Criminology Test 1

Thorsten Sellin’s definition of a crime

Crime is defined as an act that violates social norms or laws and is punishable by the state or society. It includes behaviors that cause harm or danger to the community.

Goals of The Mayflower Compact

The Mayflower Compact aimed to establish a framework for self-governance, ensuring order, and promoting the common good among the Pilgrims in their new settlement.

What was the Malleus Maleficarum

Defined witches and their tendencies, let to a witch-hunting hysteria in Europe and eventually the Salem Witch Trials

Devil’s Marks

Any abnormal marks on the body which were believed to be permanent marks left by the Devil on witches who were obedient. It was used as evidence in trials.

Possession (One of the four 17th Century Logics)

Society believed (at this time) that the cause of wrongdoing was possession, or the rejection of God.

Scapegoating (One of the four 17th Century Logics)

A vulnerable group would be scapegoated in hopes of “purifying” the community of the wrongdoing/unexplained problem.

Public Shaming (One of the four 17th Century Logics)

This was the “corrective” model of the time, used to prevent future wrongdoings

Spectral Evidence (One of the four 17th Century Logics)

The belief that, when a person has made a covenant with the devil, he has given permission for the devil to assume that person’s appearance in spectral form to recruit others and carry out nefarious deeds.

Jeremy Bentham

Believed in utilitarian calculus, that we are governed by pain and pleasure. Punishment should be used to deter crime. He also created the Panopticon design

Enlightenment Ideals

Rationality, individual rights, equality before the law led to reform and the rejection of torture and public executions

Prison Reform Efforts in 18th Century

Pennsylvania focused on solitary confinement, with nearly no contact to others, while NY was harsh in discipline and labor.

Virginia Slave Code of 1705

All people from Non-Christian lands were legally defined as slaves. While Christians could still be indentured servants, they were able to be freed after some time. Slaveowners were able to punish the slaves however “necessary”. Shaped slave laws across the South

The Stono (Cato) Rebellion

Largest slave uprising in South Carolina, lasting about a week, where Jemmy (Cato) led about 20 individuals during Church to raid a firearms shop, killing around 20 whites and burning the town along the way. Directly caused the 1739 Security Act

1739 Security Act

Directly from the Stono Rebellion, it required all White men to carry a gun to Church on Sundays

Fugitive Slave Act of 1793

A federal law that authorized the capture and return of escaped enslaved people and imposed penalties on those who aided their flight.

Phrenology (19th Century Logics)

A pseudoscience that claimed a person’s character and mental abilities could be determined by the shape and bumps of their skull.

Atavism (19th Century Logics)

Formulated by Cesare Lombroso, was the idea that some criminals were “biological throwbacks” to earlier evolutionary stages, possessing primitive traits that made them more likely to commit crimes. Lombroso linked these traits to physical characteristics, including skull shape, and argued that such features reflected a less developed brain and “primitive” instincts.

Eugenics (19th Century Logics)

As an effort to remove “bad-actors” from society, eugenics were used to stop the bloodline of those who were believed to be genetically inferior.

“Empirical” Ideals shaping 19th Century Criminology

Based on scientific method, identifying physical and biological traits to point out “born criminals”. Based on observable evidence

Drapetomania

A “mental illness” invented by physician Samuel A. Cartwright to claim that enslaved Black people’s desire to escape slavery was a form of madness.

Franz Anton Mesmer

Created the idea of animal magnetism—an invisible, magnetic-like force that flowed through all living and nonliving things. According to Mesmer, disease resulted from blockages in this fluid. He developed treatments that involved magnets, hand gestures, and sometimes a wooden tub (the baquet) filled with magnetized water, leading to modern hypnosis

James Braid

British surgeon and a foundational figure in the development of modern hypnotism. He coined the term hypnosis and rejected earlier theories of “animal magnetism,” proposing instead that hypnosis was a physiological state induced by focused attention.

Paul Briquet and Hysteria in 1859

Re-popularized Hysteria and caused the “wandering uterus” theory to begin to be debunked. Briquet called it a nervous system disorder, but it still remained gendered

Philippe Pinel

Supported moral therapy and prison reform, advocating for the removal of cruel practices (chains, restraints, etc.) He challenged the prevailing belief that mental illness was caused by demonic possession or moral failings, instead attributing it to social, psychological, and physiological factors. Provided a scientific and humane approach to mental illness

Cesare Lombroso

Lombroso rejected the classical view that crime was purely a moral or rational choice. Instead, he proposed that criminality could be inherited and that certain individuals were “born criminals,” identifiable by physical traits such as asymmetrical faces, unusual skull shapes, large jaws, heavy brow ridges, and other anatomical anomalies—a concept he called atavism, suggesting a regression to primitive human forms.

Marked a pivotal shift in criminology, moving it toward empirical study and the scientific investigation of offenders rather than solely focusing on laws and punishment

(Date) Publication of the Malleus Maleficarum

1486

(Date) First Trial Jury In American Colonies

1630

(Date) First Newspaper Distribution in Boston

1690

(Date) First Witch Trial in Salem

1692

(Date) Witch Trials deemed unlawful

1702

(Date) Virginia Slave Code

1705

(Date) Cato’s Rebellion

1739

(Date) Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery

1775

(Date) Memoire sur la decourverte du magnetisme animal

1779

(Date) Royal Commission Animal Magnetism France

1784

(Date) Panopticon Designed

1791

(Date) Fugitive Slave Act

1793

(Date) Laws Banning African Slave Trade

1808

(Date) Opening of Eastern State Penitentiary

1829

(Date) James Cowles Prichard’s “Moral Insanity”

1835

(Date) PT Barnum opens Exhibits

1840s

(Date) People v. William Freeman (First case using insanity as defense)

1847

(Date) Drapetomania invented

1851

(Date) Briquet Repopularizes Hysteria

1859

(Date) Civil War Begins

1861

(Date) Abolition of Slavery 13th Amendment

1865

(Date) Jim Crow Laws

1870s

(Date) Criminal Man

1876

(Date) Plessy v. Ferguson (Upholding racial segregation)

1896

The Baquet

A wooden tub filled with magnetized water