1
CCJ 1010 - CRIMINOLOGY
Chapter 3
Socrates (469-399 B.C.)
The children now love luxury; they have bad manners, contempt for authority; they show disrespect for
elders and love chatter in place of exercise. Children are now tyrants, not the servants of their
households. They no longer rise when elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter
before company, gobble up dainties at the table, cross their legs, and tyrannize their teachers
Schools of Thought Throughout History
Classical Criminology

Based on the principle that individuals “choose” to commit crimes after weighting the
consequences of their actions.
Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794)
Social Reformer

On Crimes and Punishment
 July 1764

Father of Modern Criminology
 Spark that ended medieval barbarism

Believed in utilitarianism and free-will
Beccaria’s Principles
1. Laws should be used to maintain the social contract
2. Only legislators should create laws
3. Judges should impose punishment only in accordance with the law
4. Judges should not interpret the laws
5. Punishment should be based on the pleasure/pain principle
6. Punishment should be based on the act, not on the actor
Beccaria’s Principles Continued
1.29.13
2
7. The punishment should be determined by the crime
8. Punishment should be prompt and effective
9. All people should be treated equally
10. Capital punishment should be abolished
11. The use of torture to gain confessions should be abolished
12. It is better to prevent crimes than to punish them
Jeremy Bentham’s Utilitarianism (1748-1832)
Bentham was concerned with achieving “the greatest happiness of the greatest number”
Utilitarianism assumes all human actions are calculated in accordance with their likelihood of
bringing happiness (pleasure) or unhappiness (pain)
Bentham proposed the “felicific calculus”
Positivist Criminology
Human behavior is determined by forces beyond individual control and it is possible to measure
those forces.


Whereas classicists believe that people commit crime through an exercise of
their free-will, positivists reject the notion of free-will.
Positivists argue that human behavior is actually pre-disposed and determined by
individual and biological differences.
Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
 There could be no real knowledge of social phenomena unless it was based on a
positivist (scientific) approach
Darwin’s Origin of Species (1809-1882)
 Theory of evolution of species
 Adaptive mutation
 Natural selection
 Survival of the fittest in the struggle for existence
1.29.13
3
 Challenged traditional theological teaching
Positivism and evolution moved the field of criminology from a philosophical to a scientific
perspective.
Positivist School
Human behavior is determined by forces beyond individual control and it is possible to measure
those forces.
 Biological
 Psychological
 Social factors
Biological Determinism
The relationship between biological traits and behavior
By the 19th century, the science of physiognomy and phrenology had introduced specific
biological factors into the study of crime causation.
Giambattisti della Porta (1535-1615)
Physiognomy
 The study of facial features and their relation to human behavior
 Thieves have large lips and sharp vision
Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828)
Phrenology – posited that bumps on the head were indications of psychological propensities
Cesare Lombroso (1935-1909)

Theory of the born criminal

States that criminals are a lower form of life nearer to their apelike ancestors than noncriminals
in traits and dispositions

Born criminals have atavistic stigmata, physical features of creatures at an earlier stage of
development before they become fully human

Criminal characteristics include

1.29.13
Huge jaws
4


Strong canine teeth

Arm span greater than their height (excessive length of arms)

sloping forehead

Ears of unusual size

Asymmetry of the face

Prognathism (an extension or bulging out [protrusion] of the lower jaw)

Asymmetry of the cranium
Criminal women
 Are different from men
 The prostitute represents the born criminal.

Moral sense is different

Vengeful

Jealous
Cesare Lombroso Continued

Any other "physical stigmata"

An individual born with any five of the stigmata is a “born criminal”
Insane criminal are not criminal from birth; they become criminal as a result of some change in
their brain which interferes with their ability to distinguish between right and wrong.
Criminoloids make up an ambiguous group that includes habitual criminals, criminals by passion,
and other diverse types.
Enrico Ferri 1856-1929
Best known of Lombroso’s associates
Attacked the classical doctrine of free-will
Was more interested in controlling crime through preventive measures: state control of the
manufacture of weapons, inexpensive housing, and better street lighting
Argued that crime was caused by social, economic, and political determinants
1.29.13
5
Raffaele Garofalo (1851-1934)
Traced the roots of criminal behavior to psychological features which he called “moral
anomalies”
Natural crimes are those that offend the basic moral sentiments of probity (respect for the
property of others) and piety (revulsion against the infliction of suffering on others)
Person who has an organic deficiency in these moral sentiments has no moral constrains
against committing such crimes, and therefore could not be held responsible
Supported the death penalty to rid society of its maladapted members
Charles Goring
Offered the major challenge to Lombrosian theory
Studied 3,000 convicts and compared them to Oxford and Cambridge University students,
hospital patients, and soldiers
His research assistant was Karl Pearson statistician
Successfully disputed Lombroso’s claim of a born criminal

Goring was able to disprove that criminals showed physical anomalies when compared to the
general population.

He also found no significant differences in such traits as eye or hair color or left-handedness.

The only differences Goring could document had to do with stature and body weigh.
William Sheldon’s Somatotypes
1. Endomorph (rounded)
2. Mesomorph (physically powerful)
3. Ectomorph (lean)
He argued that mesomorphs tended, more than others, to be involved in illegal behavior
Richard Dougdale
Inherited Criminality
Studied the Jukes family
Ada Jukes, “mother of criminals”
1.29.13
6
Of the 1,000 descendants Dougdale found 280 paupers, 60 thieves, 7 murderers, 40 other
criminals, 40 persons with venereal disease, and 50 prostitutes
Dougdale argued that they were transmitting a degenerate trait to the next generation
Some states allowed sterilization in early 20th century, and they were held constitutional
Psychological Determinism
Humans are disposed to behavior, and that what appear to be decisions are actually determined by
psychological constitution which is assumed to be some combination of genetics and environment.
Issac Ray
 America’s First Forensic Psychiatrist
 One of the founders of the discipline of forensic psychiatry
“Moral Insanity”
People who were normal in all respects except that something was wrong with the part
of the brain that regulates affective response
Commit crimes without intent
One of the founding fathers of APA.
Treatise on the Medical Jurisprudence of Insanity
Key component in the precendent-setting trial of Daniel M'Naghten in England in 1843.
Defendant’s ability to determine right from wrong.
Henry Maudsley
 Some people are either insane or criminal according to the standpoint from which they are
looked at
 People would go mad if they were not criminals because it is an outlet for them to discharge
unsound tendencies
 Link between masturbation and insanity
Intelligence Tests
1.29.13

Administered to inmates

Attempt to differentiate criminals from noncriminals
7
Sociological Determinism
Adolphe Quetelet and Andre Michel Guerry
 Among the first to repudiate free-will doctrine
 Society responsible for criminal behavior

Factors such as poverty, age, sex, race, and climate
Gabriel Tarde
Laws of limitation

Principles that govern the process by which people become criminals

Individuals imitate others in proportion to the intensity and frequency of their contacts

Inferiors imitate superiors


Trends flow from town to country and from upper to lower classes
When two behavior patterns clash, one may take the place of the other

As when guns largely replaced knives as murder weapons
Emile Durkheim
One of the founders of sociology.
Witnessed social chaos at a young age when Germany invaded and occupied his hometown, Epinal,
France.
How do individuals become criminal?
What is the process?
How are behavior patterns learned and transmitted?
Crime as a normal part of society
Crime creates social solidarity
Crime creates social change
Anomie: Normlessness, a breakdown of social order as a result of a loss of standards and values
1.29.13