THE FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS OF LAW, CRIME, CRIMINOLOGY, CRIMINAL

JUSTICE, DEVIANCE, AND DELINQUENCY

What is law as concept?

 The discipline and profession concerned with the customs, practices, and rules of conduct of a
community that are recognized as binding by the community.

Generally the term law is used to mean three things:

First it is used to mean “legal order”. It represents the regime of adjusting relations, and ordering conduct by
the systematic application of the force of organized political society.

Secondly, law means the whole body of legal Percepts which exists in a politically organized society.

Thirdly, law is used to mean all official control in a politically organized society. This lead to actual
administration of Justice as contrasted with the authoritive material for the Guidance of Judicial action. Law
in its narrowest or strict sense is the civil law or the law of the land.

Functions of law
Law carries out a lot of functions in a modern state. It serves as a means of social control, assisted by such
other means as public opinion (morality), religion, education and custom. However, Law is the most
institutionalized means of social control in the society.

The main functions of law in a society are discussed in detail below:

 Maintenance of law and order in society
Laws are directives that govern and regulate human behavior and code of conduct to ensure order. They are
made for people within a territory to abide with. Laws are also responsible for keeping peace of a country
intact.

 Protection of Fundamental Rights

Law is in place to maintain order and benefit the society. They are written to cater to people's needs and
interests. In cases of crimes, laws punish violators in order to ensure that the basic rights of the people are
protected and further set examples to ensure security. Thus, one of the most fundamental functions of law is
to promote and protect human rights.

 Control of Political System

Law and politics have an obvious relationship. One of the major governmental functions is to draft and
amend laws in the interest of the people. However, the political system is also subject to law and has to
perform its duties according to law and be responsible for its consequences. Thus, law also governs and
controls the political system by predetermining their duties, the structure of the system and who qualify to be
a part of it.

 The regulations of economic activity

Law also sets the rules and regulations that must be followed while performing economic activities such as
sale, trade, labor and investment. Law is needed to have valid and legal business deals and agreements.
Hence, law is also responsible for governing the economic sector and its counterparts to ensure ordinance.

 Regulations of human relations

Human relations, such as contracts, agreements, families and marriages also come under the purview of law.
Law plays the function of keeping human behavior and relations in a check. Thus, it automatically
influences human relations by restricting unacceptable behavior, for example adultery. It is also responsible
for clarifying the correct procedure of entering legal relationships, its legality and validity.

 International relations
Law is responsible for conducting and making international relations. It plays an important role in forming
economic, diplomatic and strategic relations with other nations. Visa law is also responsible for allowing

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people from other countries to enjoy the services provided by that nation. Laws are also used against policies
and demands of other nations, and protect and promote the nations interests.

Definition of criminal law

 Criminal law is that branch or division of law which defines crimes, treats of their nature, and
provides for their punishment

Sources of Philippine criminal laws

1. Revised Penal Code (Art. No. 3815) and its amendments
2. Special laws passed by Philippines Commission, Philippine Assembly, Philippine Legislature,
National Assembly, Batasang Pambansa, and the Congress of the Philippines.

Three (3) main characteristics of criminal law

1. General – criminal law is binding on all persons who live or sojourn in Philippine territory.
2. Territorial – Criminal law undertakes to punish crimes committed within the Philippine territory.
3. Prospective – penal law cannot make an act punishable which it was not punishable when
committed

Theories in criminal law

1. Classical theory with the following characteristics:
a. Basis of criminal liability is human free will and the purpose of penalty is retribution.
b. Man is essentially a moral creature with an absolutely free will to choose between good and evil.
c. To establish a mechanical and direct proportion between crime and penalty.
d. There is a scant regard to the human element.

2. Positivist theory
a. Man is subdued occasionally by a strange and morbid phenomenon which constrains him to do
wrong, in spite of or contrary to his volition.
b. Crime is essentially a social and natural phenomenon and it cannot be treated and checked by
the application of abstract principles of law and jurisprudence nor the imposition of fixed and
predetermined penalty.

The Parts of the Revised Penal Code (RPC)

1. Principles affecting liability (Art. 1-20)
2. Penalties including liability (Art 21-113)
3. Specific Felonies and their penalties (114-366)

The Concept of Crime

 A crime is an act committed or omitted in violation of a law forbidding or commanding it and for
which a punishment is imposed upon conviction.
 In the Philippines, the Revised Penal Code (Republic Act No. 3815) serves as the basic law that
defines criminal offenses and provides the penalties for the commission of such.

Crime (defined)
 An act or omission in violation of criminal law and its legal point.
 An anti-social act; an act that is injurious, detrimental or harmful to the norms of society; they are the
unacceptable acts in its social definition.
 Psychologically, crime is an act, which is considered undesirable due to behavioral maladjustment of the
offender; acts that are caused by maladaptive or abnormal behaviors.
 Is also a generic name that refers to offense, felony and delinquency or misdemeanor.

