
• His greatest contribution was his attack on the classical doctrine of free will, which
argued that criminals should be held morally responsible for their crimes because they
must have made a rational decision to commit those acts.
RAFFAELE GAROFALO
• He rejected the doctrine of free will and supported the position that the only way to
understand crime was study it by scientific methods.
• He traced the roots of criminal behavior, not to physical features, but to their
psychological equivalents, which he called “moral anomalies”.
• Garofalo defined crime, not as a violation of a law, but as a violation of nature.
• These acts that violated nature were mala in se (evil in themselves).
• According to this theory, natural crimes are found in all human societies, regardless of
the views of lawmakers, and no society can disregard that.
• He suggested that the death penalty could rid the society of its maladapted members’
organism.
CLASSIFICATION OF CRIMINALS ACCORDING TO GAROFALO
1. Murderers – those who are satisfied from vengeance or revenge.
2. Violent criminals – those who commit very serious crimes.
3. Thieves – those who commit crimes against property.
 4. Lascivious criminals – those who commit crimes against chastity
SOCIOLOGICAL POSITIVISM
ADOLF QUETELET – a Belgian Mathematician
ANDRE MICHEL GUERRY – a French lawyer
• They started what was called Cartographic School of Criminology.
GABRIEL TARDE – another scholar who worked on relationship of crime and social factors.
• His major contribution was his concept of the criminal as a professional type.
• Tarde considered imitation, conscious and unconscious, as a fundamental interpersonal
trait, with the imitation of fathers by sons as the primal situation, resting on prestige.
EMILE DURKHEIM – according to him crime is an inevitable aspect of society. It could
disappear only if all members of society had the same values, and such standardization is neither
possible nor desirable. He called the concept as anomie.
• ANOMIE (Greek, anomos, without norm), a breakdown of social order as a result of a
loss of standards and values.
BIOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS OF CRIMINALITY
• Heredity and Crimes – early biological theories believed that criminality was an inherited
trait passed on in the genes.
A. FAMILY STUDIES
1. THE STUDY OF THE JUKE FAMILY (RICHARD DUGDALE)
 The Juke family consisted of 6 girls, some of whom were illegitimate.
 Ada Juke was known as “The Mother of Criminals”
 1200 descendant were traced for 75 years and found 280 paupers, 60 thieves, 7
murderers, 40 other criminals, 40 with sexual diseases, 300 infants prematurely born,
50 prostitutes, and 30 were prosecuted for bastardy.
2. THE STUDY OF THE KALLIKAK FAMILY (HENRY GODDARD)
 Martin Kallikak first married a Quaker woman and all of the offspring that came from
the marriage were intelligent and resourceful and demonstrated no indications of
mental defectiveness.
 Goddard discovered that Kallikak’s liaison with a feeble-minded girl, however,
resulted in “a race of defective degenerates.”
 About 489 descendants from this lineage were traced which included 143 feeble-
minded and 46 normal. Thirty-six were illegitimate, 3 epileptics, 3 criminals, 8 kept
brothels, 82 died in infancy.
 3. THE STUDY OF SIR JONATHAN EDWARDS’ FAMILY
 Jonathan Edwards was a famous preacher during the colonial period.
 When his family was traced none of the descendants was found to be criminal.
Rather, many became presidents of the US, governors, members of the SC, famous
writers, preachers and teachers.
B. TWIN BEHAVIOR STUDIES
 The logic of this method is that if there is greater similarity in behavior between identical
twins than between fraternal twins, the behavior must be due to heredity.
 In the 1920’s, Lange studied 30 pairs of same-sex twins – 13 identical and 17 fraternal
twins. He found out that one member of each pair was a known criminal.
 Moreover, both twins in 10 of the 13 pairs of identical twins were criminal; 2 of the 17
pairs of fraternal twins were both criminal.
 This showed a significant relationship between the criminal activities of identical twins
and a much lower association between those fraternal twins.
C. ADOPTION STUDIES
 This method compared the criminal records of adopted children who were adopted at
relatively early age with the criminal records of adopted parents.
 Hutchings and Mednick (1975) studied 14,000 adopted children and found that a high
proportion of boys with criminal convictions had biological parents with criminal
convictions too, suggesting a link between aggression and genetics.
D. The XYY “SUPERMALE” studies
• XYY syndrome is a rare chromosomal disorder that affects males. It is caused by the
presence of an extra Y chromosome.
• This study was undertaken by Patricia A. Jacobs, by a simple blood test known as
karyotyping.
• Studies of XYY males tend to show that supermales:
• Are taller than average male, often standing 6’1”
• Suffer from acne or skin disorders
• Are of less than average intelligence
• Are overrepresented in prisons and mental hospitals
• Come from families with less history of crime or mental illness
PHYSICAL TRAIT THEORIES
 • Pythagoras, a philosopher, mathematician, and scientist who lived during the period
