Emery 1
Raven Emery
Professor Jefferson
CRJU 400
April 23, 2020
Theories on Criminal Behavior
Criminology is the study of criminal behavior. It is the reason that makes criminals
commit crimes, and why others don’t. (Tibbetts & Hemmens, 2019) Criminology is studied
through observing and testing the hypothesis (Tibbetts & Hemmens, 2019). A hypothesis is an
educated guess, that can be tested through observation. (Tibbetts & Hemmens, 2019). A theory is
a set of concepts that are linked together by statements to explain why something happens. (Cite
Textbook) A theory should provide some reason for some aspects of nature. In this case, it
explains why offenders commit crimes. According to the textbook, (Tibbetts & Hemmens, 2019)
there are a few characteristics that a good theory includes is Parsimony, Scope, Consistency,
Testability, Validity, and Policy Implications. (Tibbetts & Hemmens, 2019).
If a classmate or peer were to ask what I thought made up a good theory I would include
those things listed above. I would also go into detail a bit to make sure I choose those. I would
also try to provide examples of examples of each if needed.
Parsimony is achieved by picking a topic, a hypothesis (Tibbetts & Hemmens, 2019). It’s
something that you would like to understand more about. In this case, it’s criminal activity. A
good theory is unifying- it explains the facts and observations with a model or framework. For
example, if you’re talking about winks, smiles, frowns, and furrowed brows, a more
Emery 2
parsimonious explanation would use the phrase “facial expressions,” because it’s a general term
that covers various events. The next characteristic is scope. The scope is what the theory is
explaining. Our scope is why criminals commit crimes? The wider the scope of what theory can
explain, the better the theory. This is related to parsimony in the sense that like some theories,
like the theory of low- self-control, tries to explain all crime and deviant acts are related. Thus,
this theory has a wide scope. The problem with theories with a wide scope like criminal behavior
the wider the scope the better the theory.
Consistency is the extent to which theory makes sense. If the theory is inconsistent with
future findings, the hypothesis is simply dismissed. Two famous cases in which that happened
was Cesare Lombroso and Freda Adler. Lombroso called the father of criminology, claimed the
