Since the Enlightenment, there have been many different theories attempting to explain why crime and criminal behaviour occurs in society. Focusing upon Lombroso’s biological positivism and his work on gendered criminology, Feminist criminology and Subcultural theorists, this essay will compare and contrast the three different theories, finding where they overlap and where they differ in their explanations of crime, how they define the typical ‘criminal’ and how they describe the extent of human behaviour and how that links to criminality.
Known as the father of modern criminology, Cesare Lombroso is a fundamental figure in the past, present and future of criminology. His iconic work Criminal Man surfaced five years post Darwin’s theory of
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Cohen focuses on criminality and delinquency in lower-class boys, or ‘corner boys’ as he labels them, and the strain that they suffer and how that can lead them to form or join subcultures. The ‘Corner boys’ form their delinquent groups over a mutual feeling of status frustration from their middle-class counter parts and the level of culture that they inhabit. They form the basis of their values on rejecting the middle class culture’s requirements and needs. (Tierney, 2010: 111) However, theorists Cloward and Ohlin take a broader approach to the subject. They argue that there are three different types of subcultures, all based on the concept of status frustration. Cloward and Ohlin outline the three subcultures types as Criminal, Violent and Retreatist (Tierney, 2010: 115). Criminal subcultures are highly represented as ‘mafia’ subcultures, they are deeply rooted in criminal activity; often prostitution, drug dealing and arms trading. Since the members of these subcultures failed in the legitimate system, they had the opportunity due to geographical means to join a criminal subculture where they succeeded. Violent or Conflict subcultures also fail in the legitimate system, however, are not geographically close to a criminal subculture, so for smaller more violent and less organised subcultures, these can be seen in ‘hoodies’ or street gangs. Finally, retreatist gangs failed both in the legitimate and the illegitimate systems and are heavily associated with drug abuse, leading them to commit utilitarian crimes, such as burglary and prostitution to finance their drug
Young, J. (1981). Thinking seriously about crime: Some models of criminology. In M. Fitzgerald, G. McLennan, & J. Pawson (Eds.), Crime and society: Readings in history and society (pp. 248-309). London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
The most vivid example of the biological determinism is the theory of Cesare Lombroso. Lombroso based his theory on the assumption that criminals have certain physiognomic features or abnormalities. Lombroso wanted to be able to detect future criminals in order to isolate them from the society. This gave criminology a strong push to create new methods of dealing with criminals and prevent crimes. Lombroso implied that prisoners had common facial characteristics. If to exaggerate criminals in Lombroso’s theory can be identified through the shape of their skulls, asymmetry of the face and head, large cheekbones, ears and lips, long arms and a twisted nose. Lombroso’s theory is the oldest one and it can without a doubt be called the main background data for the whole process of the development of criminology. Lombroso stated that men are more inclined to commit crimes due to the conservatism and the narrow-mindedness of their interests. According to Lombroso women have less social contacts and this is what predetermines their conservatism. Thi...
Classical and contemporary theory helps to explain gendered crime patterns. The feminist school of criminology argue criminology and criminal theory is very masculine, all studies into criminal behaviour, have been developed from male statistics and tested on males. Very little research is conducted into female criminality, this may be because women who commit crime are more likely to be seen as evil or mentally ill rather than criminal, this is because women are labe...
In the 1800s Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909), Italian criminologist, wrote in his book L'Uomo Delinquente (187...
During the 1970’s to the early 1990’s there had emerged two new approaches to the study of crime and deviance. The discipline of criminology had expanded further introducing right and left realism, both believe in different areas and came together in order to try and get a better understanding on crime and prevention. There were many theorists that had influenced the realism approaches such as; Jock Young (Left Wing) and James Wilson (Right Wing).
In the 1950’s, Cohen (1955) acquired Merton’s theory of crime further by concentrating on gang delinquency within the working class demographic. Cohen used the dominant knowledge of the anomie theory but narrowed its emphasis on this precise subculture and particularized it in order to clarify the features of gang delinquency. Comparable to Merton and Cohen, Cloward and Ohlin (1960) tried to clarify why certain individuals or groups are more likely to involve in criminal activities. They contended that people are strained when they fail to attain financial achievement through legitimate means. Cloward and Ohlin remained in...
