Criminology CH01 - Summary Criminological Theory: a Brief Introduction PDF

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Chapter 1: Criminology: the processes of making and breaking laws ● Seek to understand how the creation of criminal law defines misbehavior according to different and sometimes competing interests and how the criminalization of behavior interrelates with culture and class status differently throughout society ● Concerned with what causes crime ● Important to understand why crime happens in order to create policies and practices in CJS

ORIGINS OF CRIMINOLOGY ● Enlightenment Period ○ Late 18th century ○ Voltaire, Rousseau, and Locke ○ Development of the social contract ○ Superstition and spirituality based orientations to crime were exchanged for innovative ways of thinking that emphasized relationships between criminal behavior and punishment Social Contract: ● Introduced by Thomas Hobbes ● Involves the sacrifice of some personal freedom by endorsement of governmental law enforcement in exchange for protection and the benefit for all Classical School of Criminology: ● Major point of origin from which criminological theorizing would develop ● Grounded in the concept of deterrence and emphasizing free will and the dimensions of punishment (certainty, severity, and celerity) ● DEVELOPED CRIMINOLOGICAL THOUGHT IN: ○ Crime was no longer believed to be a function of religion, superstition, or myth that placed the problem beyond the control of humankind ○ Crime was seen as a result of freewill ● Referred to as neoclassicism Positivism: stressed the identification of patterns and consistencies in observable facts ● Believed causes of behavior could be determined Determinism: human behavior is caused by factors specific to the individual ● Ex: biological and psychological issues Chicago School ● Movement resulting from a series of seminal studies conducted by the University of Chicago Sociology Department

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Demonstrated that crime is a product of social ecology, particularly the disorganization that characterizes urban life Focuses on economic disadvantage, community cohesion, and social stability

Theory: “explanation” Criminality: denotes the extent and frequency of offending by societal group ● EX: the young, minorities, non-citizens, the unemployed, or people from a certain region Crime rate: denotes the level of crime in a given locale Evidence Based Practice: refers to approaches and interventions that have been scientifically tested and proven effective...