CRIMINOLOGY

Traditional Jewish criminal law based the treatment of the offender on the idea of the freedom of will and on the principle that the severity of the punishment should fit the nature of the violation. Until modern times no consideration was given to the personality of the offender or any biological, psychological or socio-economic factors in crime causation and correction. -The Anthropological-Biological School The first to stress the hereditary or biological aspect of crime causation was cesare lombroso , a founder of the positivist school of criminology, who maintained that the true criminal was born as such and could be recognized in his physical features.   Among later criminologists, Sheldon and Eleanor Touroff glueck , in their Unraveling Juvenile Delinquency (1950), made use of three basic somatic (body) types and showed their relationship to delinquency, but in a subsequent study, Physique and Delinquency (1956), they concluded that bodily structure was no longer to be considered the most important etiological factor in criminality. They emphasized, however, that the biological aspect of criminal causation was still "a promising focus of attention." -Psychiatric-Psychological School The psychological and psychiatric approach to an understanding of crime causation was based on the teachings of sigmund freud . Although Lombroso and Freud agreed on the biological origin of antisocial impulses, they differed fundamentally on the importance of environmental influences. Freud, in contrast to Lombroso, emphasized the prime importance of infancy and early childhood in the formation of character. Freud also stressed the possibility of altering the personality through psychoanalysis. Gregory Zilboorg (1890–1959) underlined the irrationality of antisocial behavior and asserted that mere punishment, which does not take this into account, served no useful purpose ("Psychoanalysis and Criminology," Encyclopedia of Criminology (1949), 398–405). Psychoanalytical interpretation became important for the development of progressive methods in correction. morris ginsberg defended psychoanalysis against the claim that this method tended to free the criminal from his responsibility for his misdeed, pointing out that the object of psychoanalytical treatment was to help the patient face realities and become a responsible person. herman mannheim , in his Comparative Criminology (2 vols., 1965), warned against the great dangers which the traditional penal methods held for society. In his view the character and measure of the punishments meted out by criminal courts everywhere tended to create in the offender feelings of unjust treatment and that this led to recidivism. An important concept of Freudian theory which helped to explain criminal behavior was the psychoanalytical theory of symbolism, according to which every object, action, or person could have an unconscious symbolic value. The application of symbolism to political murder is of particular interest. wilhelm stekel , one of the earlier followers of Freud, maintained that a political attentat was a "displacement of a small personal conflict into the life of nations – perhaps Booth was beaten by a drunken father – so Lincoln died." alfred adler , one of Freud's disciples, who later founded his own school of individual psychology, contributed to criminological thinking by the formation of the widely known and accepted concepts of the "inferiority complex" and the "masculine protest," which, under certain conditions, could become criminogenic factors. -The Sociological School The sociological approach to criminology emphasized the fact that most behavior, including criminal behavior, was culturally patterned, and that crime had to be defined as a result of the relationships and interactions between a given society and its individual or corporate members. The best known and most influential proponent of the opinion that the class structure is the main determinant of social pathology, including criminality, was karl marx . He saw in the class struggle the main cause of criminality and, therefore, predicted that in a future classless society there would be no crime. Hermann Mannheim, in his Comparative Criminology, 2 (1965), 499, stated that "by far the most important, comprehensive and influential of the class-oriented theories of crime and delinquency were those based upon the concepts of the criminal subculture and anomie." The introduction of these two basic sociological concepts into criminological thinking was one of the great achievements of emil durkheim . Robert K. Merton (1910–2003), who developed and classified the ideas of Durkheim on anomie, pointed out in his writings the criminogenic forces, i.e., the anomie situation in a society which preached the democratic idea of equal opportunities for everybody but by failing to give these opportunities to all was responsible for the creation of tension and crime. An outstanding contribution to the description and explanation of the phenomenon of a criminal subculture was made by Albert K. Cohen (1918– ) who, in his Delinquent Boys (1955), described the overwhelming weight of class differences in crime causation. In a middle class society with its middle class ethics, standards, and values, the working class youth, brought up in a different value system, would, according to Cohen, be led inevitably into conflict and confusion and – part of it – into crime. The theories of anomie and criminal subcultures are, however, not generally accepted by contemporary criminologists. Herbert A. Bloch (1904– ) repeatedly expressed the opinion that the tensions which always existed between the young and the old generations were still today far more important as an explanation of the phenomenon of juvenile and gang delinquency. Bloch and Gilbert Geis (1925– ), in their Man, Crime and Society (1962), criticized the Durkheim-Merton theory of anomie and criminal subculture, and disagreed sharply with the view that there were hardly any lawful opportunities for upward mobility among lower class male adolescents. The pertinent question which still occupies criminologists remains the problem of "differential response." Why do certain individuals living in a generally healthy environment become delinquent, while others, who are exposed to antisocial influences, do not? Daniel Glaser (1918– ) formulated the theory of "differential identification." In his "Criminality Theories and Behavioral Images" (American Journal of Sociology (March 1956), 433–44) he expressed the opinion that an individual would act criminally when he identified himself with real or imaginary persons, in