Criminology 2-Theories of Crime Causation TSU-CCJE

A. Criminology Defined

Criminology is the body of knowledge regarding crimes as a social

phenomenon (observable behaviours of a person that influence to another
person). It includes within its scope the process of making laws, of breaking
laws, and of reacting towards the breaking of laws. (Edwin H. Sutherland
and Donald R. Cressey).
*Sutherland, a sociologist and considered as one of the most influential
criminologists in the 20th century. Sociologist of Symbolic Interactionist
School. Coined white collar crime (fraud, bribery, cybercrime, money
laundering) and DAT.
*Cressey was an American penologist, sociologist and criminologist.
Co-authored principles of criminology.

In the Philippines, by virtue of RA 11131 otherwise known as “The

Philippine Criminology Profession Act of 2018”, it defines Criminology as the
scientific study of crimes, criminals, and victims; it also deals with the
prevention, and solution of crimes. (Sec. 4, par. e of RA 11131).

B. Criminal Etiology

Criminal Etiology is a division of criminology which attempts to provide

scientific analysis of the causes of crime. Man and his criminal
behavior is the object of interest in the study of criminal etiology.

C. Crime Causation Theories

The history of Criminology dates back from the works of criminological

thinkers or theorists. The origins of criminology are usually located in the
late eighteenth (18th) century writings of those who sought to reform
criminal justice and penal systems that they perceived as cruel, inhumane
and arbitrary. These old systems applied the law unequally, were subject to
great corruption, and often used torture and the death penalty
indiscriminately.

During the early age, there was a belief that men are controlled by
some super power. It was generally believed that a man commits crime due
to the influence of some external spirit called ‘demon’ or ‘devil’. Thus an
offender commits a wrongful act not because of his own free will but due to
the influence of some external super power until several schools of thought
have developed in the mid-18th century.

In the eighteenth century there were approaches that reformed the

early practices that others perceived as barbaric and illegitimate practices
and unreliable explanations as to the causes of crimes. These approaches

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have been divided into three broad schools of thought: the (a) Classical, (b)
Neo-Classical, and the (c) Positivist. However, by that time, Classical school
and the Positivist school dominated in explaining the nature and causes of
crime.

1. Classical School
- The classical school of criminology grew out of frustration against the
barbaric and inhumane system of law, justice and punishment.
-This school of thought believes that individuals are fundamentally a
biological organism with intelligence and rationality which control their
behavior.
- This is based on the assumption that individuals choose to commit crimes
after weighing the consequences of their actions (PAIN vs. PLEASURE).
- Fear of punishment can deter them from committing crimes and that
society can control their behavior by making the pain of punishment greater
than the pleasure of the criminal gains.
- The basis of criminal liability is man’s free will thus; more stress is placed
upon the result of the felonious act or the crime committed than upon the
criminal himself.
-The purpose of penalty is retribution.

1.1. Cesare Bonesana Marchese di Beccaria (1738-1794 )

1.1.1. He was one of the founders of the classical school of

criminology. Born in Milan, Italy, he graduated Law from
University of Pavia. After graduation, he joined a group of
articulate and radical intellectuals called the Academy of Fists.
1.1.2. In July 1764, he published the book entitled “On Crimes
and Punishment,” which presented a coherent and
comprehensive design for an enlightened criminal justice system
that was to serve the people rather than the monarch. Beccaria
argued that the effectiveness of criminal justice depended more
on the certainty of punishment than on its severity. His book
made reforms in penal legislation and was influential in the
reforms of penal codes in France, Russia, and it influenced the
first ten amendments to the US Constitution.
1.1.3. He proposed the following principles:
 Laws should be used to maintain social contract. Only legislators
should create laws.
 Judges should impose punishment only in accordance with the law.
 Judges should not interpret laws.
 Punishment should be based on the pleasure and pain principle.
 Punishment should be based on the act, not on the actor.

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 The punishment should be determined by the crime.

 Punishment should be prompt and effective.
 All people should be treated equally.
 Capital punishment should be abolished.
 The use of torture to gain confession should be abolished.
 It is better to prevent crimes than to punish criminals.
1.1.4. Beccaria was responsible for the abolition of torture as a
legitimate means of exacting confessions.

1.1.5. He advocated that the penalty should be proportionate to

the crime dictated by law as tersely summed up in his argument:
“Let punishment fit the crime.”

1.2. Jeremy Bentham (26 February 1748– June 6, 1832)

1.2.1. He is an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social
reformer.
1.2.2. He founded the hedonistic concept of utilitarianism, which
assumes that all our actions are calculated in accordance with their
likelihood of bringing pleasure and pain.
1.2.3. To explain this, he devised the pseudo-mathematical formula
called “felicific calculus,” which views individuals as human calculators who
put all the factors into an equation before deciding whether a particular
crime is worth committing or not. He argued that to deter individuals from
committing crimes, the punishment, or pain, must be greater than the
satisfaction, or pleasure, he would gain from committing the crime.

