The Evolution of Criminal Law
Shannon Graham
Grantham University
Abstract
This paper will review the definition of criminology and define criminal behavior. In addition, the following will discuss the origin, evolution, and modern day criminal law from the Code of Hammurabi to the current separation of misdemeanors and felonies. It will also answer the question: What do you see for the future of criminal law?
Criminology addresses the study of crime from various social perspectives. It is often used interchangeably with the term criminal justice, however, the terms do have different definitions. The criminological enterprise includes: criminal statistics, sociology of law, theory construction, criminal behavior systems, penology and victimology. (Siegel, 2015) Through research, criminology analyzes criminal behavior, the impact of crime on society and the
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Serious offenses fall under the category of felony. Felonies include rape, murder and burglary. These may be punishable by long term prison sentences and/or the death penalty. Crimes such as petty theft and disorderly conduct are misdemeanors. The punishment for these crimes may include fines and or relatively short time in a county jail. Contemporary criminal law is set to uphold moral value, deter criminal behavior and maintain social order. (Siegel, 2015) In the future, criminal law will continue to evolve and adapt to the needs of society. Technology affects all industries including the institution of criminal law. It has shown great potential in tracking and capturing criminals. However, criminals also find technology useful. Cybercrime is a relatively new arena in criminal law. Despite future laws for a changing society and decriminalization to accommodate expanding social norms, criminal law will continue to adapt “to reflect social values and contemporary issues and problems”. (Siegel, 2015)
Criminology is the scientific study of the causes and prevention of crimes. Criminology also uses a vast amount of theories to explain peoples’ actions, mental state, and their drive for committing crimes. Some crimes have monetary benefits, while other crime are committed in revenge or in spite of another, which would be called crimes of passion. Because it can be sometime difficult to understand why certain crime are committed, the only thing we can do is use theories to better decipher thoughts, morals, and reasons behind committing crimes.
Over time, there has been growing gap between criminal policy and criminology (Garland & Sparks, 2000). Despite the criminal knowledge and expertise academic criminologist possess, their advancement or role towards creating crime policy has not been immense (Garland & Sparks, 2000). While various governments have introduced mandatory minimum and more lengthy sentences for offenders, there has been a lack of strategic criminological advice and knowledge when developing these policies (Garland & Sparks, 2000). This lack of criminological influence when creating and imp...
Criminological theories interpret the competing paradigms of Human Nature, Social Order, Definition of Crime, Extent and Distribution of Crime, Causes of Crime, and Policy, differently. Even though these theories have added to societies understanding of criminal behaviour, all have been unable to explain why punishment or treatment of offenders is unable to prevent deviancy, and thus are ineffective methods of control. The new penology is a contemporary response that favours the management of criminals by predicting future harm on society. However, all criminological theories are linked as they are a product of the historical time and place, and because of their contextual history, they will continue to reappear depending on the current state of the world, and may even be reinvented.
Criminology has various paradigms within it, there are macro and micro paradigms that measure different levels of analysis, and different variables. Macro level theories focus on how society as a whole relate to crime, and micro levels try to explain how and why individuals are involved in crime. Criminology attempts to predict the unpredictable, which is human actions.
Crime is any violation of law, either divine or human; an omission of a duty commanded, or the commission of an act forbidden by law. Gross violation of human law, in distinction from a misdemeanor or trespass, or other slight offense. Hence, also, any aggravated offense against morality or the public welfare any outrage or great wrong. Any great wickedness or sin; iniquity. {Copyright 2004 BrainyMedia.com}
One of the biggest concerns of criminology is the reason why the criminals commit the crimes that they do. Whether it’s due to a mental disease or genetics. Even if the criminal is healthy and has been planning it for months analyzing the consequences and results. Could the society that the criminal has grown up in ever be at fault causing him to act the way he or she did? People have been trying to find the reason that criminals commit these crimes for many years, and the numbers of theories that have been come up with looks to be the same number of criminologists. A criminologist is “one who studies the biological and sociological causes and consequences of crime and criminal behavior (such as the effects of mental defects and social environment).” Their job is to figure out why criminals acted the way they did and how to change the person in order to not repeat it, in other words rehabilitate them. Rehabilitation teaches the prisons to live a better life when let out instead of being punished in prison. When a criminal commits a crime the reason for the action is a very important part of the case and after the prisoner is behind bars, then they can find a solution for the crime to not be repeated by the same convict.
