Merton's theory of anomie and social learning as well as structural functional theories of crime and deviance that are discussed below.
Theories of crime and deviance abound and are significant in determining how criminals are defined. The debate between classicalism and positivism has contributed significantly to the growth of modern day criminology. Classicalism is based in large measure on the assumption that individuals possess free will and that those who violate the law were motivated by personal needs. Utilitarians such as Beccaria and Bentham argued that the decision to violate the law comes after a careful weighing of the costs of criminal behavior and classical theorists assert that punishment should only be severe enough to deter an offense. In contrast, positivist thinkers argue in favor of a scientific approach to understanding choices as evident in the work of Comte and Durkheim. This theory calls for measuring rather than speculating about the causes of crime (Akers and Sellers 20-25; Lilly, Cullen, and Ball 17-23).
The biological school of thought as reflected in the work of such early scholars as Lombroso and Hooten proposes that individuals may be drawn toward deviance because of certain genetically inherited traits or characteristics. Lombroso, for example, whose ideas were later discredited, believed that criminal types could be identified by the shape of the human skull (Akers and Sellers 40-41). Modern day criminologists look at such biological antecedents of crime as neurological damage, mental disorders caused by trauma to the brain, and the interaction of biological and social factors or nature versus nurture in explaining crime (Lilly, Cullen, and Ball 27).
The psychological view of deviance associates criminality with particular types of personality. It suggests that in a minority of individuals, an amoral or psychopathic personality develops. Such individuals may then commit violent ...