Chapter Four

History of Criminology
(Schools of Thought)
“It is good to look to the past to gain
appreciation for the present and
perspective for the future. It is good to
look upon the virtues of those who
have gone before, to gain strength for
whatever lies ahead. It is good to
reflect upon the work of those who
labored so hard and gained so
At the end of the lesson, students should little in this world, but out of
be able to: whose dreams and early plans, so
 compare and contrast the different School of well nurtured, has come a great
thoughts in criminology;
 explain the basis of demonic explanations for
harvest of which we are the
crime and treatment of criminals; beneficiaries. Their tremendous
 describe the origins of the classical school of example can become a compelling
criminology; motivation for us all, for each of us
 list the basic assumptions on which classical is a pioneer in his [or her] own
theory is based.
 describe Cesare Beccaria’s ideas of the social
life.”
contract and the pleasure principle and their --- Gordon B. Hinckley (1910–
implications for criminal justice. 2008)
 describe Jeremy Bentham’s ideas of utilitarianism
and the“greatest happiness,” and his moral
calculus; Introduction
 compare Beccaria’s and Bentham’s views on The discipline of criminology has
deterrence, guilt, and punishment; evolved in five phases. It includes:
 list the characteristics of positivism and describe
1. Demonic Perspective
the circumstances in which it arose;
(Middle Ages, 1200-1600)
 explain the concept of atavism as a feature of
Lombroso’s general theory of criminality; 2. Classical School (the late
1700s and the early 1800s)
 describe lombroso’s, ferri and Garofalo’s criminal
types; and 3. Neo-classical school
 explain rational choice theory as an integrated (emerged between 1880 and 1920
theory in criminology; and is still with us today)
 familiarized with the humble beginning of
criminology in the Philippines. 4. Positivism (the mid-1800s
and early 1900s)
5. Sociological Criminology or
Chicago School (mid 1800s till now)

1
A. Demonic Era: Pre-Classical Notions of Crimes &
Criminals

It is not surprising that any discussion of the existence of evil behavior in the world
would begin with religious explanations. Since time began, humankind has been
preoccupied with what appears to be an ongoing war between good and evil. Prior to
the eighteenth century, explanations of a wide variety of phenomena tended to be of a
religious or spiritual nature. Enlightenment thinkers focused on the dignity and worth
of the individual. It is a view that would eventually find expression in the law & the
treatment of criminal offenders.
During the medieval period, the most common explanations for the commission of
wrong act is said to be caused by the devil. From this account, method uses in the
determination of truth (trial) were arbitrary and unreasonable. Although through the
Middle Ages (1200-1600), superstition and fear of satanic possession dominated the
thinking. People who violated social norms or religious practices were believed to be
witches or possessed by demons. The prescribed method for dealing with the possessed
was burning at stake, a practiced that survived into the 17 Century.

Demonological Theory
An early explanation of crime is theological or
religious. It is based on beliefs in supernatural or
spiritual powers or in laws of nature.
Crime has been viewed as a violation of religious
doctrine. It is called a sin - a violation of sacred
obligation. An individual who commits a crime has
been viewed as possessed by evil spirits or under divine
wrath. Criminal acts were considered as indicia of
basically evil human nature suggesting adherence to
Satan or under the spell of the prince of darkness.
The causes of crime have been based in
superstitious belief in which criminals were
allegedly perceived as controlled by other
worldly forces – the devil. Criminal behavior was the result of evil spirits and
demons something of natural force and controls behavior.

B. Classical Notion of Crimes & Criminals

By the mid 18thcentury, social philosophers began to rethink the prevailing
concepts of law and justice. They argue for a more rational approach to punishment,
stressing that the relationship between crimes and their punishment should be
balanced and fair. This view was based on the prevailing philosophy of the time called
Utilitarianism.

2
NOTA BENE:
Utilitarianism or Hedonistic calculus – the belief, first proposed by Jeremy
Bentham, that behavior hold value to any individual undertaking it
according to the amount of pleasure or pain that it can be expected to
produce for that person.
Utilitarian Hedonism – This theory explains that a person always acts in such
a way as to seek pleasure and avoid pain.

