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Introduction to Criminology: Reviewer for FinalsMODULE 1: THE NATURE OF THE SCIENCE OF CRIMINOLOGYDefinition of CrimeTappan in Lanier and Henry, 2001“Crime is an intentional act in violation of the criminal law thestatutoryandcaselaw), committed without defense or excuse, and penalized by the state ...

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Introduction to Criminology: Reviewer for Finals MODULE 1: THE NATURE OF THE SCIENCE OF CRIMINOLOGY Definition of Crime Tappan in Lanier and Henry, 2001

“Crime is an intentional act in violation of the criminal law the statutory and case law), committed without defense or excuse, and penalized by the state as a felony or misdemeanor.”

Reyes, 2015

“Crime may also be defined as an act committed or omitted in violation of public law forbidding or commanding it.”

Commit vs Omit Committed a Crime

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Refers to carry out a violation of the law. Example: I killed someone. (Murder)

Omitted a Crime/Omission

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Refers to fail or neglect to do something you’re obligated by the law. Example: I failed to pay my taxes. (Tax Evasion)

Public Law vs Private Law Public Law

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Governs the relationship between the person and state/government. It is a matter of public interest. Example: Criminal Law

Private Law

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Governs the relationship of private individuals. Example: Civil Law

Criminal Law vs Civil Law Criminal Law

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It protects society or everyone by law. Branch of public law defines crime, traits of its nature, and provides for its punishment. The violations in Criminal Law are called Crimes. Its penalties include fines, restitution, loss of liberty, and death. There are only two parties: Prosecutor and Defendant Outcome: Guilty or Not Guilty

Civil Law

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It protects the rights/duties of individuals to each other. The violations in Civil Law are called Torts. Its penalties include monetary damages, injunctions, and specific performance. There are only two parties: Plaintiff and Defendant Outcome: Liable or Not Liable

Substantive Law vs Procedural Law Substantive Law

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Laws provided for the rights, duties, and obligations of a person.

Procedural Law

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Procedures of judicial remedies. Provides the method for the enforcement of rights. It establishes the legal rules by which substantive law is created, applied, and enforced, particularly in a court of law.

3 Types of Laws Constitutional Law

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Statutory Law

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Refers to the fundamental law and basis of all written laws, those that define the powers of government and the limitations thereof. Example: Bill of Rights (Article III, 1987 Constitution) Refers to the laws enacted by Congress composed of the House of Representatives and Senate. It means laws that have been passed by legislatures and placed in the state criminal code or federal criminal code. Example: Republic Acts

Case Law

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Laws made by the Supreme Court. They are also enacted by the decisions of the SC in cases. In the Philippines, the Philippine Civil Code Article 8 states: Judicial decisions applying or interpreting the laws or the Constitution shall form a part of the legal system of the Philippines Example: Philippine Jurisprudence

Elements of Crime “Crime is an intentional act...”

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There is a difference between mens rea and actus rea. To be convicted of a crime the People of the Philippines must prove both. It has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. In our system of law, one must have “intended” to commit a crime, and one must have committed some act to be found guilty of a crime. Both elements must exist. Thus a person may intend to commit a crime (guilty thoughts) but may not do the act. This is not a crime. On the other hand, one may have harmed another, but did not have “intent.” This either diminishes responsibility for the act or evaporates it, as in cases of insanity, duress, accident.

Mens Rea

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It deals with the state of mind or the intent. Example: I’m thinking of robbing someone’s property.

Actus Rea

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It stands for an act. Example: I stole something.

Actus non facit reum, nisi mens sit rea

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“The act cannot be criminal where the mind is not criminal.” This is applicable for intentional crimes, not those which are products of negligence or fault on the part of the offender.

“or omission”

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Normally, if a citizen does not do anything to report a crime, even if he or she is observing it in progress, he or she cannot be charged with a crime. We do not have what is called “Good Samaritan Laws.” One does not have an obligation to help another being assaulted by a criminal. There are exceptions. If one has a specific license to care – a doctor, a nursing home operator, a parent – and one does nothing when a dangerous situation arises or one’s skills are required, then one can be charged with a crime when the person under their care is hurt.

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Good Samaritan Laws

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Offer limited protection to someone who attempts to help a person in distress.

“in violation of criminal law...”

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Before police try and make an arrest, there must be some specific law written in the criminal codes by the State. Absent that, it is not a crime. No laws = No crime

● Nullum crimen, nulla poena sine lege

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Also known as the Legality Principle. There is no crime when there is no law punishing the same. This is true to civil law countries, but not to common law countries. Because of this maxim, there is no common law crime in the Philippines. No matter how wrongful, evil, or bad the act is, if there is no law defining the act, the same is not considered a crime. Not any law punishing an act or omission may be valid as criminal law. If the law punishing an act is ambiguous, it is null and void.

Crimes in Common Law

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These are wrongful acts that the community/society condemns as contemptible, even though there is no law declaring the act criminal.

“(statutory or case law)”

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Statutory law means laws that have been passed by legislatures and placed in the state criminal code or federal criminal code. “Case law” stands for how judges interpret the law.

