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Criminology
Introduction:
Crime can be defined as an act of divergence from the accepted
societal norms, morals, and behavior that results in a harmful impact
on the whole society. Different countries have their own criminal code
which codifies these crimes and states ways to prevent further, the
occurrence of such acts. The word ‘crime’ is derived from the Latin
word “crimen” which means “ to charge”.
Criminology and criminal psychology are two fields of crimes that are
often misunderstood and mixed with each other. The difference
between both the branches of criminal law is explained below.
Criminology is an interdisciplinary field of study of crimes and the social
responses followed by these criminal acts. It is a study from a
sociological viewpoint. Individuals who study criminology are called
criminologists. Their work is to study why the crimes are committed,
who commits the crime, the root cause of the criminal activity, the
impact of the criminal activities in the society, and how crimes can be
prevented.
Definition:
There is no universally accepted definition of criminology. However,
According to Law Lexicon
“Criminology is the study of crime, its nature, its causes, its detection,
and prevention.”
According to Dr. Kenny
“Criminology is the branch of criminal science that deals with the
causes of crime, analysis, and prevention of crime.”
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Nature of Criminology:
Criminology is an interdisciplinary field of study, involving scholars and
practitioners. It represents a wide range of behavioral and social
sciences as well as natural sciences.
It deals with the research of sociologists, psychologists, and writings in
law.
Criminology is the scientific and the systematic study of crime and its
treatment. It is the science of criminal behaviour.
Exploring the connections between the study of crime and its control
and the larger concerns of the contemporary social sciences with such
ideas as risk, globalization, networks, race, gender, citizenship,
governance, and culture.

Scope:
1. It is the study of the origin and development of criminal laws.
Criminology studies how criminal laws are evolved under different
circumstances. It also presents certain types of punishments to prevent
crime.
2. It analyses the causation of crime and the personality of the
criminals.
In criminology, we study the reasons for criminal behavior and when
and how a man turns into a criminal. We study the subject that why
some people commit crimes while others do not commit crimes.
3. It helps us in the detection and investigation of crime.
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Criminology is modern science that helps us a lot to detect and
investigate the reasons behind the crime.
4. It is the study of different factors behind the crime.
Criminology also studies various factors that enhance a crime such as
Criminal Sociology, Criminal Psychiatry, Victimology, Criminal Ecology,
Criminal Demography, and Criminal Physical Anthropology.
5. It studies the reasons for the development of criminals.
After discovering the origin of crime, criminologists study the factors
due to which people develop a criminal attitude.
6. It tells us the ways to arrest and apprehend criminals
Criminology tells us various ways to arrest and treat habitual criminals
as well.
7. It helps us to understand the criminal behavior and the etiology
Understanding the behavior and psychology of criminals is of great
importance. So, criminology helps a lot in this noble job.
8. It studies the methods adopted by the criminals to commit crimes
Criminology studies various methods and measures which are adopted
by the offenders for the violation of criminal laws.
9. It looks at the reaction of society regarding crime.
After the commission of a crime, criminology as science looks upon the
rection of society towards the offender or the crime committed. The
purpose is to get the views of society about the crime.
10. It helps us in the prevention of crime
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Criminology presents various methods to prevent crime. It plans
different ways to deter criminals. In this way, they are threatened to
commit crimes because they know that they will be punished if they
were found accused of any criminal activity.
11. It develops the concept of rehabilitation
Criminology encourages us to establish rehabilitation centers in the
country so that the criminals must be treated in a fine and healthy way.
In this way, they may become responsible men in society.

