This document covers all topics which are discussed throughout the criminology course from weeks 1-12. It contains lecture and reading notes as well as an overview with all important theories summarised at the end of the document.
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● How to define criminal behaviour? (crimes and harms)
● Criminology explores the bases and implications of criminal laws - how they emerge,
how they work, how they get violated and what happens to violators.
Broad definition: criminology does not just study crimes but also blameworthy harmful
behaviour.
Criminology = - study of the nature, extent, causes and control of criminal
behaviour.
- multidisciplinary social science which derives its insights and
theories from a range of scientific disciplines: law; economy;
sociology; philosophy; biology; psychology; history; geography;
political science → to study crime
- ‘Criminology is the science which studies the nature and
causes of human behaviour constituting violations of criminal
law, as well as responses by government and society.”
⇒ different than law, not a normative study (not what is allowed, interpreting rules)
⇒ what is criminal behaviour
⇒ methodology is key
Criminological research questions
1. (Definition) What types of harmful behaviour are considered criminal and why?
2. (Scope of criminological questions) What is the size of specific crime problems?
How can this be measured? How do you commit specific types of crimes: which
knowledge, skills and tools/infrastructure are required?
3. (Explanation) What causes crime and how is criminal behaviour explained?
Theoretical issue; different angles
● Personal level: biological, psychological, etc. characters of criminals
● Social and institutional level: social environment, family, systemic issue
(e.g. capitalism), historical, cultural, economical, political, etc.
● Why do crimes occur
● Why specific places
● Why place is a certain hotspot for crimes
● Explanations can be biological / psychological (personal level)
● Economic, political, historical cultural explanations
, 4. (Consequences) What are the consequences?
● For perpetrators, victims, societies, ecosystems?
5. (Evaluation) How can crime be tackled? What is the effect of intervention of
government / punishment? How may we prevent crime?
● Effective policies, intended goals met?
● Effect of punishment
How do criminologists study certain problems? (3 levels / perspectives)
Example: possible questions regarding doping
1. Structural
What causes demand for doping?
Should doping be regulated?
2. Criminal process
What types of doping are on the market?
How are doping products manufactured, smuggled, traded?
How may criminal activities be disrupted?
3. Perpetrators/victims (individual level)
What motivates perpetrators?
Who are victims of doping?
Application: 5 questions + 3 levels (focus on one level)
History Background:
- Renaissance
- Enlightenment (rational actors) influenced societies punished criminals
- Cesare Beccaria: thinker of criminal justice; “social contract” violated by criminals
- 19th C positivism: crime is not just explained by rational choice by homo economicus,
factors outside of a persons outside control (biological, psychological)
⇒ Cesare Lombroso: criminals were a ‘mistake of nature’
- Willem Bonger: linked economic aspects and crime (capitalism)
- 1970s and 80s, crime levels rose in Western world: redeveloping theories by
governmental institutions
The debate on the object of study of criminology
Mainstream criminology - Behavior which is criminal and is codified as such in penal law
- Causes of human behaviour
- What is stated in the penal code
- Present in Anglo-saxon world
, - Mainstream crimes = individual ‘street crimes’:
- homicide, rape, assault, robbery, burglary, larceny theft,
vandalism, illicit drug use and illicit drug selling
- Only include behaviour that is criminalised in StGb
- Do not include Offences which are not included in criminal law but in
administrative law
- Unregulated behaviour; not regulated at all ⇒ e.g. unregulated
fishing
- Mainstream criminologists would study e.g. human trafficking, murder
because it is prohibited by penal code
- Would not study unregulated fishing because its unregulated and not
in penal code (not regulated = not prohibited)
white-collar crime - Committed by legal entities
- Violations of regulations in administrative law ⇒ expands mainstream
topics
- Edwin Sutherland received critique as criminologists should not
attack corporations
- “violations of law by persons in the upper socio-economic classes“
State crimes - William Chambliss focussed on e.g. Vietnam
- states could also be involved in criminal activity
- abuses of power by tyrannical rulers and ruling- regime elites, which
are carried out under their direction by state actors
- ⇒ significant human, social, and economic harm to their respective
national societies and those of others
- large-scale human depredations have taken place, as well as in the
colonization context and in other contexts manifesting oppression or
repression by states that victimize groups in other states or territories
Green Criminology - Not only look at humans, also about non-human animals,
ecosystems, biosphere
- explores and analyses the causes, consequences and prevalence of
environmental crime and harm
- the responses to and prevention of environmental crime and harm by
the legal system (civil, criminal, regulatory) and by nongovernmental
entities and social movements, as well as the meaning and mediated
representations of environmental crime and harm
- study harms to the environment which are criminalised in penal laws
- certain level of environmental damage is accepted in modern society
since it serves to provide for other social interests
, - environmental harms:
- air pollution
- water issues (access, pollution, scarcity);
- animal abuse,
- animal rights and animal welfare, including the legal and
illegal trade in non-human animals;
- crime and harm stemming from global warming and climate
change;
- food and agricultural crimes;
- harm caused by the hazardous transport of waste and the
illegal disposal of toxic waste;
- violations of workplace health and safety regulations that have
environmentally damaging consequences.
Criminology of the Global South - Global South comprises almost the entire globe except North-
America and Europe
- Different history from the west / global north works not with cultures of
countries on global south
- Criminal justice systems imported in colonization from the global
north
- southern criminologists disagree and aim to show that alternatives to
the criminal justice system based on old traditions actually perform
much better in terms of for instance preventing recidivism, than
punishment
- Role of the state in Global South is different because of colonial
history, dictatorships
- Southern criminologists criticise that theories and methods have
almost all been developed in the Global North and the USA
⇒ question whether these are equally applicable to for instance Asia
and Africa
- Global North and Global South: differences in people who are
affected, rural crimes vs urban crimes, street crimes e.g. low in japan
but high in south america, etc
- Southern criminologists have overlap with green criminology because
many types of environmental harm impact particularly in the Global
South (deforestation, wildlife abuse)
Rural Criminology - Criticism: criminologists focus on crimes in urban settings
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