Basic Elements of Classical Criminology

Classical Theory: Criminal As Calculator

The main advocates of this theory are Cesare Beccaria (Essay on Crimes and
Punishment) with Jeremy Bentham (Utilitarian Hedonism). Their writings set forth
classical criminological theory.

It is one of the earliest secular approaches to explaining the causes of crime. It is a

product of the Enlightenment, based on the assumption that people exercise free will
and are thus completely responsible for their actions. Human behavior, including
criminal behavior, is motivated by a hedonistic rationality, in which actors
weigh the potential pleasure of an action against the possible pain associated
with it.

The Classical Theory maintains that man is essentially a moral creature with
absolute free will to choose between good and evil. Therefore, stress is placed upon the
criminal himself, every man is responsible for his act. Crime is resulted from the
“doctrine of psychological hedonism” or “free will” of an individual criminal.
That the individual calculates pleasures and pains in advance of action and regulates
his conduct by the result of his calculations.

This theory also state that criminal behavior could be understood and controlled as
an outcome of a “human nature”. Human beings were believed to be hedonistic, acting
in terms of their own self-interest, but rational, capable of considering which course of
action was really in their self-interest.

NOTA BENE:
Freewill - A philosophy advocating
punishment severe enough for people to
choose or to avoid criminal acts.

One of the most powerful ideas endorsed by the

classical school is EQUALITY. People should be
given equal treatment before the law.

MAJOR PRINCIPLES OF THE CLASSICAL

SCHOOL
Most classical theories of crime causation make
the following basic assumptions:

3
CESARE BECCARIA
(March 15, 1738 - November 28, 1794)

A major contributor to the classical school of criminology. His real name is

CESARE BONESANA MARCHESE DE BECCARIA. He was an Italian philosopher
and politician best mown for his treatise On Crimes and Punishments (1764), which
condemned torture and the death penalty and was a founding work in the field of
criminology. Distilled the notion of the social contract into the idea that “laws are the
conditions under which independent and isolated men untied to form a society.” He
asserts that human beings are endowed with absolute free will to choose right from
wrong. Human beings are fundamentally rational, and most human behavior is the
result of free will coupled with rational choice.

His writings mainly consisted of a philosophy of punishment. Adjudication and

punishment should both be swift and certain. Also his writings described both a motive
for committing a crime and methods for its control. Becarria believed people want to
achieve pleasure and avoid pain. The writings of Becarria and his followers form what
today is referred to a Classical Criminology.

SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY

Beccaria based his call for reform on the theory that citizens and the state have a
“social contract” that entitles people to legal protections against crime. He also believed
that social contarct is the basis of society, as well as the origin of punishments and the
right to punish crime.
Social contract theory stresses the idea that people
SOCIAL CONTRACT is an
were originally without government. People then
imaginary agreement to
created the state through a “social contract,” by which
sacrifice the minimum
they surrendered many of their “natural liberties.” In
amount of liberty to prevent
return, people received the security that government
anarchy and chaos.
could provide “against antisocial acts. “Beccaria wrote,
“Laws are the conditions under which independent
and isolated men united to form a society. Weary of living in a continual state of war,
and of enjoying a liberty rendered useless by the uncertainty of preserving it, they
sacrificed a part so that they might enjoy the rest of it in peace and safety. The sum of
all these portions of liberty sacrificed by each for his own good constitutes the
sovereignty of a nation, and their legitimate depository and administrator is the
sovereign.”

JEREMY BENTHAM
(February 15, 1748 - June 6, 1832)
He is an English jurist, philosopher and legal and social
reformer. He was a political radical and a leading theorist in
Anglo-American philosophy of law. He is best known as an
early advocate of utilitarianism and fair treatment of
criminals that influenced the development of liberalism.

4
 Bentham argued the following:
1. People have free will to choose how to act.
2. Deterrence is based upon the utilitarian ontological notion of the human being a
'hedonist' who seeks pleasure and avoids pain, and a 'rational
calculator' weighing up the costs and benefits of the consequences of each action.
Thus, it ignores the possibility of irrationality and unconscious drives as
motivational factors;
3. Punishment (of sufficient seventy) can deter people from crime, as the costs
(penalties) outweigh benefits, and that severity of punishment should be
proportionate to the crime.
4. The more swift and certain the punishment, the more effective it is in deterring
criminal behavior.

