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The evolution of crime and delinquency theories, from the classical school of criminology in the late 18th century to contemporary radical/conflict approaches. various perspectives, including the positive school, criminal anthropology, genetics, neurological dysfunction, and social bond theory.
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U.S. Department of Justice National Institute of Justice
120238
This document has been reproduced exactly as received from the person or organization originating it. Points of view or opinions stated in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the National Institute of Justice. Permission to reproduce this~. material has been granted by _:I?ub1iQ_QQ'lJLi~tin,LOJJ 1)"-PI---~ ___ _lL~~~e_par:.:tment oL-.J-Ila:t.ic...e to the National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS). Further reproduction outside of the NCJRS system requires permis- sion of the~owner.
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VIII. Strain Causing Delinquency
XI. labelling Theory
XII. Political and Conflict Explanation of Delinquency
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XIV. Explanations of Delinquency: Fact and Fiction (Selected Bibliography)
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a vast amount of criminological literature that would have helped each of them better understand this youth and also understand their role in causing or altering his be- havior. Criminology is a young discipline, and the "true" origins of crime and delin- quency continue to evade us. With the knowledge of the literature including re- search supporting or refuting the theories of delinquency, we can make more well-in- formed decisions.
Theories of crime and delinquency range from the non-behavioral, classical school of criminology which began in 1764 to the contemporary, but again, non-be- havioral, radical/conflict approach to
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criminology. Bet'\~en these two extremes are hosts of behavior explanations focusing on the biological, psychological and sociological schools of thought. These perspectives do not generally have discrete beginning and ending points, but each has a "golden age" during which it was the most acceptable explanation of deviant behavior. The purpose here is not to engage in an indepth analysis of the explanations of delinquency but to present an overview of the major perspectives. This work will not limit itself to an introduction of the theoretical perspectives but will synopsize research "facts" supporting or refuting the theories. Some theories clearly lack factual support while others have factual integrity. As the reader proceeds through the various explanations of delinquency, it will be evi- dent that some are false explanations and some have promise. But it will also be evi- dent that it is naive to think there is a single evil that "causes" delinquency.
I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I I It Origin of Explanations of Crime:
Classical School
Perspectives and Theories Discussed in This Section:
In the mid-18th century, criminal "jus- tice" was arbitrary and discriminatory. A youth who stole a loaf of bread was often as likely to be executed as one who murdered, raped or robbed. The determining factors of a person's sentence for a crime were not the element of crime itself but the person's or the victim's status and standing in the community. There was no body of science or literature to help officials make their decisions.
It was against this backdrop that Be- ccaria wrote On Crimes and Punishment Beccaria frrst wrote this paper anonymous- ly because he was shy and retiring and be- cause he thought his ideas were so far afield. His comrades, a small group of men who met periodically in taverns to drink and discuss varying philosophies, had en- couraged Beccaria to write such a paper because of his astute conversations regard- ing crime and justice. Beccaria wrote his paper with no thought of it achieving recog- nition outside this small group of men. In-
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stead, this treatise began the discipline of criminology and influenced political think- ing regarding crime, justice and the criminal justice system for many, many years. There is still evidence of the classical school in our criminal justice system today.
The classical school of criminology does not place a great deal of emphasis on the causes of criminal behavior. The assump- tion is that men operate from a "free will" perspective. We freely choose to do right or wrong, and if we choose to do wrong we suffer the consequences of that choice. Outside influences such as our social sys- tem, our community, or our economic status have little bearing on crime, accord- ing to the classical theorists. In this respect, the classical school did nothing to change the opinions of criminal justice officials in the mid to late 18th century. All believed that people have free will and can freely choose to do whatever they please regard- less of biological, psychological or social variables.
The classical school, and specifically Beccaria's treatise, maintains that there should be a schedule of punishments so that the punishment would fit the crime regard- less of one's station in life. This type of schedule would remove a great deal of the arbitrariness and capriciousness from decisions made by criminal justice officials.
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will. In the adjudicatory phase of the courts, the same assumptions are held. The basic questions for these three phases of the criminal justice system are "Did a crime occur?" and 'Did the accused commit the crime?" If the answers to these two ques- tions are yes, then the police, the prosecutor and the court have little alternative but to arrest, prosecute and convict. The causes
of beha vior are really not considered. It is in the next phase of the criminal justice system, the sentencing phase, that we begin to consider the causes of delinquent or criminal behavior. It is at this point that we move beyond the classical school into what has been called the positive school of criminology.