whose view his criminal behavior appeared to be acceptable. Thus the offender may identify with criminals presented in fiction, movies, television, or in the newspapers. Simon Dinitz (1926– ), together with Walter C. Reckless (1899–1988), in Critical Issues in the Study of Crime (1968), approached this basic problem of differential response by asking the reverse question: "Why do some non-delinquent boys succeed in remaining within the law while living in high delinquency areas?" Their answer was that the insulation against a delinquent life consists in the self-image of the boy who experienced himself as being good. Jackson Toby (1925– ), in his "Differential Impact of Family Disorganization" (American Sociological Review (Oct. 1957), 505–12), showed that the higher rate of broken homes among female delinquents was evidence that well-integrated families protected children against the antisocial influences exerted by neighborhood and peer gangs. The consideration of the problem of "differential response" led some sociologically orientated criminologists to the conclusion that it is impossible to explain crime exclusively in sociological terms. Sheldon and Eleanor Glueck, who spent decades in their search for the causes of delinquency, believed in multiple causation. In one of their later studies, Family Environment and Delinquency (1962), they provided many illustrations of the complex ways in which psychological, sociological, and biological factors might combine in one individual to produce delinquency. -Study of Criminology in the U.S. After World War I, when crime began to become a major problem in the United States, and the study of criminology took its place in the universities, Frank Tannenbaum (1893–1969) and Nathaniel F. Cantor (1898–1957) wrote two of the first textbooks on criminology: Crime and the Community (1938) and Crime and Society, an Introduction to Criminology (1939). Later authors were Herbert A. Bloch and Gilbert Geis, Man, Crime and Society (1962); Richard R. Korn (together with W. McCorkle), Criminology and Penology (1959), gave a well balanced description of the different factors in crime causation, as did Ben Karpman (1886–1962) in Case Studies in the Psychopathology of Crime (19472). Other significant contributions to criminology were made by Leonard Savitz, who, in his "Delinquency and Migration" (in The Sociology of Crime and Delinquency, ed. by M.E. Wolfgang, et al., 1962, pp. 199–205), emphasized the criminogenic effect of black migration within the United States, and Stephen Schafter, in his Restitution to Victims of Crime (1960) and The Victim and His Criminal (1968), opened the way for the development of a new chapter – victimology – in the framework of modern criminology. Other criminologists gave new insight into problems of penology and prison reform, among them, joseph eaton in his Stone Walls Not a Prison Make (1962) and Sol Rubin in his Crime and Juvenile Delinquency (19703). The latter book criticized the very long prison sentences meted out in the United States and the way in which many of the prisons in that country were run. The role of the community in preventing crime was stressed by solomon kobrin (1910–1996) in his research on the "Chicago Area Project, a 25-Year Assessment" (Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (March 1959), 19–29). The first significant work to determine systematically what psychodynamic theory could contribute to the development of more effective correctional methods was done by the New York State Department of Corrections in the late 1960s. It was carried out at the Diagnostic and Treatment Center of the Dannemora State Hospital at Clinton Prison, New York, under the direction of Ludwig Fink, a psychiatrist. He established a therapeutic community of 100 persistent offenders, subdivided into two units of 50, who received intensive psychotherapeutic treatment – in groups of ten – and in community meetings and psychodrama sessions. -British Contribution to Criminology Much progress was made in Britain by Jewish criminologists. The great centers of criminological and penological study were all established by scholars who had emigrated from Europe. Hermann Mannheim established the first chair in criminology in the United Kingdom at the London School of Economics and was one of the founders of the Institute for the Scientific Study and Treatment of Delinquency in London. Mannheim and other outstanding psychoanalysts, including anna freud , the daughter of Sigmund Freud, made notable contributions to the study of crime. max gruenhut (1893–1964) was the first to be appointed to a chair in criminology at Oxford University. -Criminology in Ereẓ Israel Criminological study in Mandatory Palestine and later in Israel grew out of the experience of those engaged in correctional research. Menachem Amir of the Hebrew University's Institute of Criminology published a bibliography in English and Hebrew containing an impressive list of Israel writers on criminology and the titles of their contributions during recent decades. Juvenile delinquency and its treatment under the mandate and in Israel is described in detail by E. Millo in Child and Youth Welfare in Israel (1960). The prison system in Israel's early years in the light of the Israel humanitarian ethos is analyzed fully by J.W. Eaton in the monograph Prisons in Israel (1964). He notes the existence of Massiyahu camp for more trusted inmates – a minimum custody facility. Between 1970 and 1988 nine volumes of Israel Studies in Criminology were published. A later publication was Crime and Criminal Justice in Israel: Assessing the Knowledge Base Toward the Twenty-First Century (1998), edited by Robert R. Friedmann. The dominant approach to the understanding and treatment of the offender was psychological, psychiatric and especially psychoanalytical. Research was centered in the Hebrew University Institute of Criminology, the director of which was israel drapkin , and at the Institute of Criminology and Criminal Law at Tel Aviv University, headed by Shlomo Shoham (1929– ). Personality and psychopathic disorders in various origin-groups in Israel and crimes of violence in relation to the period of immigration is discussed by Louis Miller in Social Psychiatry and Epidemiology of Mental Ill Health in Israel (1967). In the first years of the State, strenuous efforts were made in the correctional field, including probation, after-care, and prison services, to set up and develop mental hygiene   teams, consisting of psychiatrists, psychologists, and social caseworkers, who cooperated in the diagnostic and treatment process of offenders. (Zvi Hermon)