Introduction To Criminology

DR. Ayman Elzeiny ( Egypt)

A-why criminology?(the importance of criminology)You may ask why do people get paid to study crime and criminal behavior , and why do people engage in this area of study ?

There are a variety of answers to these questions, built around many kinds of concerns like the anxiety, anger, and fear that are common responses to crime .(1)

the desire to predict and control crime; the hope of preventing crime through individual and social reform the wish to understand and explain crime and societal reactions to it; and the simple desire to learn more about crime and what it can tell us about our society .(1)

__________________________(1) - Slwaski, Carol J. "Crime Causation: Toward a Field Synthesis." Criminology (February 1971), pp: 375-396.- Steffensmeier, Darreli J., and Robert M. Terry, Eds. Examining Deviance Experimentally: Selected Readings. Port Washington, N.Y.: Alfred, 1975, pp: 35-39.- Trassler, Gordon. The Explanation of Criminality. London: Routledge, 1962, pp: 75-86.- Turk, Austin T. "The Mythology of Crime in America." Criminology 8 (February 1971),pp: 397-411.- Void, George B. Theoretical Criminology. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979pp: 303-306.- Wheeler, Stanton. "Criminal Statistics: A Reformulation of the Problem." Jour-nal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science 58 (September 1967), pp:317-324.- Wilkins, Leslie T. Social Deviance: Social Policy, Action and Research. Engle-wood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1965 pp: 45-49.

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Criminologists disagree, sometimes violently, about which of these kinds of concerns are most legitimate and important. So Criminology was the composite result of the thinking and endeavors of many people, ant them desire to the understanding of individual behavior and deviation and the structuring of the social order .

B – Definition of Criminology :

Criminology can be simply defined as the study of the crime .

Webster(1959), define the criminology that "the scientific study of crime and criminals . "

However, we must also acknowledge that this definition is as inadequate as it is succinct .

Edwin Sutherland has offered what remains a more or less acceptable definition of criminology, one that is quoted with approval by Wolfgang and Ferracuti :

" Criminology is the body of knowledge regarding crime as a social phenomenon. It includes within its scope the process of making laws, of breaking laws, and of reacting toward the breaking of laws . The objective of criminology is the development of a body of general and verified principles and other types of knowledge regarding this process of law, crime, and treatment " .

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To this definition, Wolfgang and Ferracuti append a note that "the term criminology should be used at designate a body of scientific knowledge about crime (emphasis in original ).

Some might raise the question whether criminology is the body of knowledge on the phenomenon of crime or the study of it. Thorsten Sellin suggests that the term be used to designate both "the body of scientific knowledge and the deliberate pursuit of such knowledge." (1)

However criminology is a science which is widely studied for its' own sake, just like other sciences; crime and criminals are not a bit less interesting than stars or microbes.

But this point of view is secondary as compared with the practical aspect, just as in the case of medical science. Indeed, comparison with the latter repeatedly suggests itself.

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(1) Wilson Thomas P. "Conceptions of Interaction and Forms of Sociological Expla-nation." American Sociological Review 35 (August 1970),pp: 697-710.- George Rusche and Otto Kirchheimer, Punishment and Social Structure (New York: Columbia University Press, 1939), p. 50.- Rudoff, Alvin. "The Soaring Crime Rate: An Etiological View." Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science (December 1971), pp : 543- 547.Cohen, Albert K. "Sociological Research in Juvenile Delinquency." American Journal of Ortho-Psychiatry 27 (October 1957), pp:781-788.- Cohen, Morris R., and Ernest Nagel. An Introduction to Logic and Scientific Method. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1934, pp:131-154.

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Criminology ought before anything to show humanity the way to combat, and especially, prevent, crime. What is required more than anything is sound knowledge, whereas up to the present we have had far too much of dogma and dilettantism. Whoever is in close touch with what is called socio-pathological phenomena should make a note of this specially criminal jurists, whose knowledge of the law imperatively needs to be supplemented with that of the subject-matter with which it has to deal. (1)