“Stare Decisis”

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Once the law is interpreted, it becomes the basis for legal rulings in future cases. Laws passed by the Supreme Court based on cases/on precedents

“Committed without defense or excuse”

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In our legal system, certain “defenses” or “excuses” are allowed such as justifying or exempting circumstances. “Ignorance of the law” is generally not an excuse. These defenses or excuses are arguments that say that the person did not have full intent, or in some cases, no intent at all to do the crime, even though the act was completed. In short, there was no “mens rea.”

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“and penalized by the state as a felony or misdemeanor”

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An act can only be considered “criminal” after it has been defined as such by the legislators and has been placed in the criminal law as a prohibited act.

Felony vs Offense vs Misdemeanor Felony

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It is defined as a committed or omitted violation of the Revised Penal Code. Example: Homicide, Murder, Theft, Robbery, Estafa.

Offense

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It is an act or omission in violation of Special Penal Laws. Examples: Human Trafficking, Drug Sale, Cybercrimes

Misdemeanor

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Also known as infractions It is an act or omission in violation of Municipal or City Ordinances. Since there are various municipal or city ordinances per locality there are likely different misdemeanors defined in the country. Examples: Smoking in Public Places, Littering, Traffic Violations

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RPC vs SPL vs Municipal/City Ordinances Revised Penal Code

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Act 3815 It was approved on December 8, 1930 Signed as a law on January 1, 1932 It was based on the Spanish Codigo Penal ○ It was the Criminal Law of Spain that the Philippines borrowed during the Spanish Colonial Era. Rafael del Pan, the 1st Filipino Criminologist, proposed a correctional code that is supposedly the basis of our Criminal Law. The Americans decided to revise it based on the Spanish Codigo Penal. Contains provisions on different crimes, such as Treason, Murder, Piracy, etc.

Special Penal Laws

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The laws were passed by the Philippine Commission, Philippine Assembly, Philippine Legislature, National Assembly, the Congress of the Philippines, and the Batasang Pambansa. ○ Act ■ Passed from the 1900s to 1935 ○ Commonwealth Act (CA) ■ Passed from 1935 to 1946 ○ Republic Act (RA) ■ Passed from 1946 to 1972 ■ Interrupted by President Ferdinand Marcos due to Martial Law ○ Presidential Decree ■ Took a chance of power and abolished Congress, which led President Marcos to create and establish the laws. ■ Remained from 1972 to 1986 ○ Batas Pambansa ■ In 1978, Marcos created a parliament, and the laws under it were called the “Batas Pambansa”. ■ Passed from 1978 to 1985 ○ Executive Order ■ During this time, President Corazon Aquino became a dictator herself and issued laws called “Executive Orders”, which is similar to the Presidential Decree. ■ Passed from 1986 to 1987 ○ Republic Act (RA) ■ Still used in the present from 1987 with the 1987 Constitution.

Municipal or City Ordinances

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Every city or municipality may enact all criminal law, which is only applicable to their city.

Defining Crime with Harm Schwendinger and Schwendinger, 2001

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Their definition of harm was an improvement to the definition of crime. It stated: “Any person, social system, or social relationship that denies or abrogates basic rights are criminal.” Basic rights are distinguished by the right to racial, sexual, and economic equality. They are “basic” because “there is so much at stake in their fulfillment.”

(Schwendinger and Schwendinger in Lanier and Henry, 2001, p. 88).

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Further, “individuals who deny these rights to others are criminal,” and “likewise, social relationships and social systems which regularly cause the abrogation of these rights are also criminal.”

2 Forms of Harm Harms of Reduction

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Harms of Repression

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Occurs when an offended party experiences a loss of some quality relative to their present standing.” They appear “when a person is reduced to one or more dimensions, each of which itself is socially constituted and therefore subject to change over time, as well as culturally.” In other words, harms of reduction happen when a person is reduced in some way It’s an opposing effect. Example: A fully functioning human turned cripple due to harm; From an active agent to a passive agent; From the ability to say “no,” to its inability; from being able to speak against the State, to being denied the ability to criticize Occurs when an offended party experiences a limit or restriction preventing them from achieving a desired position or standing.” “They diminish a person’s or group’s position, or deny them the opportunity to attain a position they desire, a position that does not deny another from attaining her or his or their position.” For instance, Schwendinger and Schwendinger (2001) and Abraham Maslow’s humanistic psychology and the idea of the drive for the fulfillment of potentialities (self-actualization). If these are repressed because of persons, social systems, or social relationships, they can be seen as harms of repression. Example: Consider racism, sexism, ageism, etc. In addition, if a capitalist system denies a high percentage of its citizens a decent wage and living condition, if it systematically maintains a high percentage of minorities in poverty, if it places impediments on certain groups in their ability to self-actualize, it can be seen as engaging in harms of repression.