THE PANOPTICON PRISON

The panopticon is a type of institutional
building and a system of control designed by the
English philosopher and social theorist Jeremy
Bentham in the 18th century. The panopticon is a
disciplinary concept brought to life in the fo rm of a
central observation tower placed within a circle of
prison cells. The concept of the design is to allow a
guard to see every cell and inmate but the inmates
can’t see into the tower. Prisoners will never know
whether or not they are being watched. It was a
manifestation of Bentham belief that power should
be visible and unverifiable. Through this seemingly
constant surveillance, Bentham believed all groups
of society could be altered. Morals would be
reformed, health preserved, industry invigorated, and so on – they were all subject to
observation.

C. The Positivist Notion of Crimes and Criminals

The classical position served as a guide to crime, law and justice for almost 100
years, but during the late 19th century a change in the way knowledge was being
gathered created a challenge to its dominance. The scientific method was beginning to
take hold in Europe, rather rely on pure thought and reason, careful observation and
analysis of natural phenomena was being undertaken to understand the way the world
worked. This movement inspired new discoveries in biology, astronomy and chemistry.
If the scientific method could be applied to the study of nature, then why not use it to
stu dy human behavior?

Positivist Criminology (1838 – 1909): The Italian School of Thoughts

At the beginning of the 19th century, scholars began to apply the concepts and
technologies of the rapidly developing biological and behavioral sciences to the study of
crime. For the first time criminologists developed typologies of crime and criminals and
attempted to identify patterns between these typologies and various biological,
psychological, and social characteristics of offenders.

5
 Positivist School of criminology is
the founding of modern scientific criminology
is generally credited to the so-called Italian
school and to the work of its three principal
exponents Cesare Lombroso and his two
students, Enrico Ferri and Rafaele
Garofalo

The Concept of Positivism

In the 19th century criminologists began

to move away from the classical
assumptions, especially the assumption of
free will as it is commonly understood, and toward a more scientific view of human
behavior. The increasingly popular view among criminologists of this period was that
crime resulted from internal and/or external forces impinging on individuals, biasing,
or even completely determining, their behavior choices. This position became known as
determinism, and its adherents were known as positivists. The term positivism is used
to designate the extension of the scientific method to social life. Positivistic
criminologists were more concerned with discovering the biological, psychological, or
social determinants of criminal behavior than with the classical concerns of legal and
penal reforms.

Positivism is the application of scientific techniques to the study of crime and

criminals. The term Positivism refers to a method of analysis based on the collection
of observable scientific facts.

The Positivist Theory: Criminal as Determined

The Positivist School presumes that criminal behavior is caused by internal and
external factors outside the individual’s control. The scientific method was introduced
and applied to study human behavior. Positivism can be broken up into three segments
which include biological, psychological and social positivism.

The theory of the positivist school of criminology grew out of positive philosophy and
the logic and methodology of experimental science. The theory explained that crime
was determined by Multiple Factor.

It is the theory that denied individual responsibility and reflected non-punitive

reactions to crime and criminality. It adheres that crimes, as any other act, is natural
phenomenon. Criminals are considered as sick individuals who need to be treated
treatment programs rather than punitive action against them.

The Positivists maintained that crime as any other act is a natural phenomenon
and is comparable to disaster or calamity. It believed that imposition of punishment
couldn’t deter and treat crimes but rather rehabilitation or the enforcement of
individual measures.

6
 CESARE LOMBROSO
(November 6, 1835 - October 19, 1909)
He was an Italian prison doctor and criminologist
working in the late 19th century, was one of the largest
contributors to biological positivism. Lombroso, known as
the “father of modern criminology” was a physician who
served much of his career in the Italian army. Lombroso
took a scientific approach, insisting on empirical evidence
for studying crime. He advanced the theory that crime is
the result of a hereditary predisposition in certain
individuals.

He was considered as the founder of the Italian

School of Positivist Criminology.