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(1) Hood, Roger, and Richard Sparks. Key Issues in Criminology. New York: World University Library, 1970, pp:45-49.- Jeffery, Clarence Ray. "The Historical Development in Criminology." In Hermann Mannheim, Ed., Pioneers in Criminology. Montclair, N.J.: Patterson Smith, 1966, pp:102-109.- Jones, David A. Crime and Criminal Responsibility. Chicago: Nelson Hall, 1978, pp:67-69.- Kadish, Sanford H., and Monrad G. Paulsen. Criminal Law and Its Processes. 3rd ed. Boston: Little, Brown, 1975, pp:77-81.- Korn, Richard R., and Lloyd W. McCorkle. Criminology and Penology. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1959, pp:131-134.- Lafave, Wayne R., and Austin W. Scott, Jr. Criminal Law. St. Paul, Minn.: West, 1972, pp:161-164.Mannheim, Hermann. Comparative Criminology. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1965, pp:32-35.Pound, Roscoe. The Spirit of the Common Law. Boston: Beacon, 1963, p:35.- Reckless, Walter C. "American Criminology." Criminology 8 (May 1970), pp:4-20.- Schafer, Stephen. Theories in Criminology. New York: Random House, 1969, pp:122-126.- Schur, Edwin M. Law and Society. New York: Random House, 1969, pp:34-38.- Bell, Daniel. "Crime as an American Way of Life." Antioch Review 13 (June 1953),pp: 38-39.- Black, Donald J. "Production of Crime Rates." American Sociological Review 35 (August 1970), pp:733-748.- Slwaski, Carol J. "Crime Causation: Toward a Field Synthesis." Criminology (February 1971), pp: 375-396. - Radzinowicz, Sir Leon, and Joan King. The Growth of Crime: The International Experience. New York: Basic Books, 1977.- Robison, Sophia M. "A Critical View of the Uniform Crime Reports." Michigan Law Review 54 (April 1966), 1031-1054.

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C :The nature of criminological study :

Criminology is concerned with the scientific study of crime. It is essentially a multi-disciplinary study. The study of crime is carried out by many scholars from the point of view of their different disciplines, and sometimes (though rarely and with difficulty) through interdisciplinary studies.

Criminology isn't be confused with the science of criminal detection or forensic science and forensic pathology. There is no direct connection between the detection of crime and the study of crimes and criminal behavior carried out by criminologists, though there may sometimes be an indirect connection. Forensic scientists and pathologists serve the needs of the police and the courts in crime detection and crime prevention. Indirectly, however, their work may throw some valuable light on criminal behavior in ways which will be of interest to the criminologist, e.g. regarding the patterns of homicide, the battered baby syndrome and the study of alcoholism and drug abuse in relation to crime. The criminologist is concerned more with how and why crimes come to be committed rather than who did it, and providing proof of guilt.

Criminology is best seen as a social science concerned with those aspects of human behavior regarded as criminal because they are prohibited by the criminal

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law, together with such aspects of socially deviant behavior as are closely related to crime and may usefully be studied in this connection. The main focus of the criminologist should remain on criminal behavior as an aspect of social behavior, including the way people come to be perceived and dealt with as offenders. The study can best be viewed as limited by the range of behavior currently dealt with as criminal because it is prohibited by the current criminal law. the list of crimes is not immutable, however, and historically many changes have occurred in the list of criminal prohibitions. In our time changes have been made or are seen as desirable in order to reflect changes in public sentiment or judgments of public needs and values.

The criminologist may properly be concerned to study fringe areas, 'deviant' behavior which is not actually criminal, in order to throw light on the gaps in the criminal law or to show that some closely related types of behavior which are regarded as criminal should no longer be so defined. The sociologist describes such behavior as socially deviant behavior, and sometimes studies aspects of socially deviant behavior in their own right, as it were. Studies of alcoholism, drug abuse, gambling and sexual behavior provide examples, as do studies of certain 'white-collar' business or economic activities.

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Such studies may throw light on the true nature of the behavior in question and whether the criminal law should or should not intervene.

When we say that criminology should limit its scope to the study of conduct which is criminal because it contravenes the criminal law in one or more of its prohibitions, we do not mean that in studying such behavior the criminologist must stick slavishly to the legal definitions and descriptions of what is a criminal offence. Sometimes criminologists find it useful to go outside the strict legal definitions in order to study a particular type of behavior .

A word of warning must be uttered about the tendency of some criminologists to stray too far from the focus or field of interest described thus far, and to include in their discussion a much wider range of conduct which is in their view anti-social, immoral and contrary to the public interest, and to make public condemnations of such behavior as criminologists. Certain aspects of the discussion of 'white-collar' crime frequently partake of this character. There is a danger here of intellectual and indeed moral confusion. Simply because one disapproves of certain behavior does not make it criminal if the law still permits it, however reprehensible the behavior may be.

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Criminologists would be well advised to confine their observations and studies to the consideration of behavior already legally defined as criminal. This subject is large enough by any standard .

At the same time one should recognise the so-called 'over-reach' of the criminal law. the discussion usually focuses on areas of private morality including sexual behavior, such as homosexual behavior, prostitution and drug abuse, and pornography.

