JOSHUA CHIGWAY BSCRIM4

Definition of terms in INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINOLOGY

1. Alienist – This term is applied to a specialist in the study of mental disorders.

2. Anthropology – Science devoted to the study of mankind and its development in relation
to its physical, mental, and cultural history.

3. Blue Collar Crime- is any crime committed by an individual from lower social class as
opposite to white collar crime which is associated with crime committed by any person of
a higher social class.

4. Broken Home – The modification of home conditions by death, divorce or desertion has
generally been believed to be an important reason for delinquency of the children.

5. Capability- speak to the physical capability of a person to perpetuate a crime.

6. Celerity- refers to the speed with which a punishment is applied.

7. Certainty- refers to the concept of making a punishment sure to happen whenever an

undesirable act is committed.

8. CLASSICAL SCHOOL - argued that offenders were free-willed individuals who made
rational choices to break the law.

9. Corporate Crime- refers to crime committed either by a corporation or by any person that
may be identified with a corporation or other business entity.

10. Crime- defined as an act committed or omitted in violation of public law forbidding or
commanding it.

11. Crime Victim- refers to any person, group, or entity who has suffered injury or loss due to
illegal activity.

12. Criminal- refers to any person who has violated the penal law and has been found guilty
of the crime charged upon observing the standard judicial procedure.

13. Criminal Etiology- is a division of criminology which attempts to provide scientific

analysis of the causes of crime.

14. Criminalist- a person trained in forensic sciences or in the application of instruments and
methods for the detection of crime.
15. Criminalistics (police science) - an applied science whose purpose is to trace the
technique of crime and its detection. This Science is a combination of psychology of
crime and the criminal, and of chemistry, physics, knowledge of goods and
materials, graphology, etc

16. Criminal Law- refers to the branch or division of law which defines crimes, treat of their
nature and provides for their punishment.

17. Criminal psychology- the science of psychological phenomena in the field of crime.

18. Criminal sociology- the science of criminality as a social phenomenon. Its principle
concern is, to find out to what extent the causes of criminality have their origin in society

19. Criminologist- any person who graduates with the degree of criminology, passes the
examination for criminologist and is registered as such by the Board of Examiners of the
Professional Regulation Commission.

20. Criminology – Scientific study and investigation of crime and criminals as well as the
identification of criminals and detection of crime.

21. Chronic Criminal- refers to any person who acts in consonance with deliberate thinking.

22. Complex Crime Proper- exists if an offense is a necessary means for committing the
other crime.

23. Compound Crime- exists if a single act constitutes two or more less grave or grave
offense.

24. Cultural Conflict – A clash between societies because of contrary beliefs or substantial
variance in their respective customs, language, institutions, habits, learning traditions,
etc.

25. Decriminalization – To remove or reduce in status the criminal classification through

legislation of certain criminal laws.

26. Delinquent- refers to any person who merely committed an act not in conformity with
norms of society.

27. Delusion – In medical jurisprudence, a false belief about the self caused by morbidity,
present in paranoia and dementia praecox.

28. Demonological Theory- Proposed that criminals were possessed by demons that force
them to wicked things beyond their control.
29. Dipsomania- it is the compulsive desire to drink alcohol.

30. Divine Law- refers to the law of the Supreme Being such as the Ten Commandments.

31. Economic Approach – The unjust utilization of economic resources sometimes create
resentment among individuals which often lead them to frustration and develop a feeling
of hatred and provocative criminal conduct will result.

32. Episodic Crime- a crime is episodic crime if it is committed by series of acts in a lenghty
space of time.

33. Episodic Criminal – A person who breaks down and commits a crime as a single incident
during regular course of natural and normal events.

34. Erotomania – A morbid propensity to love or make love. Uncontrollable sexual desire or
excessive sexual cravings by member of either sex.

35. Euthanasia – It signifies the release from life given a sufferer from an incurable and
painful disease.

36. Extrovert – As opposed to introvert (a person highly adapted to living in and deriving
satisfaction from external world) he is interested in people and things than ideas, values,
and theories. He likes people being around them and being liked by them.