Defining Deviance by William Graham Sumner Deviance

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It is a violation of established contextual, cultural, or social norms, whether folkways, mores or codified law (1906). A crime is therefore an act of deviance that breaks not only a norm but a law. Deviance can be as minor as picking one’s nose in public, wearing skimpy clothes, or as major as committing murder. Deviance or deviant behavior may refer to a broad range of activities that the majority in society may view as eccentric, dangerous, annoying, bizarre, outlandish, gross, abhorrent, and the like. It simply refers to those acts which are outside the range of normal societal

Acts of Deviance by John Hagen (1994) Consensus Crimes

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The most serious acts of deviance There is a near-unanimous public agreement. Acts like murder and sexual assault are generally regarded as morally intolerable, injurious, and subject to harsh penalties.

Conflict Crimes

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These are acts like prostitution or smoking marijuana, which may be illegal but about which there is considerable public disagreement concerning their seriousness.

Social Deviations

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These are acts like abusing serving staff or behaviors arising from mental illness and addiction, which are not illegal in themselves but are widely regarded as serious or harmful. People agree that they call for institutional intervention.

● Social Diversions

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These are like riding skateboards on sidewalks, overly tight leggings, or facial piercings that provocatively violate norms but are generally regarded as distasteful but harmless, or for some, cool.

Table 1. Crime, Deviance, and Delinquency distinguished Crime

Deviance

Delinquency

Violation of criminal laws

Violation of social norms

Violation of social norms and expectations

Committed by adults

Committed by adults

Committed by children

Penalized by imprisonment or fine

Social stigma or alienation

Rehabilitation or intervention

Homicide, murder, theft, rape, estafa

Crossdressing, nudity, eating with bare hands

Smoking, running away from school, truancy

Sociological Insights in Deviancy Acts are not deviant in themselves.

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Whether an act is deviant or not depends on society’s definition of that act.

Deviance

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It is not an intrinsic (biological or psychological) attribute of individuals, nor the acts themselves, but a product of social processes The norms themselves, or the social contexts that determine which acts are deviant or not, are continually defined and redefined through ongoing social processes—political, legal, cultural, etc. One way in which certain activities or people come to be understood and defined as deviant is through the intervention of moral entrepreneurs.

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Becker (1963)

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One way in which certain activities or people come to be understood and defined as deviant is through the intervention of moral entrepreneurs. He defined moral entrepreneurs as individuals or groups who, in the service of their interests, publicize and problematize “wrongdoing” and have the power to create and enforce rules to penalize wrongdoing.

Defining Criminal Criminal

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For criminologists, it refers to a person who has violated criminal laws if there is no conviction yet. For the sake of research, criminals are those people who violated the law, and that their actions had been recorded. The reason is to ensure that behaviors that comprise criminal activities are recorded and studied. To limit the same to only convicted rates would not allow a comprehensive view of criminal behavior.

Criminal Justice Funnel

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The theory is that during the investigation, prosecution decisions, pre-trial procedures, trial, post-trial procedures, and appeal there will be a steady reduction in the number of cases from one level to the next. At the opening of the funnel, there are many cases but by the end of the process, there are only a few remaining. It may also refer to a person who has been convicted of a violation of the law.

Origins of the Word: Criminology Raffaele Garafalo in 1885

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An Italian law professor first coined the term “criminology” in 1885 from Italian criminology. It comes from two Latin words: criminal which means accusation and logos which means to study.

Paul Topinard

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An author used the term in 1887 in his book, criminology, which was written in French (Schram & Tibbetts, 2014).

Definitions of Criminology Siegel, 2009

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As an “academic discipline that uses the scientific method to study the nature, extent, cause, and control of criminal behavior”

Sutherland & Cressey, 1960

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Criminology is the scientific approach to studying criminal behavior. “Criminology is the body of knowledge regarding crime as a social phenomenon. It includes within its scope the process of the making of laws, of breaking laws, and of reacting toward the breaking of laws. The objective of criminology is the development of a body of general and verified principles and of other types of knowledge regarding this process of law, crime, and treatment.”

Two Latin Words

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Crimen – crime/ accusation Logos or logy – science

Criminology

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It is the science or study of crime. It is concerned with the conduct of individuals which is prohibited by society and law. It is a socio-legal study that seeks to discover the causes of criminality and suggests appropriate remedies. Criminology is the interdisciplinary study of crime as both an individual and social phenomenon, with research on the origins and forms of crime, its causes and consequences, and social and governmental reactions to it

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Definitions of Criminology by Various Scholars Edwin Sutherland

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Criminology is the body of knowledge regarding crime as a social phenomenon. It includes within its scope the processes of making laws, breaking laws, and reacting towards the breaking of the law. (From the above definition it is apparent that criminology is a combination of how society defines and deals with a crime within a social and legal context).

Donald Taft

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Criminology may be divided into two branches: general and specific. In a general sense, it is the study of crime and criminals. In a specific sense, it seeks to study criminal behavior, its goal being to reform the criminal behavior or conduct of the individual which society condemns.

Webster

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Criminology is the scientific study of crime as a social phenomenon or of criminals and their behaviors and family conditions. It is said to be an academic discipline that employs scientific methodology to study crime, its major forms, its reasons for existence or causation, and how the criminal justice system can respond to crime. In its narrower sense, it looks at the criminal behavior of individuals in society and how they come to be perceived as their social, cultural, and economic background. In a wider sense, it looks at how the criminal is dealt with e.g. how he is punished, and therefore includes penology.

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