THEORIES OF CRIME CAUSATION
 it is the study of the causes of the existence of crime.
THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS OF CRIME CAUSATION
What is a THEORY?
a theory is a statement that explains the relationship
between abstract concepts in a meaningful way. it is a
plausible or scientifically acceptable general principle or body
of principles offered to explain phenomena.
COMPONENTS of a Theory
1.CONCEPT - a symbolic representation of an actual thing.
2. VARIABLE – a concept that is operationally used in
different theories.
3. PRINCIPLE – expresses the relationship between two or
more concepts.
STAGES of Theory Development
1. SPECULATIVE - attempt to explain what is happening.
2. DESCRIPTIVE - gathers descriptive data to describe what is
really happening.
3. CONSTRUCTIVE – affirms or revises old theories and
develops new ones based on continuing research.
KINDS of REASONING
1. DEDUCTIVE REASONING- starts with the assertion of a
general rule and proceeds from there to a guaranteed
specific conclusion.
2. INDUCTIVE REASONING - begins with observations that are
specific and limited in scope, and proceeds to a generalized
conclusion that is likely, but not certain, in light of
accumulated evidence.
3. ABDUCTIVE REASONING- typically begins with an
incomplete set of observations and proceeds to the likeliest
possible explanation for the set.
What is a CRIMINAL ETIOLOGY?
 it is also known as CRIMINOGENESIS
The CRIMINAL FORMULA
-According to Dr. David Abrahamsen (1958), crime is a
product of the individual’s tendencies and the situation of
the moment interacting with his mental resistance.
-With the letter ‘C’ standing for crime, ‘T’ for tendencies,
‘S’ for situation, and ‘R’ for resistance, we derive the this
formula (See next slide)
Two Main Approaches in the study of Crimes
1. SUBJECTIVE APPROACH
➢ It deals mainly on the biological explanation of crimes,
focused on the forms of abnormalities that exist in the
criminal before, during, and after the commission of the
crime.
2. OBJECTIVE APPROACH
➢ It deals on the study of groups, social processes and
institutions as influences to criminal behavior.
SUBJECTIVE APPROACH
1. Anthropological Approach
➢ It deals mainly on the physical characteristics of an
individual offender with non-offenders in the attempt to
discover differences covering criminal behavior.
2. Medical Approach
➢ It deals mainly on the mental and physical condition of the
criminal prior and after the commission of the crime.
3. . Biological Approach
➢ It deals mainly on the evaluation of genetic influences to
criminal behavior.
4. Physiological Approach
➢ It explains that the deprivation of the physical body on the
basic needs is an important determinant of the criminal
behavior.
5. Psychological Approach
➢ It explains that the deprivation of the psychological needs
is an important determinant of the criminal behavior.
6. Psychiatric Approach
➢ It explains crimes through diagnosis of mental diseases as
the cause of criminal behavior.
7. Psychoanalytical Approach
➢ It explains crimes based on the repression of basic drives.
SIGMUND FREUD- Father of Psychoanalysis.
 OBJECTIVE APPROACHES
1. Geographic Approach
➢ It deals mainly on the influences of topography, natural
resources, geographical location, and climate that lead an
individual to commit a crime.
2. Ecological Approach
➢ It deals mainly on the biotic groupings of men resulting to
migration, competition, social discrimination, division of
labor, and social conflict as factors of crime.
3. Economic Approach
➢ It deals mainly on the explanation of crimes concerning
financial inadequacy and other lack of other necessities to
support life as factors to criminality.
4. Socio-Cultural Approach
➢ It focuses on the institutions, economic, financial,
education, political, and religious influences to crimes.
CLASSICAL SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY
The PRE-CLASSICAL PERIOD
DEMONOLOGICAL THEORY
➢ According to this theory, individuals were thought to be
possessed by good or evil spirits, which caused good or evil
Behavior.
TRIAL BY ORDEAL
➢ It was where the accused would be exposed to dangerous
tests, and if he survived, he had been protected by God.
The CLASSICAL PERIOD
CLASSICAL PERIOD (18th Century)
The Age of Enlightenment | The Age of Reason
CLASSICAL THEORY
➢ Set forth by Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham.
➢ People exercise freewill coupled with rational choice and
are thus completely responsible for their actions.
➢ Criminal behavior is motivated by a hedonistic rationality,
in which actors weigh the potential pleasure of action against
the possible pain associated with it. (Pain and Pleasure are
the two determinants of human behavior)
➢ In 1764, Beccaria wrote “Dei delitti e delle pene
” translated as “On Crimes and Punishment” which argued
that only those justified laws where punishment fits the
crime was adopted.
Based on the principle of UTILITARIANISM of J. BENTHAM
➢ Greatest happiness shared by the greatest number of
people.
CLASSICAL SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY
➢ Set forth by Cesare Beccaria & Jeremy Bentham.
➢ Punishment is BASED ON THE ACT NOT ON THE ACTOR.
CESARE BECCARIA
➢ Cesare, Marquis de Beccaria Bonesana
➢ FATHER OF CLASSICAL CRIMINOLOGY
➢ Wrote an essay entitled “DEI DELITTI E DELLE
PENE”
JEREMY BENTHAM
➢ FATHER OF UTILITARIANISM