37. Family – It is the first agency to affect the direction which a particular child will take and
that no child is so constituted at birth that it must inevitably become a delinquent or that it
must inevitably be law abiding.

38. Fashions In Crime – Certain types of crimes have disappeared almost entirely thus the
general situation may change and cause the disappearance of crime.

39. Felony- refers to a crime that is in violation to any of the provisions of the Revised Penal
Code like theft, murder and the like.

40. Gang – Means of disseminating techniques of delinquencies of training in delinquency,

of protecting its members engage in delinquency and of maintaining continuity in
delinquency.

41. Government – It is an organized authority that can influence social control through its
branches, particularly in the making of laws.
42. Hallucination – An apparent perception without any corresponding external object,
especially in psychiatry, any of the numerous sensations, auditory, visual or tactile
experienced without external stimulus and cause by mental derangement , intoxication
or fever hence, maybe a sign of approaching insanity.

43. Heredity – It may be a transmission of physical characteristics, mental traits, tendency to

disease etc. from parents to offspring. In genetics, the tendency manifested by an
organism to develop in the likeness of a progenitor due to the transmission of genes in
the reproductive process.

44. Home – Considered as the cradle of human personality for in it the child forms the
fundamental attitudes and habits that endure throughout his life.

45. Home Discipline – it is considered as 4 times as important as poverty in the home in

relation to delinquency; that it fails most frequently because of indifference and neglect.

46. Homicidal Compulsion- it denotes to the irresistible urge to kill.

47. Immorality- is committed against the unwritten social norms in a certain locality.

48. Instant Crime- a crime is considered instant if it is committed in a shortest possible time.

49. Paralysis – condition of helpless inactivity or of inability to act.

50. Senile – mental deterioration often accompanying old age.

51. Sin- an act or omission against the spiritual or divine law. This includes the violation of
the Ten Commandments.

52. Introvert – An individual with strongly self centered patterns of emotion, fantasy and
thought.

53. Instrumentality- refers to the use of materials or other means in the commission of crime.

54. Jonathan Edwards family – One family tree that contradicted the theory that criminality is
inherited. A famous preacher in the colonial period, none of his descendants were found
to be criminals.

55. Jukes Family – Family trees have been used extensively by certain scholars in the effort
to prove that criminality is inherited.

56. Kleptomania – An uncontrollable morbid propensity to steal.

57. Legomacy – A statemetn that we would have no crime if we had no criminal laws and
that we could eliminate all crime merely by abolishing all criminal law.

58. Mania Fanatica – A morbid of insanity characterized by a deep and morbid sense of
religious feeling.

59. Masochism – A condition of sexual perversion in which a person derives pleasure from
being dominated or cruelly treated.

60. Maturation – A process which appears in the life history of persisting criminals. This
process describes the development of criminality with reference first to the general
attitudes toward criminality and second to the techniques used in criminal behavior.

61. Megalomania – A mental disorder in which the subject thinks himself great or exalted.

62. Melancholia – A mental disorder characterized by excessive brooding and depression of

spirits; Typical of manic depressive psychosis accompanied with delusions and
hallucinations.

63. Mental Deficiency- is a condition of incomplete development of the mind existing before
the age of 18, whether arose from the inherent causes or induced by disease or injury.

64. Misdemeanor- refers to a crime that is in violation to any of the municipal or city
ordinances such as No Jaywalking

65. Mobility – The most significant social condition accompanying the industrial and
democratic revolutions because of this a condition of anonymity was created and the
agencies by which control had been secured in almost all earlier societies were greatly
weakened.

66. Motive- refers to the moving power which impels one to act for a definite result.

67. Natural Law- refers to that which is rooted from core values shared by many cultures.

68. Necrophilism – Morbid craving usually of an erotic nature for dead bodies.

69. Neo Classical School- Accepted the fact that crime is committed in accordance with the
free will of man but the act of committing of crime is modified by some causes that finally
prevail upon the person to commits crimes.