around 500 BCE, may have been one of the first to advocate this practice, known as
physiognomy.
PHYSIOGNOMY
• The term physiognomy comes from the Greek words physis, meaning “nature,” and
gnomon, meaning “to judge or to interpret.”
• Aristotle, a Greek philosopher who lived from 384 to 322 BCE, was a proponent of
physiognomy, as were many other ancient Greeks.
GIAMBATTISTA DELLA PORTA (1535–1615)
• He concluded that appearance and character were related.
• He classified humans on the basis of their resemblance to animals.
JOHANN KASPAR LAVATER (1741–1801)
• A Swiss pastor who published his painstakingly detailed study of facial fragments in
1783. He concluded that one could determine criminal behavior through an examination
of a person’s eyes, ears, nose, chin, and facial shape.
PHRENOLOGY
• Phrenology, from the Greek words phren, meaning “mind,” and logos, meaning
“knowledge,” is based on the belief that human behavior originated in the brain.
FRANZ JOSEPH GALL (1758–1828)
• A German neuroanatomist and physiologist who pioneered study of the human brain as
the source of mental faculties, developed the practice of cranioscopy, a technique by
which to infer behaviors and characteristics from external examination of the skull
(cranium).
• According to Gall, a person’s strengths, weaknesses, morals, proclivities, character, and
personality could be determined by physical characteristics of his or her skull.
JOHANN SPURZHEIM (1776–1832)
• Spurzheim, a German physician and student of Gall’s, actually coined the term
phrenology to replace cranioscopy.
CHARLES BUCKMAN GORING
• The study of the external formation of the skull, in relation to behavior. He found out that
criminals are physically inferior to normal individuals in the sense that they tend to be
shorter and have less weight than non-criminals.
PHYSIOLOGY OR SOMATOTYPE
• It refers to the study of the body build of a person in relation to his temperament and
personality and the type of offense he is most prone to commit.
ERNEST KRETSCHMER
• He originated this approach and developed by William Sheldon.
• He associated body physique with the types of crime.
a) Pyknic (stout) – round, fat and fleshy body; associated with manic depressiveness.
Persons with this built tend to be moody, extrovert, jolly and realistic. They are prone to commit
deception, fraud and violence.
b) Asthenic (slender) – thin with long narrow arms, delicate bone structure and appearance;
could also be muscular and athletic. This body type is associated with schizophrenia and
tends to be idealistic, introverted, withdrawn and prone to commit larceny and fraud
cases.
c) Dysplastic– partly asthenic and partly pyknic with no identifiable mental illness. Their
offenses are against decency and morality.
WILLIAM SHELDON (1898)
• American psychologist who advocated the “Somatotyping Theory”. The three
somatotypes are the:
a) ECTOMORPH
Physical Attributes: tall, thin, bony, droopy shoulders
Temperament: Cerebrotonic – full of complaints, insomniac with chronic fatigue and sensitive
skin, nervous and self-conscious, an introvert.
b) ENDOMORPH
Physical attributes: round, fat, short, tapering limbs, and small bones.
Temperament: Viscerotonic – relaxed, jolly, lazy, comfortable, loves luxury, an extrovert
c) MESOMORPH
Physical Attributes: muscular with athletic built
Temperament: Somotonic – active, dynamic; walks, talks and gestures assertively; behaves
aggressively; dominant; more prone to criminal activity than the ectomorphs and endomorphs
THE SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES
• Sociologist emphasize that human beings live in social groups, and that those groups, and
the social structure they create influence behavior.
A. SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY
• Social learning theorists believe that crime is a product of learning the norms, values and
behaviors associated with criminal activity.
1. DIFFERENTIAL ASSOCIATION THEORY
 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
considered as the “Dean of Modern Criminology.”
 NINE DAT propositions
1. Criminal behavior is learned.
2. Crime is learned by participation with others in verbal and non- verbal
communications.
3. Families and friends have the most influence on the learning process.
4. The learning process includes the techniques of committing the crime and the
specific direction of motives, drive and attitude.
5. Not everyone in the society agrees that the laws should be obeyed; some people
define it unimportant.
6. A person becomes delinquent because of an excess definition favorable to the
violation of laws over to the definitions unfavorable to the violation of laws.
7. Differential associations vary in frequency, duration, priority and intensity. The
extent to which associations and definitions will result in criminality is related to
the frequency of contacts and their meaning to the individual.
8. The process of learning criminal behavior by association with criminal and anti-
criminal patterns involves all the mechanisms that are involved in any other
learning.
9. While criminal behavior is an expression of general needs and value, it is not
explained by those general needs and values, since non-criminal behavior is an
expression of the same needs and values.

