Crime and Criminology

Introduction

In this article, we shall study the nature, type of crime as defined and methods propounded by various jurists for controlling them and we also study criminology as subject its origin, classification, methodology and approaches in criminology for study of crimes. The interpretation of the historical development of criminology , any such history is inevitably a contentious undertaking, entailing theoretical choices and rhetorical purposes as well as the selection and arrangement of historical materials. Whether they acknowledge it or not, histories of the discipline necessarily come up against fundamental issues – what is crime and ‘criminology'?

What is Nature Crime?

The classical School Was Not Interested In Studying Criminals, But Rather In Preventing Crime and people choose to commit crime after weighing the benefits and costs of their actions.

The crime according to the social theories is correlated with structure of the society of society. It is also originate from the social disorganization of the society, more urbanization more the ecological problems result in mental strains causes gangs and delinquent crimes. Social conflict theory portrayed crime as a function of social demoralization and a collapse of people's humanity reflecting a decline in society. The brutality of the capitalist system turns workers into animal-like creatures without a will of their own.

The Marxist theory of the criminology believe the empirical relation of the development of the capital economy leads to development of “CLASS STRUGGLE� results in indulgence in crime for securing their right from privileged section of the society. The economic inequality intensifies personal problems and crime.

Crime is a product of society and each society will produce its own types and amounts of crime. The critique of Marxist says that if the Marxist is accepted as then what is cause of crime in socialist countries? Marxist standards are too high and moralistic.

Powerlessness increases the likelihood of Victimization for women, Crime is a way of “doing gender� for men. The patriarchal structure of the society leads to dominance of the male gender weakening of the position of the woman and causes crimes like cool blood murders, murder in the name of “AZHAT�, rapes and prostitution etc and the patriarchal structure of the society is being resisted by various quarters' causes feminist crime.

The inferior biological structure coupled by weakness of basic instinct like possession, sex and fear of body of human accentuate delinquent behavior and the tendency towards crimes, and the biological school of thought believe in proper physical development for curbing committing of the crime.

Basic theme is that criminals represent physically different structure from non-criminals and criminals as atavistic e.g. sloping foreheads, joined eyebrows, long arms, twisted noses etc.

Chambliss and Seidman propounded the modern conflict and on empirical relation of Law, Order and Power in 1971.They believe that the justice system operates to protect the rich and powerful by defining crimes and law enforcement and punishment for law-breaker.

How to prevent them?

There are various theories has propounded by jurists for prevention of the crime in societies.

Punishment

The Marxist has labeled the tool of punishment by saying “only crimes of the poor are punished � and also believes in fact that the crime will virtually disappear with equal distribution of property. The punishment is inflicted for the purposes of breaking norms of the society which has been codified into the law provisions.

Methods Of punishment

There are various method of punishment has prescribed, radical and classical school of thought extend their appreciation for the strict punishment for curbing the committing of crimes while modern jurist prefer the reformative schools.

Justifying the Punishment

Cesare Beccaria, follower of classical school, while justifying punishment say that, the retributive approach maintains that punishment should be equal to the harm done, either literally an eye for an eye, or more figuratively which allows for alternative forms of compensation. The retributive approach tends to be retaliatory and vengeance-oriented. The second approach is utilitarian which maintains that punishment should increase the total amount of happiness in the world. This often involves punishment as a means of reforming the criminal, incapacitating him from repeating his crime, and deterring others. Beccaria clearly takes a utilitarian stance. For Beccaria, the purpose of punishment is to create a better society, not revenge. Punishment serves to deter others from committing crimes, and to prevent the criminal from repeating his crime.

The nature of Criminology

Criminology is an interdisciplinary study of the making of the law, breaking of the law, and enforcement of the law . Its subject matter covers all topics related to crime and criminal justice. This theory and research on the explanation and causes of crime and criminal delinquency, the rates, distribution, and changes in crime and delinquency in society; individual criminal and delinquent behavior; criminal victimization and fear of crime.

History of Criminology

Origin of Criminology is dating back roughly a hundred years when criminologists received their academic training in the social sciences, usually taking degrees in sociology.

Criminology gained its place in America academic earlier 20s when sociology was recognized as the home of academic criminology and it gained its knowledge and benefit from the knowledge and insights of the those with little or no academic training but plenty of experience with some aspects of the crime scene.

Now, Criminology is a detailed academic and established subject of the study, this does not means that criminologist agree definition of the field. Those authors of the criminology texts who offer a definition rarely offer the same one. Don C. Gibbons and Peter Garadbedian discuss the competing value per specific that has shaped criminology over the years. They identify three major perspectives: conservative, liberal-cynical and radical sometime called critical.