70. Neurosis – Is any kind of the mental functional disorders characterized by anxiety,
compulsion, phobia, depression, dissociation, etc.

71. Offense- refers to a crime that is in violation to any of the Special Penal Laws.
72. Opportunity- refers to the chance or time given to the offender in committing the crime.

73. Organized Crime or criminal organization- is run by criminals, most commonly for the
purpose of generating a monetary profit.

74. Organization Of criminals – This may be developed through the interaction of criminals,
this may be a formal association with recognized leadership understanding, agreements
and division of labor or it may be a formal similarity and reciprocity of interest and
attitudes.

75. Pedophilia – A sexual desire of an adult for children.

76. Positivist or Italian School- Presume that criminal behavior is caused by internal and
external factors outside of the individuals control.

77. Physiognomy – Art of discovering character by observation and measurement of

outward appearances especially the face.

78. Psychiatrist Delinquent – refer to a child who becomes delinquent due to mental illness
coupled with serious emotional disturbance in the family.

79. Prenology- is a theory that determines character, personality traits and criminality on the
basis of the shape of the head.

80. Professionalization – When applied to a criminal refers to the following things: the pursuit
of crime as a regular day by day occupation, the development of skilled technique and
careful planning in that occupation and status among criminals.

81. Progressive Conflict – This process begins with arrest which is interpreted as defining a
person as an enemy of society and which calls forth hostile relations from
representatives of society prior to and regardless of proof of guilt, that each side tends to
drive the other side to greater violence unless it becomes stabilized on a recognized
level.

82. Psychosis – Is a major mental disorder in which personality is very seriously

disorganized and contact with reality is usually impaired.

83. Pyromania- it refers to the compulsive desire to set fire.

84. Regionalism – crime rate not only varies from one region to another but also generally
among the several sections of each nation.
85. Religion – It emphasizes morals and life's highest spiritual values, the work and dignity
of an individual and respect for the person and property of others generally a powerful
forces.

86. Rural Criminality – this kind of criminality is explained by the persons identification with
delinquents and his conception of himself as reckless and mobile an explanation which
is consistent with differential association.

87. Segregation – This may be observed in the interaction between criminals and the public
thus, a person with criminal record may be ostracized in one community but may
become a political leader in other communities.

88. Simple Crime- a felony is simple if a single act constitutes only one offense.

89. Social Institutions And Crime – The general explanation of one topic in relation to
criminal behavior is that causes of crime lie primarily in the area of personal interaction
and that personal interaction is confined most entirely to local community and
neighborhood.

90. Sociological And Cultural Approach – It includes assessment of those forces resulting
from man's collective survival effort with emphasis upon his institution, economic,
financial, educational, political, religion as well as recreational.

91. Sociological School – Interpreted crime as function of social environment; emphasizing

importance of imitation in crime causation.

92. Sociology – May mean a study of human society, its origin, structure, function and
direction.

93. Sociology of law- is a division of criminology which attempts to offer scientific analysis of
the conditions under which penal or criminal laws are developed as a process or form of
social control.

94. State Crime - is an activity or failure to act that eventually breaks the state's own criminal
law or public international law.

95. Statutory Law-refers to law enacted by legislatures and reflects current culture.

96. Victim Precipitation-means that victim contribute to their own victimization

97. Victim Blaming-the idea of victim-proneness is a highly moralistic way of assigning guilt
to crime victims.

98. Victim- a person who has suffered direct, or threatened, physical emotional or pecuniary
harm as a result of the commission of a crime; or in the case of a victim being an
 institutional entity, any of the same harms by an individual or authorized representative
of another entity

99. Victimology-is the scientific study of victimization, including the relationships between
victims and offenders, the interactions between victims and the criminal justice system,
that is the, police and courts and corrections official and the connections between
victims and other societal groups and institutions, such as the media, businesses and
social movements.

100. White Collar Crimes – crimes committed by persons on the upper socio
economic level or occupying a high position in the organization.