Theories are fanciful ideas that seek to explain a phenomenon. They answer questions about behaviors, events and processes while trying to prove how two or more events are related. For a theory to be effective, it has to be tested and accompanied by facts. Criminological theories are more than just speculations. They offer a legal explanation for human behavior and society. These theories are essential, especially to criminal justice students as they help them understand crime and criminal justice. They explain and dissect making, breaking and enforcement of the law, criminal and deviant behavior, the criminal justice system's method of operation, and criminal activities patterns.
There are two major categories of criminological theories. The first one incorporates the theories of law and criminal justice activities which are also known as the theories of making and enforcing the law. The second and most popular category includes the theories of criminal and deviant behavior. The first category of theories seeks to answer the question of why some people are isolated and profiled as criminals. It also explains why an action could be considered illegal and the steps to be taken after an occurrence. The answer the queries on who are the authorized individuals or entities that decide and term a matter to be a criminal activity, how this decision is made and how the state's resources are channeled in contribution to the issue. The second classification answers query on why social and legal norms are violated, and it seeks to address two questions: why are there variations in group rates of crime and deviance and why some individuals are more likely than others to commit criminal and deviant acts. They try to acquire a sense of the different crime rates globally, which are mainly caused by distinct factors, such as the level of unemployment in a particular country or city. They also seek to provide information on the association of crime with characteristics like gender, age, and education level.
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These questions differ in their relation to criminological theories classification. There are two classifications of theories, which are macro and micro theories. Macro/ structural theories offer broader coverage by addressing questions involving differences in society or groups within the society. In contrast, Micro/processual theories offer explanations on questions related to smaller groups or individuals. These are the main classifications. However, there are other subgroup categorization of criminological theories. The most common ones are biological categories, psychological categories and sociological categories. Biological classification is based on the crime factors related to genetic evidence, chemical composition, neurological evidence and psychological compositions. Psychological classifications are associated with the criminal behavior, self and cognitive variables in a group setting. Sociological classification associates crime with cultural, structural and sociodemographic variables.
Criminological theories questions differ from the kind of question addressed by social and political philosophies of crime. Criminological theories are the most informative when trying to understand crime and criminal justice. Unlike other approaches that focus on philosophical statements on what ought to be done, criminological theories purpose to evaluate and address the policies and solutions that are more or less likely to work when solving crimes. Most importantly, these theories are tested and evaluated against each other or other theories to ensure their validity. The approaches are also guaranteed to have logical consistency, scope, parsimony and testability. This is influenced by the availability of facts and evidence. They are also judged through empirical validity, which ensures that a theory is not false and is supported by research evidence. Empirical validity promotes a theory's practicability, promoting its usefulness in providing guidelines for policies and practices.