1.2.4. He invented the panopticon prison, and other classical school

philosophers argued the following:

 People have free will to choose how to act;

 Deterrence is based upon the utilitarian ontological notion of the
human being a 'hedonist' who seeks pleasure and avoids pain, and a
'rational calculator' weighing up the costs and benefits of the consequences
of each action; Punishment (of sufficient severity) can deter people from
crime, as the costs (penalties) outweigh benefits, and that severity of
punishment should be proportionate to the crime;
 The more swift and certain the punishment, the more effective it is in
deterring criminal behavior; and
 The Classical school of thought came about at a time when major
reform in penology occurred, with prisons developed as a form of
punishment.

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Note: Panopticon’s scheme of the design is to allow all (pan-) inmates of an

institution to be observed (-opticon) by a single watchman without the
inmates being able to tell whether or not they are being watched. The
design consists of a circular structure with an "inspection house" at its
centre, from which the manager or staff of the institution is able to watch
the inmates. The inmates, who are stationed around the perimeter of the
structure, are unable to see into the inspection house.

Arguments against the Classical Theory

 Unfair - it treats all men as if they were robot without regard to the
individual differences and the surrounding circumstances when the crime is
committed.
 Unjust - having the same punishment for first and recidivist
 The nature and definition of punishment is not individualized.
 It considers only the injury caused not the mental condition of the
offender (Tradio, 1999).

2. Neo-Classical
-The classicist maintained that human are totally responsible for their
actions. The neo-classicist said "not always".
- This theory modified the doctrine of free will by stating that free will of men
may be affected by other factors and crimes are committed due to some
compelling reasons.
-These factors include pathology, incompetence, insanity or any condition
that will make it impossible for the individual to exercise free will entirely.
-Does not represent any break with the classical view of human nature. It
merely challenges the classical position of absolute freewill.
- This has been adopted into the Philippine legal system either as exempting
or mitigating circumstances under Art. 12 and Art. 13, respectively, of Act
No. 3815 otherwise known as “The Revised Penal Code of the Philippines”.

Note: RA 9344 otherwise known as “Juvenile Justice and Welfare Act of

2006” as amended by RA 10630 otherwise known as “An Act Strengthening
the Juvenile Justice System in the Philippines ” is a classic example of neo-
classical doctrine of criminology. The JJWS recognizes that children cannot
exercise freewill entirely.

3. Positivist
- It rejected the classical school's idea that all crime resulted from a choice
that could potentially be made anyone.
-They argue that the most serious crimes were committed by individuals
who were primitive or atavistic - that is who failed to evolve to a fully human
and civilized state.

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-Crime therefore resulted not from what criminals had in common with
others in society, but from their distinctive physical or mental defects.
-Presumes that criminal behaviour is caused by internal and external factors
outside of the individual's control.
-Scientific method was introduced and applied to study human behavior.
Positivism can be broken up into three segments which include biological,
psychological and social positivism. (end)

3.1. Biological Positivism/School – An area of positivism which

associates criminal traits or individual’s evil disposition to physical
disfigurement or impairment.

a) Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741-1801) – a Swiss theologian who studied

physiognomy and viewed that people’s true characters and inclinations
could be read from their facial features. He 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.

b) Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828) – born in Germany, he was a renowned

neuroanatomist and physiologist and a pioneer in the study of the
localization of mental functions in the brain. He developed cranioscopy, a
method to study the personality and development of mental and moral
faculties based on the external shape of the skull. Cranioscopy was later
renamed as phrenology,1 the study that deals with the relationship between
the skull and human behavior.

c) Johann Kaspar Spurzheim (1776-1832) – a German phrenologist who

was the assistant of Gall and was the man most singularly responsible for
popularizing and spreading phrenology to a wide audience. With Gall, they
studied the shape of the skull and bumps on the head to determine whether
these physical attributes were linked to criminal behavior.

d) Samuel G. Morton (1799-1851) – an American physician and natural

scientist born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He graduated from University of
Pennsylvania and had an advanced degree from Edinburgh University in
Scotland. He developed the idea of polygenism – a theory of human origins
positing that the human races are of different lineages as opposed to
monogenism, which posits a single origin of humanity. Morton claimed that
he could judge the intellectual capacity of a race by the skull size. A large
skull meant a large brain and high intellectual capacity, and a small skull
indicated a small brain and decreased intellectual capacity.

e) Charles Darwin (1809-1882) – a British naturalist who obtained a

degree in medicine from Edinburgh University and biology at Cambridge. He

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published the book “Origin of Species,” which put forth his concept that
human beings, as part of nature, evolved from other species over a long
period of time and the evolution occurs through variation, adaptation and
natural selection.

f) Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909) – he is considered as the father of

modern criminology due to his application of modern scientific methods to
trace criminal behavior. He received his degree in medicine from University
of Pavia and his degree in surgery from University of Genoa. He claimed
that criminals are distinguishable from non-criminals due to the presence of
atavistic stigma – the physical features of creatures at an earlier stage of
development. .

g) Raffaele Garofalo (1852-1934) – an Italian nobleman, magistrate,

senator, and law professor who was credited to have coined the term
criminology, which he called “criminologia.” He rejected the doctrine of free
will and supported the position that the only way to understand crime was
to study it by scientific methods. He traced the roots of criminal behavior
not to physical features but to their psychological equivalent which he
referred to as moral anomalies.

h) Enrico Ferri (1859-1934) – he was a member of the Italian Parliament

who believed that criminals could not be held morally responsible because
they did not choose to commit crimes but was driven to commit them by
conditions of their lives.

i) Charles Goring (1870-1919) – in his book, The English Convict, he

rejected the theory of Lombroso that criminals are born by making
comparative study of 3,000 jailed criminals against law-abiding citizens,
where he established that non-criminal people tended to have more
atavistic traits.

3.2. Modern perspectives on biological determinism – The wide

acceptance of biological contribution to developing human behavior
has been viewed by many that it might preclude free will. This has
resulted in the pervasive rejection of biological contributions to
behaviors. As a result, a compromise theory known as conditional free
will emerged.

3.2.1. According to Diana H. Fishbein, “the principle of conditional

free will does not demand a deterministic view of human
behavior. Rather, it postulates that individuals choose a
course of action within a preset, yet to some degree
changeable, range of possibilities and that, assuming the
conditions are suitable for rational thought, we are

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accountable for our actions. Given “rational” thought

processes, calculation of risks versus the benefits and the
ability to judge the realities that exist, the result is likely to
be an adaptive response, that is, the behavior will be
beneficial for the individual and the surrounding
environment. xxx This predicts that if one or more conditions
to which the individual is exposed are disturbed or irregular,
the individual is more likely to choose a disturbed or
irregular course of action. For example, a child with a
learning disability may function well in a society. With the
addition of family instability, lack of appropriate educational
programs, and a delinquent peer group, the disabled child
may be more prone to maladaptive behavior.”

3.3. Psychological Positivism/School

This explains that psychological determinants define the behavior of a
person. Such idea has long been hatched by thinkers who posited that it is
the psychological issues that prod a person to act the way he does.

Psychiatry – It is a branch of medicine which exists to study, prevent, and

treat mental disorders in humans.
Psychology – It is the study of the mind and behavior. Research in
psychology seeks to understand and explain how people think, act, and feel.

Mental Disturbance as Cause of Crimes

1. Mental Deficiency – a condition or incomplete development of the mind

existing before the age of 18, whether arising from the inherent causes or
induce by disease or injury. Mentally deficient person are prone to commit
malicious damage to property and unnatural sex offenses. They may
commit violent crimes but definitely not crimes involving the use of
mentality (like murder etc..). (Art 12, Exempted)

Classes of Mental Deficiency:

a. Idiot– Their mentality is compared to a 2 years old person.
b. Imbecile– Their mentality is like a child of 2 to 7 years old.
c. Feeble-minded Person– Not amounting to imbecility is yet so
pronounce that they required care, supervision and control for their own
or for the protection of others.
d. Schizophrenia– this is something called dementia praecox which is a
form of psychosis characterized by thinking disturbance and
regression to a more relatively impaired and intellectual functions are

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well preserve. The personal appearance is dilapidated and the patient is

liable to impulsive acts, destructively and may commit suicide.
e. Compulsive Neurosis– this is the uncontrollable or irresistible
impulse to do something.

Forms of Neurosis:
1. Pyromania– compulsive desire to set fire.
2. Homicidal Compulsion– the irresistible urge to kill somebody.
3. Kleptomania– the completive desire to steal.
4. Dipsomania– the compulsive desire to drink alcohol.

f. Psychopathic Personality– this is the most important cause of

criminality among youthful offenders and habitual criminals. This is
characterized by infantile level of response lack of conscience,
deficient feeling of affection to other and aggression to
environment and other people. (More dangerous than
sociopathic person).