➢ Advocated the doctrines of Hedonism and Utilitarianism.
➢ Proposed the prison design PANOPTICON.
BECCARIA’S THEORY
1. FREEWILL - Beccaria, like other theorists, believes that all
individuals have freewill and make choices on that freewill.
2. RATIONALITY - which means that all individuals rationally
look out for their own personal satisfaction.
3. MANIPULABILITY - which means that universally shared
human motive of rational self-interest makes human action
predictable and controllable.
FREEWILL DOCTRINE
➢ Man is a rational actor who knows the consequences of his
act thus, his acts are the result of his freewill or rational
choice and should be responsible for it.
HEDONISM
➢ A doctrine which states that a person always acts in such a
way as to seek pleasure and avoid pain.
UTILITARIANISM
➢ A doctrine which explains that a moral act is one which
produces the greatest happiness for the greatest number of
people.
PANNOMION
➢ A type of institutional building proposed by Bentham
which is designed to allow an observer to observe inmates of
an institution without them being able to tell whether or not
they are being watched.
Justifications of Punishments
DETERRENCE
➢ The more swift and certain the punishment, the more
effective it is in deterring criminal behavior.
RETRIBUTION
➢ The state assumes responsibility for punishing offenders
and forbade the victimized party from taking the law into
their own hands.
PROTECTION - INCAPACITATION
➢ Making the community protected by putting the individual
to a place where he cannot harm.
Characteristics of Punishments
SWIFT
➢ Offenders need to associate the punishment with the
violation of the law, so the punishment must occur within a
short time after the offense is committed.
CERTAIN
➢ Offenders must believe that if they are caught, there is no
way to avoid the punishment.
SEVERE
➢ The punishment must be serious enough to outweigh any
pleasure or reward the offender will receive from committing
the crime.
THE RATIONAL CHOICE THEORY
➢ Rational Choice Theory holds that a person will engage in
criminal behavior after weighing the consequences and
benefits of his actions. Criminal behavior is a rational choice
made by a motivated offender who perceives that the
chances of gain outweigh any possible punishment or loss.
(James Q. Wilson)
THE INCAPACITATION THEORY
➢ This theory stands to reason that if more criminals are sent
to prison or keeping known criminals out of circulation, the
crime rate would go down. It supported the idea of
imprisoning criminals.
THE GENERAL DETERRENCE THEORY
➢ This theory aimed at making potential criminals fear the
consequences of crime showing that crime does not pay. It
focuses on potential offenders and that these offenders must
receive punishment in severe, swift, and certain ways. It also
manifests societal deterrence which aimed to target
would-be offenders.
THE SPECIFIC DETERRENCE THEORY
➢ This theory held that if offenders are punished so severely,
the experience will convince them not to repeat their illegal
acts. Its main targets are those offenders who have already
been convicted as it also claims that pushing more criminals
will reduce their involvement in criminal activities.
The NEO-CLASSICAL SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY
GABRIEL TARDE
➢ A French social theorist who discounted biological
theories, believed that people patterned their behavior after
the behavior of others.
➢ He suggested that there was a difference between total
freewill and determinism and argued that no one has a total
freewill. In comparison, the classicists maintained that
humans are totally responsible for their actions. The
neoclassicists said “not always”. They argued that freewill can
be mitigated by pathology, incompetence, and mental
disorder.
NEO-CLASSICAL THEORY
➢ A modification of Classical Theory due to its difficultness in
application.
➢ Children (minors) and lunatics (mentally-ill persons) are
inhibited from exercising freewill.
➢ Innocence must be presumed until proven guilty.
➢ People have a right to reasonable bail and trial by jury.
➢ It must take into account certain mitigating circumstances,
conditional sentences, and alternative forms of
incapacitation.
➢ It holds that people are more often deterred from
committing a crime when it is more certain that they will be
caught, rather than due to the severity of the punishment
JUST DESERT
➢ A doctrine that states that people should be punished
because they deserve it.
POSITIVIST SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY
➢ Also known as the ITALIAN SCHOOL OF CRIMINOLOGY.
➢ Set forth by the Three Holy Criminology.
-Cesare Lombroso
-Enrico Ferri
-Rafaele Garofalo
➢ Punishment is BASED ON THE ACTOR NOT ON THE ACT
POSITIVISM ➢ Applied scientific method in the study
of causes of crime.
DETERMINISM ➢ Stated that all events including
criminal behavior have sufficient causes.
BIOLOGICAL causes- Lombroso
SOCIAL causes- Ferri
PSYCHOLOGICAL causes- Garofalo
Biological Aspect
CESARE LOMBROSO
➢ The FATHER OF MODERN CRIMINOLOGY.
➢ Stated that persons cannot desist from crime unless they
have experienced favorable lives.
➢ He said physiological traits were indicative of atavistic
criminal tendencies.
➢ He wrote “CRIME: ITS CAUSES AND REMEDIES”.
➢ He advocated the concept of ATAVISM.
A concept suggesting that criminals are physiological
