Notes in Criminal Sociology

NOTES IN CRIMINAL SOCIOLOGY BY: Chivas Gocela Dulguime, R.C. What is Criminology? -

It is a body of knowledge regarding crime as a social phenomenon. It includes within its scope the process of making laws, of breaking the law and the reaction towards the braking of the law. The objective of Criminology is the development of the general and verified principle and of other types of knowledge regarding this process of law, crime and treatment. (Edwin Sutherland and Donald Cressey)

What does this definition mean? “Development of a body of general and verified principles” –

This means that Sutherland mandated that criminologists, like other social scientist, collect information for study and analysis in accordance with the research methods of modern science.

Rafaelle Garofalo – coined the term “Criminology” (1885). Criminology, Criminal Justice and Deviance Criminology – explains the etiology (origin), extent and nature of crime in the society. Criminal Justice System – refers to the study of agencies of social control that handle criminal offenders. -

Engage in describing, analyzing and explaining the operation of the agencies of justice (pillars of Criminal Justice System). Term criminal justice system is relatively new Became popular in 1967, with the publication of the report of the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society. The United States has well over 50 criminal justice systems

Deviance – refers to the study of behavior that departs from social norms. Included within the broad spectrum of deviant acts are behaviors ranging from violent crimes to joining a nudist colony. HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF CRIMINOLOGY Middle Ages (1200 – 1600) – superstition and fear of satanic possession dominated thinking. Dealing with the possessed is through burning at stake. Nicholas Remy (1575 – 1590) – he was the Head of the Inquisition in the French Province of Lorraine. He ordered the death of 900 sorcerers and witches through burning. Peter Binsfield – the Bishop of the German City of Trier, ordered the death of 6,500 people because of witchcraft. 16th and 17th Century – almost 10,000 people were prosecuted in Europe for witchcraft. The punishments being imposed for witchcraft are; whipping, branding, maiming and execution. CLASSICAL SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY (18TH CENTURY) – Classical criminology is considered to be the first formal school of criminology. Classical criminology grew out a reaction against the barbaric system of law, punishment, and justice that existed before the French Revolution of 1789. Until that time there was no real system of criminal justice in Europe. Classical criminology is associated with 18th and early 19th century reforms to the administration of justice and the prison system. Associated with authors such as Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794), Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832), Samuel Romilly (1757-1818), and others, this school brought the emerging philosophy of

liberalism and utilitarianism to the justice system, advocating principles of rights, fairness and due process in place of retribution, arbitrariness and brutality. Utilitarianism – emphasized that behavior occurs when the actor consider it useful, purposeful and reasonable. The principle which states “the greatest happiness for the greatest number”. Classical criminology, derived from the political philosophy of the Enlightenment, views criminal conduct as a matter of human nature. Specifically, criminal behavior is a matter of freewill or choice. The ideas of classical criminology provided the foundation of the American criminal justice system (law enforcement, court and correction). Current versions of classical criminology include the economic approach, rational choice, routine activities and the general theory of crime. Enlightenment – this is the age of reason, the period where death penalty was abolished and the use of prison as a form of punishment. Basic Elements of Classical Criminology: 1. In every society people have free will to choose criminal or lawful solutions to meet their needs or to settle their problems. 2. Criminal solutions may be more attractive than lawful ones because they usually requires less work for a greater payoff; if left unsanctioned, crime has greater utility than conformity. 3. A person choice of criminal solutions may be controlled by his or her fear of punishment. 4. The more severe, certain and swift the punishment, the better able it is control criminal behavior. Principles Proposed by Cesare Beccaria: 1. Laws should be Used to Maintain the Social Contract - “Laws are the conditions under which men, naturally independent, united themselves in society. Weary of living in a continual state of war, and of enjoying a liberty, which became of little value, from the uncertainty of its duration, they sacrificed one part of it, to enjoy the rest in peace and security.” 2. Only Legislators Should Create Laws - “The authority of making penal laws can only reside with the legislator, who represents the whole society united by the social compact.” 3. Judges Should Impose Punishment Only In Accordance With The Law - “No magistrate then (as he is one of the society), can, with justice inflict on any member of the same society punishment that is not ordained by the laws.” 4. Judges Should Not Interpret The Laws -“Judges in criminal cases, have no right to interpret the penal laws, because they are not legislators. . .Everyman hath his own particular point of view, and, at different times, sees the same objects in very different lights. The spirit of the laws will then be the result of the good or bad logic of the judge; this will depend on his good or bad digestion.” 5. Punishment Should Be Based On The Pleasure/Pain Principle (HEDONISM) - “Pleasure and pain are the only springs of actions in beings endowed with sensibility. If an equal punishment be ordained for two crimes that injure society in different degrees; there is nothing to deter men from committing the greater as often as it is attended with greater advantage. 6. Punishment Should Be Based On An Act, Not On The Actor - “Crimes are only measured by the injuries done to the society. They err, therefore, who imagine that a crime is greater or less according to the intention of the person by whom it is committed.” 7. Punishment Should be Prompt And Effective - “The more immediate after the commission of a crime a punishment is inflicted, the more just and useful it will be. . .An immediate punishment is more useful; because the smaller the interval of time between the punishment and the crime, the stronger and more lasting will be the association of the two ideas of crime and punishment.” 8. All People Should Be Treated Equally - “I assert that the punishment of a nobleman should in no wise differ from that of the lowest member of society.” 9. Capital Punishment Should Be Abolished - “The punishment of death is not authorized by any right; for. . . no such right exists. . .The terrors of death make so slight an impression, that it has not force enough to withstand the forgetfulness natural to mankind.” 10. The Use Of Torture Should Be Abolished - “It is confounding all relations to expect . . . that pain should be the test of truth, as if truth resided in the muscles and fibers of a wretch of torture. By this method the robust will escape, and the feeble be condemned.” 11. It Is Better to Prevent Crimes Than To Punish Them - “Would you prevent crimes? Let the laws be clear and simple, let the entire force of the nation be united in their defense, let them be

