Explaining Crime: Criminological Theories Overview

Introduction to Criminological Theory

A theory is an assumption explaining how things relate. Criminological theory explains criminal behavior and the actions of criminal justice actors.

Classical and Neoclassical Approaches

Classical Theory

Emerging from the Enlightenment, classical theory assumes individuals exercise free will and are responsible for their actions. Behavior, including crime, is motivated by a hedonistic rationality, weighing pleasure against pain. Cesare Beccaria, a key classical criminologist, advocated the principle of $ext{utility}$ ("greatest happiness for the greatest number") as the sole justification for laws and punishments. Society is founded on a $ext{social contract}$, where individuals sacrifice minimal liberty to prevent chaos. Deterrence includes $ext{special deterrence}$ (preventing the punished from re-offending) and $ext{general deterrence}$ (preventing society at large from crime).

Neoclassical Theory

This modifies classical theory, conceding that factors like insanity can inhibit the exercise of free will.

Positivist Approaches

Biological Theories (Biological Positivism)

These theories assert criminals are physiologically distinct. Biological inferiority was thought to produce distinguishing physical or genetic traits.

• Criminal Anthropology: Cesare Lombroso's study of "criminal" human beings, linking physical stigmata to a predisposition for crime, defining such individuals as $ext{atavists}$ or products of degeneration.

• Body-Type Theory: An extension of Lombroso's work.

• Heredity Studies: Methods like family tree, statistical comparisons, twin, and adoption studies investigated genetic links to criminality.

• Modern Biocriminology: Links criminality to disorders of the $ext{limbic system}$, brain chemical dysfunctions (e.g., neurotransmitter levels), and endocrine abnormalities (e.g., testosterone, progesterone, estrogen imbalances).

Psychological Theories

• Intelligence and Crime: Early theories linked crime to low intelligence. Edwin Sutherland critiqued this, noting similar intelligence distributions between criminals and the general population, considering selection biases in the justice system.

• Psychoanalytic Theories: Associated with Sigmund Freud, these theories identify psychopaths, sociopaths, or antisocial personalities as lacking guilt, conscience, and a sense of right and wrong.

• Humanistic Psychological Theory: Abraham Maslow and Seymour Halleck's work, fundamentally psychoanalytic but assuming humans are inherently good, though influenced by society to act badly. Maslow proposed a hierarchy of needs (physiological, safety, belongingness and love, esteem, self-actualization). Halleck suggested criminal adaptation occurs when other adaptations are blocked.

Sociological Theories

Sociologists focus on how social groups and structures influence behavior.

• Durkheim's Contributions: Émile Durkheim argued crime is caused by $ext{anomie}$ (dissociation from the $ext{collective conscience}$ or general morality). He viewed crime as normal behavior within society.

• The Chicago School (Shaw and McKay): Based on human ecology, this school linked crime to $ext{social disorganization}$, where community controls are absent, delinquent behavior is approved, opportunities for delinquency are rife, and legitimate employment is scarce.

• Merton's Anomie/Strain Theory: Robert K. Merton identified a contradiction between cultural goals and social structure in the U.S., terming it $ext{anomie}$. Individuals adapt in ways such as conformity, innovation, ritualism, retreatism, and rebellion.

• Learning Theories: People learn new responses, including criminal behavior, through $ext{imitation}$ or $ext{modeling}$. Edwin H. Sutherland's $ext{differential association}$ theory posits criminality arises from contacts with criminal definitions and isolation from noncriminal ones. Learning theory also employs concepts of $ext{positive reinforcement}$, $ext{negative reinforcement}$, $ext{extinction}$, and $ext{punishment}$.

• Social Control Theories (Hirschi): Assumes people will commit crime unless prevented. Hirschi's social bond to society comprises attachment to others, commitment to conventional actions, involvement in conventional activities, and belief in the moral order and law.

Critical Approaches

These theories assume humans create institutions that then dominate and constrain them.

• Labeling Theory: Focuses on the criminalization process and how actions are defined as criminal. Explains secondary deviance, which is crime after accepting a criminal label.

• Conflict Theory (Vold, Turk): Assumes society is based on conflict between competing interest groups. Crime is defined by dominant groups' interests and caused by $ext{power differentials}$ or $ext{relative powerlessness}$.

• Radical Theory (Marx, Quinney): Based on Karl Marx's ideas, it posits that the class struggle and exploitation inherent in capitalism, beyond just inequality or poverty, cause crime.

• Other Critical Theories:

  • British or Left Realism: Focuses on the real victimization experienced by working-class people, linking it to $ext{relative deprivation}$.

  • Peacemaking Criminology: Advocates for human transformation, mutual dependence, and social justice to solve crime.

  • Feminist Theory: Examines criminality through women's experiences, seeking to abolish $ext{patriarchy}$ (men's control over women).

  • Postmodernism: Rejects Enlightenment beliefs in scientific rationality, questioning established knowledge and progress.