Criminology Essay: Theories, Crime, and Victimization Analysis

This essay provides an introduction to criminology and criminal justice, beginning with an overview of the discipline and its historical development. It explores the classical and positivist schools of criminology, highlighting key figures like Beccaria, Bentham, Lombroso, and Ferri. The essay contrasts these schools, examining their differing views on free will, determinism, and the purpose of punishment. It defines crime, outlines the essential elements of a criminal offense (actus reus and mens rea), and discusses various sources of information about crime, including official statistics. The concept of victimization is also analyzed, covering different forms of victimization, the subjective and objective approaches to studying it, and the complexities that arise when determining who is the offender and who is the victim. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of reporting and recording crimes, understanding crime statistics, and the need for a comprehensive understanding of the legal context in which crimes occur.

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INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Introduction to Criminology and Criminal Justice
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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INTRODUCTION TO CRIMINOLOGY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Criminology is perceived as a study discipline that commences with significant theories
and viewpoints of influential individuals on such theories such as the classicism and positivism.
This paper emphasizes on two essential points, firstly, there is a need to have knowledge about
the various theories of criminology and secondly, the age-old viewpoints on crime are still
present in the modern and scientific age (Weisburd 2015). In fact, it would be more appropriate
to state that criminology operates in a culture that combines several approaches of action and
thoughts. The development in criminology began with the writings of criminal law reformers in
the eighteenth century, Jeremy Bentham and Cesare Beccaria, in particular. The classical school
of criminology is basically associated with free will, choice, rationality, progress and choice.
However, the followers of the positivist school like Cesare Lombroso, Francis Galton and Enrico
Ferri challenged the classical criminology school in the nineteenth century. The positive school,
on the other hand, emphasizes on the criminal and determinism. These theories have been re-
worked and they persist to influence the criminal justice systems.
This school of classical criminology aims at creating fairer and rational system for
organizing punishment, establishes social order, and ensures a greater legal quality of citizens
irrespective of social position. According to Cesara Beccaria, human actions are based on
personal decisions made freely and is not influenced by any external or internal forces. He
believed that punishments would be a significant deterrent if they were proportionate to the
crime and would prevent the offenders from committing crimes, knowing that they would be
subjected to punishments (Reid 2015). His approach reflected secularism in that he did not
believe in traditional concepts of divine law and favored humanist theory of punishment,
emphasizing on human beings accountable for pleasure and pain. Jeremy Bentham believed

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punishments should be determined as causation of pain in direct proportion to the damage caused
to the interest of the public.
Lombroso is considered the foundation of modern criminology and he believed that
several criminals had unique physique. His belief that criminals could be distinguished from non-
criminals based on their physique was subjected to challenges. Along with Lombroso, Enrico
Ferri asserted that causation of crime is based on three main factors: the anthropological, social
and physical factor (Maxfiel and Babbie 2014). The commission of crime is the outcome of three
causes, the anthropological condition of criminal, the physical in which the accused is residing
and the social environment in which the person is born, living and operating. The
anthropological element highlighted constitution and heredity. On the other hand, the physical
factors reflect the issues such as season and climate; and the social element emphasized on
religion, education etc.
These two approaches of criminology differ from each other in terms of their area of
focus where the classic school approach is based on criminal administration whereas the
positivist school approach is based on the criminal person. These two approaches differ in their
approaches as well where classic school approach considers human nature is based on free will
whereas the positivist approach considered human nature is determined by social, biological and
psychological environment. The most significant difference between the two approaches with
respect to the purpose of sentencing is that the classic approach of criminology states that the
sentencing purpose purports to punish for deterrence. The positivist approach considers that
treatment and reform should be the sole purpose of sentencing (Morrison 2014. ).

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As per the dictionary meaning, crime is defined as an act that is punishable by law and is
deterred by several statutes, as it is injurious to public welfare. An act is considered as crime
when it infringes the exiting legal jurisdiction within which such crime takes place. Therefore, it
can be rightly said that crime is a form of conduct that is strictly prohibited under legal code.
In Australia, the States and Territories usually govern the criminal law each having their
own respective laws. The criminal laws are enacted either through legislations or through the
parliament in the form of statutes. According to Ferrell (2014), there are several elements that
must be present to establish that a person is guilty of committing a criminal offence. The first
essential element includes ‘actus reus’ which is the physical carrying out of any actions that is
strictly prohibited. The other essential element includes the ‘mens rea’, which signifies the
intention or the criminal mind of a person to carry out a certain act that is deterred in law.
The criminologists attempts several ways to acquire knowledge about crime such as
personal experience, or as an offender or a victim of crimes which forms the various sources of
obtaining knowledge about crime. In addition to these sources, the other important sources of
information about crime include the media and the official statistics on the crimes punishments
and victims.
The notion of ‘victim’ dates back to the ancient communities where it was associated
with the concept of ‘sacrifice’. There have been vast changes in interpreting and comprehending
the concept of ‘victimization’ over ages. Traditionally, a ‘victim’ referred to a person or animal
that was killed during a religious ceremony for pleasing some supernatural power or deity. Over
the centuries, the notion of victimization has been given different meanings. In the modern era,
the term is understood as any sufferings, losses or injuries that an individual has sustained for

