Citation
Newburn, T. (2017). Criminology (3rd ed.). Routledge. ISBN: 9781138643123.
Chapter Summary
Chapter 1: Understanding Crime and Criminology
- Introduction to Criminology: This chapter sets the stage for understanding criminology as an interdisciplinary subject, encompassing law, sociology, psychology, and other fields. It defines criminology and discusses its historical evolution and scope.
- Crime and the Criminal Law: Discusses how crime is defined legally and the relationship between law and society.
- Crime as a Social Construct: Explores how societal norms and values shape what is considered criminal behavior.
- Historical Variation: Examines how definitions and perceptions of crime have changed over time.
Chapter 2: Crime and Punishment in History
- Emergence of Modern Criminal Justice System: Traces the development of formalized criminal justice systems from the mid-18th to mid-20th centuries, including the establishment of police forces, probation services, and modern court systems.
- Policing: Reviews the history of policing, including the creation of formal police forces in the 19th century.
- Resistance and Reform: Details the social resistance to policing and subsequent reforms.
- Punishment: Discusses the evolution of punishment, from corporal and capital punishment to imprisonment and probation.
- Levels and Perceptions of Crime: Analyzes historical data on crime rates and societal perceptions of crime.
Chapter 3: Crime Data and Crime Trends
- Measuring Crime: Explains the methods of collecting crime data, including official statistics and victimization surveys.
- Official Statistics: Details the history and limitations of official crime statistics.
- Victimization Surveys: Describes surveys used to gather data on crime from victims, providing an alternative to official statistics.
- Crime Trends: Examines long-term trends in crime rates, noting significant changes over the centuries.
Chapter 4: Crime and the Media
- Media Representations of Crime: Discusses how crime is portrayed in the media and its impact on public perception.
- Are the Media Criminogenic?: Explores the debate on whether media representations of crime can influence criminal behavior.
- Media and Fear of Crime: Examines the relationship between media coverage of crime and public fear.
Chapter 5: The Politics of Crime and its Control
- Penal Welfarism: Introduces the concept of penal welfarism and its decline.
- Managerialism and Centralization: Discusses the shift towards managerialism and centralization in crime control.
- Penal Populism: Analyzes the rise of penal populism and its impact on crime policy.
Part 2: Understanding Crime: Theories and Concepts
Chapter 6: Classicism and Positivism
- Classical Criminology: Reviews the foundations of classical criminology, including the works of Beccaria and Bentham.
- Positivism: Discusses the positivist approach to criminology, emphasizing empirical research and the search for causes of crime.
Chapter 7: Biological Positivism
- Genetic Factors: Explores the role of genetics in criminal behavior.
- Biochemical Factors: Examines how biochemical processes can influence criminality.
- Assessing Biological Positivism: Evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of biological positivism.
Chapter 8: Psychological Positivism
- Psychoanalysis and Crime: Discusses the application of psychoanalytic theories to criminal behavior.
- Bowlby and Maternal Deprivation: Explores Bowlby’s theory of maternal deprivation and its implications for understanding crime.
This summary captures the core themes and structure of the first eight chapters of Tim Newburn’s “Criminology,” providing a foundational understanding of the historical and theoretical underpinnings of criminology. The chapters build upon each other to create a comprehensive overview of crime, its measurement, and its portrayal in society.
Key Concepts
1. Sociological Positivism
- Overview: Sociological positivism examines how social structures, relationships, and institutions influence crime. It shifts the focus from individual pathology to societal factors.
- Key Theories:
- Durkheim’s Anomie Theory: Proposes that crime results from the breakdown of social norms and the subsequent state of normlessness (anomie).
- Merton’s Strain Theory: Suggests that societal pressures to achieve culturally approved goals create strain, leading individuals to commit crimes when they lack legitimate means.
- Social Disorganization Theory: Argues that crime is more likely in communities with weak social institutions and limited social cohesion .
2. The Chicago School
- Overview: Originating in the early 20th century, the Chicago School emphasized the importance of social environments in shaping criminal behavior. It focused on urban areas and the processes of social disorganization.
- Key Concepts:
- Concentric Zone Model: Developed by Park and Burgess, this model maps urban areas into concentric zones, noting that crime rates are higher in transitional zones near the city center.
- Cultural Transmission: Suggests that criminal values and behaviors are passed down through generations in disorganized neighborhoods.
- Ecological Analysis: Studies the relationships between individuals and their urban environments, noting that crime is influenced by environmental factors .
3. Psychological Positivism
- Overview: Psychological positivism focuses on individual differences in behavior and the psychological processes that underlie criminal conduct.
- Key Theories:
- Psychoanalytic Theory: Based on Freud’s work, it suggests that unconscious conflicts and childhood experiences shape criminal behavior.
