Iii Crim
Iii Crim
Iii Crim
Peralta
BSCrim 1st year (ALPHA)
INTRO TO CRIMINOLOGY
Summary Paper
Introduction
The sociology of law, which looks at how laws are made and enforced; criminal
etiology, which looks at the causes of crime; and penology, which looks at society's
response to crime and includes the study of the criminal justice system, are the three
main divisions of this relatively new field of study. Criminologists are social scientists
who construct a body of general, provable principles about law, deviance, and crime
using current scientific research methodologies. Crime and deviance are viewed as
very complicated types of social behavior in criminological study, not as isolated
events. To properly comprehend the meaning of deviance and crime, the discipline
looks beyond legal definitions and considers the entire social context in which
deviation and lawlessness occur. A large quantity of evidence has been uncovered in
researching the causes of crime.
NOTA BENE: Causes of Crime refers to the factors or circumstances that apply
significantly more to offenders than to non-offenders and that potentially a direct but
not necessarily immediate link to crime.
2. Crime is caused by Divine Will - Men engage in criminal action because they are
sinful, and God wishes to punish them. Criminals were granted the right of sanctuary
during the ancient period, allowing them to take refuge in God's temples and avoid
prosecution and punishment. In the early American jail system, inmates were not
allowed to speak with one another, and prisoners were placed in private cells to allow
them to pray to God for forgiveness.
3. The explanation that crime is the result of the free will of men (Classical school of
thought by BECARRIA). According to criminologist Bacarria, men are
fundamentally a biological organism with intelligence and rationality. Crime is cause
by the rational effort of men to augment their pleasure and to minimize their pains.
4. The explanations that crime us result of the free will of men but were committed
due to some compelling reasons prevailed (Neo-classical School of Thought) - This
explanation accepts the fact that crimes are committed in accordance with the free
will of men but the act of committing a crime is modified by some causes. Causes
include pathology, incompetence, insanity or any condition that will like it possible
for the individual to exercise their free will entirely.
5. The explanation that criminals are born (positive school of thought by Cesare
Lombroso, 1835-1909 According to Cesare Lambroso, who is now considered the
father of modern criminology, criminals are born with some physical characteristic
which become the causes of crimes. They advanced the following explanation to such
cause:
E.CRIME PATTERNS
Criminologists look for stable crime rate patterns to gain insight into the nature of
crime. If crime rates are consistently higher at certain times, in certain areas, and
among certain groups, this knowledge might help explain crime's onset or cause. We
will examine traits and patterns that may influence the crime rate.
5. SOCIAL CLASS AND CRIME- The relationship between social class and crime
is an unresolved issue in criminological literature. Crime has traditionally been
thought to be a lower-class phenomenon. After all, those at the bottom of the social
ladder have the greatest incentive to commit crimes. Those who are unable to obtain
desired goods and services through traditional means may resort to theft and illegal
means. These activities are known as instrumental crimes. Poverty is also thought to
be associated with a disproportionate number of Expressive crimes.
6. AGE AND CRIME- There is general agreement that age is inversely related to
criminality. Criminologists Travis Hirschi and Michael Gottfredson state "Age is
everywhere correlated with crime". James Q. Wilson and Richard Herrnstein argue
that aging out is a function of the natural history of human life.
EARLY ONSET- People who commit crimes at a very early age and who establish
official criminal records are most likely to become chronic offenders.
7. RACE AND CRIME- Official crime data indicate that minority group members
are involved in a disproportionate share of criminal activity. It is possible that these
data reflect racial differences in the crime rate, but it is also possible that they reflect
police bias. Charges of racial discrimination in the arrest process would be
substantiated if whites and black self-reported equal numbers of crimes, but minorities
were arrested for more often.
8. GENDER AND CRIME- male crime rates are generally higher than those
females. Lombroso’s book, the female offender argued that in physical appearance
and emotional makeup, delinquent females appear closer to men than to other women.
This theory is known as Masculinity hypothesis; In essence, a few masculine females
were responsible for the handful of crimes women commit. The female’s criminality
was often masked because authorities were reluctant to take action against women.
This is known as Chivalry hypothesis. While Liberal feminist theory focused attention
on the social and economic role of a woman. This view suggests that the traditionally
lower crime rate for women could be explained by their second class economic and
social position.
1.Social conditions
2.Economic
3.Environment
4.Cultural influences and
5.Individual personal temperaments
B.Retrospective - A study that uses an intact cohort of known offenders and looks
back into their early life experiences by checking their educational, family, police,
and hospital records. Important sources of Aggregate Data Research is Uniform
Crime Report (UCR); an annual report that reflects the number of crimes reported by
citizens to local police departments and the numbers of arrests made by police
agencies in a given year.
