CRIME AGAINST PERSONS

CRIME AGAINST PERSONS

Crime against Persons

Introduction

The roots of modern criminology can be found in the writings of social philosophers, who addressed Hobbes's question: "How is society possible?" Locke and Rousseau believe that humans endowed with free will and are self-interested. If this is so, the very existence of society is problematic. If we are all free to maximize our own self-interest, we cannot live together. Those who want more and are powerful can certainly take from the less powerful. The question then, as now, focuses on how is it possible for us to live together. Criminologists concerned with discovering answers to this basic question.

Discussion and Analysis

What is the nature of crime?

Simply defining crime can be problematic. We can easily define crime legally: Crime is a violation of the criminal law. The simplicity of this definition is its virtue, but also its weakness. On the positive side, a legalistic definition clearly demarcates what will be count as crime—those actions defined by the state as a violation. However, it is not as clear as to whom will be define as criminals. Some criminologists would argue that even an act that may appear to be criminal cannot be called "crime" until a response or evaluation made of that act. For example, how can we know if a belligerent act is a crime if there has been no evaluation of the intent of the perpetrator? In Anglo-American law, without criminal intent, a combative action is not considered a criminal action.

How Is Crime Studied?

Having made choices about definitions, criminologists are then faced with an array of data and methodologies that can be brought to bear on criminological questions. The data and methodological approach used should be dictated by the definition of crime and the research question being asked. Some very attractive research problems require analysis of quantitative data while others require that the researcher use qualitative approaches to study crime or a criminal justice process. For example, if one is trying to describe the socio-demographic characteristics of criminals then one of several means of counting crimes and people who engage in them might be used.

Methods of Criminological Research

For the most part, criminologists use the same types of research methods, as do other sociologists. However, a unique quality of crime is its "hiddenness." The character of crime means that those who do it hide it. As a result, the criminologist must be a bit of a detective even while engaged in social science research. To do these criminologists use observational studies such as those conducted by Chambliss (1978) in studying organized crime, or Fisse and Braithwaite (1987) in studies of white-collar crime, or Sanchez-Jankowski (1992) in his studies of gang crime.

Those who use quantitative methods use data generated by the criminal justice system, victimization surveys, or self-report. All of these data collection procedures have strengths and weaknesses, and they are best used by criminologists who have an appreciation of both. The most widely used criminal justice data produced by police departments and ...