Lombroso rejected the established Classical school, which held that crime was a
characteristic trait of human nature Instead, using concepts drawn from
physiognomy, early eugenics, psychiatry and Social Darwinism, Lombroso's theory of
anthropological criminology essentially stated that criminality was inherited, and that
someone "born criminal'" could be identified by physical defects, which confirmed a
criminal as savage, or atavistic.

Lombroso believed that mental characteristics are invariably determined by

physiological causes, and he postulated the existence of a criminal type that was
largely the result of hereditary and degenerative factors rather than environmental
conditions. At first encountering great opposition throughout Europe, his theories were
later instrumental in bringing about reform in the treatment of the criminally insane.

7
TYPES OF CRIMINALS ACCORDING TO LOMBROSO
In further research, he classified criminals as follows:

1. BORN CRIMINALS OR ATAVISTIC CRIMINAL- criminal behavior is

inherited. In his opinion, these were criminals who could not refrain from
engaging in criminality. The environment had no relevance whatsoever to the
crimes committed by these offenders. He therefore, considered these criminals to
be beyond reformation;

NOTA BENE: Atavism - The term used to describe the appearance of

organisms resembling ancestral forms of life.

2. INSANE CRIMINALS - The second category of criminals were insane criminals

who resorted to criminality on account of certain mental disorders or insanity.
Although insane criminals bore some stigmata, they were not born criminal, but
rather become criminals as a result of an alteration of their brain or due to
abnormalities or psychological disorders which completely upsets their moral
nature. Among the ranks of "insane criminals" were alcoholics, kleptomaniacs,
nymphomaniacs, and child molesters.

8
 3. OCCASIONAL - due to insignificant reasons that pushed them to do at given
occasion

NOTA BENE:
FEMALE OFFENDER - Most women are not criminal but, some women are
atavistic criminal.

4. PSEUDO CRIMINALS- Those who kill in self-defense.

5. CRIMINALOIDS - "Criminaloids" had none of the physical peculiarities of the

"born" or "insane criminal", became involved in crime later in life, and tended to
commit less serious crimes due to less stamina/ self-control. "Criminaloids" were
further categorized as:

a. HABITUAL CRIMINALS - Who become so by contact with other

criminals, the abuse of alcohol, or other "distressing circumstances" This
category included "juridical criminals", who fall a foul of the law by
accident.

b. CRIMINAL BY PASSION- Hot-headed and impulsive persons who

commit violent acts when provoked.

CHARLES GORING’S ASSAULT ON LOMBROSO

Lombroso’s central idea was discredited in the early
20th century by Charles Goring, a British criminologist
who used comparative studies of prisoners and non-
prisoners to show that the so-called criminal type does
not exist.

In 1913, He published a book entitled The English

Convict: A Statistical Study concluded that there is no
such thing as a physical criminal type.

Goring’s book was the first to adopt the position that

criminality is probably the result of the interaction of a
variety of hereditary and environmental factors at a
time when theorists thought in terms of either/or, and a bridge between early biological
positivism and the less deterministic psychological and psychiatric schools.

Goring's crowning achievement was The English convict: a statistical study, one of
the most comprehensive criminological works of its time. It was first published in 1913,
and set out to establish whether there were any significant physical or mental
abnormalities among the criminal classes that set them apart from ordinary men, as
suggested by Cesare Lombroso. Under the sponsorship of the British government,
Goring, assisted by other prison medical officers, as well as Karl Pearson and his staff
at the Biometrics Laboratory, collected and analysed data bearing upon 96 traits of
each of over 3,000 English convicts. He ultimately concluded that "the physical and
mental constitution of both criminal and law-abiding persons, of the same age, stature,

9
class, and intelligence, are identical. There is no such thing as an anthropological
criminal type."

He did, however, assert that it is an "indisputable fact that there is a physical,

mental, and moral type of normal person who tends to be convicted of crime: that is to
say, our evidence conclusively shows that, on average, the criminal of English prisons is
markedly differentiated by defective physique - as measured by stature and body
weight, by defective mental capacity". Goring went on to argue that one of the three
measures in which to combat crime was to "regulate the reproduction of those degrees
of constitutional qualities - feeble-minded, inebriety, epilepsy, social instinct, etc.

