LESM A204

Unit 2

Criminology for the security manager

159

Course team
Developer:

Dr Daniel Gilling, University of Plymouth (Unit 2)

Designer:

Louise Aylward, OUHK

Coordinator:

Dr Raymond W K Lau, OUHK

Members:

Dr Czeslaw Tubilewicz, OUHK
Dr Garland Liu, OUHK

External Course Assessor
Dr Dennis S W Wong, City University of Hong Kong

Production
ETPU Publishing Team

Copyright © The Open University of Hong Kong, 2001, 2011.
Reprinted 2015.
All rights reserved.
No part of this material may be reproduced in any form by any means without permission in writing from the
President, The Open University of Hong Kong. Sale of this material is prohibited.
The Open University of Hong Kong
Ho Man Tin, Kowloon
Hong Kong
This course material is printed on environmentally friendly paper.

Contents
Introduction

1

The focus of criminology

4

What is criminology?
Why study crime?

4
6

Developing theory: the foundations of criminology

8

Theorizing about crime before criminology: the classical perspective Positivist criminology

8
10

Sociological criminology
The Chicago School
Strain and subcultural theories of crime
Control theories
The labelling perspective
Critical criminology

14
15
17
21
23
27

Environmental criminology

30

Jane Jacobs and Oscar Newman
Routine activity theory
Rational choice theory

30
33
35

Summary

39

References

41

Feedback on activities

43

Readings

Unit 2

Introduction
The purpose of this unit is to introduce you to the different kinds of theorizing about crime that have constituted the discipline of criminology. Criminology as an academic discipline has existed for well over 100 years. During this time, a number of distinct approaches have emerged, and it is these different approaches that this unit seeks to
capture,