The criminal law has been used in recent years to help regulate such subjects as the pollution of the environment, and many other matters of public interest and social concern.

The extent and range of criminology's interests and concerns includes all the various aspects of criminal behavior, though of course individual criminologists have their own special interests. Criminology includes the study of the general crime situation in this country, and also the study of regional differences observed between different parts of the country, and local differences.(1)

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(1) Campbell, Donald T., and Julian C. Stanley. Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Designs for Research. Skokie, III.: Rand McNally, 1963, pp:211-231.- Circourel, Aaron V. Method and Measurement in Sociology. New York: Free Press, 1965, pp:156-158.- Clinard, Marshall B. "Contributions of Sociology to Understanding Deviant Behavior." British Journal of Delinquency 13 (October 1962), pp:110-129.

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The variation in the incidence or distribution of crime between, say, the north of Egypt and the south, between urban areas and rural areas, is of great interest.

What is needed desperately in criminology is some reliable means of classifying offences and offenders for the purpose of study. A typology of crime is needed, classifying and subdividing criminal behavior in the same way as the natural scientist has done in developing a taxonomy in relation to his subject. Some attempts have been made in this direction by criminologists but so far to little effect . (1)

__________________________(1) F. H. McCHmock and E. Gibson, Robbery in London (1961); F. H. McClintock, Crimes of Violence (1963) , pp: 78-80 .- F. H. McClintock and N. H. Avision, Crime in England and Wales (1968); J. E. Hall Williams, 'The neglect of incest: a criminologist's view' Medicine, Science and Law (1974) Vol. 14, No. I, pp. 64 , pp. 140-142 .- Slwaski, Carol J. "Crime Causation: Toward a Field Synthesis." Criminology (February 1971), pp : 375-396.- Steffensmeier, Darreli J., and Robert M. Terry, Eds. Examining Deviance Experi-mentally: Selected Readings. Port Washington, N.Y.: Alfred, 1975 pp. 76-79 .- Trassler, Gordon. The Explanation of Criminality. London: Routledge, 1962, p:180- Turk, Austin T. "The Mythology of Crime in America." Criminology 8 (February 1971), pp: 397-411.- Void, George B. Theoretical Criminology. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1979,pp:342-344 .- Wheeler, Stanton. "Criminal Statistics: A Reformulation of the Problem." Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science 58 (September 1967), pp: 317-324.- Wilkins, Leslie T. Social Deviance: Social Policy, Action and Research. Engle-wood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1965 pp. 170-173.- Wilson Thomas P. "Conceptions of Interaction and Forms of Sociological Expla-nation." American Sociological Review 35 (August 1970),pp: 697-710.- Robison, Sophia M. "A Critical View of the Uniform Crime Reports." Michigan Law Review 54 (April 1966), pp:1031-1054.- Rosenberg, Morris. The Logic of Survey Analysis. New York: Basic Books, 1968, pp:99- 103.- Rudoff, Alvin. "The Soaring Crime Rate: An Etiological View." Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science (December 1971), pp: 543—547.

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The criminologist has traditionally been concerned to discover the causes of crime insofar as they can be known, or, to put it less debate ably, the explanation for criminal behavior to discover what factors are associated with criminal behavior, to explore the nature of such behavior with a view to explaining it but not of course justifying it. Nowadays the concept of cause should generally speaking be avoided: this is because in the social sciences it is now regarded as outmoded and unacceptable to speak in such terms; since everything is related to everything else we can never know the causes. But there are still some distinguished criminologists who insist on the search for a causal theory. Without a causal theory, it is argued, criminology becomes empty rhetoric.(1)

Certainly it may not be sufficient simply to demonstrate statistical relationships between certain factors and criminal behavior. It is also abundantly clear that attempts in the past to develop single-cause theories of criminal behavior have been highly unsuccessful. Such 'monolithic' theories belong to the stone-age period of criminology .

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(1) Akers, Ronald L. "Problems in the Sociology of Deviance: Social Definitions." Social Forces (June 1968), pp: 455-465.- Barnes, Harry E., and Negley K. Teeters. New Horizons in Criminology. 2d ed. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:-Prentice-Hall, 1951, pp: 46-55 . Becker, Howard S. Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance. New York: Free Press, 1963, pp: 67-79 .

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The history of criminology is littered with the corpses of dead theories about crime, and a great deal of effort has been expended in disproving them. Such negative truths are not, however, without value. Even negative kinds of knowledge, i.e. knowing that such and such is not true, provide some assistance in building up a picture of the nature of crime and expanding our understanding of offenders.