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any reason whatsoever. People may become victims of natural disasters, discriminations,
accidents, warfare and other form of injustices. Victims of crime are usually considered to have
been affected by criminal conducts (Lynch 2014).
There are various forms of victimizations that are forbidden by law, such as robbing,
raping and swindling, etc. However, not all forms of hurtful and deceitful relationships or
practices are subjected to legal prohibition. For instance, a customer may be overcharged for an
item that can be purchased at low prices elsewhere or underpaying a worker who could otherwise
receive higher wages for performing the same work at another employment place.
Victimization may be studied scientifically; the suffering of the victims may be
categorized as subjective approach and objective approach. The subjective approach refers to the
description of the conditions of the victims from the viewpoint of philosophy, ethics, morality
and intense emotions. The objective approach refers to requirement that the observer must be
open-minded, fair, neutral and dispassionate while determining the suffering of such victims and
survivors of crimes.
However, there are disagreements amongst the observers with respect to two people who
are both wrongdoers and victims. In some cases, where the criminal justice system has framed
the victims who lost his parents or wife, husband, persons who are actually the victims are often
framed as the wrongdoers; they are reviewed as the same by significant segments of public. On
the other hand, in cases where the defendants had to face knife-wielding wife, or have been
involved with gangs with guns have insisted to be considered as victims instead of a wrongdoer.
Under such circumstances, when the several interpretations of facts lead to contrary conclusions

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about who is the offender and the victim, the objectivity approach is required to determine the
person responsible for violating the law.
To complicate the matter more, objectivity approach or the need for impartiality is
required when the injured party has violated the law. Siegel (2018) states that people engaged in
illegal activities are likely to be injured more than the law-abiding counterparts are. It is quite
possible that the people engaged in any illegal activities can become genuine victims who are
entitled to legal protection. The harms suffered or the injuries sustained by them are more severe
than the offenses such persons commit against the law-abiding persons. It is imperative to ensure
that such victims receive sufficient protection and administer justice.
However, in order to deter the illegal activities or punish the offenders, it is equally
important to report about the crimes. A victim is required to recognize and report a crime and the
law enforcement officials must ensure that such report is recorded appropriately. An act is said to
be criminal if the there is a legal prohibition of such act. a victim must recognize that the
committed is a crime, is unlawful in the country in which it had been committed. After
recognizing the crime and its gravity, the witness must report the same to the police. It is
important to understand the reporting behavior as well because, all reported offences often
results in non-recorded crimes.
Although the police is statutorily obligated to record criminal behavior but they have
considerable discretion to determine whether any matter is serious enough to give more detailed
attention to it. The significant distinction between official and unofficial crime statistics is that
the official statistics on crime, victims and punishments is more important source of information

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relating to crimes than unofficial statistics as it enables it determine whether there has been an
incline in the crime trend over the ages (Ferrell 2014).
Nevertheless, crime statistics presented in the official statistics on crime does not reflect
the complete and true picture of the crime issues. The criminologists are also aware of the
incompleteness of the picture of crime and encourage reporting of crimes and proper recording
of the same as well as careful reading of such crime statistics is highly recommended. In order to
ensure true picture of crime statistics, it is important to understand the law at the time when such
crime is recorded and whether legal definition s of such crime is the same or has undergone
changes. This would automatically feed into the crime statistic, thus, enabling to deter further
criminal activities.

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Reference list
Ferrell, J., 2014. Cultural criminology (pp. 904-913). Springer New York.
Langton, L. and Truman, J.L., 2014. Criminal victimization, 2013 (Revised).
Letoruzé, E. and Jutting, J., 2015. Official statistics, big data and human development. Data Pop
alliance–White paper series, available at www. odi. org.
Lynch, J., 2014. The evolving role of self-report surveys of criminal victimization in a system of
statistics on crime and the administration of justice. Statistical Journal of the IAOS, 30(3),
pp.165-169.
Maxfield, M.G. and Babbie, E.R., 2014. Research methods for criminal justice and criminology.
Nelson Education.
Morrison, W., 2014. Theoretical criminology from modernity to post-modernism. Routledge.
Plummer, M. and Cossins, A., 2016. The cycle of abuse: when victims become
offenders. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, p.1524838016659487.
Pratt, T.C. and Turanovic, J.J., 2016. Lifestyle and routine activity theories revisited: the
importance of “risk” to the study of victimization. Victims & Offenders, 11(3), pp.335-354.
Reid, S.T., 2015. Crime and criminology. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.
Siegel, L.J., 2018. Criminology: the core. Cengage Learning.
Weisburd, D., 2015. The law of crime concentration and the criminology of
place. Criminology, 53(2), pp.133-157.

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Wincup, E., 2017. Criminological research: Understanding qualitative methods. Sage.

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