III. Evil Causes Evil: The Positive School
Perspectives or Theories Discussed in This Section:
Positive School
Determinism
The problem of crime is quickly reach- ing the crisis stage in the United States. Youth gangs terrorize the cities, and burglary rings are rampant in the suburbs. The fear of crime becomes so debilitating that many citizens of this country--the land of the free, home of the brave--turn their homes into fortresses with locks, alarm sys- tems, burglar-bars and guard dogs so that they can retreat to their dens with their families around them, their guns in their hands and their televisions tuned to the nightly news reflecting on the latest styles of murder, rape and robbery. Certainly this may seem to be an exaggeration, but in fact, the fear of crime can and does curtail our movements and our pleasures by causing us
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to be very aware of the possibility of becom- ing a victim. A letter to the editor of the New York Times states, "Crime makes hostages of us all ...the fear of crime--con- cern over basic survival--clutters everyone's mind, diverting thought and energy."
Crime is both a social pathology and an index of such pathology. When we read of the crimes of Ted Bundy or Charles Man- son, we see them as sick people--physically, psychologically or socially--yet when we read of an increase in the crime rate of a certain city or geographical area, we think not of the people who commit the crimes but of the city or area that "generated" the crime. Criminologists do much the same thing. Some view crime as an individual characteristic, while others view it as a societal or social ill. Still others maintain that crime is a political phenomenon caused by the distribution of wealth and power. These things that "caused" the delinquent or criminal behavior are the topics of concern to the positive school of criminology.
The basic assumption of the positive school of criminology is that human be- havior is determined by forces outside the individual's control. The perspective main- tains that we do not act as free agents and do not possess free will because everything we do is influenced by our biological make- up, our psychological condition and our ~o. cial surroundings. We learn to eat Wlth knives, forks and spoons not because it is
Perspectives or Theories Discussed in This Section:
If we sit down and pragmatically con-
related to delinquent behavior and reject all of them that we really cannot control or treat, our list becomes very short. In fact, we are left with oply one: the offender.
Sarnoff A. Mednick, a psychologist and one of the most respected criminologists, prefers the biological theories in saying that we are in a better ''position to change biological function to prevent crime than to change the way mothers raise their children." After years of research, Med- nick maintains that "A pill has a better
chance of success than an effort to eliminate unemployment." Treating the in- dividual is easier than treating the social system, but has criminology reached the point where delinquents can be accurately diagnosed and treated? We maybe getting close.
Phrenology was one of the flrst perspec- tives favored by anatomists in Europe, Great Britain and America in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Although these theorists have been called "the medicine men" of criminology, they began the effort to identify the biological or physical charac- teristics representative of criminals. The practice of phrenology maintains that one can "read" the bumps on the head to deter- mine the areas of development and over- development of the brain. The assumption was that the skull conforms to the shape of the brain and the brain controls all be- havior. 'Mapping" the bumps would allow the phrenologists to predict the behavior of a person. Today we give little credence to such theories.
The "scientific study" of character and behavior based on anatomy served as a springboard for a more acceptable theory of delinquency--criminal anthropology. Criminal anthropology gained attention in the late 19th century when an Italian physician, Cesare Lombroso, systematically studied hundreds of criminals for evidence
of physical abnormalities which would indi- cate that these people reflected charac- teristics of earlier evolutionary forms. This degeneracy was presumed to show that the criminal was "less than human in some ways and was biologically deficient." The deficiency was thought to cause the delin- quencyor criminality. Evidence of being a
I~hrow-back to a more primitive state" or an atavist included deviations of head size and shape, fleshy or swollen lips, long arms and hair characteristic of the opposite sex. It is interesting to note the event that led to this theory. The physician who formulated the theory, Cesare Lombroso, became ac- quainted with a dangerous criminal named Villella. Villella was a powerful, aggres- sive man. When Villella died, Lombroso performed an autopsy and discovered an unusual formation which reminded him of the brains of lower primates. His immedi- ate conclusion was that this criminal, Villel- la, was an atavist or ancestor to modern man. Lombroso and his followers then set out to locate the physical and biological characteristics that set apart criminals from the normal population. Sloping foreheads, large earlobes, beady eyes and tattoos were some of the items they thought were "re- lated" to criminal behavior. Today we would scoff at such conclusions, but the real value of the work done by these biological theorists, Lombroso, Garofalo and Ferri-- credited with being the founders of the positive school of criminology--is that they began the scientific inquiry into the causes of delinquent and criminal behavior.