Probably the basic error lying behind the failure of the monolithic theories has been the assumption that there is such a thing as 'criminal behavior' or 'criminality', viewing it as some kind of pathological entity. Lady Wootton has warned against the adoption of such a simplistic approach. It is like trying to explain the cause of headaches by a single explanation, she says. No medical man would dream of searching for a single explanation. The varieties of criminal behavior are probably just as numerous as the types of headaches. We should not expect a single explanation.(1)

___________________(1) Abrahamsen, David. Crime and the Human Mind. New York: Columbia University Press,1944.- "Family Tension, Basic Cause of Criminal Behavior," Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology 20 (September-October 1949), 330-43.- The Road to Emotional Maturity. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall,1958, pp: 46-54. - The Psychology of Crime. New York: Columbia University Press, 1960, pp: 546-554.Ackerman, Nathan W. The Psychodynamics of Family Life: Diagnosis and Treatment of Family Relationships. New York: Basic Books, 1958, pp: 66-75.- "Family Therapy," in Silvano Arieti, ed., American Handbook of Psychiatry, vol. III. New York: Basic Books, 1966, pp: 79-85.Adams, L.R. "An Experimental Evaluation of the Adequacy of Differential Association Theory and a Theoretical Formulation of a Learning Theory of Criminal Behavior," unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Florida State University, Tallahassee, 1971, pp: 89-95.

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Modern drugs can be applied which are known to be effective for certain conditions however caused. If one does not work, another can be tried. Here the connection between criminological study and 'treatment' of offenders must be faced. One is bound to say that there is no necessary connection between criminological knowledge and the measures applied by society in dealing with offenders or protecting its members from crime. Indeed this has been one of the major criticisms of criminology expressed in recent years. Criminology has also been under attack for being based on a scientific model which is said to be inappropriate for such a human study. It may be useful to go into this a little deeper.(1)

As for the demand that criminologists should cease to pretend that they are not inspired by value judgments of certain kinds, one is bound to point out that there has been no such pretence by some of the greatest figures in the field in the past .

_________________(1) Clinard Marshall B. "Sociologists and American Criminology." Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science 41 (January 1951), pp: 549-577.- Erikson, Kai T. Wayward Puritans: A Study in the Sociology of Deviance. New York: Wiley, 1966, pp: 566-569.- Hills, Stuart L. Crime, Power, and Morality: The Criminal Law Process in the United States. Scranton, Pa.: Chandler, 1971, pp: 59-65."Differential Association and Learning Principles Revisited," Social Problems 20 (Spring 1973), pp:58-69.- AlCHORN, August. Wayward Youth. New York: Viking, 1935; originally published in Vienna, 1925, pp: 331-335.

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It was never in doubt where his sympathies lay, and the idea of an antiseptic value-free criminology was not one of them.

One difficulty which criminlogists must face, however, is that when it comes to making recommendations for practical action, there is very little they can say derived from their scientific studies, and they are left to draw conclusions which derive more from their own particular system of values or political or social philosophy than from any other source.

One might conclude from this discussion that criminology should be abolished. Its raison d'etre has been demolished from the left and from the right. It no longer has a leg to stand on. That is not the view taken here. There is indeed a viable future for criminology . It lies in the careful and patient exploration of the phenomena of crime, as experienced in all societies but particularly in our own, with as much objectivity as can be mustered, but with a careful selection of objectives and a realistic assessment of the results.

Only in this way can society be informed and instructed, guided and advised, about the massive and elusive nature of the crime problem. Increasingly in modern criminology one sees the connection with certain other types of study, for example, in the field of anthropology, human geography, urban sociology,

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biological medicine, and so on. It may well be the case that the insights and ideas of criminologists were too narrowly based in the past and failed to link up with and derive benefit from these wider studies. There is no longer any excuse for such isolation.

Indeed at least some reciprocal benefits flowing the other way in that general sociology may derive great benefit from the work of sociological criminologists . Clearly there is room for a mutual exchange in exploring such a complex concept as crime, and such puzzling behavior as that of offenders. We can no longer afford the luxury of study in isolation from one another's work. This isolation has developed as a result of increasing specialisation, but was not always the case in the past, when knowledge itself was more limited but what was known was more generally shared. (1)

________________(1)Tappan, Paul. Crime, Justice, and Correction. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1960.- Wolfgang, Marvin E. "Criminology and the Criminologist." Journal of CriminalLaw, Criminology, and Police Science 54 (June 1963),pp: 155-162. - Abrahamsen, David. Who Are the Guilty? New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1952, pp: 59.Clinard Marshall B. "Sociologists and American Criminology." Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science 41 (January 1951), pp: 549-577.- Erikson, Kai T. Wayward Puritans: A Study in the Sociology of Deviance. New York: Wiley, 1966, pp: 566-569.- Hills, Stuart L. Crime, Power, and Morality: The Criminal Law Process in the United States. Scranton, Pa.: Chandler, 1971, pp: 59-65."Differential Association and Learning Principles Revisited," Social Problems 20 (Spring 1973), pp:58-69.- AlCHORN, August. Wayward Youth. New York: Viking, 1935; originally published in Vienna, 1925, pp: 331-335.- Rosenberg, Morris. The Logic of Survey Analysis. New York: Basic Books, 1968.