The sociology of law is the sociological study of law and law-related phenomena. It
dates back to the classic works by Emile Durkheim and Max Weber. For some time it
was part of the multidisciplinary field of law-and-society studies. But it has in recent
years grown into a relatively autonomous branch of theory and research in sociology.
Sociology of law and sociology of sociology has similar subject matters such as both
evolve around social relationships, principles, social controls, commitments and
desires coming from specific social status and connections between or among people
and society. Anything happening in social lives of people liable to lawful control and
legal explanations does have likenesses with the social hypothesis and frequently
reads like the sociological hypothesis. Talcott Parsons stated that law is the essential
part of social control. German Sociologist Niklas Luhmann shares that Law is
functional system of society.
C.LAW defined
In its most generic signification as an ordinance of reason promulgated for the
common good by him who is in charge. To be useful and fair, law has to be
promulgated, i.e., made known to those who are expected to follow it.
A. Natural Moral Law - applies to our higher faculties. Example: Do good and avoid
evil.
B. Law of Nature - Applies to both our higher and lower faculties. Example: the law
of gravity.
Natural Law and Natural Right
Natural Rights – thoughts that individuals retain in the face of government action
and interests.
Thomas Jefferson- inalienable rights to "life, liberty, and property" were naturally due
to all men and women because they were inherent in the social contract between
citizens and their government.
Today's Natural Law- Many people today believe that the foundation for various
existing criminal laws can be found in immutable moral principles or some other
discernible aspect of the natural order.
The Ten Commandments, "inborn tendencies," the concept of sin, and perceptions of
various forms of order in the universe and social world have all provided a foundation
for the claim that natural law exists. As an example, consider the abortion debate.
Penology
The Correctional system in the Philippines is composed of agencies under three
(3) distinct and separate executive department of the national government, namely:
1. Department of Justice – under this are the Bureau of Corrections, the Parole and
Probations.
2. Department of the Interior and Local Government – under this are the Bureau
of Jail Management and Penology which runs the City, Municipality and District ; and
the Provincial Jail through their respective government; and
A. PENOLOGY defined
It is derived from two words: PENO and LOGY. The term “PENO” was derived from
Greek word “POINE” which means punishment as well as from Latin word
“POENA”, which means Pain or Suffering. “LOGY” was derived from the Latin
word “LOGOS”, that means Science. 1870 to 1880 – was the golden age of penology
because of the following reasons:
d. The first separate institutions for women were established in Indiana and
Massachusetts.
1. To bring light the ethical barriers of punishment, along with the motives and
purposes of society inflicting it.
2. To make comparative study of penal laws and procedures through history between
nations.
E. CORRECTION defined
It is that field of criminal justice administration which utilizes the body ofknowledge
and practices of the government and the society in general involving the process of
handling individuals who have been convicted of offenses for purposes of crime
prevention and control. It is a generic term that includes all government agencies,
facilities, programs, procedures, personnel, and techniques concerned with the
investigation, intake, custody, confinement, supervision, or treatment of alleged
offenders.
Institutional Corrections
-That aspect of the correctional
enterprise that involves the
incarceration and rehabilitation of
adults and juveniles convicted of
offenses against the law, and the
confinement of persons suspected of
a crime awaiting trial and adjudication.
Non-Institutional correction
-That aspect of the correctional enterprise
that includes pardon, probation, and
parole activities, correctional
administration not directly connectable to
institutions, and miscellaneous (activity)
not directly related to institutional care.
REASONS:
Jail defined - Institution of the confinement of persons who are awaiting final
disposition of their criminal cases and also for the service of those convicted and
punished with shorter sentences, up to 3 years
Prison defined - Institution for the confinement of persons who have been
convicted by final judgement by the court in which the penalty is more than 3 years
M. PUNISHMENT defined
Punishment is the redress that the state takes against an offending member
of society that usually involved pain and suffering. It is also the penalty imposed
on an offender for a crime or wrong doing.
N. ANCIENT FORMS OF PUNISHMENT
2. UNIFORMITY- “we treat the prisoners alike”, “the fault of one is the fault of
all”.
4. MONOTONY- giving the same food that is “off” diet, or requiring the prisoners
to perform drab or boring daily routine.
6. MASS MOVEMENT- mass living in cell blocks, mass eating, mass recreation,
mass bathing.
NOTA BENE: Ancient Rome is the nation who pioneered banishment as a form
of punishment.