ENRICO FERRI
(1856-1929)
One of Lombroso’s students and the best known
Lombroso’s associate,
accepted and agreed
with Lombroso the Ferri coined the term “born
existence of a criminal criminal” and developed a
type on the biological fivefold scientific classification
bases of criminal of criminals.
behavior. He is one of
the chief architect of the positivist school of criminology.
His dissertation, published in 1878, was entitled Criminal
Sociology. That is why he is credited as the one who
developed the field of criminal sociology. In Criminal Sociology,
Ferri presented his original thesis on the causes of crime, which centered on the
following factors:
• physical (race, climate, geographic location, seasonal effects, temperature, etc.)
• anthropological (age, sex, somatic [body] conditions, psychological conditions,
etc.)
• social (density of populations, customs, religion, organization of government,
economic and industrial conditions, etc.).
Although he also focused on factors other than inherited physical characteristics as
predictors of crime. His interest in socialism led him to recognize the importance of
social, economic and political determinants. He believed that criminals could not be
held morally responsible for their crimes because they did not choose to commit crimes
but rather, were driven to commit them by conditions in their lives.
He considered social factors such as population trends, religion, and the nature of
the family. He believed that social as well as biological factors played a role, and held
the view that criminals should not be held responsible for the factors causing their
criminality were beyond their control. Lombroso's biological theories have since been
rejected by criminologists, with control groups not used in his studies.

Ferri also proposed a more elaborate classification of criminal types, including:

1. The born or instinctive criminal - The born or instinctive criminal, who

carries from birth, through unfortunate heredity from his progenitors, a reduced

10
 resistance to criminal stimuli and also an evident and precocious propensity to
crime.
2. The insane criminal - The insane criminal, affected by a clinically identified
mental disease or by a neuropsychopathic condition which groups him with the
mentally diseased
3. The passionate criminal - The passionate criminal, who, in two varieties, the
criminal through passion (a prolonged and chronic mental state), or through
emotion (explosive and unexpected mental state), represents a type at the
opposite pole
4. The occasional criminal - The occasional criminal who constitutes the
majority of lawbreakers and is the product of family and social milieu more than
of abnormal personal physiomental conditions
5. The habitual criminal - The habitual criminal, or rather, the criminal by
acquired habit, who is mostly a product of the social environment in which, due
to abandonment by his family, lack of education, poverty, [and] bad
companions..., already in his childhood begins as an occasional offender

ENRICO FERRI AND SOCIAL DEFENSE

Ferri’s concern was social preservation, not the nature of criminal behavior. Ferri
was instrumental in formulating the concept of "social defense" as a justification for
punishment. This theory of punishment asserts that its purpose is not to deter or to
rehabilitate but to defend society from criminal predation, for how could behavior not
based on rational calculus be deterred, and how could born criminals be rehabilitated?
Given the assumptions of biological positivism, the only reasonable rationale for
punishing offenders is to incapacitate them for as long as possible so that they no
longer posed a threat to the peace and security of society. This theory of punishment
provides us with an example of how anthropological assumptions drive policies for
dealing with crime and criminals. He was, however, an ardent proponent of measures
to prevent crime among "occasional criminals" through social reform, and of efforts to
rehabilitate them.

RAFAELLE GAROFALO
(1851-1934)
He was an Italian jurist (lawyer) and a student of
Cesare Lombroso. He
rejected the doctrine of
Raffaele Garofalo was a
free will and supported
that the only way to positivist who rejected the
understand crime was doctrine of free will.
to study it by scientific
methods. He was also influenced on Lombroso’s theory of
atavistic stigmata; he traced the roots of criminal behavior
not to physical features but to their psychological
equivalents, which he called moral anomalies. He
attempted to formulate a sociological definition of crime
that would designate those acts which can be repressed by
punishment. These constituted "Natural Crime“.

11
RAFFAEL GAROFALO: OFFENDER PECULIARITIES
By "peculiarities," Garofalo was not referring to Lombrosian stigmata, but rather to
those particular characteristics that place offenders at risk for criminal behavior. He
developed four categories of criminals, each meriting different forms of punishment:
"extreme", "impulsive", "professional", and "endemic".