Technology has opened new encounters and opportunities for the criminal justice system. There are so many new practices of criminal activity, such as computer crimes. There are different types of computer crimes that many people become victims of every day. Computer crime is any crime that involves a computer and a network. The computer may have been used in the commission of a crime, or it may be the target ("Computer Crime: Chapter 2: What Are the Crimes?", n.d.). Crimes such as data diddling, pump and dump, social engineering and spoofing are computer crimes. Even though these crimes are difficult by privacy issues, the new technology has made investigations and prosecutions well organized and effective. Though views are different on the pros and cons of specific technological changes in the criminal justice system, there is an agreement the system has changed affectedly ("Effects of Technology in Criminal Justice | eHow", n.d.).
The three eras that have characterized the field of criminology over the past 100 years are the “Golden Age of Research,” the “Golden Age of Theory,” and an unnamed era that was “’characterized by extensive theory testing of the dominant theories, using largely empirical methods’” (28). The “Golden Age of Research” era spanned from 1900 to 1930 according to John H. Laub. This era is identified as focusing heavily on the collection of data surrounding crime and the criminal. This data was assessed without “any particular ideational framework” (28). The second era, the “Golden Age of Theory,” spanned from 1930 to 1960, also according to Laub. This era is also rather self-explanatory, it is described by the development of theories; however, Laub
Criminology in its most simple definition is the study of crime. It entails a wide range of theories and arguments all aiming to explain everything there is to explain about crime. Covering every area of reasoning behind criminal behaviour, criminologists all have their own opinion, and all have their own theories which explain crime in different ways. Crime is a lot more difficult to define as it differs over time and location. Every era and every country have their own modified version of crime. Almost everyone can agree on a crime being an act committed against the law, yet as the law changes so does how crime is defined and that’s what makes it so difficult to define. In a world without Criminology crime would not be able to be explained
Pallaras, Stephen. "New Technology: Opportunities And Challenges For Prosecutors." Crime, Law & Social Change 56.1 (2011): 71-89. SocINDEX with Full Text. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Criminology is the study of crime and criminals; a branch of sociology. More accurately, it is the study of crime as a social trend, and its overall origins, its many manifestations and its impact upon society as a whole. That makes it more a form of sociology than a law enforcement tool. But the trends it studies have a huge impact on the way the police do their jobs, the way society treats its criminals, and the way a given community goes about maintaining law and order. The writer will describe and give examples of the three perspectives of viewing crimes. The perspectives that will be highlighted are the consensus view, the conflict view or the interactionist view. Each perspective maintain its own interpretation of what constitutes criminal activities and what causes people to engage in criminal behaviors (Siegel, p.12).
There are many different aspects of criminal justice policy. One in particular is the different theories of crime and how they affect the criminal justice system. The Classical School of criminology is a theory about evolving from a capital punishment type of view to more humane ways of punishing people. Positivist criminology is maintaining the control of human behavior and criminal behavior. They did this through three different categories of Biological studies, which are five methodologies of crime that were mainly focused on biological theories, Psychological theories, which contains four separate theories, and the Sociological theories, which also includes four different methods of explaining why crime exists. The last theory is about Critical criminology. Their goal was to transform society in a way that would liberate and empower subordinate groups of individuals.
Along with society’s natural progressive focus on humane, useful and educated responses to criminal behavior, there was a fear of crime that has been developing and also helps to explain the changes in punishment throughout history.
Criminology is a social science rather than a branch of law. Although there are several different theories surrounding criminology, they all share a common goal: the search for the causes of criminal behavior in the hopes that this information can be transformed into policies that will be effective in handling or even eliminating crime.
In contrast to crime science’s concentration on finding the right answers to cease crimes against humanity, criminology emphasizes on the significance of investigating both crimes and criminals independently. If criminology is perceived to interpret crimes, then, criminal science is designated to fix