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D - The content of criminology:

We suggest that criminology might be said to encompass the following:

1.The process by which certain types of behavior : are criminalized that is, made illegal whether by legislative or administrative action.

2.Social control: the process by which formal and informal measures are taken in a society to control the activities of people so that criminal law is not violated.

3.Preventive measures of an environmental or ecological nature taken in a society or community to diminish the opportunities, likelihood, or temptations for criminal behavior.

4.Criminal behavior: the settings, statistics on incidence and frequency, modus operandi, and consequences.

5.Criminogenesis:the factors present in individuals, groups, or a society that make law-breaking more likely or less so; the social-structural components of a society that induce or reduce crime.

6. The offender : who commits crimes, why, and with what rationalizations.

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7.The police : their roles, duties, privileges, and responsibilities ; their place in the social control apparatus and in the prevention of crime and apprehension of offenders.

8.The criminal justice system: the roles of prosecutors, judges, juries and defense counsel; the "rules of the game" for determining innocence or guilt of the accused.

9. corrections: the nature of punishment imposed upon the guilty offender, including probation, parole, fines, incarceration, corporal and capital punishment, exile , and others; also reform and rehabilitation, and the efficacy of punishment as deterrence.

10 . Victimology : the study of the victims of crime, their relationship if any to offenders; victim-proneness, victim restitution, and other aspects of victimization.

The Sub-Sciences of Criminology consists of:

(1) Criminal anthropology: the science of criminal man (somatic), a section of natural science; anthropology being sometimes called 'the last chapter of zoology'. It attempts to answer such questions as: what peculiar bodily-characteristics has the criminal What relation is there between race and criminality? etc.

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(2) Criminal sociology: the science of criminality as a social phenomenon. Its principal- concern is, therefore, to find out to what extent the causes of criminality have their origin in society (social etiology). In a wider sense, the study of physical (geographical, climatological, and meteorological) environment forms also a part of this sub-section.

(3)Criminal psychology: the science of psychological phenomena in the field of crime. The chief subject-matter of its study is the psychology of the criminal, e.g. to, what type or types he belongs; further, differentiation -according to sex, age and race; and finally, collective or crowd-criminality. Further, what may be termed the 'psychology of crime (motives and checks) belongs to this section. Lastly, the psychology of the other persons(witnesses, judge, counsel, etc.) and the psychology of the confession.

(4)Criminal psycho-and neuropathology:the science of the psychopathic or neurotic criminal.

(5)Penology: the science of the origin and development of punishment, its significance and utility.

These five sections together constitute theoretical or 'pure' criminology (reine Wissenschaft). Founded on these, we have, further:

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(1)Applied criminology: criminal hygiene and criminal policy. Taking the conception of the science of criminology in its widest sense, we should also include in it.

(2) Criminalisticss (police science) : an applied science whose purpose is to trace the technique of crime and its detection. This Science is a combination of psychology of crime and the criminal, and of chemistry, physics, knowledge of goods and materials, graphology, etc.(1)

E - Scientific Foundations of Criminology:

The birth of criminology as science is usually traced to nineteenth-century Europe. By the latter half of that century the scientific revolution was well underway. Armchair philosophizing was grudgingly giving way to the logic and methodology of science. Observation, measurement, and experimentation became the basic tools of the scientific method, and their use in the study of human behavior heralded the development of disciplines now taken for granted biology, anthropology , psychology, sociology, political science, and statistics.

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(1)Bloch, Herbert A., and Gilbert Geis. Man, Crime, and Society. New York: Random House, 1962, pp: 46-48. - Akers, Ronald. Deviant Behavior: A Social Learning Approach. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth, 1973, pp: 34-36.