Schools of Criminology
INTRODUCTION:
While explaining the meaning of ‘Schools of
Criminology’, Sutherland pointed out that it connotes the system of
thought which consists of an integrated theory of causation of crime
and the policies of control implied in the theory of causation. Each
school of criminology tries to explain the causation of crime and
criminal behavior in its own manner and suggests punishment and
preventive measures for the same. It must also be stated that each of
the school represents the social attitude of the people towards crime
and criminal during the given time period.
The schools of criminology can be divided as:
1. Pre- Classical School of Criminology
2. The Classical School
3. The Neo – Classical School of Criminology
4. The Positive School
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5. Sociological School of Criminology
6. Multifactor School

1. Pre- Classical School of Criminology:

The demonological school is another term for the pre-classical school.
With the supremacy of the catholic religion in Europe during the 17th
century, There were few scientific explanations for the causes of
offence at the time, and the idea of a criminal act was ambiguous and
uncertain.
As a consequence, spirits, inner demons, as well as unidentified energy
were invoked to explain illegal acts. The core idea was that a man
commits a criminal act due to the influence of an exterior power which
is beyond person’s control and comprehension. God’s wrath was
thought to be used to penalise the wrongdoers. The violators were
pursued through fights and rock pelting, with the belief that if the
wrongdoer was innocent, no injury would be done.
During the seventeenth and eighteenth century there was a
domination of religion in State activities and during the same period
Europe was dominated by Saint Thomas Acquinas (1225 – 1274). As
the scientific knowledge was yet unknown to the mankind, the concept
of crime was rather vague and obscure. There was a general belief that
man by his nature is simple creature and his actions are controlled by a
greater power, the greater power here, being ‘demon’ of ‘devil’ and
hence, the school is also often called ‘demonological school of
criminology’. Thus, an offender commits a wrongful act not because of
freewill but due to the influence of some external power. No attempt
was made to probe into the real cause of crime during this pre-classical
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school. This demonological theory that was propounded considered
crime and criminals as evidence of the fact that an individual was
possessed of devil or demon and the only cure for which was testimony
of effectiveness of the spirit. Worships, sacrifices, and ordeals by water
and fire were usually prescribed to specify the spirit and relieve the
victim from ‘evil influence’. Trial by battle was a common mode of
deciding the fate of the criminal. The right of the society to punish a
criminal, however, was well recognized. The offender was regarded as
an innately depraved person who could be cured by torture and pain.
The principle of divine intervention especially through ordeals was in
vogue ancient India as well. The oaths and ordeals played a very
important role in the ancient judicial system in determining the guilt of
the offender. A general belief surrounding these rituals was that “when
the human agency fails, recourse to divine means of proof becomes
most inevitable”. The validity of these rituals has been questioned
since the ancient times; such was in Purvapaksa. The system, however,
fell into disuse with the advent of British rule in India and subsequent
rationalization of the penal law.
2. The Classical School:

The concept of classical school in criminology developed during

enlightenment time of 18TH century in response to excess and cruel
forms of punishment that was dominated at that time.
“Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham were considered as the
founding father of classical school of criminology. Bentham
stated,“Man is calculating animal” in cause of criminal behaviour.
Classical school of criminology favor humanitarian form of punishment.
This school was against the cruel or physical punishment. It supports
the deterrent theory of punishment. The concept of ‘free will’ is
fundamental concept under classical school. According to this thought
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of school people can differentiate between right and wrong, so people
commit crime according to their own free will. According to this
thought of school, punishment to the criminals should be given to the
proportion of crime and punishment must not be excessive. It is also
stated that punishment that is awarded to the criminals must be
carried out promptly.
The main drawback of classical school of criminology is that every
person irrespective from its age, mental condition, religion, economic
condition is punished equally proportional to the crime. In Europe and
America, classical school of criminology become foundation of modern
criminal justice system, which changes from time to time. Since the
introduction of the classical school of criminology and classical
thinking, the use of capital punishment, torture and corporal
punishment has declined. Neither Beccaria nor Bentham supported
such kind of cruel punishment. As many of the ideas championed by
Beccaria in such rights as freedom of cruel and unusual punishment,
the right to a speedy trial, prohibition of ex post facto laws, the right to
confront one’s accuses and equality under law contained in the bills of
rights and other documents at the heart of western legal system today.
Principles of Classical School:
o Rationality:-
The concept of free will is rational thinking that goes into his planning
to commit a crime.
o Hedonism:-
Crime is committed for the pleasure. Such pleasure is harmful for the
society.
o Punishment:-
Punishment is necessary for the deterrent of crime .People must aware
about punishment so they will not commit crime for the pleasure.
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o Human Rights:-
Punishment must not be excessive than crime. Physical punishment,
death penalty should not be awarded in general crimes.