- Behavioral Theories: Emphasize the role of learning in crime, including operant conditioning and social learning theories.
- Cognitive Theories: Focus on how cognitive processes, such as moral reasoning and decision-making, influence criminal behavior .
4. Control Theories
- Overview: Control theories assert that crime occurs when an individual’s bond to society is weak or broken.
- Key Theories:
- Hirschi’s Social Bond Theory: Proposes that strong social bonds to family, school, and other institutions prevent crime. These bonds include attachment, commitment, involvement, and belief.
- Gottfredson and Hirschi’s General Theory of Crime: Attributes crime to low self-control, which is established in childhood and remains stable throughout life. Low self-control, coupled with opportunities to commit crime, leads to criminal behavior .
5. Labelling Theory
- Overview: Labelling theory explores how the labels assigned to individuals by society can influence their self-identity and behavior.
- Key Concepts:
- Primary and Secondary Deviance: Primary deviance refers to initial acts of rule-breaking. If society labels an individual as deviant, they may embrace this identity, leading to secondary deviance, where the individual commits further deviant acts.
- Stigma: Being labeled as a criminal can lead to social exclusion and reduced opportunities, which may perpetuate criminal behavior.
- Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: The process by which a label leads to behaviors that confirm the label’s accuracy .
6. Critical Criminology
- Overview: Critical criminology challenges traditional understandings of crime and seeks to uncover the power dynamics and inequalities that shape criminal justice systems.
- Key Theories:
- Marxist Criminology: Examines how the capitalist system creates social inequalities that lead to crime. It argues that laws are created to serve the interests of the ruling class.
- Feminist Criminology: Focuses on how gender inequalities and patriarchal structures influence crime and justice. It highlights the ways in which women’s experiences of crime and victimization differ from men’s.
- Postmodern Criminology: Questions the grand narratives and fixed truths of traditional criminology. It explores the fluid and fragmented nature of crime and its representation in media and culture .
7. Feminist Criminology
- Overview: Feminist criminology critiques the male-dominated perspectives of traditional criminology and emphasizes the importance of gender in understanding crime.
- Key Concepts:
- Gendered Pathways: Investigates how men and women’s experiences with crime differ, focusing on the unique social, economic, and cultural factors that influence women’s criminal behavior.
- Victimization: Examines how gendered power relations shape experiences of victimization, particularly in the context of domestic violence and sexual assault.
- Intersectionality: Considers how overlapping identities, such as race, class, and gender, influence individuals’ experiences with crime and the criminal justice system .
8. Cultural Criminology
- Overview: Cultural criminology explores the intersections between culture and crime, examining how cultural dynamics shape and are shaped by criminal behavior.
- Key Concepts:
- Moral Panics: Analyzes how media and societal reactions to perceived threats amplify fear and lead to heightened social control measures.
- Subcultures: Studies how subcultural groups, such as gangs, create their own norms and values that may conflict with mainstream society.
- Symbolic Interactionism: Focuses on how individuals and groups construct meanings around crime and deviance through social interactions .
These key concepts provide a foundational understanding of the diverse theoretical perspectives covered in Tim Newburn’s “Criminology.” The next section will delve into a critical analysis of these concepts and their implications.
Critical Analysis
1. Left Realism
- Strengths: Left realism, emerging in response to the perceived inadequacies of radical criminology, provides a pragmatic approach to understanding crime. It focuses on the real impacts of crime on working-class communities and advocates for policies that address both the causes and consequences of crime. The “square of crime” framework, which considers the interplay between offenders, victims, public opinion, and law enforcement, offers a comprehensive approach to crime prevention.
- Weaknesses: Critics argue that left realism tends to take traditional definitions of crime at face value, potentially ignoring broader political and ideological contexts. It has also been criticized for its over-reliance on crime surveys, which may not capture the full extent of criminal activity, particularly white-collar and corporate crimes .
2. Right Realism
- Strengths: Right realism emphasizes the importance of personal responsibility and the role of effective policing and punishment in preventing crime. The approach advocates for practical measures, such as situational crime prevention and the “broken windows” theory, which posits that maintaining order by addressing minor offenses can prevent more serious crimes.
- Weaknesses: Right realism has been criticized for its focus on individual behavior and its tendency to overlook broader social and economic factors that contribute to crime. It often emphasizes punitive measures, which may not address the root causes of criminal behavior and can lead to issues like mass incarceration .
3. Routine Activity Theory and Situational Crime Prevention
- Strengths: Routine activity theory and situational crime prevention focus on the immediate circumstances in which crimes occur. By identifying and mitigating the opportunities for crime through environmental design, surveillance, and target hardening, these approaches can effectively reduce crime rates.
- Weaknesses: These theories may be criticized for their limited scope, as they primarily address the symptoms of crime rather than underlying social and economic conditions. Additionally, the focus on situational measures can sometimes lead to displacement, where crime moves to different locations rather than being eliminated .
