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Attempts to explain crime and punishment

Summary/Abstract: The subject of the article is an attempt to explain the phenomenon of crime and punishment. Crime is a social phenomenon that poses a significant cultural problem. At the beginning, the genesis of criminology was discussed in order to show the basics of the described issue. Two approaches have been distinguished: anthropological and sociological. Within the framework of criminology, there are three sections: criminal etiology, phenomenology (symptomatology) and crime prevention. Then, the relationship between criminology and criminal law is discussed – from positivism through naturalism to humanism, to show the changes in this relationship over time. Another discussed issue is biological attempts to explain the crime. Biological criminological theories are based on the notion that specific biological structures in the human body are responsible for criminal behavior. Another assumption was made by representatives of psychological interpretations of aggressive behavior, which consist in proving the existence of a relationship between the defined psychological variables and behaviors considered to be unlawful. For this reason, we should refer both to the claims of behaviorists and to the positions of representatives of psychoanalysis. On the other hand, sociological attempts to describe the phenomenon of crime are based on the assumption that the behavior of each individual is conditioned by the influence of social factors. In concluding the issue of criminological theories described in this article, it is necessary to emphasize their diversity and differences in the approach to criminal motives arising in an individual.

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