3. Positive School:
By the nineteenth century certain French doctors had successfully
established that it was neither ‘free will’ of the offender nor his innate
depravity which actuated him to commit crime, but the real cause of
criminality lay in anthropological features of the criminals. Some
phrenologist tried to demonstrate the organic functioning of brain and
established the relationship between criminality and the structure and
functioning of the brain. This led to the emergence of positive school of
criminology. The advocates of positive school attributed criminality
into four distinct types, namely,
i. Physical criminal type
ii. Mental type
iii. Psychopath type, and
iv. Socio-economic disadvantage type
There exponents of this school were three eminent Italian
criminologists, namely, Cesare Lombroso, Raffaele Garofalo and Enrico
Ferri. It is for this reason that this school is also called the Italian School
of Criminology.
Cesare Lombroso (1836 – 1909)
The first attempt to understand the personality of offender in physical
terms was made my Lombroso, who is also regarded as the originator
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of modern criminology. He was educated in medicine and became a
specialist in psychiatry. Cesare Lombroso was the first to employ
scientific methods in explaining criminal behavior and shifted the
emphasis from crime to criminal. He adopted an objective and
empirical approach to the study of criminals through is anthropological
experiments. After studying the physical characteristics of criminals, he
came to a conclusion that criminals were physically inferior in the
standard of growth and therefore, developed a tendency for inferior
acts. He further generalized that criminal are less sensitive to pain and
therefore, they have little regard for the suffering of others. He
classified criminals into three main categories:
i. The Atavist or hereditary criminals – Lombroso also termed them
as ‘born-criminals’. In his opinion born-criminals were a distinct
type who could not refrain from indulging in criminality and
environment had no relevance whatsoever to the crimes
committed by the Atavist. He considered these criminals as
incorrigible, i.e., beyond reformation. According to him, offender
or the criminal reflected a reversion to an early and more
primitive stage of mankind when individuals were both mentally
and physically inferior. They resembled those of apes and
possessed ape-like characteristics. He enumerated as many as
sixteen physical abnormalities of criminal some of which were of
peculiar size and shape of head, eye, enlarged jaw and cheek
bones, fleshy lips, abnormal teeth, long or flat chin, retreating
forehead, dark skin, twisted nose and so on.
ii. Insane Criminals – The second category of criminals according
to Lombroso was insane criminals who resorted to criminality on
account of certain mental depravity or disorder.
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iii. Criminoids – These were the third category of criminals according
to him. The criminals of this category were physical criminal type
and had tendency to commit crime in order to overcome their
inferiority in order to meet the needs of survival.
While analyzing cause of crime, Lombroso laid great emphasis on the
biological nature of human behavior and thus, indirectly drew
attention of criminologists to the impact of environment on crime
causation. The importance of Lombroso’s work lies in its scientific
methodology and his rejection of ‘free-will’ theory.
Enrico Ferri (1856 – 1928)
He was another chief exponent of the positive school of
criminology. Ferri challenged Lombrosian view of criminality. Through
his research, he proved that mere biological reasons were not enough
to account for criminality. He firmly believed that other factors such as
emotional reaction, social infirmity or geographical conditions also play
a vital role in determining criminal tendencies in men. The major
contribution of Ferri to criminology is in his “Law of Criminal
Saturation”. This theory presupposes that the crime is the synthetic
product of three main factors:
i. Physical or geographical;
ii. Anthropological; and
iii. Psychological or social.
Thus, Ferri emphasized that criminal behavior is an outcome of a
variety of factors having their combined effect on the individual.
According to him, social change, which is inevitable in a dynamic
society; results in disharmony, conflict, and cultural variations. As a
result of this, social disorganization takes place and traditional patterns
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of social control mechanism totally break down. In the wake of such
rapid social changes, the incidence of crime is bound to increase
tremendously.
Ferri emphasized that a criminal should be treated as a product of the
conditions which played his life. Therefore, the basic purpose of crime
prevention programme should be to remove conditions making for
crime. He worked out five-fold classification of criminals, namely:
i. Born criminals;
ii. Occasional criminals;
iii. Passionate criminals;
iv. Insane criminals; and
v. Habitual criminals.
He suggested an intensive programme of crime prevention and
recommended a series of measures for treatment of offenders. He
asserted that punishment could be one of the possible methods of
reforming the criminal. He favored indeterminate sentence keeping in
view the possible chances of inmate’s re-adjustment in the community.
Raffaele Garofalo (1852 – 1934)
Raffaele Garofalo was one of the three main exponents of positive
school of criminology. Born in Naples in 1852, he started his career as a
Magistrate in Italian Courts and rose to the position on Minister of
Justice in 1903. He stressed the need for a closer study of the
circumstances and living condition of criminals. He firmly believed that
a criminal is a creature of his own environment. Rejecting the classical
theory of free-will as a cause of crime, Garofalo defined crime as an act
which offends the sentiments of pity and probity possessed by an
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average person and which are injurious to the society. He emphasized
that lack of pity generates crime against person while lack of probity
leads to crime against property. As a classification of criminals, he
rejected Ferri’s classification and placed offenders into four main
categories, namely;
i. Murderers whom he called “endemic” criminals lacking
sentiments of pity and probity;
ii. Violent criminals who are affected by environmental influences
such as prejudice of honor, politics and religion indicating lack of
pity;
iii. Criminals lacking in sentiment of probity such as thieves; and
iv. Lascivious or lustful criminals who commit crimes against sex and
chastity. They have deficient moral perception.
As a member of the Italian judiciary, Garofalo was well acquainted with
the then existing criminal law and procedure in the administration of
criminal justice and recommended death, imprisonment for life or
transportation and reparation as three modes of punishment for
criminals. He strongly pleaded for elimination of habitual offenders
who were incapable of social adaption as a measure of social defense.
Gabriel Tarde (1843 – 94)
Gabriel Tarde was a critic of positive school of criminology. He asserted
that influence of social environment was most emphatic on the
criminal behavior and the biological and physical factors only had a
casual effect on it. He pointed out that law of insertion and imitation
was responsible for the incidence of crime. The members of society are
prone to imitate the behaviour of their associates. Likewise, the
inferior members have the tendency to imitate their superiors.
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Consequently, as regards crimes, the beginners have a tendency to
imitate the acts of habitual criminals and thus they lend into
criminality. Tarde classified criminals into urban and rural types and
expressed a view that crimes in urban areas are far more serious in
nature than those in rural places.
Trade in his theory of ‘imitation and suggestions’ pointed out that
criminality is learnt through three distinct laws of imitation, i.e.,
i. The law of close contact or association,
ii. Inferiors imitating their superiors, and
iii. The law of insertion.

