Criminology Guide:

Academic Readings on Criminology’s Major Schools of Thought
Criminology is a diverse field whose evolution spans many centuries of thought and practice. Contrary to popular belief, the criminological niche isn’t just limited to criminal justice, police officers, or public offenders. Its breadth is wide and is actually grounded in philosophy. Years before the official development of prisons and a rigorously established worldwide punitive system, people from many different backgrounds began to ponder what makes a person a criminal. Is it a choice? Is it something that a human is born with? Can you look at a person’s facial structure and determine whether or not they will be a vicious detriment to society? Back then, any and all theories were open game you can probably imagine what an intense time it was.

Since that time, criminology has developed into a flourishing quantitative field of study that relies on the coordinated work of sociologists, psychologists, psychiatrists, lawyers, and philosophers, to name just a few. By using statistics and correlative data to explain physical
trends and to link them to things like biology, psychological upbringing, and demographics, criminologists have developed informed theories that help societies to better understand the nature of “The Criminal.”

Because the field is diverse, students interested in criminology needn’t look far to find ways to creatively connect their passions to a career under its umbrella. The schools of thought that shaped the field are a perfect starting place for learning more about how your mindset might (or might not) align with current theories and practices.

The Schools of Criminological Thought

Throughout its rich academic history, criminology has morphed several times to accommodate different patterns in thinking. These schisms are still very apparent in the theories that continue to circulate today.

The Classical School

These thinkers believed that crime was a direct result of mankind’s interest in itself. Because of this, the classical school theorists asserted that it was possible to control and understand criminal tendencies by understanding how humans behave. After all, if a person actually chose whether or not they were going to rob a bank or commit a murder, then certainly they could also be trained not to make those decisions. The classical school of thought relies on punitive systems that promote rational inhibition of criminal thought.

Classical School Criminology: a succinct discussion of the criminal justice assumptions derived from this school, by John Hamlin of the University of Minnesota Deluth>
The Classical School, a history of major figures like Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham, and their contributions to this mode of thought.
The Classical School and Neoclassicism in Criminology
Competing Traditions? Legacies of classical and positive criminology a learning resource with supplementary questions to test your comprehension
Criminology, Social Theory and the Challenge of Our Times, by David Garland and Richard Sparks, is an excellent treatise that examines notions at the intersection of sociology and criminology.

The Positivist School

When people began to realize that the Classical School of criminology had holes in some of its theories, they started turning to hard empiricism and the scientific method to explain criminal behavior. In fact, as the scientific method of quantitative analysis gained more momentum, the Classical School’s theories were slowly replaced by a dramatic pursuit of hard laws to explain human tendencies. The Positivist School fractured into three distinct methods of determining the nature of the criminal: by social demographics, by psychological precedents, and by biology.

Rethinking criminological tradition
by Nicole Rafter of Northeastern University, gives distinct insight into the circumstances that lead to the development of positivist thought.
Restorative Justice And Three Individual Theories of Crime, by Greg Mantle, Darrell Fox, and Mandeep K. Dhami, was published in the Internet Journal of Criminology in 2005. It is a review of tensions between restorative justice theory and, among other things, positivism.
Some models of Criminology,
by Jock Young, asks serious questions to the major criminological paradigms.
Its discussion of positivism is particularly poignant.
The Status of Qualitative Research in Criminology, by Jody Miller at the University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Individual and biological perspectives is a nice look at how biology was used to explain criminal behavior. It includes questions to assess your comprehension of the material and works as a nice auxiliary educational resource

The Chicago School

Noted for its emphasis on criminology within urban settings, the Chicago School of thought was primarily sociological at its inception. It sought to make connections between a person’s natural environment and the decisions that they make, which affect both them and the community in which they live from a criminal standpoint. This school of thought is lauded for its ethnographic work, which was deftly combined with quantitative methods and scholarly theory to create consistent hypotheses that continue to hold clout throughout the world.

The Chicago School and Cultural/Subcultural Theories of Crime is a great historical overview of the Chicago School’s evolution.
Social Disorganization Theory, an exhaustive explication of the origins and implications of this Chicago School product.
An Introduction to the Chicago School of Sociology, by Wayne G. Lutters and Mark S. Ackerman.
Nature versus Nurture: A Criminological Perspective written by Erin van Zinderen Bakker, touches on how biology is applied to the Chicago School of thought.
Understanding Criminological Theory: Past to Present, Essential Readings, is a comprehensive and useful introduction to the present theories.

Further Reading

Criminology Degree Education – At a Glance

Criminology Guide:

The Schools of Criminological Thought

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