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F- The theoretical and applied criminology:

Division between theory and application in the behavioral sciences is almost invariably artificial. While it is possible to speak of a special area of "theo-retical criminology" or "criminological theory," this refers to that subsection of the discipline involved in the generation of explanations for behavior, patterns of conduct, and events. It is not meant to contrast with "practical" or "applied" criminology.(1)

_______________(1) Empey, L T., and M. L. Erickson. "Hidden Delinquency and Social Status." Social Forces 44 (June 1966),pp: 546-554.- Erikson, Kai T. "A Comment on Disguised Observation in Sociology." Social Problems 14 (Summer 1966), pp:366-373. ;- Ferdinand, Theodore N. Typologies of Delinquency: A Critical Analysis. New York: Random House, 1966, pp:344-356 .- Gold, Martin. "Undetected Delinquent Behavior." Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, (1966), pp: 27-46. . ..- Greenberg, David F., Ronald C. Kessler, and Charles H. Logan. "A Panel Model of Crime Rates and Arrest Rates." American Sociological Review 44 (October 1979), pp: 843-850.- Hartung, Frank E. "A Critique of the Sociological Approach to Crime and Correction." Law and Contemporary Problems 23 (Autumn 1958): pp: 703-734.- Hirschi, Travis, and Hanan C. Selvin. Delinquency Research: An Appraisal of Analytic Methods. New York: Free Press, 1967 , pp: 57-59.- Kitsuse, John I., and Aaron V. Cicourel. "A Note on the Uses of Official Statistics." Social Problems 11 (Fall 1963), pp: 131-139.- Lejins, Peter P. "Uniform Crime Reports." Michigan Law Review 64 (December 1966) , pp: 1011-1030.- Naess, Siri. "Comparing Theories of Criminogenesis." Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 1 (July 1964), pp: 171-180.- Nejelski, Paul, Ed. Social Research in Conflict with Law and Ethics. Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger, 1976, pp: 54-57.- Nettler, Gwynn. Explaining Crime. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978, p:508.- Penick, Bettye K. Eidson, and Maurice E. B. Owens, III, Eds. Surveying Crime. Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences, 1976, pp: 16-18.- Radzinowicz, Sir Leon, and Joan King. The Growth of Crime: The International Experience. New York: Basic Books, 1977, pp: 56-58.- Robison, Sophia M. "A Critical View of the Uniform Crime Reports." Michigan Law Review 54 (April 1966), pp:1031-1054.- Rosenberg, Morris. The Logic of Survey Analysis. New York , 1968, p: 46-48.

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There is in fact, no "applied criminology," in the sense of the use of information generated by criminological research for crime prevention, ap-prehension, or treatment. Criminological theory or research might in fact be applied in these ways, but the objective of criminology is not such use but the development of a body of knowledge about crime.

Criminology might further be distinguished from criminalistics . The latter has as its objective the solving of crimes, including the apprehension of suspects and the gathering of information for trial. Criminology seeks to gather somewhat similar information, but not for the purpose of solving crimes; its purpose is to accumulate information about crime as a phenomenon. (1)

Who, then, is the criminologist? Unlike the physician and the lawyer, the criminologist is not licensed. There is no legal determination that one person is entitled to use that description of himself while another is not. Unlike the policeman, taxi driver, and numerous others, the criminologist is not easily defined by his employment: he does not have a descriptive word for himself by virtue of having a job that uses that word in its job title or description.

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(1) Rudoff, Alvin. "The Soaring Crime Rate: An Etiological View." Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science (December 1971), pp : 543—547.

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The criminologist is anyone whose pursuit is the study of crime and the accumulation of knowledge about it. Although the detective is involved in the solution of crimes, the policeman in preventing crimes and apprehending offenders, the judge in deciding important questions about evidence concerning crimes, the offender in planning and carrying out the criminal behavior, and the probation officer in handling and advising people put under supervision, none of these people is a criminologist, none is! engaged in criminology.

of course, have knowledge about crime, and in some instances their intimate knowledge may be greater than that of the criminologist and may be fortified with experience and insights.

Criminology in sum, is a scientific study and a scientifically gathered set of propositions, theories, and generalizations, and the facts upon which they are based.

G - Critical Criminology :

Critical criminology is concerned with the ways in which people, especially lower-class people, are oppressed, manipulated, and misunderstood. Critical criminology may be explained as utilizing a subordinate ideology in its analysis of crime. It gained

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prominence in the 1960s, a period of social change and social turmoil, during which some began to reexamine the issues of social fairness, equality, and justice. Scholars began to take renewed interest in a Marxist perspective for proposing solutions to what they viewed as economic and radical injustice. Questions were asked in reference to why certain behaviors came to be defined as crimes, why certain persons were more likely to engage in criminal behavior, and the extent to which the criminal justice system's processing and treatment of criminals were biased. This approach was based on the philosophies of Karl Marx, who came to be viewed as a humanistic scholar.