4. Neo-Classical School:

Neo classical school of criminology developed as a compromised

between classical and positivist school of criminology. Before neo
classical school all offenders were treated same no matter what is their
age , mental condition etc. This was unjust because child and insane
person does not have same understanding to distinguish between right
and wrong.
Neo- classical school rejected the free will theory and
focused on the nature of crime more than individual. Neo classical
school of criminologist distinguish between the first offender and
habitual offender. Criminologist of Neo- Classical school believe in
scientific evidence to determine a just punishment for crimes.
It did not take long for thinkers to realize that the exponents of
classical school faultered in their approach in ignoring the individual
differences under certain situations and treating first offenders and
habitual alike on basis of similarity of act or crime. During the classical
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era, the imposition of sentence was considered as a routine exercise,
however, during the neo-classical era, the need for variation in
sentencing on the basis of age, sex, mental conditions, etc. was
recognized. The neo-classist asserted that offenders to certain
categories, such as, minors, idiots, insane or incompetent had to be
treated leniently in matters of punishment irrespective of the similarity
of their criminal act, because these people were incapable of
understanding the difference between right and wrong. The main
tenets of the neo – classical school of criminology are as:

• Neo-classists approached the study of criminology on scientific

lines by recognizing that certain extenuating situations or mental
disorders deprive a person of his normal capacity to control his
conduct. Thus, they justified mitigation of equal punishment in
cases of certain psychopathic offenders.
• Neo-classists were the first to bring out a distinction between the
first-time offenders and recidivist. They supported
individualization of offender and treatment methods which
required the punishment to suit the psychopathic circumstances
of the accused.
• The advocates of this school started with the assumption that
man acting on reason and intelligence is self-determining person
and therefore, is responsible for his conduct. But those lacking
normal intelligence or having some mental depravities are
irresponsible to their conduct and therefore, should be treated
differently from the responsible offenders.
• Thought the neo-classists recommended lenient treatment for
irresponsible offenders, they certainly believed that every
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offender, whether responsible or irresponsible, should be kept
segregated from the society.
• It is through this school that attention of criminologists was drawn
for the first time towards the fact that all crimes do have a cause.
• Neo-classists adopted subjective approach to criminology and
concentrated their attention on the conditions under which an
individual commits crime.
The main contribution of this school lies in the fact hat it came out with
certain concessions in the ‘free will’ theory and suggested that an
individual might commit crime due to certain extenuating
circumstances which should be duly taken into consideration at the
time of awarding punishment. As to the shortcomings of this school, it
must be stated that the exponents of this school believed that the
criminal, whether responsible or irresponsible, is a menace to the
society and therefore, needs to be eliminated from it.