1. EXTREME CRIMINALS:
Society could only be defended from extreme criminals by swiftly executing
them, regardless of the crime for which they are being punished. Here Garofalo
departed from Lombroso and Ferri, both of who were against the death penalty,
although Lombroso gradually came to accept it for born criminals and for those
who committed particularly heinous crimes.

2. IMPULSIVE CRIMINALS: a category which included alcoholics and the

insane, were to be imprisoned.

3. PROFESSIONAL CRIMINALS: Professional criminals were psychologically

normal individuals who utilize the hedonistic calculus before committing their
crimes, and thus require "elimination," either by life imprisonment or
transportation to a penal colony overseas.

4. ENDEMIC CRIMINALS: "Endemic crimes", by which Garofalo meant crimes

peculiar to a given location or region (mala prohibita), could best be controlled by
changes in the law, not by imposing harsh punishments on offenders.

NOTA BENE:
PECULIARITIES: Particular characteristics that place offenders at risk for
crimi nal behavior.

TYPES OF CRIMINALS BY GAROFALO

Garofalo developed also a classification of four criminal types or classes, based on
the concept of moral anomaly. Even though they are distinct from one another, they are
related in the sense that each type is characterized by “a deficiency in the basic
altruistic sentiments of pity and probity.

1. MURDERERS - Those who satisfied from revenge. The murderer is the man in
whom altruism is wholly lacking. The sentiments of both pity and probity are
absent, and such a criminal will steal or kill as the occasion arises
2. VIOLENT CRIMINALS - Those who commit serious crimes. It is characterized
by the lack of pity.
3. DEFICIENT CRIMINALS - Those who commit crimes against property. It is
characterized by the lack of probity.
4. LASCIVIOUS CRIMINALS - Those who commit crimes against chastity. It is a
group of sexual offenders...whose conduct is characterized less by the absence of
the sentiment of pity than by a low level of moral energy and deficient moral
perception.

12
OTHER PROPONENTS OF POSITIVIST THEORY
1. J.K. Lavater (1741- 1801)- studied the facial features of criminals to determine
whether the shape of ears, nose, eyes and the distance between them were
associated with antisocial behavior. (Physiognomists)
2. Franz Joseph Gall & Johann K Spurzheim- studied the shape of the skull
and bumps on the head to determine whether these physical attributes were
linked to criminal behavior. Phrenologists believed that external cranial
characteristics dictate which areas of the brain control physical activity.
3. Philippe Pinel- one of the founders of French psychiatry, claimed that some
people behave abnormally even without being mentally ill. He coined the phrase
“manie sans delire” to denote what eventually was referred to as “psychopathic
personality”.
4. Henry Maudsley- An English physician who believed that insanity and
criminal behavior were strongly linked. According to him, “Crime is a sort of
outlet in which their unsound tendencies are discharged; they would go mad if
they were not criminals, and they do not go mad because they are criminals.”
5. Charles Darwin- he claimed that all humans, like other animals, are parasite.
Man is an organism having an animalistic behavior that is dependent on other
animals for survival. Thus, man kills and steals to live.

D. THE NEO- CLASSICAL CRIMINOLOGY

THE NEO-CLASSICAL THEORY

Classical theory was difficult to apply in practice. It was modified in the early 1800s
and became known as neoclassical theory. A contemporary version of classical
criminology that emphasizes deterrence and retribution, with reduced emphasis on
rehabilitation. Acceptance of the notion of determinism implied that offenders were not
entirely responsible for their crimes and suggested that crime could be prevented by
changing the conditions that produced criminality.

The “free-will” theory of the classical school did not survive for long due to the
oversights mentioned above. Under the neo-classical doctrine, there are situations or
circumstances that made it impossible to exercise freewill and these are the reasons to
exempt the accused from conviction. This theory insist that individuals are “not
always” responsible for their actions for they believed that there is no “absolute
freewill”. The neo-classists asserted that certain categories of offenders such as
minors, idiots, insane or incompetent persons had to be treated leniently
irrespective of the similarity of their criminal acts with those of other
offenders. This reasoning was based on the argument that such persons are incapable
or partially incapable of distinguishing right from wrong.