g. Epilepsy– this is a condition characterized by conclusive seizure and a

tendency to mental deterioration. The seizure may result to extreme loss
of consciousness. During the attack the person become muscularly
rigid, respiration cases, froth on the mouth and tongue maybe bitter. Just
before the actual convulsion, there may be mental confusion,
hallucination or delusion and may commit violent crimes without
provocation. After the attack, the person may be at the state of altered
consciousness and may wonder from one place to another and inflict
bodily harm. (This is when your body moves in an uncontrollable
and violent way).
Types of Epilepsy
1. Grand Mal– there is complete loss of consciousness and general
contraction of the muscles.
2. Petit Mal– mild or complete loss of consciousness and contraction
of muscles.
3. Jackonism Type– localized contraction of muscle with or without
loss of consciousness.

h. Alcoholism– this is a form of vice causing mental disturbance. Person is

under the influence of liquor may commit violent crimes and inflict physical
injuries. Habitual drunkard may commit suicide, sex offence and exquisites
crimes. Young children, likewise, may become delinquent. (What is the effect
of Alcohol; Note: Alcohol is the king of all drugs).

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i. Drug Addiction– this is another form of vice which cause strong mental
disturbance. (Discuss RA 9165)

Various Studies of the human behavior and mind in relation to the

causes of crimes

a) Isaac Ray (1807-1881) – an acknowledged American psychiatrist who

popularized the concept of “moral insanity,” in his book “A Treatise on the
Medical Jurisprudence of Insanity,” published in 1853, Little Brown, Boston,
MA. Moral insanity was a term which he used to describe ‘persons who were
normal in all respects except that something is wrong with the part of the
brain that regulates effective responses.’

b) Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) – he was born in Freiberg, Moravia, an

Austrian Empire (now Příbor of Czech Republic). Trained in Vienna as
neurologist, Freud went to Paris in 1885 to study with Jean-Martin Charcot,
whose work on hysteria led Freud to conclude that mental disorders might
be caused purely by psychological rather than organic factors. His
collaboration in Vienna with physician Josef Breuer (1842-1925) resulted in
the development of some key psychoanalytic concepts and techniques.
Freud opined that ‘the doctrines of resistance and repression, the
unconscious, the etiological significance of a person’s sex life and the
importance of childhood experiences are the main building blocks of the
theoretical edifice of psychoanalysis.’

He divided personality into:

 Id. – This stands for instinctual drives, which represent our unconscious
biological needs for food, sex, and other life sustaining necessities including
aggression as well as primitive needs that are present at birth. This pleasure
seeking part of human personality is concerned about gratification of one’s
wishes.

 Ego. – This forms part of man’s physical organization between his

sensory stimuli, on one hand, and his motor activity on the other. The ego
operates on the basis of expediency. This puts into action the desires
or wishes of the id and the questions of right or wrong, safe or
dangerous, permitted or prohibited, do not play an important role.

 Super Ego. – This is the moral aspect of people’s personalities. This

develops as a result of incorporating within the personality the moral
standards and values of parents, community and significant others. This is
also known as the conscience of our personality.

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c) Henry Maudsley (1835-1918) – he believed that crime is an outlet in

which their unsound tendencies are discharged and that offenders would go
mad if they were not criminals.

d) August Aichorn (1878-1949) – he published the book entitled, Wayward

Youth (New York, Viking Press, 1935). Aichorn argued that the cause of
crime and delinquency is the faulty development of the child during the first
few years of his life.

e) David Abrahamsen, M.D. – he published the book entitled, Crime and

the Human Mind in 1944. In this book, he explained that the cause of
criminal behavior is the result of criminalistic tendencies added by crime
inducing situation and divided by the person’s mental and emotional
resistance to temptation.

These factors then can be put into formula as:

C=T+S
R
Where:
C – Crime/Criminal Behavior (the act)
T – Criminal Tendency (Desire/Intent)
S – Total Situation (Opportunity)
R – Resistance to Temptation (Control)

f) Cyrill Burt (1883-1971) – a British psychologist who published in 1965

the book, “The Young Delinquent.” He became known for his pioneering
work in educational psychology and statistical analysis. He claimed that
intelligence was primarily inherited. However, subsequent examination
revealed that he fabricated some of the data, though some of his works
remained unaffected by this revelation.

g) William Healy and Augusta Bronner – they authored the book entitled
“Delinquency and Criminals: Their Making and Unmaking” (New York,
Mc.Millan Publishing, 1926). They claimed that correlation existed between
innate low intelligence and deviant behavior. Their argument was in
accordance with the nature theory, which argues that intelligence is largely
determined genetically, that ancestry determines IQ, and that low
intelligence is linked to criminal behavior. They claimed that crime is an
expression of the mental content of the individual; frustration of the
individual causes emotional discomfort and personality demands removal of
pain and the pain is eliminated by a substitute behavior, that is, the criminal
behavior of the individual.

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h) Dr. Walter Bromberg. – In his book “Crime and the Mind” published in
1948, he claimed that criminality is the result of emotional immaturity.
According to him, a person is emotionally mature when he has learned to
control his emotion effectively and who lives at peace with himself and in
harmony with the standards of conduct which are acceptable to the society.
An emotionally immature person rebels against rules and regulations and
tends to engage in unusual activities and experiences a feeling of guilt due
to inferiority complex.