Types of Criminology

Criminology has identified in number of classification.

Conservative Criminology

Conservative criminology gained ascendancy in America with early writing of parson , Gibbon and Parmelee, who were among the conservative criminologist such later contribution as harry Barnes and Negley teeters, whose text, New horizons in criminology , because a best-seller.

...Criminal law a given and is interpreted as the codification of the prevailing moral concepts and faith in ultimate the perfectibility of police ad criminal justice machinery.�

Liberal Cynical criminology

According to Gibbons and Garabedian , liberal Cynical criminology emerged along with the more the 1940s and 1950s because liberal cynical criminology has dominated the field over the past thirsty years, we might also call it mainstream criminology.

Liberal criminology

Liberal criminology retained the emphasis on offenders and their behavior and attempted to explain crimes in terms of either social structure or social process. Those are three major versions of liberal criminology. Another dimension of the liberal criminology is the liberal criminology which has taken deviance from the culture definition of the criminology. Liberal criminology has become a 'gatekeeper' for state domains of control, the value assumptions of hierarchical authority, of centralized controls and a safety valve and temperature gauge in the limits on how far the state can go.

The liberal writings of the various sociologists, criminologists and psychologists are given much attention in criminology which is indicative of the continued fascination with power, control and the models of the mechanical world. Their thinking is that man is the centre of the universe, but that they are the centre of man. They prescribe what is good and acceptable and how the world and life processes should be managed.

Radical Criminology

The radical criminology rejects the liberal reformism that claims have helped to create probation and parole the juvenile court system. They emphasized on the reformatory schools and half way school. More Modern Cynical liberal criminology shades into the newer brands of the liberal criminology but still crime and criminology as manifestation of the exploitation character of monopoly capitalism. Unless the present political-economic structure of America capitalist society in legal machinery will continue to undermine the interest of the people while consolidating those rule.

One of the first things to note and or understand is that "Marxism", as a theoretical perspective, involves a number of different variants or "ways of seeing" the social world . In this respect, although we often tend to talk about Marxism as if there were only one kind just as we tend to talk about other sociological perspectives - such as Functionalism - as if it only involved one basic set of ideas), it is evident that Marxism, as a school of thought, has been interpreted in a number of different ways by various writers. Approach and methods the criminology for Study of Crimes are following.

The Biological Approach

The biological theories of criminal behavior says that it study of criminal in biological perspectives.

Psychogenic Approach

Psychologist investigators are pursing the psychogenic approach to the criminology behavior, in which the emphasis is based on linking criminal behavior to mental state, especially mental evidence disease; mental disorders, pathologies, and emotional problems and they repeatedly assert that crime is outcome of criminal mind. The root cause of the criminal behavior neither environmental nor biological than question seems to be unclear.

Multifactor Approach

A long-standing criticism of the earlier bioorganic and psychological approach to crime has much of the work entered around the search for single factor or single set of like factors that could be shown to account for all criminal behavior.

The multifactor approach in criminology grew out of the discrepancies and arguments attending the single-factor tradition of the earlier days and its adherent argument for the approach to crime that would reconcile the disparate orientation and contribute made by a variety of the factors. That underlying assumption was that different crimes are result of different combination of the factors.

Whose interests are represented by criminal law?

This is not normative system of study but represent the interest of various segment of the society like interest of majority or interest . Criminology represents the interest of groups in society and interests of either all members of the society; the representation of the interest of criminology entire depends upon the type of the system prevailing in the society.

Summary

After presenting a picture of crime and criminology deviance in its definition and scope from post modern era, complex and heterogeneous society as an ongoing struggle. Equilibrium is difficult, if not completely impossible to achieve. The behavior of any group, and perhaps most importantly, the crime meaning and significance defined in criminology is destined to provoke a negative reaction from another group. In particular, authority groups will continuously strive to maintain and expand there control over societal resources by defining the activity of "subject groups" as threatening therefore deviant and/or criminal, to the existing order implicit here is the idea that the existing order is the order, the only legitimate order.

The writer is an advocate of High Court and practicing immigration and corporate laws in Pakistan since September 2001. He is a self employed and pioneer in research on electronic commerce taxation in Pakistan. His articles were published widely in the critical areas of cyber crimes, electronic commerce, e-taxation and various other topics. He wrote LL.M thesis on titled “Legislation of electronic commerce taxation in Pakistan� in which he provided comprehensive legal proposals for statutory reconstruction of tax laws for purpose of imposition of taxation on e-business in Pakistan. Currently he is conducting is research on topic ‘Electronic commerce taxation: emerging legal issues of digital evidence'.

Author can be contacted by adil.waseem@lawyer.com.