Criminology: Offender Classification and Psychological Theories

Heredity and Environment

Individuals who do not conform to societal rules face sanctions. This document explores offender classifications and the psychological theories behind criminal behavior.

Classification of Offenders

Characterologic Types

Defined Offenders

• Mentally Ill
• Alcoholics
• Substance Abusers
• Feeble-minded

Undefined Offenders

• Casual
• Circumstantial

Biological Types - Inheritance

• Predominant Constitution (Anthropology)
• Influence of Surroundings

Psychiatry

Sigmund Freud, the Viennese founder of psychoanalysis, explored the human mind. He divided the mind into three areas:

• The Unconscious: Stores traumas, negative experiences, and parental influences.
• The Subconscious: Governs daily life and work, modulated by education.
• The Conscious: Handles everyday tasks, also shaped by education.

Each mental area plays a distinct role. Psychiatry studies the mind from a physiological perspective, observing individual and family behavior. Psychology focuses on raising awareness of individual behavior. Psychoanalysis informs other psychological disciplines.

Difference Between Psychiatry and Psychology

• Psychiatry is a medical specialty requiring five years of study.
• Psychiatry has sub-specialties, such as forensic psychiatry, which examines the mind's role in criminal acts. Clinical psychology addresses criminal behavior.
• Both disciplines utilize observation.

Enrico Ferri (1856-1929)

A lawyer and disciple of Lombroso, Ferri studied crime and challenged the concept of free will. He criticized penal law and contributed significantly to criminology:

Potential for Crime

• Anthropological Factors: Relating to the offender's personal characteristics.
• Psychological Factors: Intelligence, feelings, social influences, race, age, sex, occupation, marital status.
• Social Factors: Habitat, population density, religion, household, economy, politics.
• Physical Factors: Weather, seasons.

Classification of Offenders by Ferri

• Born: Classified by anthropological aspects.
• Insane: Those with mental deficiencies: fools, megalomaniacs, psychopaths.
• Passionate: Act impulsively in moments of intense emotion, including political criminals.
• Occasional: Exploit opportunities.
• Habitual: Crime becomes a habit.
• Latent: The potential for crime exists within everyone.

Rafael Garofallo

Completing the Italian positivist trio, Garofallo, a lawyer and professor, built upon the ideas of Lombroso, Spencer, and Darwin.

Fundamental Ideas

• Embraced the ideas of Lombroso, Spencer, and Darwin.
• Natural Conception of Crime: Crime is committed according to an individual's will, violating fundamental altruistic sentiments.

Garofallo believed offenders incapable of adapting should be removed from society, either by death or life imprisonment.

Classification of Offenders

• Murderer: Violates feelings of pity.
• Thief: Violates feelings of probity.
• Violent Offender: Violates both pity and probity.
• Cynical Offender: Those who commit sex offenses.