4. Somatotype School of Criminology – This study, which became

popular during the first half of the twentieth century, was developed in
search of the relations of body build to behavior.

4.1. Ernest Kretchmer (1888-1964) – a German psychiatrist who studied

philosophy and medicine at the University of Tubingen. He attempted
to correlate body build and constitution with characters of
temperamental reactions and mentally. He distinguished four (4)
principal types of physiques:
4.1.1. Asthenic (thin, small, weak)– lean, slightly built, narrow
shoulders; their crimes are petty thievery and fraud;
4.1.2. Athletic (muscular, large–boned) – medium to tall, strong,
muscular, coarse bones; they are usually connected with
crimes of violence;
4.1.3. pyknic (stocky, fat) – medium height, rounded figures,
massive neck, broad face; they tend to commit deception,
fraud and violence; and
4.1.4. Dysplastic- unproportionate body.

4.2. William Sheldon (1898-1977) – he formulated his own groups of

somatotype:

Type of Physique Temperament

a) endomorph- relatively a) viscerotonic – generally
large digestive viscera; soft relax and comfortable person,
round body; short, tapering loves luxury and essentially
limbs and small bones. extrovert.

b) Mesomorph – with b) romotonic – active,

relative predominance of dynamic; walks and talks

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muscles, bones and motor assertively and behaves

organs of the body with large aggressively.
wrist and hands.
c) ectomorph – thin c) cerebrotonic – the tend to
physique, flat chest, delicacy look more fatigue and
through the body, slender, withdrawn; introvert, full of
poorly muscled. complaints and allergies, and
with sensitive skin.

5. Inheritance school – It has been viewed early that criminal behavior

can be inherited. Advocates of inheritance school traced the activities of
several generations of families believed to have an especially large number
of criminal members.

5.1. Goddard (1866-1957) – an American psychologist who supervised the

English translation of the complete “Binet and Simon IQ Test and was
credited to have coined the term moron. During his studies in 1920,
he found that many institutionalized persons were what he considered
“feebleminded” (as exemplified in the results of his study on the
family tree of Martin Kallikak). His conclusion that at least half of all
juveniles were mental defectives was in accord with the argument
postulated by nature theorists.
Goddard invented the pseudonym Kallikak by combining a
Greek root meaning "beauty" (kallos) with one meaning "bad"
(kakos). The lesson was clear and dramatic: the study linked
medical and moral deviance and fused the new mendelian laws
with the old biblical injunction that "the sins of the fathers
shall be visited on the sons."
5.2. Richard Louis Dugdale (1841-1883) – he was born in Paris in 1841. His
parents were English and came from an ancestry of much social
distinction. He authored the book entitled The Jukes, published by
Putnam Publishing in New York, 1910. Dugdale studied the lives of the
members of the Jukes family. He claimed that since families produce
generations of criminals, they must have been transmitting
degenerate traits down the line.

Jukes’ Family Tree:

a. 310 who died as paupers,

b. 150 were criminals,
c. 7 were murderers,
d. 100
were drunkards, and more than half of the women were
prostitutes.

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5.3. Sir Jonathan Edwards Family Tree

Sir Jonathan Edwards was a famous preacher during the
colonial period. Then his family tree was traced none of the
descendants was found to be criminal.

From Edwards Family:

a. practically no lawbreakers
b. more than 100 lawyers, 30 judges
c. 13 college presidents and hundred and more professors
d. 60 physicians
e. 100 clergymen, missionaries, and theological professors
f. 80 elected to public office, including 3 mayors, 3 governors,
several members of congress, 3 senators, and 1 vice president
g. 60 have attained prominance in authorship or editorial life, with
135 books of merit
h. 75 army or navy officers
i. An addendum of a family found after the book was in type
reports 2 more physicians and a comptroller of the U.S. treasury.

6. Sociological Theories of Crime Causation

6.1. Social Structure Theories – These theories view that the

disadvantaged economic condition of the people is the primary cause
of crime.