4. Victimology
- Strengths: Victimology shifts attention to the experiences and needs of victims, highlighting the importance of providing support and resources to those affected by crime. It advocates for a more victim-centered approach in the criminal justice system, including restitution and victim impact statements.
- Weaknesses: Focusing heavily on victimology can sometimes lead to an imbalance, where the rights of the accused are overshadowed by the interests of victims. Ensuring that the criminal justice system remains fair and balanced for all parties involved is essential .
5. Penology and Restorative Justice
- Strengths: Penology examines the effectiveness of different punishment and correctional methods, providing insights into how best to manage offenders and reduce recidivism. Restorative justice offers an alternative to traditional punitive approaches by focusing on repairing the harm caused by crime through reconciliation between offenders and victims.
- Weaknesses: Traditional penological approaches can be criticized for emphasizing retribution over rehabilitation, potentially leading to high recidivism rates. Restorative justice, while promising, faces challenges in its implementation and acceptance within the broader criminal justice system .
Conclusion:
Tim Newburn’s “Criminology” offers a comprehensive analysis of various criminological theories and their practical implications. While each approach has its strengths and weaknesses, the critical analysis of left and right realism, routine activity theory, victimology, and restorative justice highlights the complexity of addressing crime. By understanding these perspectives, policymakers and practitioners can develop more nuanced and effective strategies for crime prevention and justice administration.
Real-World Applications and Examples
1. Restorative Justice
Example: Youth Offender Panels (YOPs) in the UK
- Context: Introduced by the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999, referral orders and youth offender panels represent one of the largest experiments with restorative justice in the UK. These panels provide a forum away from the formality of the court, where offenders, victims, and community members can discuss the offense and agree on a reparative contract.
- Implications: This approach aims to involve victims directly in the justice process, encouraging offenders to take responsibility for their actions and make amends. It underscores the importance of restorative practices in promoting rehabilitation and reducing recidivism among young offenders.
2. Crime Prevention and Control
Example: Situational Crime Prevention
- Context: Situational crime prevention focuses on reducing opportunities for crime by altering the immediate environment. Measures include improved street lighting, installation of CCTV, and designing public spaces to increase natural surveillance.
- Implications: These strategies aim to make it more difficult for crimes to be committed, thereby reducing crime rates. They are based on the routine activity theory, which posits that crime occurs when a motivated offender encounters a suitable target without capable guardianship.
3. Criminological Theories
Example: Control Theories in Practice
- Context: Hirschi’s Social Bond Theory suggests that strong social bonds to family, school, and community prevent individuals from engaging in criminal behavior. Programs aimed at strengthening these bonds, such as after-school activities and mentoring programs, have been implemented to reduce juvenile delinquency.
- Implications: By fostering strong social connections, these initiatives aim to reduce the likelihood of young people engaging in criminal activities. This practical application highlights the importance of social integration in crime prevention.
4. Juvenile Delinquency
Example: Positive Youth Justice
- Context: Positive Youth Justice (PYJ) emphasizes the strengths and potential of young offenders, focusing on their development and reintegration into society rather than punitive measures. This approach includes education, vocational training, and community service programs.
- Implications: PYJ aims to transform the lives of young offenders by providing them with opportunities to develop skills and build positive futures. It reflects a shift towards more rehabilitative and supportive measures in dealing with juvenile delinquency.
5. Gender and Crime
Example: Addressing Domestic Violence
- Context: Specialized domestic violence courts have been established in various jurisdictions to provide a more effective response to domestic violence cases. These courts focus on victim safety, offender accountability, and coordinated community responses.
- Implications: By concentrating on the specific dynamics of domestic violence, these courts aim to provide better support for victims and ensure that offenders are held accountable in a manner that considers the complexities of domestic abuse. This approach exemplifies how understanding gendered patterns of crime can lead to more effective interventions.
6. Green Criminology
Example: Environmental Crime Prosecution
- Context: Green criminology addresses crimes against the environment, such as illegal dumping of hazardous waste and wildlife trafficking. Governments and international bodies have enacted laws and regulations to prosecute environmental offenders and protect natural resources.
- Implications: The enforcement of environmental laws highlights the importance of addressing ecological harm and holding corporations and individuals accountable for actions that damage the environment. This emerging field of criminology underscores the need for a global perspective in tackling environmental crimes.
Conclusion:
The real-world applications and examples provided in Tim Newburn’s “Criminology” illustrate the practical implications of various criminological theories and approaches. These examples highlight the importance of effective legal frameworks, community involvement, and innovative strategies in addressing crime and promoting justice. By examining specific cases and contemporary challenges, the book provides valuable insights into the dynamic nature of criminology and its ongoing evolution in response to societal changes.