Criminal law and criminology
Mohammad Faraji
Abstract
Criminality is a complex phenomenon that has been analyzed from various perspectives by criminologists. Traditionally, criminality was perceived as an internal issue, with studies focusing primarily on the factors within a given society that contribute to different types of crime. This approach, while ...
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Criminality is a complex phenomenon that has been analyzed from various perspectives by criminologists. Traditionally, criminality was perceived as an internal issue, with studies focusing primarily on the factors within a given society that contribute to different types of crime. This approach, while natural at the time, was limited by its exclusion of external factors that influence crime. Historically, criminality was understood as a phenomenon occurring within the boundaries of a society, without any significant connection to factors outside of that society. However, this view is no longer acceptable in contemporary criminology. Today, it is widely acknowledged that crime is influenced by both internal and external criminogenic factors. As such, it is essential to distinguish between different criminogenic levels: national, transnational or regional, and international or global.The first level—national criminology—focuses on the relationship between specific criminogenic factors and the occurrence of crimes within a national society. The second and third levels, transnational/regional criminology and international criminology, analyze the factors that explain why certain crimes occur across borders, affecting multiple countries. Based on this understanding, I conceptualize three levels of criminological analysis: national criminology, transnational/regional criminology, and international criminology. This framework is an expansion of the traditional criminological approach, which typically explains the causes of crime within a national context. The three levels of analysis provide a more comprehensive understanding of criminology and open new avenues for research that take into account the interconnected nature of crime in a globalized world.In my previous article, “Regional Crime: From Etiology to Solution-Finding,” I conceptualized regional crime and its characteristics. I theorized a structure of opportunity and constraint, primarily based on Charles Tittle’s Control Balance Theory, to explain the dynamics of transnational and regional crimes. Methodologically, I defined regional crimes and analyzed them from a criminological perspective, aiming to create a criminological theory of regional crime. This framework would enable a deeper understanding of crime in specific regions, allowing for the application of criminological analysis to any given area. In doing so, I made a deduction based on several key factors, including opportunity, constraints, unbalanced control, criminal fluidity, forum shopping, criminogenic asymmetries, climate or environment of impunity, and the comparative advantage in illegality.By using these factors in an inductive manner, I was able to theorize the dynamics of regional crime and criminality based on general scientific principles. From there, I applied this theory to different regions around the world to test its applicability. To support this, I used secondary analysis, where I reconsidered isolated criminological findings from various regions, including those in Asia, Europe, Africa, the Americas, and Oceania. This meta-synthesis approach allowed me to determine how my theory could analytically explain regional and transnational criminality across different contexts.As a result, I developed a theoretical framework for the regional analysis of criminality, based on six key propositions. First, the political, economic, and social conditions of a national unit, whether favorable or unfavorable, can have significant repercussions on neighboring countries. Second, factors such as political corruption, economic weakness, social decay, revolutions, and periods of transition tend to lead to an increase in crime. Third, these vulnerabilities within a given national unit not only result in higher crime rates within that unit but also spill over into neighboring countries. Fourth, the geographical proximity of nations and the existence of related or similar social and economic contexts between countries create more criminal opportunities. This situation often leads to a comparative advantage in illegality, where criminals exploit the differences between countries’ legal frameworks, enforcement mechanisms, and punishments.Fifth, given the spillover of chaos and crime, which can become transnational or regional, it becomes necessary to adopt transnational or regional criminal policies. By doing so, we can make informed and reasonable predictions about the nature and extent of crime in a given region, as well as the factors that cause crime to spread across borders. Therefore, the conditions within countries in a specific region are correlated with the nature and extent of crime within that region. For instance, the nature and extent of crime in Europe would likely be very different from that in Africa or Latin America due to the differences in the political, economic, and social conditions of these regions. This understanding leads to the conclusion that not only does every national unit need its own criminal policy, but also that countries within a given region must align their criminal policies with each other.Finally, countries within a region must design a regional criminal policy that addresses the shared challenges of transnational and regional crimes. This approach implies that criminal policies should be tailored to regional conditions rather than adhering to a universal criminal policy that fails to take regional factors into account. Regional criminal policies must be designed with an understanding of local and international dynamics, ensuring they address the complexities of crime across borders.In summary, understanding crime requires a multi-level approach that considers not only the internal factors within a society but also the external factors that influence criminal behavior across borders. By adopting national, transnational/regional, and international levels of criminological analysis, we can develop more effective and context-specific criminal policies to address the global nature of modern crim