Winslow, R. W., & Zhang, S. (2008). Contemporary Theories of Crime. Criminology: a global perspective (). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
Lombroso was an Italian criminologist who did extensive research on criminals and why people commit crimes through environmental, biological, psychological studies. Lombroso coined the term "born criminal" and described them as people who were
As people we have made many strives in society as a whole. A lot of them have changed society for the better but there is one thing that we have tried to make leaps and bounds in and a lot of the time we have fallen flat on our face. Criminology has only been around a few centuries but we have found many discoveries of what not to use as determinants of criminals. Such as but not limited to criminal women and women that are prostitutes. As there is no way they can all look the same.
Criminologists and sociologist have long been in debate for century's to explain criminal behaviour. The two main paradigms of thought are between 'nature' and 'nurture'. Nature is in reference to a learnt behaviour where a multitude of characteristics, in society influence whether a person becomes deviant such as poverty, physical abuse or neglect. Nurture defines biological features which could inevitability lead to a individuals deviant or criminal behaviour, because criminality is believed by biological positivist to be inherited from a persons parents. However, I believe that criminal behaviour is a mixture of characteristics that lead to deviant acts such as psychological illness & Environmental factors. Therefore, this essay will aim to analyse both biological positivist and psychological positivist perspectives in hope of showing to what extent they play a role in criminal behaviour. Firstly, the essay will look at Cesare Lombroso's research on physical features and how these ideas have moved on to then develop scientific ideas such as genetics to explain criminal behaviour. Secondly, the essay will focus on external factors which may be able to explain criminal behaviour such as the social influences, life chances and Material deprivation.
Lombroso observed both criminals and non- criminals by their physical abnormalities, such as physical measurements and examinations. He concluded that most prisoners show the same physical abnormalities, which supported his claim that they were of the same criminal type. Abnormal characteristics may have included; large jaws, high cheekbones, large ears and extra toes and fingers. Lombroso claimed that these physical ‘stigmata’ indica...
Criminology has been defined as the scientific study of the making of laws, the breaking of laws, and society’s reactions to the breaking of the laws (Riedel & Welsh, 2011). While criminology focuses on trying to explain the behavior of the offenders, it also tries to understand four central themes such as the conflict between personal liberty and the safety of the community. When the different law enforcement agencies, courts and corrections are on the same page they are seen as working together. The second theme explores what happens when one system affects the others.The third and fourth themes deal with ethical and legal decisions as well as ensuring those decisions being made after the information is scientifically gathered and properly evaluated. Criminology or criminologist study causes if the crimes committed by the individual and are known to work on the front end of the criminal justice system. The study of criminology relies on scientific theories and methods in order to understand and evaluate criminality. It looks at the causes reviewing the intentions, motivations, and background of the offenders involved in their studies.
Different schools of thought propose varying theoretical models of criminality. It is agreeable that criminal behaviour is deep rooted in societies and screams for attention. Biological, Social ecological and psychological model theories are key to helping researchers gain deeper comprehension of criminal behaviour and ways to avert them before they become a menace to society. All these theories put forward a multitude of factors on the outlooks on crime. All these theories have valid relevancy to continuous research on criminal behaviour.
After Comte and Darwin developed their theories about the world, they were followed by several criminologists who also believed that science could answer many of the problems that were present in society, particularly in the field of criminology. One of these men was Cesare Lombroso, who was the first to actually focus on criminology as a science (Adler et al 2012). Lombroso believed criminals could be identified because of physical differences between them and non-criminal members of society (Adler et al 2012). In order to recognize these people he created what he called the "atavistic stigmata" which are characteristics exhibited by humans who were less developed (Adler et al 2012:66). Individuals who exhi...
In contrast to crime science’s concentration on finding the right answers to cease crimes against humanity, criminology emphasizes on the significance of investigating both crimes and criminals independently. If criminology is perceived to interpret crimes, then, criminal science is designated to fix