Chapter1
Concept of Criminology and its Historical Development.
Section1
Definition of criminology;
Criminology is the scientific study of crime as an individual and social phenomenon.
Definition for penology;
It includes social and governmental regulations and reaction to crime.
Definition of crime;
According to its legal concept; a crime is an act forbidden and made punishable by the law.
For the act to be a crime it must meet the following conditions, but according to its criminology concept,
- The act must be done by a person of competent age.
- The act must be voluntary and the person who does it must also be free from certain forms of compulsion.
- The act must be intentional.
- Knowledge in various degrees according to the nature of different offenses must accompany it.
- The act is done by malice or but sometimes it is done by negligence.
Mala in se and mala prohibita
Both the positivist and classical schools take a consensus view of crime .A crime is an act that violates the basic values and beliefs of society.
Natural laws are rooted in core values shared by many cultures natural laws protect against harm to persons e.g. (murder, rape, assault) or property (theft, larceny, robbery) and from the basis of common law systems.
Statutes are enacted by legislatures and reflect current cultural mores, albeit that some laws may be controversial, e. g. laws that prohibit marijuana use and gambling.
Therefore, definitions of crime will vary form place to place, in accordance to the cultural norms and mores.
Historical development of criminology
The history of punishment is long and old but the history of criminology of mans systematic attempts to explain crime- is short and new. Men have speculated about natural phenomena for centuries.
But their scientific explanation had to await the development of the scientific attitude of mind.
A less supernatural and more rational explanation of crime was seen in the classical school of penologists especially those of Beccaria.
A short time later the neoclassical school starting from the same premise that men are free to choose criminal or non criminal conduct, made certain exceptions.
Further they recognized certain mental disease which might impair responsibility
In 1885, Italian law professor, Raffaele Garofalo coined the term criminology