This theory argues that Classical theory should be modified in certain details. Since
children and lunatic cannot calculate pleasure and pain, they should not be regarded as
criminals or to be punished. This principle is to some extent extended to others, also by
the system of taking into account certain mitigating circumstances. The impossibility to
exercise free will is reason to exempt from criminal liability.

13
ADOLPHE QUETELET
A Belgian mathematician, who began (along with Frenchman, ANDRE MICHEL
GUERRY) what, is known as the “CARTOGRAPHIC SCHOOL OF
CRIMINOLOGY”. This approach made use of social statistics that were being
developed in Europe in the early 19thcentury. Statistical data provided important
demographic information on the population, including density, gender, religious and
wealth. Quetelet also uncovered evidence that season, climate, population composition
and poverty were related to criminality. More specifically, he found that crime rates
were greatest in the summer, in southern areas, among heterogeneous populations, and
among the poor and uneducated.

EMILE DURKHEIM
A French social theorist, who was one of the pioneers in the development of modern
sociology. According to Durkheim, crime is part of human nature because it has existed
during periods of both poverty and prosperity. Crime is normal because it is virtually
impossible to imagine a society in which criminal behavior is totally absent. He
believed that the inevitability of crime is linked to the differences (heterogeneity)
within society. He also argued that crime can be useful and on occasion, even healthy
for society. He held that existence of crime paves the way for social change and social
structure is not rigid or inflexible. A rising crime rate can signal the need for social
change and promote a variety of programs designed to relieve the human suffering that
may have caused crime in the first place.

EARNEST KRETSCHMER
(1888-1964)
A German psychiatrist who introduced the
somatotype (body build) school of criminology- which
related body built to somatotype behavior, became
popular during the first half of the 20th century.
Kretschmer is also known for developing a classification
system that can be seen as one of the earliest exponents
of a constitutional (the total plan or philosophy on which
something is constructed) approach. His classification
system was based on four main body types:
1. The aesthenic – thin, small, slightly built, narrow
shoulders and weak;
2. The athletic – medium to tall, strong, muscular,
large and coarse bones;
3. The pyknic – medium height, rounded figure,
massive neck, broad face, stocky and fat.
4. The dysplastic (Mixed type)- unproportionate
body.

SIGMUND FREUD
(1856-1969)
The Freudian view on criminal behavior was based
on the use of psychology in explaining an approach in

14
understanding criminal behavior. According to him variety of possibilities to account
for individual differences is defective conscience, emotional immaturity, inadequate
childhood socialization, material deprivation and poor moral development.
The founder of psychoanalysis, suggested that individual’s psychological well-being
is dependent on a healthy interaction among the three (3) basic components of the
human psyche.
1. id – (Pleasure Principle) consists of powerful ways and drives for gratification
and satisfaction.
2. ego – (Reality Principle) is the executive of the personality, acting as a
moderator between the super ego and id of the level of knowing the right and
wrong.
3. super-ego – acts as moral code or conscience.

WILLIAM SHELDON
(1898-1977)
An American psychologist and physician who was best known for his theory
associating physique, personality, and delinquency. He is an influence of somatotype
school of criminology, which used body built to behavior. He brought the work of
Kretschner in the United States and he related body types to illegal behavior. He
became popular of his own somatotyping theory. His key ideas are concentrated on the
principle of “survival of the fittest” as behavioral science that combined the biological
and psychological explanation to understand deviant. Sheldon theory maintains the
belief of heredity as the primary determinants of behavior and physique is a reliable
indicator of personality.
Criminals manifest distinct physiques that make them susceptible to particular
types of delinquent behavior.

a. Mesomorphs – have well-developed muscles and an athletic appearance. They

are active, aggressive, sometimes violent, and the most likely to commit violent
crime.

b. Endomorphs – have heavy built and slow moving they are known for lethargic
behavior rendering them unlikely to commit violent crime and more willing to
engage in like strenuous criminal activities such as fencing stolen property.

c. Ectomorphs – tall, thin, skinny less social and more intellectual than the other
type.

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