SCHOLAR: THE STUDY OF CRIMINOLOGY

Criminology is the study of the making, breaking and enforcing of law. It identifies crime as any illegal acts. Crimes can be analyzed according to the following criteria the illegal act, the cause, the role/ origin of law and society responses or the displacement of the crime. There are many approaches to crime. I believe that crime represented through the conflict model is very accurate as there is a lack of equity in the penalties. Poor people suffer more than wealthy people therefore; the criminal justice system should consider a more equitable way to be able to deal with penalties. Looking at crime through the consensus model crime is an act that the majority has labelled it as such. I believe in this concept because it is a derived from democratic and utilitarian principles. Lastly, looking at crime from the interactionist model, interest groups advocate for the community through moral entrepreneurs. This in turn falls inline with the social structural theorem in which identifies that society is a system with functions that work together to progress. It is important to understand Emil Durkeim when thinking about society and its function as he pointed out that society cohesion is necessary to be able to progressively deal with crime. The cohesion in our society is the law and this is perhaps maintained via strict liability. Strict liability identifies that certain crimes do not require the burden of proof such as regulatory laws.

This history of criminology originates from C18. This was a time when the Roman Catholic church was the dominant force. They implemented two models in which crime was punishable. These are the temptation model and the possession model. These two formed the basis of crime and people were tortured if they committed crimes. Some examples of torture were the iron maiden and the thumb screw. These techniques are now considered barbaric and it is shocking that crime has such a varied history. Today crime is dealt with in a way that it fits with equity, democracy, supremacy of law and utilitarianism. Through equity is a concept referred to as, “just deserts,” this means that only those whom are guilty are punishable under law, doing the crime is guilty and that crime must fit the punishment. Under democracy crime is labeled as a deviant act which most in society have a collective belief through culture that it should be illegal. Supremacy of law dictates the rule of law wherein crimes are labeled through the criminal code and are punishable via societal cohesion. Lastly the concept of utilitarianism states that the principles of criminal justice benefits the majority and it does the most good for all.
There are many approaches to crime. What I believe is the concept of positivism. This is what is really the scientific approaches to crime. In modern times, as society grew more advance they are more reliant on science to improve their methodologies. The positivist view to crime looks at biological, psychological and sociological variables to crime. From the biological perspective Lombroso looks at crime through atavism or stigmata. This is the determinist method, stigmata identifies born traits which increase the likely hood that a person will be a criminal. Atavism points out traits which one develops wherein they can be potentially labeled as a criminal. I am not a firm believer of Lombroso’s idea but never the less, it is a good starting point as to how modern crime analysis can take place.

Psychological approaches to crime look at factors such as IQ and behavior which increase the likelihood of criminal activity. Lastly I would like to talk about Robert Merton’s approach to crime. He believes that there is a discrepancy in a persons aspirations and objectives which cause a person to be a criminal. This discrepancy causes an individual to have blocked opportunities wherein they will attempt to justify their crime through rebellion, retreatisim, ritualism, conformity or innovation. In contrast Emil Durkheim points out that it is society cohesion which maintains the social structure in which crime can be alleviated I am a firm believer of Emil Durkheim’s theory about crime.
I would lastly like to briefly describe the correlates of crime as according to modern Criminologist. A correlate is a variable which causes an individual to be more susceptible to crime. They are as follows age, sex, social structure, race, drugs and region. These are the variables which really predisposes one to be a criminal and there are many theories which prove these. The important thing here is that people define crime. In their definition they either react positively, negatively or neutrally in their attempt to justify their own actions. Crime according to the differential association theory, specifies that it is the peer groups that link people to criminal activity. This link is analyzed in such a way that the frequency and intensity create in a person the predisposition to crime.