6.1.1. Social Disorganization Theory. – This theory focuses on

the conditions within the urban environment that affect
crime rates. Under this proposition, crime rates are linked to
neighborhood ecological characteristics. It views crime-
ridden neighborhoods as those in which residents are
uninterested in community matters, therefore, the common
sources of control – family, school, church – are weak and
disorganized. Sometimes, this is called differential social
organization. This theory was popularized by two Chicago
sociologists, Henry D. Mckay and Clifford R. Shaw. They
contended that criminals are not biologically inferior,
intellectually impaired, or psychologically damaged. To
them, neighborhood denigration and slum conditions are the
primary causes of criminal behavior.

a) Chicago school. – The works of Shaw and Mckay was

greatly influenced by the researches on sociological
positivism begun by Robert Ezra Park (1864-1944), Ernest
W. Burgess (1886-1966), Louis Wirth (1897-1952) of the

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Sociology Department of the University of Chicago. Shaw

and Mckay focused on the functions of social institutions,
such as the school and the family, and how their breakdown
influenced deviant and anti-social behavior.

b) Conflict Criminology. – In Europe, the writings of Karl

Marx (1818-1883) together with Friedrich Engels gained
popularity which pushed social interaction to a different
direction. Marx argued that the capitalist system would
eventually result to a class conflict between the capitalist
bourgeoisie and the people who do the actual labor, the
proletariat. Although, Marx did not develop a theory of
crime, his writings were applied to criminology by Willem
Bonger, Ralf Dahrendorf, and George Vold.

6.1.2. Strain Theory. – The roots of strain theory can be traced

to Emile Durkheim’s concept of anomie. To him, in an
anomic society, the rules of behavior have broken down by
reason of rapid social change or social crisis like war and
famine. Meanwhile, although Robert Merton adopted the
concept of anomie, he deviated from Durkheim’s rapid social
change or social crisis as the cause of anomie. Merton
argues that crime is a function of the conflict between the
goals people have and the means they can use to legally
obtain them. Accordingly, the ability to obtain goals is class
dependent, which means that members of the lower class
are unable to achieve those goals which come easy to those
belonging to the upper class. The result of the lower class
frustration, anger, and resentment is referred to as strain.

6.1.3. Cultural Deviance Theory. – Combines elements of both

strain and social disorganization theories. This argues
that in order to cope with social isolation and economic
deprivation, members of the lower class create an
independent subculture with its own set of rules and values.
The sub-culture of the lower class is an attractive alternative
because they find it impossible to meet the behavioral
demands of the middle-class society. The idea that the lower
class develops a sub-culture by reason of strain can be
traced to the work of Thorsten Sellin, who, in 1938 published
the book Culture Conflict and Crime. Later, Walter Miller in
his classic paper, “Lower Class Culture as a General Milieu of
Gang Delinquency,” discovered that clinging to lower class
value system promotes illegal or violent behavior. In 1955,

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Albert Cohen in his book, “Delinquent Boys” theorized that

because social conditions make them incapable of achieving
success legitimately, lower class youths experience a form
of culture conflict which he called status frustration.

In the book, “The Subculture of Violence” published in 1967, Marvin E.

Wolfgang and Franco Ferracuti presented an explanation on homicide and
other crimes of violence by drawing from Sutherland’s differential
association theory. Their treatise ranges from psychoanalytic theories of
aggression, medical and biological studies, the frustration-aggression
hypothesis, containment theory, child-rearing practices, and social learning
and conditioning propositions.

7. Social Process Theories – These view that criminality is a function of

people’s interest with various organizations, institutions, and processes in
the society.

7.1. Social Learning Theory. – This believes that crime is a product of

learning the norms, values and behaviors associated with criminal
activity. It is viewed under this concept that human behavior is
modeled through observation of human social interactions. Gabriel
Tarde (1843-1904), the forerunner of modern-day learning theories,
conceptualized the theory of imitation, which states that people learn
from one another through the process of imitation.
Most of social learning theory involves a description of the three
mechanisms by which individuals learn to engage in crime from these
others: differential reinforcement, beliefs, and modeling.

 Differential reinforcement of crime

Individuals may teach others to engage in crime through the
reinforcements and punishments they provide for behavior. Crime is
more likely to occur when it (a) is frequently reinforced and
infrequently punished; (b) results in large amounts of reinforcement
(e.g., a lot of money, social approval, or pleasure) and little
punishment; and (c) is more likely to be reinforced than alternative
behaviors.

Reinforcements may be positive or negative. In positive

reinforcement, the behavior results in something good—some positive
consequence. This consequence may involve such things as money,
the pleasurable feelings associated with drug use, attention from
parents, approval from friends, or an increase in social status. In
negative reinforcement, the behavior results in the removal of
something bad—a punisher is removed or avoided. For example,
suppose one's friends have been calling her a coward because she
refuses to use drugs with them. The individual eventually takes drugs

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with them, after which time they stop calling her a coward. The
individual's drug use has been negatively reinforced.

According to social learning theory, some individuals are in

environments where crime is more likely to be reinforced (and less
likely to be punished). Sometimes this reinforcement is deliberate. For
example, the parents of aggressive children often deliberately
encourage and reinforce aggressive behavior outside the home. Or the
adolescent's friends may reinforce drug use. At other times, the
reinforcement for crime is less deliberate. For example, an
embarrassed parent may give her screaming child a candy bar in the
checkout line of a supermarket. Without intending to do so, the parent
has just reinforced the child's aggressive behavior.

