Criminology

Criminologists apply the scientific method, which entails that methods of research must be based on testable empirical evidence, to explaining criminal behaviour. Criminology emerged as a discipline in the mid-18th century, with classical theorists such as Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) and Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794), analysing criminality based on an assumption of human free will. The positivist school arose in the 19th century. Positivist theorists, such as Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909), presume that criminality is scientifically testable and is caused by internal or external factors out-with the control of the individual. The Chicago school aimed to apply sociological theories of crime to an urban laboratory (city environment). Criminologists aim to isolate and identify the causes of criminal behaviour, in order to explain human criminality and in turn develop measures of crime prevention. A problem lies in the central nature v. nurture question – is criminality biologically inherited or is it learned from the environment? Separating these nature-nurture factors is extremely difficult because children are a product of both. Instead, many criminological theorists offer conflicting theories which aim to investigate the influence of different factors on the development of criminality.

Genetic theories, which adopt a positivist approach to analysing crime, aim to investigate the influence of genetic transmission/genetic inheritance on criminal behaviour. An important influence was Darwin’s (1859) evolutionary theory, which suggested that offspring inherit their characteristics from their parents through a process of natural selection – could criminality also be an inherited characteristic? In an attempt to measure genetic influences on...

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While many of the above theories attempt to analyse the causes of crime in relation to a single cause, many would argue that the development of criminal behaviour is resultant of a number of interplaying forces. Darrows (1922) assumes this stance, claiming that “…crime of any class cannot be safely ascribed to a single cause. Life is too complex, heredity is too variant and imperfect; too many separate things contribute to human behaviour, to make it possible to trace all actions to a single cause.” Therefore, it should follow that the best possible means of preventing crime are those which combine a variety of measures, aiming to address the multiplicity of causal factors. It is likely that the field of criminology will continue to grow in scope and in influence, as crime seems to be one of the most stable phenomena, existing in every society (Durkheim, 1895).