Introduction Into Criminology
Lecture 1: Introduction: What is criminology, what is crime and who is the criminal?
Literature: Chapter 1, 2 & 5
Lecture 2: Assumptions, biases and realities: Theoretical and methodological tenets of
Criminology
Literature: Chapter 3 & 4
Lecture 3: Philosophies of punishment
Literature: Chapter 9
Lecture 4: Culture of fear: Crime in the era of media
Literature: Chapter 6 & 8
Lecture 5: Villains vs Victims: Mobility, gender and the stigmatization
Literature: Chapter 7 & 10
Lecture 6: Crimes of the powerful
Literature: Chapter 11 & 12
Lecture 7: Green Criminology
Literature: Brightspace
,Lecture 1: Introduction: What is criminology, what is crime and who is the criminal?
Literature: Chapter 1, 2 & 5
Lecture:
What is criminology? ‘Criminology is the study of crime, justice, and law and order issues,
and the broader dynamics of societies in terms of informing how those things exist and are
experienced’ (Murphy, p. 6).
So, criminology is the study of crime and reactions to it, within its particular context.
When did Criminology start?
Classical (1700s): criminology was not yet an established discipline, they were
focused on crime and punishment.
o The thinkers of that time were worried about the extreme punishments
(‘odily’), which they saw as uncivilised.
This idea of rationality impacted the thinking Enlightenment (17th –
18th centuries).
Utilitarian view on crime: crime is a free will, and people were believed to make a
cost-benefit analysis.
o Punishment should fit the crime proportional.
Cesare Beccaria, Jeremy Bentham.
‘Criminologists’ of 1800s were positivists: what contributing factors determine people
committing crime?
o Positivism = refers to contributive factors of crime, and the
positive/progressive idea that with the help of science, we could remake the
world.
Criminal as ‘different’ than a ‘civilised’ individual Either born into,
or through external factors, but not like ‘ordinary’ men.
o Positivist criminologist would study what makes a ‘criminal’ different from an
‘ordinary individual’. This is called ‘othering’.
Utilitarianism = Looks to the future, and punishes out of rationality. It aims to achieve the
maximum happiness in society, with punishment that is just high enough to take the happiness
from committing it away.
Sometimes this can lead to excessive punishment of innocent subjects.
Who is the criminal?
Cesare Lombroso (a positivist of the 19th century) thought you could recognize a
criminal by his looks.
o Theory had been falsified.
Research that has developed from Lombroso’s idea: neo-positivist
research. For example, how genetic factors, hormonal imbalances or
other biological aspects can influence criminal behavior.
,What is crime? 5 definitions.
1. Legal definition (Murphy, p. 12).
‘An intentional act or omission in violation of criminal law (statutory and case law),
committed without defence or justification, and sanctioned by the state as a felony or
misdemeanor’ (Tappan, 1947).
2. Sociological definition (Murphy, p. 13). Sociological is the science of human society.
Thorsten Sellin (1938): we need a scientific (not a legal) criminology, and a scientific
definition of crime.
o Search for universalities in norms and rule transgression: what thing do
societies generally believe to be ‘wrong’?
o Moral/social component: crime as a sociological problem.
o ‘Deviant behavior’ as a topic of study. Deviant means abnormal.
3. Social constructivist definition (Murphy, p, 14)
Howard Becker (1963): why is some behavior criminalised, and other not?
What is seen as crime is ‘a product of the dynamics of a given society’ (Murphy, p.
14).
o ‘Social groups create deviance by making rules whose infraction creates
deviance, and by applying those rules to particular people and labelling them
as outsiders’ (Becker, 1963).
Difference between ‘sociological’ and ‘social constructivist’
Sociological looks at the social norms that are transgressed (the norm itself is
unproblematized or taken for granted). What norm is transgressed? Transgressed
means disobeyed. (So, crossing the boundaries of what society usually considers
acceptable or proper.)