 Beliefs favorable to crime

Other individuals may not only reinforce our crime, they may
also teach us beliefs favorable to crime. Most individuals, of course, are
taught that crime is bad or wrong. They eventually accept or
"internalize" this belief, and they are less likely to engage in crime as a
result. Some individuals, however, learn beliefs that are favorable to
crime and they are more likely to engage in crime as a result.
Few people—including criminals—generally approve of serious
crimes like burglary and robbery. Surveys and interviews with criminals
suggest that beliefs favoring crime fall into three categories. And data
suggest that each type of belief increases the likelihood of crime.
First, some people generally approve of certain minor forms of
crime, like certain forms of consensual sexual behavior, gambling,
"soft" drug use, and—for adolescents—alcohol use, truancy, and
curfew violation.
Second, some people conditionally approve of or justify certain
forms of crime, including some serious crimes. These people believe
that crime is generally wrong, but that some criminal acts are
justifiable or even desirable in certain conditions. Many people, for
example, will state that fighting is generally wrong, but that it is
justified if you have been insulted or provoked in some way. Gresham
Sykes and David Matza have listed some of the more common
justifications used for crime. Several theorists have argued that certain
groups in our society—especially lower-class, young, minority males—
are more likely to define violence as an acceptable response to a wide
range of provocations and insults. And they claim that this "subculture
of violence" is at least partly responsible for the higher rate of violence
in these groups. Data in this area are somewhat mixed, but recent
studies suggest that males, young people, and possibly lower-class
people are more likely to hold beliefs favorable to violence. There is
less evidence for a relationship between race and beliefs favorable to
violence.

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Third, some people hold certain general values that are

conducive to crime. These values do not explicitly approve of or justify
crime, but they make crime appear a more attractive alternative than
would otherwise be the case. Theorists such as Matza and Sykes have
listed three general sets of values in this area: an emphasis on
"excitement," "thrills," or "kicks"; a disdain for hard work and a desire
for quick, easy success; and an emphasis on toughness or being
"macho." Such values can be realized through legitimate as well as
illegitimate channels, but individuals with such values will likely view
crime in a more favorable light than others.
 The imitation of criminal models

Behavior is not only a function of beliefs and the reinforcements

and punishments individuals receive, but also of the behavior of those
around them. In particular, individuals often imitate or model the
behavior of others—especially when they like or respect these others
and have reason to believe that imitating their behavior will result in
reinforcement. For example, individuals are more likely to imitate
others' behavior if they observe them receive reinforcement for their
acts.

7.1.1. Differential Association Theory. – This theory,

formulated by Edwin Sutherland (1883-1950) believes that
criminality is a function of a learning process that could
affect any individual in any culture.

Sutherland made the following outline:

 Criminal behavior is learned;

 criminal behavior is learned in interaction with other persons in a
process of communication;
 the principal part of learning of criminal behavior occurs within an
intimate personal group;
 when criminal behavior is learned, the learning process includes:
techniques of committing the crime which are sometime very simple, the
specific direction of motives, drives, rationalization and attitudes;
 the process of learning criminal behavior by association with criminal
and anti-criminal patterns involves all of the mechanisms;
 the process of learning criminal behavior by association with criminal
and anti-criminal patterns involves all of the mechanism that are involved in
any other learning.

7.1.2. Differential Reinforcement Theory. – This theory was

proposed by Ronald Akers with Robert Burgess in 1966. This
variation of social learning theory argues that the primary

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learning mechanism is through differential association

(instrumental conditioning) along with elements of
psychological learning theory. Akers said that learning
process, both for conforming and deviant behavior, is
through direct conditioning, which is also called differential
reinforcement. This occurs when behavior is reinforced by
either reward or punishment. When behavior is punished,
this is referred to as negative reinforcement. When a
behavior is rewarded it is called positive reinforcement.

7.1.3. Neutralization Theory. – As proposed in the writings of

David Matza and Gresham Sykes, they viewed the process of
becoming criminal as a learning experience in which
potential delinquents and criminals master techniques that
enable them to counterbalance or neutralize conventional
behavior. They held that offenders adhere to conventional
values while “drifting” into periods of illegal behavior. Drift
refers to the movement from one extreme behavior to
another, resulting in behavior that is sometimes
unconventional, free or deviant and at other times
constrained and sober.
7.2. Social Control Theory. – It argues that people obey the law
because behavior and passions are being controlled by internal and external
forces. Conversely, some people have self-control, manifested through a
strong moral sense, which renders them incapable of hurting others and
violating social norms. People’s behavior, including criminal activity is
controlled by their attachment and commitment to conventional institutions,
individuals, and processes. Absent that commitment, they are likely to
engage in deviant behavior.

