Jul 5, 2024 2 min read Theories of Crime Causation

Logomacy and Emerging Fields in Criminology

Logomacy

This is a fatalistic statement that states that there is no crime if there is no criminal law. Hence, all crime can be eliminated by abolishing all criminal laws.

Emerging Fields

Victimology

This was created by Benjamin Mendelson who also created his own classifications of victims.

Penal Couple is a term that describes the relationship between the victim and the criminal. Victimal describes the victim counterpart of the criminal. Victimity signifies the opposite of criminality.

Hans von Hentig, another contributor to victimology, created the following general classes of victims:

young
female
old
mentally defective
immigrant
minorities

Cartographic School

While working independently, Adolphe Quetelet and Andre Michel Guerry studied the relation of crime to factors such as poverty, age, sex, race, and climate.

Cartographers are scholars who employ maps and other geographic information in their research. Those who employ these methods to study crime are called cartographic criminologists.

Human Ecology/Ecological Criminology

This is the study of the relationship between the people and their environments. The major proponents are Robert Ezra Park and Ernest Burgess.

Radical Criminology

Also called, critical, new, and Marxist criminology, it sees crime as a reflection of class struggle - a kind of primitive rebellion with criminals behaving as rebels without a clue.

Feminist Criminology

Radical feminism theory contributed to the study of child sexual abuse, domestic violence, and prostitution.

Left Realism

It focuses on the reasons why people of the working class prey upon one another. That is, people victimize others of their own race and kind. Jock Young, one of the contributors of this theory, suggests that there are four (4) elements that must be considered when addressing crime: the victim, the offender, the state, and the general public.

Peacemaking Criminology

It promotes the idea of peace, justice, and equality in society. Peacemakers suggest that mutual aid, mediation, and conflict resolution rather than coercive state control are the best means to achieve a harmonious, peaceful society. It advocates humanistic, nonviolent and peaceful solutions to crime.