LAW5402 Criminology and Penology — Unit 1: Introductory

Unit 1: Introductory

1.1 Concept, Nature and Scope of Criminology

Criminology is the scientific study of crime, the criminal and society’s reaction to both — the definition’s classic form is Sutherland’s (the study of the making of laws, the breaking of laws, and society’s reaction to the breaking — by name only). It asks three questions: why is conduct criminalised? (criminalisation theory), why do people commit crime? (etiology), and what should society do about it? (penology and criminal policy).
Nature: an interdisciplinary social science — sociology (the science’s backbone), psychology, biology, psychiatry, law, statistics and economics all feed it; empirical and evolving (its theories replace rather than accumulate — the “lively hypotheses” character); both theoretical (explaining crime) and applied (shaping police, courts, prisons).
Scope (the exam map):

1. Etiology of crime — causes: personal, situational, structural (Unit 3).
2. Criminal epidemiology — crime’s distribution: rates, geography, time, victims (the statistical face).
3. Criminal psychology/biology — the offender’s mind and body (Unit 2’s schools).
4. Penology — punishment, prisons, corrections and their alternatives (Units 5–6).
5. Victimology — the victim’s role, vulnerability and rights.
6. Criminal policy and law reform — criminalisation, decriminalisation, evaluation of interventions.

1.2 Sociology of Crime and Criminology

The legal definition of crime (conduct prohibited by the state under threat of punishment — the mens rea/actus reus architecture of Criminal Law, Semesters 3–4) is the raw material; criminology asks what stands behind the legal category. Two sociological stances: the consensus view (criminal law embodies shared values — crime violates them all equally) and the conflict view (criminal law is the powerful’s instrument — conduct of the powerless is criminalised, of the powerful excused). Durkheim’s paradox — crime is normal, bound to every healthy society, even functional (it clarifies values and provokes needed change — by name only) — is the founding sociological insight. For Nepal: the sociological lens explains why the criminalised map tracks social fault-lines — caste discrimination’s criminalisation (the Caste Discrimination and Untouchability (Offence and Punishment) Act 2068), witchcraft-accusation violence, trafficking, dowry — while white-collar and corporate harms have historically travelled lighter paths.

1.3 Study Methods of Criminology

Method	Core	Classic products (names only)
Observation (participant/non-participant)	Watching settings and actors	street-gang ethnographies
Case study / clinical	The one offender in depth	Lombroso’s criminal anthropology; case histories
Survey & interview	Asking populations/offenders	self-report studies (hidden delinquency)
Statistical/ecological	Rates mapped by area	Shaw & McKay’s Chicago maps
Victimization survey	Asking victims, not police files	the dark figure of crime
Experimental/quasi	Interventions tested	“Scared Straight” evaluations (null)
Comparative & historical	Across systems and eras	penality’s evolution (Foucault)
Cohort/longitudinal	Following lives	career-criminal curves
The dark figure: recorded crime (FIR-based police statistics in Nepal) is only the visible fraction — unreported, unrecorded, unfound crime — the methods above exist to see around it.

1.4 Classification of Crime and Criminal

Classification of crime (the five axes):

1. Legal gravity: the common law’s felony/misdemeanour; Nepal’s procedural twins — cognizable vs non-cognizable (police may investigate without warrant vs. court’s leave first), bailable vs non-bailable, and the Criminal Code 2074’s graded offence books.
2. Moral standing: mala in se (wrong in itself — murder, rape) vs. mala prohibita (wrong because prohibited — licensing, regulatory offences).
3. Actor & target: violent, property, public-order, white-collar (Sutherland’s coin), organized (trafficking networks), cyber/digital, political/state crime, victimless (drug use, sex work — the decriminalisation debates).
4. Stages/companionship: attempted, abetted, conspiracy (the general part’s disciplines).
5. Nepal’s statutory faces: the Criminal Code 2074’s offence catalogue + the special statutes — Human Trafficking and Transportation (Control) Act 2064, Domestic Violence (Offence and Punishment) Act 2066, Caste Discrimination Act 2068, the Electronic Transactions Act 2063’s cyber-offences.
   Classification of criminals: occasional vs habitual; first offenders vs recidivists; professional (crime as career); juveniles; female offenders (the gender-ratio puzzle and its explanations); mentally disordered offenders; white-collar; political offenders. The classic typologies (Ferri’s born–insane–passion–occasion–habitual ladder — by name) belong to the positivist era; modern typologies sort by risk, need and career pattern.

1.5 Concept and Goal of the Criminal Justice System

The criminal justice system (CJS) = the state’s organised response to crime: police (detection, investigation) → prosecution and courts (adjudication) → corrections (punishment and reintegration: prisons, probation, parole). Its goals: crime control (suppressing criminal conduct), due process (guilt fairly determined — the two models’ tension, Packer’s names only), doing justice (proportionate, consistent, unbiased), victim redress, and offender reintegration. Nepal’s frame: the Nepal Police (Police Act 2012 B.S.) and the Office of the Attorney General’s prosecution service, the courts (Criminal Procedure Code 2074), and corrections (Prison Act 2019 B.S.; the Criminal Offences (Sentencing and Execution) Act 2074) — with the Constitution’s guarantees as the system’s spine: Art 20’s justice rights (grounds of arrest, counsel from arrest, production within 24 hours, presumption of innocence, fair hearing, free legal aid — Art 20(1)–(10)), Art 21’s victim rights (information, social rehabilitation, compensation) and Art 22’s torture bar.

1.6 Recent Trends in Criminology

1. Victimology’s rise — the victim moved from witness to rights-holder (Art 21’s constitutional anchoring; the Crime Victim Protection Act 2075).
2. Restorative justice — repairing harm through victim–offender–community encounter instead of state-only punishment.
3. Feminist criminology — gendered pathways, the victimisation–offence link (Unit 2.6).
4. Green criminology — environmental harms as criminology’s object (poaching, pollution, climate displacement).
5. Digital/cyber criminology — online offences, and crime’s migration to platforms (ETA 2063’s offence face).
6. Queer criminology and decriminalisation — the criminal law’s retreat from policing identity and intimacy: Sunil Babu Panta vs Council of Ministers and others, Writ No. 917/064, Date of Decision 2064/9/6 B.S., Subject: Identification of Third Gender — the Court directed the State to recognise the third gender (citizenship’s “other” category) and held that same-sex intimacy is not a punishable offence under Nepali law — decriminalisation’s Nepali landmark (see Family Law, Semester 4, for the full arc).
7. Comparative, transnational and critical criminology — trafficking, organised crime, transitional justice (Nepal’s conflict-era crimes and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s line — see Public International Law-II, Semester 4), and the critique of imprisonment’s excess (decarceration).
8. Evidence-based practice — “what works” evaluations (the risk-need-responsivity family) steering corrections.

Model Questions

1. Define criminology and explain its nature and scope. (10)
2. “Crime is normal… a society exempt from it would require the highest abnormality.” Discuss Durkheim’s thesis. (10)
3. Explain the methods of criminological study and the problem of the dark figure. (10)
4. Classify crimes and criminals, illustrating each class with Nepali law’s faces. (15)
5. Describe the criminal justice system’s components and goals with Nepal’s framework. (10)
6. Short notes: (a) White-collar crime; (b) Victimless crime; (c) Sunil Babu Panta; (d) Dark figure; (e) Mala in se vs mala prohibita. (5×4)

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