Criminology

Internal Notes

Q.1 History of Crimes?

Ans: The term criminology is derived from the Latin word Crimen which means crime and
from the Greek Word Logia or Logos which means teaching. Criminology is a science or
body of knowledge which deals with crime and criminals. It is a systematic study of
criminals.

History of Crime

In the 12th Century the English society included only acts against the state and religion as
crime. Thus, offences like treason, blasphemy were the limited crimes which received the
justice. Three forms of offences were present known as bot wrongs payment of
compensation, payment of fines and botless considered to be wrongs for which no amount of
compensation could be punishable.

The Dharam Shastra introduced in its writings the concept of ordeals also known as pariksha,
ordeals indicated two aspects:

1. Trails were divine

2. The need for divine intervention while dispensing Justice.

‘Yajnavalkya mentions five kinds of ordeals – Balance, Fire, Water, Poison and Kosa (Holly
Water).

Criminological birth can be ascertained to 18 th and 19th century while the earlier emphasis
was on the crime and that it was resulted of divine.

The study of criminology emphasised on the criminal and crime. Through a scientific basis.
This was a phase of change in ideology, the introduction of new crime and obsoletion of
same.

Concept of criminology in India

Often believe to be a divine act justice was considered Dharma. Wrong meant a broad
concept of laws religion and morality wrong was equally applicable. The king was considered
administration of justice required to work with care caution and impartiality.

Q.2 Types of Crimes?

Ans: Crime is a violation of the rights considered in reference to the evil tendency of such
violation as regards the community at large.

An action committed or omitted, which constitutes an offence and is punishable by law, is a

crime. Crime is an unlawful act that is forbidden and punished by the State or the law. In
other words, anything which is injurious to public welfare is a crime.

According to Bentham, “offences are whatever the legislature has prohibited for good or for
bad reasons.”

Characteristics of Crime

1. Intention (Mens Rea)

A mere person will never commit a crime unless he possesses some intention to commit
it. The law generally refers to this intention as mens rea, which means “guilty mind” in
Latin. The element of mens rea itself comprises of certain inherent elements. These
include intention, motive or knowledge.

2. Motive

motive is the reason why someone chooses to commit a crime. It can be defined as the
desire, impulse, or moving course that leads the accused to commit a crime

3. Commission of Prohibited Act

The intentional commission of an act usually deemed socially harmful or dangerous and
specifically defined, prohibited, and punishable under criminal law.

4. Punishment

punishment is the undesirable or unpleasant consequences of being convicted of a

criminal offense.

5. Actus Reas
Actus reus means physical act, which includes and act or omission as well. To constitute a
crime there must exist commission or omission of an illegal act.

Omprakash vs. state of Punjab: In this case the accused omitted to provide food to his
wife and locked her in a room. She had escaped and charged him. The supreme court
convicted the accused for attempt to commit murder.

6. External Consequences

Crime always has a harmful impact on society and human being, may it be social,
personal, emotional or mental. The harm must have been actually caused. Mere intention
to cause harm does not constitute a crime.

Types of Crime

1. Predatory Crimes

Predatory crimes are also known as traditional crimes, Predatory crime is a type of crime
that involves taking advantage of others for personal gain. It includes acts that are
punishable by law and are considered harmful to society. Examples of predatory crimes
include theft, robbery, assault, and murder.

For instance, theft is a type of predatory crime where someone takes another person's
property without their permission. Robbery is another example where someone uses force
or threat to take someone's property. Assault involves physically harming someone, while
murder is the most severe form of predatory crime where someone intentionally kills
another person.

2. Violent Crimes

Violent crimes are considered the most deviant crimes in society and are more severe than
other types of crime. Some examples of violent crimes include: Homicide, Domestic
Violence, Assault, Robbery, Rape , Murder, Crime affecting body, crime affecting
property, crimes affecting public and crime affecting women.

3. Inchoate Crimes

Inchoate crimes, also known as incomplete crimes, are illegal acts that are taken towards
committing a crime or that constitute indirect participation in a crime. Inchoate crime
includes Criminal conspiracy, aiding and abetting of crime and criminal attempt.
4. Hate Crime

Hate crimes are crimes motivated by prejudice against people or property confined to
race, gender, gender identity, handicap, religion, sexual orientation, or ethnicity.

5. Crimes without victim

A victimless crime is a crime that only impacts the person who committed it. A victimless
crime is an illegal act that typically either directly involves only the perpetrator or occurs
between consenting adults.

