An Introduction to Theory and Crime

Lesson Overview

The purpose of this lesson is to learn about the importance of understanding crime causation. This first lesson provides the basic foundation for this course and thus it is important that the student understand the major concepts introduced here. These concepts and underlying ideas will be found throughout the rest of the course lessons. Understanding explanations for why people commit crime is important for two reasons.

First, if we can understand why people commit crime, we can develop ways to address the crime problem. Second, it has been found that ideas about punishments, e.g. what should be done to people who commit crime, are directly related to individuals' thinking about what causes people to commit them. The approach that society takes takes to address the crime problem, through the instruments associated with the criminal justice system (police, courts, prosecution, corrections, etc.), is rooted in criminological theory. For example, if most of the members of society believe that crime is caused because of something internal to the individual, e.g. free will, then society is more likely to enact a series of laws that are designed to apply greater punishment to law breaking behavior. On the other hand, if people believe that crime is caused by forces external to the individual, e.g. the environment, society is more likely to apply lesser punishment for law-breaking behavior and develop efforts toward turning so-called criminals into law-abiding citizens (sometimes referred to rehabilitation).

This course is aimed at introducing the student to many criminological theories that have been developed through the years to explain law-breaking behavior as well as those theories that question the law-making process and that question society's reaction to law breaking behavior.

Lesson Objectives

By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:

Define the term"theory" as it relates to criminological theory.
Name the five criteria associated with the evaluation of criminological theories.
Provide a general description of the historical development of major criminological theories.
Think about the causations of crime from different perspectives.
Realize that the causation that people attribute to crime quite often determines their attitudes toward punishment.