throwbacks to earlier stages of human evolution; the
behavior of inferior animals manifested in man.
Social Aspect
ENRICO FERRI
➢ Best-known associate of Lombroso who suggested the
concept of “Born Criminals”.
➢ Stated that criminals could not be held morally responsible
for their crimes because they did not choose to commit
crimes but, rather, were driven to commit them by
conditions in their lives.
 Psychological Aspect
RAFAELE GAROFALO
➢ Coined the word “CRIMINOLOGY” in 1885, spelled as
CRIMINOLOGIA.
➢ Traced that the roots of criminal behavior are not the
physical features but their psychological equivalents.
➢ He said that society is an organic body and crime is
the disease.
➢ He said that criminals are those who suffered from
defects in their moral reasoning because they are
deficient in pity and probity.
BIOLOGICAL THEORIES OF CRIME CAUSATION
The BIOSOCIAL THEORY
Biosocial Theory viewed that both thought and behavior have
biological and social bases. Biosocial theorists believe that it
is the interaction between predisposition and environment
that produces criminality.
Areas of BIOSOCIAL THEORY
Biochemical Factors - stress on the relationship between
antisocial behavior and biochemical makeup and that body
chemistry can govern behavior and personality, including
levels of aggression and depression.
Neurological Dysfunction - imbalance in the central nervous
system’s chemical and hormonal activity has been linked to
antisocial behavior and drug abuse.
Genetic Influences - focus on the idea that individuals who
share the same genes are alike in personality regardless of
how they are reared, while the rearing environment induces
little or no personality resemblance.
The EVOLUTIONARYTHEORY
The existence of aggression and violent behavior as positive
adaptive behaviors in human evolution.
For example, if the child witnessed that his father beats her
mother every time his father is under the influence of
alcohol, then the child will assume that it is good to beat
somebody. When the time comes the child becomes a
husband, the same situation will be applied to his wife.
Areas of EVOLUTIONARYTHEORY
1. Cheater Theory - suggests that a subpopulation of men has
evolved with genes that incline them toward extremely low
parental involvement and become sexually aggressive and
use their cunning to gain sexual conquests with as many
females as possible. Because females would not choose them
as mates, they use stealth to gain sexual access - cheating -
including such tactics as mimicking the behavior of more
stable males.
2.R/K Selection Theory - holds that all organisms can be
located along a continuum based upon their reproductive
drives. Those along “R” end reproduce rapidly whenever they
can and invest little in their offspring; while those along the
“K” end reproduce slowly and cautiously and take care in the
raising of their offspring. K-oriented people are more
cooperative and sensitive to others, whereas Roriented
people are more cunning and deceptive. People who commit
crimes seem to exhibit R-Selection traits such as frequent
sexual activity.
The AROUSAL THEORY
It explains that aggression is a function of the level of
individual’s needs for simulation or arousal from the
environment. It also explained that adolescents with low
heart rates are more likely to commit crimes as they seek
stimulation to increase their arousal levels to normal levels.
The LATENT TRAIT THEORY
Latent trait is defined as a stable feature, characteristic,
property, or condition, such as defective intelligence,
impulsive personality, or genetic abnormalities.
They recognized that human traits alone do not produce
criminality and that it is a combination of environmental
factors such as family life, educational attainment, economic
factors, and neighborhood conditions.
The SOMATOTYPING THEORY
➢ Inheritance is a primary determinant of behavior and
physique is a reliable indicator of personality.
SOMATOTYPING
➢ Method of classifying human physique and body type.
WILLIAM SHELDON
➢ The FATHER OF SOMATOTYPING.
The PHYSIOGNOMYTHEORY
Giambattista della Porta, also called Giovanni Battista Della
Porta, an Italian physician and natural philosopher, founded
the school on human physiognomy. Physiognomy deals with
the study of facial features and their relation to human
behavior. According to Porta, a thief had large lips and sharp
vision.

Cesare Lombroso, in addition, said that criminals frequently

have huge jaws and strong canine teeth, characteristics
common to carnivores who tear and devour meat raw.

The PHRENOLOGYTHEORY
Phrenology is the study of the conformation of the skull as
indicative of mental faculties and traits of character. It is also
called craniology or cranioscopy at it deals with the
relationship of the shape of the skull to human behavior.

Franz Joseph Gall postulated that an individual’s criminal

behavior correlates with the shape of their head.

The BIOLOGICAL INFERIORITYTHEORY

In this theory, criminals were seen as distinct type of humans
who could be distinguished from non-criminals by certain
physical traits.

The XYY SYNDROME THEORY

In this theory, males having extra chromosome “Y”, who are
also called “supermales”, are said to be the most likely to
commit crimes because they are more predisposed to
aggressive and violent behaviors.

BRAIN LESION THEORY

➢ It holds that tumors are associated with aggression and
violent behavior