---
title: "Criminology"
chunk: 2/8
source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminology"
category: "reference"
tags: "science, encyclopedia"
date_saved: "2026-05-05T03:57:42.603938+00:00"
instance: "kb-cron"
---

=== Positivist ===
The Positivist school argues that criminal behavior stems from internal and external factors beyond the individual's control. Its key method of thought is that criminals are born as criminals and not made into them; this school of thought also supports theory of nature in the debate between nature versus nurture. They also argue that criminal behavior is innate and within a person. Philosophers in this school applied the scientific method to the study of human behavior. Positivism comprises three segments: biological, psychological and social positivism.
Psychological positivism is the view that criminal acts, or the people who commit them, are driven by internal factors.
Social positivism, often referred to as Sociological Positivism, posits that criminals are produced by society. This school claims that low-income levels, high poverty/unemployment rates, and poor educational systems create and motivate criminals.

==== Criminal personality ====
The notion of a criminal personality is derived from the school of thought known as psychological positivism. It essentially means that parts of an individual's personality exhibit traits commonly associated with criminals, such as neuroticism, antisocial tendencies, aggressive behavior, and other factors. There is evidence of correlation, but not causation, between these personality traits and criminal actions.

==== Italian ====
Cesare Lombroso (1835–1909), an Italian sociologist working in the late 19th century, is often called "the father of criminology". He was one of the key contributors to biological positivism and founded the Italian school of criminology. Lombroso took a scientific approach, insisting on empirical evidence for studying crime. He suggested physiological traits such as the measurements of cheekbones or hairline, or a cleft palate could indicate "atavistic" criminal tendencies. This approach, whose influence came via the theory of phrenology and by Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, has been superseded. Enrico Ferri, a student of Lombroso, believed social as well as biological factors played a role, and believed criminals should not be held responsible when factors causing their criminality were beyond their control. Criminologists have since rejected Lombroso's biological theories since control groups were not used in his studies.

==== Sociological positivist ====
Sociological positivism suggests societal factors such as poverty, membership of subcultures, or low levels of education can predispose people to crime. Adolphe Quetelet used data and statistical analysis to study the relationship between crime and sociological factors. He found age, gender, poverty, education, and alcohol consumption were important factors in crime. Lance Lochner performed three different research experiments, each one supporting that education reduces crime. Rawson W. Rawson used crime statistics to suggest a link between population density and crime rates, with crowded cities producing more crime. Joseph Fletcher and John Glyde read papers to the Statistical Society of London on their studies of crime and its distribution. Henry Mayhew used empirical methods and an ethnographic approach to address social questions and poverty, and gave his studies in London Labour and the London Poor. Émile Durkheim viewed crime as an inevitable aspect of a society with uneven distribution of wealth and other differences among people.

==== Differential association (sub-cultural) ====
Differential association (sub-cultural) posits that people learn crime through association. This theory was advocated by Edwin Sutherland, who focused on how "a person becomes delinquent because of an excess of definitions favorable to violation of law over definitions unfavorable to violation of law." Associating with people who may condone criminal conduct, or justify crime under specific circumstances, makes one more likely to take that view, under his theory. Interacting with this type of "antisocial" peer is a major cause of delinquency. Reinforcing criminal behavior makes it chronic. Where there are criminal subcultures, many individuals learn crime, and crime rates swell in those areas.

=== Chicago ===
The Chicago school arose in the early twentieth century, through the work of Robert E. Park, Ernest Burgess, and other urban sociologists at the University of Chicago. In the 1920s, Park and Burgess identified five concentric zones that often emerge as cities grow, including the "zone of transition", which was considered the most volatile and prone to disorder. In the 1940s, Henry McKay and Clifford R. Shaw focused on juvenile delinquents, finding that they were concentrated in the zone of transition. The Chicago School was a school of thought that developed and attributed human behavior to social structures. This thought can be associated with, or used in, criminology because it essentially takes the stance of defending criminals and their behavior. The defense and argument rest on the idea that these people and their actions are not their fault but the result of societal conditions (e.g., unemployment, poverty), and that they are, in fact, behaving properly.
Chicago school sociologists adopted a social ecology approach to studying cities. They postulated that urban neighborhoods with high levels of poverty often experience a breakdown in the social structure and institutions, such as family and schools. This results in social disorganization, which reduces these institutions' ability to control behavior and creates an environment ripe for deviant behavior.
Other researchers suggested an added social-psychological link. Edwin Sutherland suggested that people learn criminal behavior from older, more experienced criminals with whom they may associate.
Theoretical perspectives used in criminology include psychoanalysis, functionalism, interactionism, Marxism, econometrics, systems theory, postmodernism, behavioural genetics, personality psychology, evolutionary psychology, etc.

== Other schools of thought ==

=== Social structure theories ===
This theory is applied to a variety of approaches within the bases of criminology, in particular, and in sociology more generally as a conflict theory or structural conflict perspective in sociology and sociology of crime. This perspective is broad enough to embrace a diversity of positions.