2. THE STRAIN THEORY

(ROBERT KING MERTON)
 Robert Merton is the premier sociologist of the modern days who, after Durkheim, also
related the crime problem to anomie.
 The Strain Theory maintains that the failure of man to achieve a higher status of life
caused them to commit crimes in order for that status/goal to be attained. Merton argued
that crime is a means to achieve goals and the social structure is the root of the crime
problem.
 Merton’s explanation to criminal behavior assumes that people are law abiding but when
under great pressure will result to crime.
 3. LAW OF IMITATION
(GABRIEL TARDE)
 Persons predisposed to crime are attracted to criminal activity by the example of other
criminals. The particular crimes committed and the method of committing those crimes
are the product of imitations.
TOPIC 5 : CRIMINAL PSYCHOLOGY
 The branch of psychology which investigates the psychology of crime with particular
reference to the personality factors of the criminal.
 The study of the wills, thoughts, intentions and reactions of criminals, all that partakes in
the criminal behaviour.
CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR FORMULA
 C= T+S
R
Where:
C= Crime or Criminal Behaviour (The act)
T= Criminal tendency (Desire/ intent)
S= Total Situation (Opportunity)
R= Resistance to temptation (Self control)

WHAT IS BEHAVIOUR?
a. Behaviour is the actions or reaction of a person in response to external or internal
stimulus situation.
b. According to Crowder “behavior is any activity which can be observed, recorded and
measured, this includes what living beings or organisms do in their movement space.
CLASSIFICATION OF BEHAVIOUR
a. NORMAL BEHAVIOUR (ADAPTIVE OR ADJUSTED BEHAVIOR)- The standard
behaviour.
c. The totality accepted behaviour because they follow the standard norm of society.
d. Understanding criminal behaviour includes the idea of knowing what characterized a
normal person from an abnormal one.
e. A normal person is characterized by efficient perception of reality, self knowledge,
ability to exercise voluntary control over his behaviour, self esteem and acceptance,
productivity, ability to form affectionate relationship with others.
b. ABNORMAL BEHAVIOUR (MALADAPTIVE OR MALADJUSTED BEHAVIOUR)
 f. A group of behaviour that are deviant from social expectations because they go against
the norms or standard behaviour of society.
g. A mal-adaptive (abnormal) person maybe understood by the following definitions:
a) Abnormal behaviour according to deviation of statistical norms based in statistical
frequency
b) Abnormal behaviour according to deviation from social norms
c) Abnormal behaviour due to personal distress
d) Abnormality in its legal point (insane)

KINDS OF BEHAVIOUR
a. OVERT OR COVERT BEHAVIOUR Behaviors that are outwardly manifested or those
that are directly observable are overt behaviour. On the other hand, covert behaviours are
behaviour that are hidden- not visible to the naked eye.
b. CONSCIOUS OR UNCONSCIOUS BEHAVIOUR Behaviour is conscious when acts
are within the level of awareness. It is unconscious when the acts are embedded in ones
subconscious or unaware.
c. SIMPLE OR COMPLEX BEHAVIOUR these are acts categorized depending on the
number of neurons in the process of behaving. Simple behaviour involves less number of
neurons while complex behaviour involved more number of neurons, a combination of
simple.
d. RATIONAL OR IRRATIONAL BEHAVIOUR there is rational behaviour when a person
acted with sanity or reason and there is irrational when the person is acted with no
apparent reason or explanation.
e. VOLUNTARY OR INVOLUNTARY BEHAVIOUR Voluntary behaviour is an act done
with full volition or will such as when we discriminate, decide or choose while
involuntary, refers to the bodily process that goes on even when we are awake or sleep.
ASPECTS OF BEHAVIOUR
a. INTELLECTUAL ASPECT this aspects of behaviour pertains to our way of thinking,
reasoning, solving problems, processing info and coping with environment.
b. EMOTIONAL ASPECT this pertains to our feelings, moods, temper and strong
motivational force.
c. SOCIAL ASPECT this pertains to how we interact with other people.
d. MORAL ASPECT this refers to our conscience and concept of what is good or bad.
e. PSYCHOSEXUAL ASPECT this pertains to our being a man and woman and the
expression of love
f. POLITICAL ASPECT this pertains our ideology towards society or government.
g. VALUE/ATTITUDE this pertains to our interest toward something, our likes and dislikes
PSYCHOANALYTICAL THEORY
SIGMUND FREUD (1856 - 1969)

o This theory blames criminal or delinquent behavior to a conscience that is either so

overbearing that it arouses feelings of guilt, or so weak that it cannot control the
individual’s impulses and leads to a need for immediate gratification.

1. THE ID – it is the impulsive part of the personality and unconscious. It represents the
unconscious biological drives for sex, food and other life sustaining necessities. It operates
according to “pleasure principle”
2. THE EGO this is the objective, rational part of personality, the reality component. Hence, it
considers sensibility and responsibility to others. The ego compensates for the demands of the id.
It operates according to “reality principle”.
3. THE SUPEREGO the superego is the “conscience” of a person. It is the moral aspect of
personality. It allows a person to feel pride, shame and guilt. Thus, it is largely responsible for
making a person follow the moral codes of society.
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