Critical criminology is a critique of capitalism . It encompasses a historical account of how crime, law, and social control develop within a wider social, economic, and political perspective. This is a departure from traditional criminology and suggests that traditional criminology fails to recognize how material conditions and crime evolve together.

Critical criminologists argue that common crimes, those listed in the Crime Reports, are not the ones most costly to society, either economically or socially.

They suggest also that the crimes that cost society the most such as corporate crimes, environmental crimes, fraud, violation of human rights, racism, sexism,

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dangerous working conditions that lead to serious bodily injury or death, and the manufacture and sale of hazardous products generally escape being labeled criminal.

Critical criminologists believe that crime and criminology cannot be understood apart from understanding the processes by which people come to be defined as criminal, which in turn cannot be understood apart from considerations of power and privilege, which are tied in with the society's economic system.

Critical criminologists emphasize the causal connection between political and economic status and inequality and crime. The approach argues that class stratification and inequality are due in large part to political and economic factors as they relate to antagonism between owners of the means of production and wage workers in the capitalistic system. They explain crime by stating that the criminal justice system serves as an instrument of those who own and control the means of production. These people have the power: they control the laws and therefore define as illegal those behaviors they find bothersome and exclude those behaviors they do not find to be a problem. The powerful control the enforcement of

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laws; thus, they dominate the less powerful, or subordinate, in society.

critical criminology has several basic themes.

First, it is skeptical about any theory of crime causation that is individualistic and that includes sociological as well as biological, psychological, or psychiatric theories. The problem is not to identify the characteristics of those who become criminals, with the thought of explaining the "cause" of their behavior but, rather, to identify why some are labeled criminal and others are not so labeled.

Second, it is no longer assumed that governmental agencies concerned with crime have had problems because of inadequate funds, lack of trained personnel, or for any other reason which would still attribute to the members of those agencies acceptable motives. Critical criminology questions those motives. The position is that those in power use their power to suppress the poor and racial minorities; that is, one social class uses its power to control another social class.

Third, critical criminologists question the belief that the laws represent the "consensus" of the American people. Fourth, official crime data, formerly seen as characterized by problems involving an "un fortunate

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source of error," are seen as efforts by those in power to present crime in the light that is most beneficial to those in power.

Recently, some of the theorists have moved back to the Marxist position, seeing society as a two-class system with one class, the ruling class, controlling and suppressing the other.

H - Radical Criminology :

Liberal criminologists locate crimogenic forces in the organization and routine social processes of society, yet they do not call for any change in its basic economic structure. Radicals do Radical criminologists reject the liberal doctrine, which they believe has served to strengthen the power of the State over the poor, Third World communities, and youth . To radicals, crime and criminality are manifestations of the exploitative character of monopoly capitalism, and current efforts to control crime are poorly disguised attempts to reduce freedoms and to divert attention from the real culprits those who control capital.

L - Conservative Criminology:

Conservative criminology is identified with the view that criminal law is a codification of moral precepts and that people who break the law are morally defective. Crimes are seen as threats to law-abiding

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members of society and to the social order on which their safety and security depend.

The "right" questions to ask about crime include:

How are morally defective persons produced? and How can society protect itself against them? The causes of crime are located in the characteristics of individuals. The solution to the crime problem is couched in terms of a return to basic values wherein good wins over evil. Until well into the twentieth century, most criminological thinking was conservative

M - Liberal Criminology:

Liberal ideology began to emerge as a force in criminology during the late 1930s and early 1940s, and it has remained dominant ever since. The most influential versions of liberal criminology explain criminal behavior either in terms of the way society is organized (social structure), or in terms of the way people acquire social attributes (social process).

Social structure theories include strain theory, cultural transmission theory, and conflict theory. Strain theory argues that when people find they cannot achieve valued goals through socially approved means, they experience stress and frustration, which in turn may lead to crime. Cultural transmission theory draws attention to the impact on individuals of the values,

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norms, and lifestyles to which they are routinely exposed. Delinquency and crime are learned through exposure to a crimogenic culture, a culture that encourages crime. According to conflict theory, society is characterized by conflict, and criminality is a product of differences in power exercised when people compete for scarce resources or clash over conflicting interests.