Q. CHARACTERISTIC OF PUNISHMENT
1. It must be Severe
2. It must be Uniform
3. It must be Certain
4. It must be Swift
R. PENALTY defined
T. DURATION OF PENALTIES
Criminalistics
A. CRIMINALISTIC defined
NOTA BENE: The term Criminalistics (Kriminalistik) was first used by Hans Gross
in 1891. The most important concept in criminalistics is identification or
individualization (Paul Kirk)
B. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE defined
NOTA BENE:
Physical evidence is part of the “holy trinity” for solving crimes physical, evidence,
witnesses, and confessions. Without one of the first two, there is little chance of even
finding a suspect. In homicide and sexual assault cases, physical evidence is the
number one determinant of guilt or
innocence.
2. Associative Evidence- Evidence found in the crime scene that links the suspects to
the crime scene.
CRIMINOLOGIST defined
Any person who is a graduate with the Degree of Criminology, who passed
the examination for criminologist and is registered as such by the Board of
Examiners of the Professional Regulation Commission. The term criminologist is one
who has been engaged in the practice of criminology if he holds himself out to the
public in any of the following capacities under Section 23 of Republic Act No. 6504.
CRIMINALIST defined
Any trained person in sciences of the application of instruments and methods, to the
detection of crime. Physical evidences are variable. Some are visible; some are very
small and have to be looked for with a microscope. Some must be tested with
application of chemicals in order to find out what they are. Some physical evidences
such as latent prints are not visible and have to be dusted with powders or examined
and searched with special lights to be visualized.
DR. HANS GUSTAV ADOLF GROSS was an Austrian criminal jurist and
examining judge whose real name was Hans GUSTAV ADOLF GROSS. He is
referred described as the "Father or Inventor of Criminalistics." He taught at
Chernivtsi University, Prague University, and the University of Graz, as well as
founding the Graz Institute of Criminology. He was also the father of Otto Gross, an
Austrian psychoanalyst. SEARCH FOR TRUTH, he said, is the foundation and
purpose of all criminal investigations. He also stated that a big portion of criminal
activity consists of a war against lies. In 1893, he published a book titled
"HANDBUCH FURUNTERSUCHUNGSRICHTER, POLIZEIBEAMTE,
GENDARMEN, U.S.W." is regarded as the beginning of the field of criminalistics,
which applies science to crime investigation and law enforcement. The effort brought
together previously unconnected fields of information that could be used to combat
crime in a single system.
F. DIVISIONS OF CRIMINALISTICS
There are six (6) divisions of criminalistics. The first three (3) are scientific and the
other Five (5) are technological. In both cases, instrumentation is involved.
b. PHYSICS - The duties of a physicist in a crime laboratory include but not limited
to firearms identification, tool mark comparison, scientific photography, traffic or
vehicular accidents for the purpose of finding out the speed and direction of vehicles,
and use of X-rays to the detection of crime.
c. BIOLOGY - Biology is the study of living things. The science that deals with the
origin, history, physical characteristics, life, processes, habits, etc. of plants and
animals. The biologists in a police laboratory study all kinds of living things- blood,
semen, urine, hairs, and skin. He is particularly skilled in the use of a microscope. His
most important role in criminalistics is to examine bloodstains in order to find out if
they are of human or animal origin.
3. They compare ink, pencil, typewriting and printed material of all the kinds of
questioned and standard documents through the use o:
a. Ultra-violet
b. Infra-red
c. Transparent
d. Sloping light
e. Advance photography.
BALLISTICS defined- it means a branch of engineering that deals with the study of
the art of throwing missiles by means of a machine. It also deals with the study of the
motion of projectiles in flight.
BALLISTICS ENGINEERS - concerned with the design of weapons and
projectiles.
What is Victimology?
The term victimology is not new. In fact, Benjamin Mendelsohn first used it
in1947 to describe the scientific study of crime victims. Victimology is often
considereda subfield of criminology, and the two fields do share much in common.
Just as criminology is the study of criminals what they do, why they do it, and how
the criminal justice system responds to them victimology is the study of victims.
Victimology, then, is the study of the etiology (or causes) of victimization, its
consequences, how the criminal justice system accommodates and assists victims, and
how other elements of society, such as the media, deal with crime victims.
Victimology is a science; victimologists use the scientific method to answer questions
about victims. For example, instead of simply wondering or hypothesizing why
younger people are more likely to be victims than are older people, victimologists
conduct research to attempt to identify the reasons why younger people seem more
vulnerable.