intended rather to favor every individual than any particular classes.. .Finally, the most certain method of preventing crime is to perfect the system of education.” Some of the defining features of the classical school in criminology include: •

All people are guided by free will

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All behavior is guided by hedonism (pleasure/pain calculation)

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All crime is the result of free will and hedonism

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All punishment should fit the offense (equal treatment under law)

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Bad people are nothing more than the result of bad laws

19TH CENTURY POSITIVISM Positivism - 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. Two main elements of Positivism: 1. The belief that human behavior is the function of internal (ex. Biological makes – up/ mental ability) and external forces (ex. Social, political, historical). 2. Embracing scientific methods in solving problems. The used of empirical method to test the hypothesis. August Comte (1798 – 1857) – founder of sociology, applied scientific methods in the study of society. -

Developed the idea of positivism.

Stages of society according to August Comte: 1st Stage – Primitive society (consider inanimate object as having life; sun is a God) 2nd Stage – Social Stage (rational view to the world) 3rd Stage – Final Stage (scientific view of the world, known as positivist)

Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882) – popularized the positivist tradition and developed Evolution Theory (considered as the 19th century “Cult of Science”) Positivist Criminology – the earliest scientific studies in determining human behavior is biologically oriented. J.K. Lavater (1741 – 1801) – a Physiognomist, studied the facial features of criminals to determine whether the shape of ears, nose and eyes and the distance between them were associated with anti – social behavior. Franz Joseph Gall (1758 – 1828) and Johann K. Spurzheim (1776 – 1832) – they are Phrenologists, who studied the shape of the skull and bumps of the head to determine whether these physical attributes were linked to criminal behavior. Philippe Pinel – one of the founders of French Psychiatry. He claimed that some people behave abnormally even without being mentally ill. He coined the phrase “manie sans delire” which means psychopathic personality. Benjamine Rush (1812) – described patients with an “innate preternatural moral depravity”.

Henry Maudsley (1835 – 1918) – believed that insanity and criminal behavior were strongly linked. He stated that “Crime is a sort of outlet in which their unsound tendencies are discharged; they would go mad if they would not criminals, and they do not go mad because they are criminals. Italian School of Positivist Criminology – it is a social movement that existed during the mid 1800s and early 1900s. -

Founded by Cesare Lombroso with his two disciples; Enrico Ferri and Rafaelle Garofalo

Some of the common, defining features of the positivist school in criminology include: •

The demand for facts, for scientific proof (determinism)

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There are body and mind differences between people (of these, the mens rea, or reasons for committing crime are important)

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Punishment should fit the individual criminal, not the crime (indeterminate sentencing, disparate sentencing, parole)

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The criminal justice system should be guided by scientific experts (rule by scientific elite, technocracy)