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The biological theorists who followed Lombroso used techniques that were just as unsound by today's standards, although they were quite acceptable at that time. Two researchers, Dugdale and Goddard, studied families in the early 20th century to determine the influence of heredity on criminal behavior. Many of the assump- tions of these researchers were either inap- propriate or invalid (such as illegitimacy causing a genetic strain that predisposes one to criminal behavior) but again they were using the best research methods of the time. These two researchers, in separate research projects, concluded that heredity caused many forms of criminal and delin- quent behavior. Dugdale's research, begun in the late 19th century and concluded by another researcher in the early 20th cen- tury, trac'''.d. the history of a family known as the I'J ukes." One branch of the family tree stemmed from the mother, Ada Juke, and her illegitimate offspring. Dugdale charac- terized Ada Juke as the "mother of criminals" and found that of 1000 of her descendants, 200 were paupers, 60 thieves,
7 murderers, 40 persons with venereal dis- eases, 140 "general" criminals, 50 pros- titutes and many others were assorted "deviants." Dugdale's definitions were at times a little sloppy. If, in his research, Dugdale found a female descendent of Ada Juke who was reputedly promiscuous but without evidence of being arrested or iden- tified as a prostitute, he labeled her worse than a prostitute, an "unindustrious harlot." Obviously there was no evidence for this
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who share only 50 percent of their genetic combination. Still, the influence of the en- vironment cannot be ignored since the twins were exposed to the same home-life and community.
A better way of testing the genetic in- ference is to compare the behavior of adopted children with that of their biologi- cal parents. An extensive study by Sarnoff Mednick and Bernard Hutchings found that sons whose biological fathers were criminals but whose adoptive fathers were non -criminal were twice as likely to be delinquent than adopted sons whose fathers were not criminals. Again, the in- fluence of the environment was considered and, if a young man's biological and adop- tive fathers were criminal, he was over three times more likely to be criminal than if either were non-criminal.
What are the implications of genetic research on delinquency? Those youth who may inherit criminal tendencies should warrant serious consideration once they have shown an inclination to delinquency.
could have a lot of implications for the criminal justice system, which assumes that criminal acts are voluntary," Mednick notes. ''If we can control repeat offenders, we can control most of the violence."
Tust what is it that is inherited that causes delinquent behavior? Researchers
are quick to point out that behavior is not inherited. The central nervous system and certain chemical combinations do, how- ever, have links with heredity.
A number of studies have found that criminals have trouble learning to avoid punishment. The criminal's nervous sys- tem is slow in responding to controlling factors such as fear of pain, punishment or getting caught
For example, Harvard researcher An- neliese Pontus found that one-third of the criminals she studied were inflexible and could not "shift gears" to withdraw from or conclude a dangerous situation. These were the same criminals who tended to be recidivists. It was as if once their behavior was initiated--to include burglary, robbery and assault--they had to carry it out. Such behavior was related to brain dysfunction.
Habitually aggressive delinquents have brain wave abnormalities at the rate of five times the normal population, according to recent research by Charlotte Johnson and William Pelham. The results of the brain wave abnormalities include hostility, destructiveness, hyperactivity and poor im- pulse control.
Some youth display a callousness and a failure to consider the consequences of their actions. This proposition has been supported by objective, scientific tests such as skin conductance tests, which use
machines to measure the electrical conduc- tivity of the skin in response to anxiety, fear or arousal. These tests have consistently shown that the criminal, especially the violent criminal, is different, and his or her nervous system causes the body to behave differently than others. One study has used skin conductance tests to predict accurately which of a group of adolescents would be- come delinquent.
In examining 190 violent persons, Frank Elliott found that 94% had minimal brain dysfunction, epilepsy, head injuries or tumors. He found evidence of "significant neurological or metabolic abnormalities" in the group. Dorothy Otnow Lewis and others have found that a significant number of death row inmates studied had suffered severe head injuries. Another study of violent prisoners showed that 75 percent had lost consciousness from head injuries and about half had abnormal brain wave patterns. The rate of temporal lobe epilep- sy, often associated with violence, has, among violent prisoners, been reported to be 10 times the normal rate.
Chemist~..!,!!! ..9..r,im_e__ _
Violence and aggression have been as- :;;ociated with the presence or absence of certain chemicals in the brain. Numerous studies have shown that violent offenders have high levels of those neurotransmitters (chemicals that facilitate or inhibit specific brain activity) that cause violence and an
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ab sence of chemicals that suppress violence. These studies are 'lengthening the list of hard-focused pieces of evidence that the brain itself has something to do with criminal or violent behavior," accord·· ing to Park Dietz.
Other studies considering diet and be- havior have found that high concentrations of sweets and carbohydrates as well as cer- tain vitamins such as A, B3, B6 and C are related to aggressiveness, restlessness and antisocial behavior.
Hyperactivity among children is generally caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. This imbalance can be com- pensated for by other chemicals such as amphetamines, although this would seem counterproductive. The child's body is forced into hyperactivity in order to com- pensate for the lack of internal, chemical stimulus-producers. Once the imbalance is compensated for, the brain allows the body to relax.
