Instructors Manual - for Criminological Theory A Brief Introduction ...

1 Instructor’s Manual for Criminological Theory A Brief Introduction Fourth Edition J.Mitchell Miller Christopher J. Schreck Richard Tewksbury J.

• Barnes

Prepared by David N. Khey 1 / 4

6 Chapter 1

Theoretical Criminology: An Introductory Overview

Chapter Overview:

This chapter begins by defining criminology as focused on the process of making and breaking laws. It distinguishes criminal justice from criminology in that the former is more “solutions-oriented” while the latter is more concerned with the discovery of causes and reasons for committing crime and theory creation. The authors are quick to point out, however, that criminal justice practitioners and criminological theorists rely upon one another to effect change in human behavior. The next section of the chapter outlines the "evolution" of criminology from the ancient Babylonian Code of Hammurabi to the current hegemonic status of the sociological perspective of crime. Therein, the authors note that criminologists often disagree about the reasons for crime and its relationship to various social problems. Some scholars argue in favor of individual-level explanations of human behavior (i.e., micro-level theories) while others espouse macro-level explanations of crime. These macro-level theories typically focus on social ills such as poverty, unemployment, and overall disadvantage. The objective of this introductory chapter is to "prime" the reader toward the notion that a variety of theoretical perspectives exist and that all have some bearing on crime. Some theoretical accounts have competing interests while others are more complimentary. The authors offer guidance to readers to understand how one can assess the quality of an individual theory and describe how quality theories can help create an evidence-base to shape criminal justice practice and policies in an informed, productive way.

Learning Objectives:

After reading this chapter, the student should be able to:

(1) Understand the origins of criminological theory (2) Discuss the process of theory construction (3) Describe how to assess the relative merit of a particular theory on the grounds of its explanatory value (4) Explain the possible applicability of criminological theory for criminal justice practices and policies in a general way

Key Terms:

Chicago School Classical School of Criminology Correlation Crime Rate Criminality Criminology Determinism Positivism 2 / 4

7 Social Contract Theory

Lecture Outline:

• Introduction
• Criminology is focused on the processes of making and breaking laws
• Criminologists seek to understand the "why" of crime (i.e., why did person

A become a criminal but person B did not?) and the causes of crime

• We know certain “facts” regarding the causes and nature of crime
• Criminologists observe the realities of crime and try to piece together

explanations

• some look to individual-level explanations
• others look to macro-level explanations

II. The Origins and Evolution of Criminology

• Attention to crime can be traced back to ancient Babylonia and the Code

of Hammurabi as well as in the Judeo-Christian perspective depicted in the Bible

• The family-revenge model of justice became dominant during the feudal

era

a) Trial by battle

• The victim or victim’s family member would fight the

offender or offender’s family member

b) Trial by ordeal

• The accused was subject to a test that would determine

his/her innocence (run the gauntlet or dunked in water while bound with a robe)

• Spirituality continued to affect interpretations of crime causation

a) Salem Witch Trials-result from belief that crime could be

attributed to witchcraft and demonic possession

b) Emergence of penitentiaries or correctional institutions in

Philadelphia by Quakers who believed that isolation, labor, and Bible reading would rehabilitate the offender (e.g., spiritual enlightenment can be a crime solution, just today’s faith-based approaches)

c) Contemporary criminologists trace the roots of criminological

explanations of behavior to the Enlightenment period of the late 18 th century with Voltaire, Rousseau, and Locke who were early philosophers who emphasized reason over blind faith and superstition

• Introduction of the social contract (Thomas Hobbes) and moving away

from spiritualism and superstition

a) Cesare Beccaria’s and Jeremy Bentham’s writings characterized

what is commonly known as the classical school of criminology

• Grounded in the principles of deterrence (certainty, severity

and celerity) 3 / 4

8 ii. Crime is not believed to be a function of religion, superstition, or myth but result of free will or rational choice

• The notion of rational choice is likened to a

determination of gains versus risk, or criminal calculus iii. The principles of the classical school have been revised by legal reformers and is now referred to as neoclassicism which continues to influence criminal justice policies and the study of criminal behavior

• Positivism began to emerge in Europe in the nineteenth century

a) Emphasizes the application of the scientific method

b) Stresses the identification of patterns and consistencies in

observable facts

c) Assumes causes of behavior can be determined that can enable

predictions about behavioral outcomes that would be likely to occur given certain conditions (i.e., this is the notion of determinism)

• Human behavior is caused by biological, psychological,

and environmental factors specific to the individual

• Cesare Lombroso in his influential work entitled

The Criminal Man argued that some people are born criminals

d) Positivism began replacing classical thought in the 1920s largely

due to the influence of the Chicago School

• A series of key studies by the University of Chicago’s

Sociology Department changed the focus of criminological theory by demonstrating that crime is a product of social ecology, particularly the disorganization that characterizes urban life

• The social ecology model became a dominant

paradigm or model of scientific inquiry oriented toward environmental causes of crime III. The Nature of Theory

• A one-word definition of theory is “explanation”

a) Developing explanations for everyday events that involves

sorting out causes and effects is a form of theoretical expression

b) For academics, scientific theories are a means of explaining

natural occurrences through statements about the relationships between phenomena

• The phenomena are ordered as either causes or effects and

the causes and effects are termed variables

• Variable analysis is the analytic strategy that specifies the causal elements

into either independent variables (i.e., the causes) or dependent variables (i.e., the effects)

a) Crime is the foremost dependent variable in criminology

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