From this definition, we can see that victimology encompasses the study of:
1. victimization
2. victim-offender relationships
3. victim-criminal justice system relationships
4. victims and the media
5. victims and the costs of crime
6. victims and social movements
Victim Precipitation, Victim Facilitation, and Victim Provocation are all forms of
victimization. Despite the fact that the study of victimology has mostly moved away
from simply identifying victims, The initial excursions into the study of crime victims
were focussed on determining how much a victim contributes to his or her own
victimization. As a result, the initial studies of crime victims did not portray victims
as innocent victims who had been harmed by a criminal. These investigations gave
rise to notions like victim precipitation, victim facilitation, and victim provocation.
Victim provocation – It occurs when a person does something that incites another
person to commit an illegal act. Victim precipitation, facilitation, and provocation are
not always clear-cut. An example of victim provocation would be if a person
attempted to mug a man who was walking home from work and the man, instead of
willingly giving the offender his wallet, pulled out a gun and shot the mugger.
Hans Von Hentig
Hans von Hentig (1948) recognized in his book The Criminal and His Victim:
Studies in the Sociobiology of Crime the importance of investigating what factors
underpin why certain people are victims, just as criminology attempts to identify
those factors that produce criminality. Victimization is produced by some of the same
traits that produce crime, according to Hans von Hentig (1948). Victims can be
divided into 13 categories based on their propensity for victimization. For example,
the young, the old and females may be victimized because of their ignorance or risk
taking. He determined that victimization is also produced by some of the same traits
that produce crime. An example of a victim is a person who is blackmailed because of
his behavior, which places him in a precarious situation if he reports the blackmail to
the police. Immigrants, minorities, and dull normal are likely to be victimized due to
their social status and inability to activate assistance in the community. Tormentors
are people who provoke their own victimization viaviolence and aggression toward
others.
Benjamin Mendelsohn
1. Victim who bears no culpability for victimization: a victim who is victimized solely
because of his or her nature, such as being a youngster.
2.Victim with small guilt: a victim who is victimized due to ignorance; a victim who
unwittingly puts himself in danger.
4. Victim more guilty than offender: a victim who instigates or provokes his or her
own victimization
5. Most guilty victim: a victim who is victimized during the perpetration of a crime or
as a result of crime
Stephen Schafer (1968), one of the first victimologists, wrote The Victim.
and His Offender: A Case Study in Functional Responsibilities Schafer presented a
victim typology in the same way as von Hentig and Mendelsohn did. Using both
social qualities and behaviors, he categorizes victims into groups based on how
responsible they are for their own victimization. In this way, it incorporates aspects of
von Hentig's typology, which is based on personal attributes and conduct, as well as
Mendelsohn's typology. He claimed that people had a functional obligation not to
provoke others to injure or victimize them, and that they should actively endeavor to
avoid this. He divided the categories into seven groups, each with a different level of
liability:
1. Unrelated victims—no responsibility
2. Provocative victims—share responsibility
3. Precipitative victims—some degree of responsibility
4. Biologically weak victims—no responsibility
5. Socially weak victims—no responsibility
6. Self-victimizing—total responsibility
7. Political victims—no responsibility
Marvin Wolfgang
Menachem Amir
The crime of rape is not immune to today’s victim blaming and it was certainly
not in the past either. Menachem Amir, a Wolfgang’s student, conducted an empirical
investigation of reported rape incidents to the police. Like Wolfgang, he conducted
his study using Philadelphia data, though he examined rapes that took place between
1958 and 1960. He investigated to what extent victims had their own rapes
precipitated and identified common attributes of victim-precipitated rape. Amir has
labeled nearly one in five rapes as a precipitated victim. He found that these
violations were likely to involve alcohol and the victim was likely to engage in
seductive behavior, wear revealing clothes, use risky language, and have a bad
reputation. What Amir also determined was that it is the interpretation of actions by
the offender that matters, rather than what the victim is actually doing. The offender
may see the victim his actions, words, and clothing as contrary to what he deems
appropriate female behavior. In this way, in terms of how women should behave
sexually, the victim can be seen as “bad”. Because of his misguided view of how
women should act, he may then choose to rape her, because he thinks she deserves it
or because he thinks she has it coming to her. The study by Amir has been quite
controversial it has been attacked for blaming victims, namely women, for their own
victimization. Today victims of rape and sexual assault still have to overcome that
view that women (because these victims are usually female) are largely responsible
for their own victimization.
Theories of Victimization
The second generation of theorists shifted attention from the victims role to
emphasizing a situational approach focused on explaining and testing how everyday
lifestyles and routine activities create opportunities for victimization. The emergence
of both these theoretical perspectives is one of the most important developments in
victimology.