 Offense – is an act or omission that is punishable by special laws (is a statute enacted by congress,
penal in character, which is not an amendment to the Revised Penal Code) such as Republic Acts,

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 Presidential Decrees, Executive Orders, Memorandum Circulars, ordinances and rules and
Regulations (Reyes, 1960).
 Felony – is an act or omission that is punishable by the Revised Penal Code, the Criminal in the
Philippines (Reyes, 1960).
 Delinquency/Misdemeanor – acts that are in violation of simple rules and regulations usually
referring to acts committed by minor offenders.

Concept and nature of Criminology

 Criminology is the study of crime and criminal behavior, informed by principles of sociology and
other non-legal fields, including psychology, economics, statistics, and anthropology.
 Criminology is the scientific study of the causes and prevention of criminal behavior, studying crime
as a social phenomenon.
 The scope of criminology includes perspectives on making laws, breaking laws, and societal
reactions to laws being broken.

Criminology is the scientific study of several different aspects of crime, namely:

 The nature and extent of crime
 The causes of crime
 The consequences of crime
 Reactions to crime
 The prevention of crime

The 6 major areas of criminology

The course covers the six areas of concentration, such as
1. Criminal Law and Jurisprudence
2. Law Enforcement Administration
3. Forensics/Criminalistics
4. Crime Detection and Investigation
5. Sociology of Crimes and Ethics, and
6. Correctional Administration

The concept of Criminal Justice

 Criminal justice is the structure of laws, rules and agencies designed to hold criminals accountable for
their misdeeds and help them to restore their victims as much as possible.
 Criminal justice is an umbrella term that refers to the laws, procedures, institutions, and policies at
play before, during, and after the commission of a crime. As a modern concept, criminal justice
expresses two central ideas:
 Suspects, convicted criminals and victims of crime all have certain rights;
 Criminal conduct should be prosecuted and punished by the state following set laws.

 Criminal justice is a network of government and private agencies and the guiding policies help
manage suspects and punish criminal behavior within a jurisdiction.
 Criminal justice is the delivery of justice to those who have been accused of committing crimes.
 Justice, in its broadest sense, is the principle that people receive that, which they deserve, with the
interpretation of what then constitutes “deserving” being impacted upon by numerous fields, with
many differing viewpoints and perspectives,.

The concept of Deviance

 Deviance refers to rule-breaking behavior of some kind which fails to conform to the norms
and expectations of a particular society or social group. Deviance is closely related to the
concept of crime, which is law breaking behavior. Criminal behavior is usually deviant, but
not all deviant behavior is criminal.

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  Deviance is a violation of established contextual, cultural, or social norms, whether
folkways, mores, or codified law (William Graham Sumner)

Defining Deviance
Before we define deviance, we need to see the meaning of social norms. Because, norms are basic
to the definition and the study of deviance i.e., the potentiality for deviance exists in every norm or
rule. The line of how and when behavior in to be interpreted as deviant or to be tolerated is
constantly shifting according to public view and the view of various groups.

Social norm
 Is a way of thinking, feeling, or behaving, generally considered right or proper within a
(sub) culture;
 It is a rule, value or standard shared by members of a social group and anchored in that
group membership;
 It implies how group members should or ought to think, perceive, feel or behave in a given
circumstance.

Therefore, for the social system to operate healthy, human social relations and behavior should be
regulated through social norms. Deviance may be defined as follows:
1. To deviate means, literally, to move away or stray from, set of standards in society. Deviance,
then, constitutes the active violation of socially constructed norms. It refers to the act of
deviating from social norms.
2. When sociologists speak of deviant behavior, they are referring to behavior that does not
conform to norms-behavior that in some way does not meet with the exceptions of a group or of
society as a whole.

Who is Deviant?
 A Deviant person is a person who engaged in any behavior that is /are not expected by the
norms and values of a given social group or society;
 Someone who engaged in what should not be moral or appropriate according to the
definition of norms and values of a given society.

Therefore, a deviant person is someone who exhibit any behavior that deviate from the standard
rule or social norms. Some deviant result in a person’s being termed immediately by others as a
deviant. In other cases the deviant status arises only as a result of a variety or combination of acts
and status. They include:
1. That the action is regarded as a serious, threatening to other persons or to the society;
2. That there is an official governmental reaction in the form of penal sanction for the act’s
commission
3. That it is repeated with some consistency or frequency or that is it seen as a threat if repeated.
4. That it involves the entire “moral character” of the person, not just a phase of his being;
5. That it is sometimes geographical and hence ineffaceable;
6. That it is unlikely to be committed, is so serious that, if discovered, the person would be fully
and not merely slightly discredited;
7. That the act is not impermanent and ephemeral; and
8. That the language accommodates the identification of the individual as one who commits or has
committed certain acts or closes of acts. On the basis of social roles, deviants can be
distinguished as to their being primary or secondary (or career) deviants.