5. Sociological Criminology:

Sociological school was emerged in the 20 TH century and thus school

thought is whenever a person is commit crime just because of the
external factors as no person is born criminal and this school rejected
the born criminal concept. As criminal behavior is learnt and
conditioned by the social environment.
The main causes of crime as
o Poverty
o Bad association
o Broken family environment
This school explains that society plays a very important role in
causation of crime as poverty also influence the person to commit a
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crime as when a person is not able to meet their basic needs then he
will commit the crime. Social factors influence a person to commit the
crime. Social factors influence a person to commit a crime.
Example-
Social learning theory:- This theory says that people learn criminal
behavior from the people around them
Social conflict theory: – This theory says that class warfare is
responsible for the crime.
The field of criminology is the field that studies both crime and criminal
punishment from the confluence of social phenomena. The study of
sociology is the study of social life, social change, and the social factors
that impact human behavior. As such, the field of sociological
criminology is best defined as the theory that there are societal
influences that act to cause a person to commit crime.
Types of Crimes
There are a variety of crimes that are studied by law enforcement
professionals in the field of criminology. These crimes include:
• Violent crimes: Violence is defined under the law as being
synonymous to ''physical force'' and often the two terms are used
interchangeably. Violent crimes include crimes of homicide,
aggravated battery, sexual-assaults, and even arsons where
serious injuries occur. There are many crimes of force that fall into
the violent crime category.
• Property crimes: Property crimes are defined under the law as
those involving the loss or damage of personal property without
the influence of physical violence. Whereas a robbery with
aggravation would be a violent crime, burglary, theft, vandalism,
or even arson without personal injury would be qualified in the
property crime category.
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• White-collar crime: White-collar crimes are those that typically
involve financial losses for a company or employer. These are not
victimless crimes because financial losses might result in costs for
investors and business owners alike. Some examples of white-
collar crimes include fraud and embezzlement.
• Organized crime: Organized crime can best be defined as criminal
enterprises that have a level of organization and a hierarchy
involving a criminal network. Much of the modern focus involving
organized crime involves human trafficking, drug trafficking,
counterfeiting, and money laundering.
• Victimless crime: A victimless crime, as defined by the law, is one
where both people involved in the crime consent to the illicit
activity. Examples of victimless crimes include personal drug use,
prostitution, illegal gambling, and even assisted suicide in some
cases. There are victims in some of these crimes, mainly family
members of the person involved in the crime; however, the
crimes are considered to be victimless because of the consent of
the parties involved.
6. Multifactor School:
The multi-factor school is the most popular school. The supporters of
this school say that there are many causes of crimes. According to
them, there is no definite scientific theory of crime.
Despite repeated attempts on the part of criminologists propounding
different views to formulate a singular theoretical explanation for
criminal behaviour, no hypothesis could answer the issue satisfactorily .
Eventually, the sociologists made use of ‘multiple-factor approach’ to
explain the causation of crime.
The supporters of this view believe that crime is a product of a
combination of a variety of factors which cannot be narrated in terms
of general propositions. This view finds support from the writings of
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eminent American criminologist William Healy, expressing his views on
multiple causation theory, Prof. Healy observed that it is not one or
two factors which turn a man delinquent but it is a combination of
many more factors—say eight or ten—which cumulatively influence
him to follow criminal conduct.
(1) Mobility:
The rapid growth of industrialisation and urbanisation in recent years
has led to expansion of means of communication, travel facilities and