Social constructivist looks at why social norms exist/came to be as they are; who
defines (and why this person?) Why is the norm there in the first place?
3. Social constructivism Radical social constructivism
Louk Hulsman (1986): abolitionism = ‘Categories of ‘crime’ are given by the
criminal justice system rather than by victims of society in general. This makes it
necessary to abandon the notion of ‘crime’ as a tool in the conceptual framework of
criminology. Crime has no ontological reality and is not the object but the product of
criminal policy’.
So, we have to definitions that look at attributing factors (social norms as a parameter and
respectively law as a parameter).
One definition looks at the defining process and the role of power. If we depart from
unequal power relations, what definitions can we then come up with, that diagnose crimes to
the powerful?
, 4. Human rights definition (Murphy, p. 232-237)
Schwendinger & Schwendinger (1970): human rights as a threshold; non-respect of
these rights constitutes crime:
‘Individuals who deny these rights to other are criminal.’
‘Imperialism, racism, sexism and poverty can be called crimes according to the logic
of our argument.’
o Nowadays we call this ‘social justice’.
o The definition takes power inequalities into account. So, it is a politically
loaden definition, like the social constructivist definition.
5. Harm definition (Murphy, p. 14)
Lynch (1992); Beirne & South (1998); Hillyard & Tombs (2007): Crime is a legal
construct (power) and is anthropocentric (too much focussed on the human species).
Anthropocentric is regarding the human being as the central fact of the universe.
o ‘Crime’ is the harms done to the environment, animals etc.
o The definition takes power inequalities into account. So, it is a politically
loaden definition, like the social constructivist definition.
Thus, the definition of crime is situational. It depends on the definition used. (The power
struggles at play and the time and place.)
Biases and gazes in criminology
In criminology we tend to overly focus on a certain kind of offender ('criminal gaze’).
o Men rather than women; young rather than old; poor rather than rich; ethnic
minorities rather than ethnic majority; ugly rather than pretty etc.
As well as a certain kind of victim (ideal victim)
Lecture 1: Introduction: What is criminology, what is crime and who is the criminal?
Literature: Chapter 1, 2 & 5
Lecture 2: Assumptions, biases and realities: Theoretical and methodological tenets of
Criminology
Literature: Chapter 3 & 4
Lecture 3: Philosophies of punishment
Literature: Chapter 9
Lecture 4: Culture of fear: Crime in the era of media
Literature: Chapter 6 & 8
Lecture 5: Villains vs Victims: Mobility, gender and the stigmatization
Literature: Chapter 7 & 10
Lecture 6: Crimes of the powerful
Literature: Chapter 11 & 12
Lecture 7: Green Criminology
Literature: Brightspace
,Lecture 1: Introduction: What is criminology, what is crime and who is the criminal?
Literature: Chapter 1, 2 & 5
Lecture:
What is criminology? ‘Criminology is the study of crime, justice, and law and order issues,
and the broader dynamics of societies in terms of informing how those things exist and are
experienced’ (Murphy, p. 6).
So, criminology is the study of crime and reactions to it, within its particular context.
When did Criminology start?
Classical (1700s): criminology was not yet an established discipline, they were
focused on crime and punishment.
o The thinkers of that time were worried about the extreme punishments
(‘odily’), which they saw as uncivilised.
This idea of rationality impacted the thinking Enlightenment (17th –
18th centuries).
Utilitarian view on crime: crime is a free will, and people were believed to make a
cost-benefit analysis.
o Punishment should fit the crime proportional.
Cesare Beccaria, Jeremy Bentham.
‘Criminologists’ of 1800s were positivists: what contributing factors determine people
committing crime?
o Positivism = refers to contributive factors of crime, and the
positive/progressive idea that with the help of science, we could remake the
world.
Criminal as ‘different’ than a ‘civilised’ individual Either born into,
or through external factors, but not like ‘ordinary’ men.
o Positivist criminologist would study what makes a ‘criminal’ different from an
‘ordinary individual’. This is called ‘othering’.