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Sociological Explanations of Deviance

Theory Related Summary of Explanation

explanation
Deviance has several functions:
Durkheim’s (a) it clarifies norms and increases conformity,
views (b) it strengthens social bonds among the people reacting to the deviant, and
(c) it can help lead to positive social change.
Certain social and physical characteristics of urban neighborhoods
Social
contribute to high crime rates. These characteristics include poverty,
ecology
Major theory dilapidation, population density, and population turnover.
 According to Robert Merton, deviance among the poor results from a
gap between the cultural emphasis on economic success and the
inability to achieve such success through the legitimate means of
Strain theory working.
 According to Richard Cloward and Lloyd Ohlin, differential access to
illegitimate means affects the type of deviance in which individuals
experiencing strain engage.
Poverty and other community conditions give rise to certain subcultures
through which adolescents acquire values that promote deviant behavior.
 Albert Cohen wrote that lack of success in school leads lower-class
boys to join gangs whose value system promotes and rewards
Deviant delinquency.
Functionalist subcultures  Walter Miller wrote that delinquency stems from focal concerns, a
taste for trouble, toughness, cleverness, and excitement.
 Marvin Wolfgang and Franco Ferracuti argued that a subculture of
violence in inner-city areas promotes a violent response to insults and
other problems.
Social Travis Hirschi wrote that delinquency results from weak bonds to
control conventional social institutions such as families and schools. These bonds
theory include attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief.
Conflict People with power pass laws and otherwise use the legal system to secure
Theory their position at the top of society and to keep the powerless on the bottom.
The poor and minorities are more likely because of their poverty and race to
Conflict be arrested, convicted, and imprisoned.
Feminist Inequality against women and antiquated views about relations between the
perspectives sexes underlie rape, sexual assault, intimate partner violence, and other
crimes against women. Sexual abuse prompts many girls and women to turn
to drugs and alcohol use and other antisocial behavior. Gender socialization
is a key reason for large gender differences in crime rates.
Symbolic Differential Edwin H. Sutherland argued that criminal behavior is learned by interacting
interactionism association with close friends and family members who teach us how to commit various
theory crimes and also about the values, motives, and rationalizations we need to
adopt in order to justify breaking the law.
Labeling Deviance results from being labeled a deviant; non-legal factors such as
theory appearance, race, and social class affect how often labeling occurs.

The Concepts and philosophies of Juvenile Delinquency

The term ‘juvenile delinquency’ refers to a large variety of behavior of children and
adolescents which the society does not approve and for which some kind of admonishment,
punishment, or preventive and corrective measures are justified in the public interest. Juvenile

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delinquency refers to the failure of children and youth to meet certain obligations expected of them
by the society in which they live.

The word delinquency is derived from the Latin word “delinquere” meaning de i.e. away and
linquere i.e. to leave thus, meaning to leave or to abandon. Originally, the word had an objective
meaning as it referred to parents who neglected and abandoned their children. In present day, it is
used and applied to those children who indulge in wrongful and harmful activities.

Juvenile can be defined as a child who has not attained a certain age at which he, like an adult
person under the law of the land, can be held liable for his criminal acts. The juvenile is a child who
is alleged to have committed /violated some law which declares the act or omission on the part of
the child as an offence.

Juvenile and minor in legal terms are used in different context. Juvenile is used when reference is
made to a young criminal offenders and minor relates to a person under the age of full legal
responsibility.

Delinquency is an act or conduct of a juvenile which is socially undesirable. Juvenile delinquency

generally means the failure of children to meet certain obligations expected of them by the society.

The concept of delinquency also varies with the point of view of the people who feel challenged by
it:

 According to a social worker, “delinquency consisted of socially unaccepted acts”.

 A psychiatrist suggests that delinquent behavior is activity which deviates from the normal.
 A lawyer would say juvenile delinquency is what the law says it is.
In the words of W.H. Sheldon, it is “behavior disappointing beyond reasonable expectation”.

Cyril Burt says, delinquency occurs in a child ‘when his antisocial tendencies appear so grave that
he becomes or ought to become the subject of official action.

According to the FBI, a juvenile is anyone under the age of 18 regardless of how each individual
state defines a juvenile. A delinquent is an individual who fails to obey the laws. Juvenile
delinquency is defined as an individual under the age of 18 who fails to abide by the laws.

Juvenile delinquents are often defined as children who have committed a criminal act. There are
two main types of offenders: repeat offenders and age specific offenders.

1. Repeat Offenders are also known as “life-course persistent offenders.” These juvenile
delinquents begin offending or showing other signs of antisocial behavior during adolescence.
Repeat offenders continue to engage in criminal activities or aggressive behaviors even after
they enter adulthood.

2. Age-Specific Offenders. This type of juvenile delinquent behavior begins during adolescence.
Unlike the repeat offenders however, the behaviors of the age-specific offender ends before the
minor becomes an adult.