propagation of views through press and platform. Consequently,
human interaction has gone beyond intimate associations with
increased chances of mobility.
(2) Culture Conflicts:
In a dynamic society social change is an inevitable phenomenon. The
impact of modernisation, urbanisation and industrialisation in modern
dynamic society may sometimes result in social disorganisation and
this may lead to culture conflicts between different sections of society.
The difference may be between old and new values, local and
imported values and traditional values and the government imposed
values.
(3) Family Background:
Sutherland holds that out of all the social processes, the family
background has perhaps the greatest influence on criminal behaviour
of the offender. The reason being that children spend most of their
time with their parents and relatives within the family. Children are apt
to imbibe criminal tendencies, if they find their parents or members of
the family behaving in a similar manner.
(4) Political Ideology:
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It is well known that the Parliamentarians who are law-makers of the
country are also politicians. They succeed in mobilising public opinion
in the desired way through the media of press and platform and finally
enact suitable laws to support their policies. Thus, political ideologies
gain strength through legislative process thereby directly influencing
the criminal patterns in a given society.
(5) Religion and Crime:
The changes in religious ideologies also have a direct bearing on
incidence of crime in a particular region. It has been rightly said that
morality can best be preserved in a society through the institution of
religion. The bond of religion keeps persons within their limits and
helps them to keep away from sinful and criminal acts.
The declining influence of religion in modern times has tended to leave
men free to do as they like without any restraint or fear. Consequently,
they do not hesitate to resort to criminality even for petty materialistic
gains. Looking to the present day Indian conditions, things seem to be
still worse.
(6) Economic Conditions:
Economic conditions also influence criminality to a considerable extent.
Present day industrial progress, economic growth and urbanisation
have paralysed the Indian domestic life. The institution of family has
disintegrated to such an extent that control of parents over their wards
has weakened thus leaving them without any surveillance.
Under the circumstances, those who lack self-control fall an easy prey
to criminality. The employment of women and their other outdoor
activities have enhanced the opportunities for sex crime. Again crimes
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such as hoarding, undue profiteering, black-marketing, etc., are
essentially an outcome of economic changes.
(7) Ecology of Crime:
Ecology is the study of people and institutions in relation to
environment. Topographical conditions also affect the incidence of
crime in a particular region or locality. After a series of researches
Enrico Ferri, the eminent Italian criminologist analysed the crime index
of his country and concluded that in the same country the crime rate
varies considerably from one region to another.
Some typical crimes are more peculiar to a particular region than other
parts of the country. Similar observations were made by criminologists
in France, England and U.S.A. which sufficiently established the
influence of ecology on crime. It is well known that violation of
customs, excise and drug laws are more common in border areas and
coastal regions than in plains. Illegal felling of trees and violation of
forest laws is an everyday occurrence in forest regions.
(8) Influence of Media:
The importance of mass media in influencing human mind has been
repeatedly emphasised by some experts. Experience has shown that
television and films have the maximum impact on the viewers due to
combined audio-visual impact. Most of serials or films shown on
television or cinema halls depict scenes of violence which adversely
affect the viewers, particularly the young boys and girls who often tend
to imitate the same in their real life situations.
The rising incidence of juvenile delinquency is essentially the result of
evil effect of violence and vulgarism and undesirable sex exposures
depicted in movies or television. Likewise, pornographic literature also
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has an unwholesome influence on the impressionable minds of the
youth which generates criminality among them.