Some examples of victimless crimes include:

Illegal gambling, Drug use, Traffic violations, Playing, Trespassing, Public drunkenness,
Suicide.

Different Ideology of Crimes’

1. Political Crimes

A political crime is an unlawful act that harms the interests of a state or its government.
Political crimes are committed for reasons beyond the self-interest of the perpetrator and
are an attempt to achieve changes of a political, social, or religious order.

Examples of political crimes include:

 Treason

 Sedition

 Terrorism

 Espionage

2. Economic Crimes

Economic crimes are a broad range of illegal acts committed by individuals or groups to
gain a financial or professional advantage. The primary motive for these crimes is
economic gain. Economic crimes cover a wide range of offences, including swindling and
fraud, money laundering, corruption, intellectual property crime and environmental
crime.

3. Traditional Crimes
 The Traditional crimes are divided into specific categories of offences, such as, offences
against the State, offences against the Human body, offences against property etc., These
offences are of permanent character, and the constituent elements of these offences
remain unchanged. The Traditional crimes are a kind of positive aggressions and result in
direct and immediate injury.

4. Social Crimes

social crime is sometimes regarded as social when it represents a conscious challenge to a

prevailing social order and its values. For example: Child Marriage, Dowry and Sati.

Nature and Scope of Criminology?

1. Criminal Anthropology

It seeks to understand the personality of the offenders in physical terms. Cesare

Lombroso was the first to propound this view which eventually led to the origin of
modern criminology. He was first in point of time to explain criminal behaviour in terms
of physical-characteristics of the offender and emphasised that criminals were different
physically from normal persons and possessed inferior physical characteristics. Though
this view is no longer supported by modern criminologists, but it does have its theoretical
importance.

2. Criminal Sociology

It is based on Sutherland's theory of 'differential association' which explains criminal

behaviour as a process of learning through association with other criminals. This theory,
however, does not adequately take into account the personality traits or psychological
variables in criminal behaviour.

3. Criminal Psychology

It seeks to co-relate criminality to emotional aspect of human nature. French psychologist

Alfred Binet and Professor Jerman of USA are the main propounders of this view. Dr.
Arnold and Dr. E.A.Hooton carried further researches on this aspect of criminal
behaviour.

4. Criminal Psycho-neuro-pathology
This breach of criminology attributes criminality to functional deviations and mental
conflicts in the personality of the offender.

5. Penology

It concerns itself with the various aspects of punishments and penal policies. The various
mechanisms of punishing the offenders are also studied under penology.

Q.4 School of Thought?

Ans: The term criminology is derived from the Latin word Crimen which means crime
and from the Greek Word Logia or Logos which means teaching. Criminology is a
science or body of knowledge which deals with crime and criminals. It is a systematic
study of criminals.

Pre-Classical School of Thought

The pre-classical school is commonly known as the demonological school for the sole
reason that during the 17th century, the demonological theory flourished in Europe with
the dominance of the church and religion. Since during this time, the scientific
explanation was not given preference and, concept of crime was vague and based on
superstitions and myths.

Hence, the explanations for criminal behaviour were sought through spirits, demons and
unknown power. The principle behind such a concept was that a man commits a crime
due to the stimulus of some external force or an evil spirit which is beyond the control
and understanding of man and that he was possessed by such a spirit.

The wrath of God and the natural agencies were considered to give punishment to the
offenders. The offenders were subjected and had to go through battles, pelting of stones
and was believed that no harm would be caused if the offender was innocent which was
termed as the Ordeal test and was a method of torturing or subjecting the offender to
severe torture to determine whether or not such an offender was guilty of the offence
which he was charged with.
This demonological theory of criminality or the pre-classical was based upon the
omnipotence of spirit, which they regarded as a divine and superior power. The offender
was made victim to the worships, sacrifices and ordeals by water and fire which were
usually prescribed to determine the guilt of the offender.

Classical School of thought

The pioneers and the scholars of the classical school of criminology are Cesare Beccaria,
Jeremy Bentham and Romilly. The main belief of this school is that all men are self-
seeking and therefore they attempt to commit the offence on account of the free will and
not on account of being possessed by an evil spirit. According to the theory of this school,
men possess free will and therefore, act as per their pleasure and in order to cause pain to
the victim. The theory devised by the pre-classical school was rejected.