Utilitarianism = Looks to the future, and punishes out of rationality. It aims to achieve the
maximum happiness in society, with punishment that is just high enough to take the happiness
from committing it away.
Sometimes this can lead to excessive punishment of innocent subjects.
Who is the criminal?
Cesare Lombroso (a positivist of the 19th century) thought you could recognize a
criminal by his looks.
o Theory had been falsified.
Research that has developed from Lombroso’s idea: neo-positivist
research. For example, how genetic factors, hormonal imbalances or
other biological aspects can influence criminal behavior.
,What is crime? 5 definitions.
1. Legal definition (Murphy, p. 12).
‘An intentional act or omission in violation of criminal law (statutory and case law),
committed without defence or justification, and sanctioned by the state as a felony or
misdemeanor’ (Tappan, 1947).
2. Sociological definition (Murphy, p. 13). Sociological is the science of human society.
Thorsten Sellin (1938): we need a scientific (not a legal) criminology, and a scientific
definition of crime.
o Search for universalities in norms and rule transgression: what thing do
societies generally believe to be ‘wrong’?
o Moral/social component: crime as a sociological problem.
o ‘Deviant behavior’ as a topic of study. Deviant means abnormal.
3. Social constructivist definition (Murphy, p, 14)
Howard Becker (1963): why is some behavior criminalised, and other not?
What is seen as crime is ‘a product of the dynamics of a given society’ (Murphy, p.
14).
o ‘Social groups create deviance by making rules whose infraction creates
deviance, and by applying those rules to particular people and labelling them
as outsiders’ (Becker, 1963).
Difference between ‘sociological’ and ‘social constructivist’
Sociological looks at the social norms that are transgressed (the norm itself is
unproblematized or taken for granted). What norm is transgressed? Transgressed
means disobeyed. (So, crossing the boundaries of what society usually considers
acceptable or proper.)
Social constructivist looks at why social norms exist/came to be as they are; who
defines (and why this person?) Why is the norm there in the first place?
3. Social constructivism Radical social constructivism
Louk Hulsman (1986): abolitionism = ‘Categories of ‘crime’ are given by the
criminal justice system rather than by victims of society in general. This makes it
necessary to abandon the notion of ‘crime’ as a tool in the conceptual framework of
criminology. Crime has no ontological reality and is not the object but the product of
criminal policy’.
So, we have to definitions that look at attributing factors (social norms as a parameter and
respectively law as a parameter).
One definition looks at the defining process and the role of power. If we depart from
unequal power relations, what definitions can we then come up with, that diagnose crimes to
the powerful?
, 4. Human rights definition (Murphy, p. 232-237)
Schwendinger & Schwendinger (1970): human rights as a threshold; non-respect of
these rights constitutes crime:
‘Individuals who deny these rights to other are criminal.’
‘Imperialism, racism, sexism and poverty can be called crimes according to the logic
of our argument.’
o Nowadays we call this ‘social justice’.
o The definition takes power inequalities into account. So, it is a politically
loaden definition, like the social constructivist definition.
5. Harm definition (Murphy, p. 14)
Lynch (1992); Beirne & South (1998); Hillyard & Tombs (2007): Crime is a legal
construct (power) and is anthropocentric (too much focussed on the human species).
Anthropocentric is regarding the human being as the central fact of the universe.
o ‘Crime’ is the harms done to the environment, animals etc.
o The definition takes power inequalities into account. So, it is a politically
loaden definition, like the social constructivist definition.
Thus, the definition of crime is situational. It depends on the definition used. (The power
struggles at play and the time and place.)
Biases and gazes in criminology
In criminology we tend to overly focus on a certain kind of offender ('criminal gaze’).
o Men rather than women; young rather than old; poor rather than rich; ethnic
minorities rather than ethnic majority; ugly rather than pretty etc.
As well as a certain kind of victim (ideal victim)