One longstanding argument as to the causes of delinquency has been that mini- mal brain dysfunction (MBD), an abnor- mality of the brain structure which causes aggressive or injurious behavior, is directly related to delinquency. One type ofMBD which is most often related to delinquency is learning disability. For many years, it was believed that children with learning dis- abilities exhibited behavioral disorders. The reason for their delinquent behavior mayor may not be directly related to the learning disability, but the belief was that a learning disability was a good predictor of delinquency. Recent studies seem to refute that belief. Studies by Pasternak and Lyon seem to question the relationship between
v. Psychological Causes of Delinquency
Perspectives or Theories Discussed in This Section:
A pioneer in the study of delinquency, David Abrahamsen, once said, "Every ele- ment that prevents children from develop- ing in a healthy way both physically and emotionally tends to bring about a pattern of emotional disturbances, which is always at the root of antisocial or criminal be- havior. 1I^ This belief that the psychological theories are the driving forces in the ex- planation of delinquency has been a prominent part of criminology. No field of study has established stronger inroads in the explanation of delinquency than psychology.
When we read of a brutal murder or an offender who tortures his victim, the ob- vious conclusion is that the offender is
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"mentally ill." Violence and mental illness have been linked through the history of civilized man. The first mental hospital in the American colonies was begun after a forceful argument by Benjamin Franklin that mental illness and violence went hand in hand. Interestingly, the research of the past 20 years has ~ to support the belief that those who are severely mentally dis- turbed are more likely to commit serious offenses. One extensive studybyHenn and his colleagues found that of 2,000 people arrested for homicide, only about one per- cent could be considered "psychotic" or suf- fering from serious mental illnesses. Other studies have shown that clinicians have seemed obligated to diagnose offenders as something. Psychology and Psychiatry have a wide range of categories into which of- fenders can be classified. Classification and categorization are major elements of the post-adjudicatory process in our juvenile and adult justice systems, so it is easy to see why criminal behavior is linked so often to psychological defects.
Psychology and psychiatry are complex areas of study and do not easily lend them- selves to brief or cursory discussions.
tempt to give "snapshots" of the major perspectives, along with evidence support- ing or refuting the approach.
Sigmund Freud, the father of psychoanalysis, has been responsible for much of the popularity of this approach. In explaining violence, Freud painted the pic- ture of a sealed container, the human psyche, where pressures build from birth. If there are no mechanisms for draining off the pressure, a process he labeled catharsis, the pressure builds until an explosion oc- curs. This "explosion" is likely to involve aggression and violence.
According to the psychoanalytic view, violence is an expression of tension or psychic energy built up as a result of the faulty emotional development of the per- son and the absence of appropriate outlets for the pressure. This pressure is par- ticularly apparent in adolescents. 'The main characteristic of the juvenile delin- quent is that he acts out his inner conflicts. Emotionally immature, he is unable to withstand pain and discomfort or to postpone immediate gratification of his desires," according to Abrahamsen. Adolescence is normally a time of inner tensions, excessive energy and ambiguity. It is a "twilight" time when the adolescent is neither child nor adult. The person still has childish needs and desires such as immedi- ate gratification and a desire for depend- ency but also has adult expectations imposed by himself and others. If the emo- tional foundation is weak, the results can be catastrophic.
According to psychoanalysis, a poor emotional foundation for an adolescent or adult is the result of the faulty psychological development of the child. This develop- ment is divided into three periods--the in- fantile period, the latency period and the puberty period.
The infantile period consists of three phases. The first phase is the oral stage of development. Everything pleasurable in the early life of an infant centers around food and nursing. The area of the mouth is unconsciously associated with pleasure, love and security. Mishandling the oral phase can happen through cutting the phase short or allowing it to continue past an ap- propriate time. If the child is weaned early or denied satisfaction orally, he may feel insecure or feel a loss of love and desperate- ly seek love and security in later years. If the oral phase continues too long, the child becomes spoiled and demands immediate gratification. Excessive eating, drinking, smoking and talking are believed to be adult forms of pleasurable oral eroticism. Other defects are passivity and dependency which are believed to relate to aggression.
The second phase of the emotional development of the infant, according to psychoanalysts, is the anal phase. During this stage, toilet training occurs. Rigid toilet training can produce a stubborn, for- mal and suspicious person. Lax or indif- ferent toilet training can result in a careless, sloppy and unresponsive person. There are restrictions, demands, approval and disap- proval related to this stage which, if handled poorly, can result in a negative, rebellious, hostile, fearful or submissive person.
The genital phase of the child's develop- ment is generally between the ages of three and six. The child becomes aware of sexual feelings and often develops intense love for