7.2.1. Under the concept of social control theory, Walter Reckless

postulated in his “Containment Theory” that a strong self-
image insulates the youth from the pressures and pulls of
criminogenic influences in the environment.
7.2.2. Social Bond Theory (also called social control theory). –
In 1969, Travis Hirschi presented in his book “Causes of
Delinquency” the social bond theory – linking the onset of
criminality to the weakening of ties that bind people in the
society. He said that people are kept under control because
they fear that illegal behavior will damage their relationship
with friends, parents, neighbors, teachers and employers.

7.3. Social Reaction Theory. – This theory, which is also called

labeling theory, holds that people enter into law-violating careers when they
are labeled for their acts and the individuals so labeled come to see

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themselves as criminals. This concept was made popular by Howard Saul

Becker (born on April 18, 1928) in Chicago, Illinois. In 1963, Becker
published the book, “Outsiders,” while teaching at the Department of
Psychiatry of University of Columbia, NY. Historically, intellectual heritage of
labeling is traceable to W.I. Thomas, G.H. Mead and Frank Tannenbaum.
Later, Edwin M. Lamert made a contribution on the subject as well.

Other Sociological Causes of Crime

 Lack of Parental Guidance – “Today’s delinquent is tomorrow’s

Criminal”.
 Broken Homes and Family
 Injuring Status of Neighborhood – The residence is slum or
impoverished areas will lower the social status of the child. As a rule, people
are influenced by these surroundings and often get in trouble.
 Bad association with Criminal Groups – “One bad apple will spoil a
barrel of good ones”.
 Lack of Recreational Facilities for Proper use of Leisure Time – “An idle
mind is the devil’s workshop”.
 Lack of Employment

8. Ecological Theory – The ecological school of criminological theory is

referred to as Statistical, Geographic or Cartographic. This theory was called
statistical because it was the first attempt to apply official data and
statistics to the issue of explaining criminality. The labels geographical and
cartographic have been assigned due to the fact that writers in this group
tended to rely upon maps and aerial data in their investigation.

8.1. Adolphe Quetelet (1796-1874) – a Belgian mathematician, who,

together with Frenchman dre-Michel Guerry, established the
cartographic school of criminology. Quetelet was the first to take
advantage of criminal statistics in crime causation thus crediting
him as the “Father of Modern Sociological and Psychological
Statistics.” Quetelet repudiated the free will doctrine of the
classicists and concluded that it is the society, not the decisions
of individual offenders that is responsible for criminal behavior.
He uncovered evidence that season, climate, population
composition, and poverty were related to criminality. Further, he
said that crime rates were greatest in summer, among the poor
and uneducated – and that crime rates are also influenced by
drinking habits.
8.2. Emile Durkheim (1858-1917) – one of the founding scholars of
sociology, he published the book entitled, “Division of Social
Labor,” which became a landmark work on the organization of

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societies. According to him, crime is a normal part of society as

birth and death. He held that the existence of crime paves the
way for social change and that a rising crime rate can signal the
need for social change and promote a variety of programs
designed to relieve the human suffering caused by crime. One of
his profound contributions to contemporary criminology is the
concept of anomie – the breakdown of social order as a result of
loss of standard and values.

D. Types of Explanation to criminal behavior

a. Single or Unitary Cause – Crime is produce only by one factor or variable,

they are social, biological or mental. This theory is no longer in use at
present.
b. Multiple Factor Theory – Crime is a combination of several factors. Some
factors are playing a major reason while the other is playing the minor role.
This is the accepted theory of crime causation.
c. Eclectic Theory – Crime is one instance maybe caused by one or more
factors, while in other instances it is cause by another set of factors.

E. Other Basic Causes of Crime

1. Hatred
2. Passion- general desires and passions.
3. Personal Gain- to improve life. “Get Rich Quick”.
4. Insanity
5. Revenge- This literally means to retaliate.
6. Unpopular Laws- Laws or ordinances that is ambiguous

F. Other Criminogenic Factors or Causes of Crimes

a. Failure of the School in Character Development of the Children and the

Youth.
b. The Mass Communication Media develop an artificial environment of
crimes and delinquency and influence the public to violate the law. (SOCO; it
gives info or knowledge to viewers or people on how to escape crimes or
punishment)
c. Political causes may bring about on artificial set or crime
1. There are too many laws and ordinances passed and violated.
2. The police and other law enforcement agencies are enforcing the
laws carelessly and the people are impressed with the idea that they can
break the law with impunity from punishment and arrest. (Poor
implementation)

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3. Leniency of the courts to imposed stiffer penalties which encourage

commission of crimes etc...(Degree of proof to convict a person Proof
beyond reasonable doubt)

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