Beccaria, a renowned criminologist proposed that, the punishment of a crime that is

decided should be proportionate and in accordance with its seriousness. This thought was
based on the simple reason that torture was inappropriate and thus allowed the weak to
incriminate and the strong would be found innocent before the adjudication because of
social position. The ideology of Beccaria was supported by various criminologists that
emphasises upon the criminal rather than the crime. The classical school focuses on the
principle of deterrence instead of the retributive theory.

The major drawback of the classical school was that it was based upon an abstract
presumption of free will and relied solely on the act (i.e., the crime) without devoting any
attention to the state of mind of the criminal or on the criminal. Another shortcoming of
this school was that they prescribed equal punishments for same offence and created no
distinction between first offenders and habitual criminals irrespective of the gravity of the
offence. However, the greatest achievement of this school of criminology lies in the fact
that it recognized and suggested for the development of a substantial and robust criminal
policy which would overcome the barrier of allotting arbitrary punishments. Due to the
theory devolved by Beccaria the earlier concepts of crime and criminals which were
based on religious beliefs and myths were denounced and therefore, the emphasis was
upon the criminal rather than the crime which eventually led to the need for concentrating
on the personality of an offender in determine the causation of crime.

Neo Classical School of Thought

The 'free will' theory developed by the classical school did not survive for too long
because of ignoring the individual differences under certain situations and treating first
offenders and the habitual alike irrespective of the crime committed. The neo-classists
asserted that certain categories of offenders such as minors, idiots, insane or incompetent
had cannot be treated equally as a prudent man in matters of punishment irrespective of
the similarity of their criminal act because these persons were incapable of understanding
the nature or the conduct of the act committed. The Neo-classical school was greatly
appreciated because of evolution of the theory of differentiating the aforementioned
categories from the other criminals on the basis of their mental depravity was indeed a
progressive step.

Thus, it would be seen that the main contribution of neo-classical school of criminology
lies in the fact that the theory of classical school and suggested that an individual might
commit criminal acts due to certain justifying circumstances and such situations must be
taken under consideration while discharging the criminal liability. Therefore, along with
the criminal act, the other factors such as the, the personality of the criminal, the motives,
previous life, history, general character, etc., should not be lost while assessing his guilt.

Q.5 Radical Criminology?

Ans: Radical criminology is a conflict ideology that argues that those with the most
power in capitalist societies make laws in order to exert control over the lower classes and
neutralize potential insurrection.

Radical criminology evolved in the 1960s. Following Marxist principles, radical

criminologists brought an ideological bent to criminology, shifting focus away from
individual responsibility in crime and toward society-wide issues.

Radical criminology is sometimes called Marxist, conflict, or critical criminology. The

ideological confines of radical criminology continue to inform criminologists interested in
studying their field from an anarchist, environmental, feminist, cultural, peacemaking, or
restorative perspective.

What bridges all of these perspectives, ultimately, is their focus on the distribution of
power and the ways that the law protects the interests of the ruling class.
Selective law enforcement means that the criminal justice system applies the law to
different social groups in different ways. Whereas the working class and ethnic minorities
are criminalized, the powerful and rich appear to get let off or ignored.

Many early radical or critical criminologists, often politically active in the 1960s, adhered
to Marxist principles. Although Marx himself did not directly discuss crimes, his writings
focused on law, power, and social and economic control.

In this vein, radical criminologists argue that the law serves those who have the power to
translate their interests into policy.

Instead of being the product of public agreement, radical criminologists think of the law
as a set of rules that the state defines and enforces and that the criminal justice system
itself even tries to neutralize opposers by targeting the actions of those who are the most
oppressed.

Marxist believed that concept of communism, he further believed that the class of the
persin decide the response of the Justice System.

Q.6 Criminology known as science?

Ans: The term criminology is derived from the Latin word Crimen which means crime
and from the Greek Word Logia or Logos which means teaching. Criminology is a
science or body of knowledge which deals with crime and criminals. It is a systematic
study of criminals.

The view that criminology is a separate science has been strongly supported by
Ellanbuger. He claimed that, if medicine is to be treated as a science, criminology also
must be treated as a separate science. He pointed out that just as medicine is based on
anatomy, psychology, physics, chemistry etc. Criminology also is based on other social
sciences. Neither medicine nor criminology are purely theoretical. They have a meaning,
which derives from their practical applications. The justification for medicine lies in
public health, that of criminology in penal reform, penology and prevention of crime.
Both have a series of value judgments and each has its ethical purpose. According to
Russian Criminologist, Prof. G.Avanesor - Criminology is a judicial science.