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Criminals can be treated, rehabilitated, or corrected (if not, then they are incurable and should be put to death)

Cesare Lombroso (November 6, 1835 – October 19, 1909) - was the founder of the Italian School of Positivist Criminology. He rejected the established Classical School, which held that crime was a characteristic trait of human nature and that rational choices were the foundation of behavior. Lombroso, using a scientific approach and concepts drawn from physiognomy, early eugenics, psychiatry, and Social Darwinism, argued that criminality was inherited, and that the "born criminal" could be identified by physical defects, which confirmed a criminal as "savage," or "atavistic." While his particular identifying characteristics are no longer considered valid, the idea of factors that predispose certain individuals to commit crime continues to be foundational to work in criminology. Together with his emphasis on the scientific method, this revolutionary approach has earned Lombroso the title "father" of scientific criminology. Lombrosian Theory Based on Biological Determinism: 1. Born Criminals – inherited physical problems that impelled them to a life of crime such as repeated assault or theft related activities. 2. Atavistic Anomalies/Stigmata - means a real or supposed evolutionary throwback (degeneracy), the unexpected appearance of primitive traits; a reversion, the reappearance of a trait that had been present in a lineage in the past, but which had been absent in intervening generations. - The concept was much more widely used in the pre-genetic Darwinism of Ernst Häckel, who proposed a recapitulation theory commonly summed up in the phrase that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny: the notion that a developing embryo revisits the previous evolutionary stages of the organism in the course of its development, and resembles the successively more complex organisms out of which it had evolved. - The notion of atavism was used frequently by social darwinists, who liked to claim that inferior races displayed atavistic traits, and represented more primitive traits than their own race. Both the notion of atavism, and Häckel's recapitulation theory, are saturated with bogus notions of evolution as progress, as a march towards greater complexity and superior ability, which we now know to be untenable. Lombroso's Checklist of Physiognomic Indicators Unusually short or tall height Small head, but large face Small and sloping forehead Receding hairline Wrinkles on forehead and face

Large eye sockets Deep, beady eyes Beaked nose (up or down) or flat nose Strong jaw line Fleshy lips, but thin upper lip

Large sinus cavities or bumpy face Large, protruding ears Bumps on head, particularly the Destructiveness Center behind ear Protuberances (bumps) on head High cheek bones Bushy eyebrows

Mighty incisors, abnormal teeth Small or weak chin Thin neck Sloping shoulders, but large chest Long arms Pointy, webby, snobby fingers or toes Tattoos on body

3. Criminaloids - this refers to the mentally ill and those suffering from epilepsy. According to Lombrosian theory, criminogenic traits can be acquired through indirect heredity, from a degenerate family whose members suffered from such ills as insanity, syphilis and alcoholism. Biosocial Theory - the term being coined to reflect the assume link between physical and mental traits, the social environment and behavior. Social Positivism - scientifically study the major social changes that were taking place in nineteenth – century society because of population explosion. FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIOLOGICAL CRIMINOLOGY: L.A.J. (ADOLPHE) QUETELET (1796-1874) (DAVID) EMILE DURKHEIM (1858-1917) 1. The use of data and statistics in performing criminological research (Quetelet). 2. Define crime as normal and necessary social event (Durkheim). Adolphe Quetelet – Developed the Cartographical School of Criminology together with a Frenchman Andre – Michel Guerry. - Studied the data gathered in France known as Comptes generaux de l’administration de la justice in order to investigate the influence of social factors on the propensity to commit crime such as age and sex on crime. - Uncovered evidence that season, climate, population composition and poverty were related to criminality. - Crime rates were greatest in the summer, in southern areas, among heterogeneous populations and among the poor and uneducated. - Studied the relationships between crime and social phenomena. Emile Durkheim – believed that crime is part of human nature because it has existed during periods of both poverty and prosperity. - Believed that as long as human differences existed, then crime is inevitable and one of the fundamental conditions of human life. - Developed the principle known as Anomie. - Borrowed the word anomie from the French philosopher Jean-Marie Guyau and used it in his book Suicide (1897). - Defined the term anomie as a condition where social and/or moral norms are confused, unclear, or simply not present. Durkheim felt that this lack of norms led to deviant behavior.( http://sociologyindex.com/anomie.htm) - In his book “The Division of Labor in the Society” he described the consequences of the shift from a small, rural society, which he labeled “mechanical”, to the modern “organic” society with a large urban population, division of labor and personal isolation. -