Social process theories include associational theory, control theory and labeling theory. Associational theories focus on the social-psychological aspects of group life, and assert that people become criminal through close association with others (family members, friends, co-workers) who are criminal. Control theory asserts that crime and delinquency result "when an individual's bond to society is weak or broken" . More room is allowed for individual deviance when social controls are undermined. Labeling theory suggests that some people become criminals because they are influenced by the way other people react to them. People who are repeatedly punished for "bad" behavior may eventually accept the idea that they are bad, and their subsequent behavior is consistent with that identity.(1)

__________________________________(1) Slwaski, Carol J. "Crime Causation: Toward a Field Synthesis." Criminology (February 1971), pp: 375-396.- Steffensmeier, Darreli J., and Robert M. Terry, Eds. Examining Deviance Experi-mentally: Selected Readings. Port Washington, N.Y.: Alfred, 1975, pp: 35-39.- Trassler, Gordon. The Explanation of Criminality. London: Routledge, 1962 pp: 75-79.

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N - Sociological Criminology:

Sociological criminology is the study of crime as a social phenomenon. Some authors like to put the word scientific at the beginning, but this term suggests more questions than it answers. In any case, the canons of science are rarely followed with equal zeal by all who claim to be scientists, including criminologists. However, most criminologists think of themselves as scientists because they:

(1) collect information about crime in a systematic way;

(2) formulate statements about crime that can be sup-ported or refuted by empirical evidence, or facts;

(3) make generalizations about crime on the basis of the facts; and

(4) develop theories designed to explain or account for the world of crime. (1)

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(1)Hartung, Frank E. "A Critique of the Sociological Approach to Crime and Correction." Law and Contemporary Problems 23 (Autumn 1958): pp: 703-734.- Hirschi, Travis, and Hanan C. Selvin. Delinquency Research: An Appraisal of Analytic Methods. New York: Free Press, 1967 , pp: 57-59.- Kitsuse, John I., and Aaron V. Cicourel. "A Note on the Uses of Official Statistics." Social Problems 11 (Fall 1963), pp: 131-139.- Lejins, Peter P. "Uniform Crime Reports." Michigan Law Review 64 (December 1966), pp: 1011-1030.- Naess, Siri. "Comparing Theories of Criminogenesis." Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 1 (July 1964), pp: 171-180.- Turk, Austin T. "The Mythology of Crime in America." Criminology 8 (February 1971), pp:397-411.- Nejelski, Paul, Ed. Social Research in Conflict with Law, Mass.: Ballinger, 1976,p: 54.

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Illustrations of the work of sociological criminology are useful in clarifying what it is and what it is not. Consider the crime of robbery. A sociologist would probably not ask whether a criminal had committed more robberies than other , nor would the sociologist try to explain criminal robbery behavior .

On the other hand, a sociologist might study the amount and kinds of robbery committed by people like, or the relationship between the robbery, behavior of people and the sorts of friends they have .

Alternatively a sociologist might ask how the characteristics of situations people find themselves in affect their chances of being robbery victims, or why the rate of robbery committed by young people exceeds that committed by older people or varies from time to time and from place to place. A sociologist might also study the social origins of criminal definitions, as well as how their enforcement affects group life, including crime itself. In all these cases, the researcher would be practicing sociological criminology.

Some account of nonsociological perspectives in criminology is necessary to cover adequately the field's history and the diversity of current theories of crime. The perspectives of psychology, geography, biology, economics, philosophy, and history are presented, if only briefly, at various places throughout the text.

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These disciplines have added a wealth of knowledge to the field, but their contributions are secondary to the sociological thrust guiding this text.

O - The uses of criminology:

In a way it seems odd that the relevance of criminology has ever been an issue - not just whether it is influential on policy and practice, but whether it should be.

Criminology, seems to us, is by definition an applied discipline; its bounds are set by the criminal law, and perhaps by other sets of social rules and norms; and in studying law- and rule-breaking, and what is or should be done with the people involved, it is concerned with issues which are defined, by a rough consensus, as social problems, not just sociological problems. It is unhelpful and unrealistic, then, to pretend that the subject-matter of criminology has no implications beyond the boundaries of academic theorizing .(1)

______________(1) Kamisar, Yale. "How to Use, Abuse—and Fight Back with—Crime Statistics." Oklahoma Law Review 25 (May 1972), 239-258.- Kitsuse, John I., and Aaron V. Cicourel. "A Note on the Uses of Official Statistics." Social Problems 11 (Fall 1963), 131-139.- Lejins, Peter P. "Uniform Crime Reports." Michigan Law Review 64 (December 1966): 1011-1030.- Naess, Siri. "Comparing Theories of Criminogenesis." Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 1 (July 1964), 171-180.- Nejelski, Paul, Ed. Social Research in Conflict with Law and Ethics. Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger, 1976.- Nettler, Gwynn. Explaining Crime. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1978.- Penick, Bettye K. Eidson, and Maurice E. B. Owens, III, Eds. Surveying Crime. Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences, 1976.

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