Sociology & Criminology for a Changing World
Marxist Criminology represents a critical approach that views crime and criminal justice as products of social inequality and class conflict. Building on Marxist social theory, these perspectives argue that law and punishment serve the interests of the dominant class by maintaining existing power structures and controlling marginalized groups. Rather than seeing crime as the result
Edwin M. Lemert’s concept of primary and secondary deviance is one of the most influential contributions to labelling theory. Building on symbolic interactionism and early ideas from Frank Tannenbaum’s „tagging“ concept, Lemert showed how social reactions to initial rule-breaking can shape identities and careers in deviance. Key Points Primary and Secondary Deviance Main Proponent: Edwin
Moffitt’s Two-Path Theory explains criminal behavior by distinguishing between two developmental trajectories: adolescence-limited offending and life-course persistent offending. The theory is based on longitudinal research, particularly the Dunedin Study, which tracked individuals over time to identify patterns of offending across the life course. Key Points Two-Path Theory Main Proponent: Terrie E. Moffitt First Formulation: Early
What is the Multiple Factor Approach? The Multiple Factor Approach explains crime as the result of the combined influence of multiple social, psychological, and biological risk factors. Rather than attributing delinquency to a single cause, it emphasizes cumulative and probabilistic causation. This perspective rejects one-sided explanations such as biological determinism or purely social causation. Instead,
Cesare Lombroso’s anthropological theory of crime explains criminal behavior as biologically determined. Lombroso posited the existence of a “born criminal,” an atavistic individual representing a regression to an earlier stage of human evolution. Key Points Cesare Lombroso – Criminal Anthropology Main Proponent: Cesare Lombroso First Formulations: 1870s–early 20th century Country of Origin: Italy Core Idea:
Institutional Anomie Theory (IAT) explains crime as the result of an imbalance between cultural values and social institutions. It argues that high crime rates emerge when a strong cultural emphasis on economic success is combined with institutional imbalance. When economic values dominate other social institutions—such as family, education, and politics—social control weakens, leading to higher