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History of Criminological Theories: Causes of Crime

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Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice

Synonyms

Early Chicago School Theory; Historical criminology; History of Geographical Criminology

Overview

For thousands of years, mankind has developed and applied vague or specific thoughts about what behavior should be labeled as criminal, who the criminals are, and what the causes of crime may be. Philosophers in the eighteenth and early nineteenth century put forward the rational criminal who is free to make choices and criticized the cruel and unjust criminal justice system. The scientific study of crime started in the beginning of nineteenth century with mathematicians searching for empirical regularities between countries and areas in administrative governmental data. Sociologists, psychologists, and physicians introduced societal and individual causes of crime in a comprehensive way. Later, new developments in other disciplines triggered new thoughts on the causes of crime, notably strain, control, and cultural theories. These have been dominant for about many decades,...

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Acknowledgement

The author wants to thank professor Sally Simpson (Maryland) and professor Lieven Pauwels (Ghent) for their helpful comments on a previous draft.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR), Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Gerben Bruinsma

  2. VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Gerben Bruinsma

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  1. Gerben Bruinsma
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Correspondence to Gerben Bruinsma .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR), Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Gerben Bruinsma

  2. VU University Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

    Gerben Bruinsma

  3. Department of Criminology, Law and Society, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA, USA

    David Weisburd

  4. Faculty of Law, The Hebrew University, Mt. Scopus, Jerusalem, Israel

    David Weisburd

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Bruinsma, G. (2014). History of Criminological Theories: Causes of Crime. In: Bruinsma, G., Weisburd, D. (eds) Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5690-2_547

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