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Criminology as a distinct subfield emerged in the late 18th century, centered on the fundamental question of why individuals commit crime and how society should respond. Its history is defined by successive and often competing theoretical traditions, each rooted in distinct assumptions about human nature, social order, and the sources of deviance. The evolution of these paradigms reflects broader intellectual shifts in the social sciences, moving from philosophical and individual-focused explanations to structural, critical, and integrated models.
The foundational paradigm, Classical Criminology, established in the late 1700s by Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham, posited rational, hedonistic individuals who calculated the pleasures and pains of criminal action. Its central policy prescription was a proportionate, certain, and swift legal system to deter crime. By the late 19th century, the positivist revolution challenged this view of free will. Positivist Criminology, pioneered by Cesare Lombroso, shifted the focus to deterministic causes—initially biological, then psychological and social—viewing the criminal as a distinct type shaped by forces beyond their control. This launched a search for the scientific "causes of crime."
The early 20th century saw the rise of sociological positivism. The Chicago School (or Social Disorganization Theory), dominant from the 1910s-1930s, mapped crime onto urban ecology, arguing that rapidly changing neighborhoods with weak social institutions produced cultural conflict and criminality. This tradition emphasized environmental factors over individual pathology. Concurrently, Strain Theory (and later Anomie Theory), developed by Robert Merton and others from the 1930s-1960s, located crime in the disjunction between culturally promoted goals (e.g., material success) and the structurally limited means to achieve them, leading to deviant adaptations.
Mid-century witnessed the peak of Social Learning Theory, which argued criminal behavior is learned through association, imitation, and reinforcement. Edwin Sutherland's Differential Association Theory (1930s-1950s) was pivotal, positing that definitions favorable to law violation are acquired in intimate groups. This was later formalized into broader social learning models. In contrast, Control Theory, culminating in Travis Hirschi's Social Bond Theory (1960s-1980s), asked why people don't commit crime, emphasizing the strength of attachment to conventional society through bonds to family, school, and belief in law.
A major critical turn began in the 1960s, challenging the state's definition of crime and the role of criminology itself. Labeling Theory argued deviance is not inherent but a consequence of societal reaction; powerful groups apply stigmatizing labels that can solidify a deviant identity. This dovetailed with the more radical Conflict Criminology, which viewed law and crime as tools of class domination. By the 1970s, this evolved into explicit Marxist Criminology and Critical Criminology, analyzing crime through lenses of political economy, power, and inequality, and later incorporating feminist and racial critiques.
The 1970s and 1980s also saw the emergence of Routine Activities Theory and related Rational Choice Theory, which marked a neo-classical return to ideas of offender rationality. These frameworks shifted focus from distant motivations to immediate criminal events, arguing crime occurs when a motivated offender, a suitable target, and lack of capable guardianship converge in time and space. This perspective heavily influenced situational crime prevention.
Dissatisfaction with single-cause theories led to efforts at integration from the 1980s onward. Developmental and Life-Course Criminology emerged, synthesizing social, psychological, and biological factors to trace criminal pathways across the lifespan. Similarly, Integrated Theories (e.g., Elliott's integrated strain-control-learning model) attempted to combine elements of preceding paradigms. The contemporary landscape is pluralistic, with dominant research programs in life-course and situational theories, a strong continued presence of critical traditions (including Feminist Criminology and Critical Race Criminology), and growing interest in biosocial perspectives that revisit positivist questions with modern science.
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