Notes on Geographical Theory of Crime

Notes on Geographical Theory of Crime

This explanation evaluates crime on the basis of geographical factors like climate, temperature, humidity, etc. It is supported by scholars like Montesquieu, Quetelet, Dexter, Kropotokin, Champneuf, and many others. Montesquieu (Spirit of Laws, 1748) laid down the law that criminality increases in proportion as one approaches the equator, and drunkenness increases in proportion as one approaches the poles.

About a century later, Quetlet formulated his famous ‘thermal law’ of delinquency in which he claimed that crimes against person predominated in the south and increased in summers, while crimes against property predominated in the north and increased during the winter time.

Champneuf supported this hypothesis of the relationship between the nature of crime and the climate on the basis of his study conducted in France between 1825 and 1830.

He found 181.5 property crimes against every 100 crimes against persons in north France, and 98.8 property crimes against every 100 crimes against persons in south France. On the basis of his study of property crimes conducted between 1825 and 1880, the French scholar Laccasagne also found the highest number of property crimes in December, followed by January, November and February.

In a study on the effect of climate on an individual’s behaviour made in 1904, the American scholar Dexter found that crime and geographical conditions like barometric pressure, heat, humidity, etc., were highly related with one another.

His found that crimes of violence were most numerous during the warm months of the year, during periods of low barometric pressure, and during periods of low humidity. (Cf. Joseph Cohen, The Geography of Crime, September 1941) In 1911, a Russian scholar Kropotkin established that the rate of murder in any month/year can be predicted by calculating the average temperature and humidity of the preceding month/year.

For this, he gave a mathematical formula 2(7x+y), where x is temperature and y is humidity. Multiplying the average temperature x of the last month with 7 and adding the average humidity of the last month y to it, and then multiplying the total figure with 2, we will get the number of murders to be committed in a given month.

The geographical explanation has been criticised on the ground that geographical factors may affect individual behaviour but the direct relationship between crime and geographical factors cannot be accepted as claimed by these scholars.

The geographical theories over-simplify the problem of crime and exaggerate the geographical factors. Had such relationship really existed, the number and nature of crime in a given geographical environment would have been the same at all times, which is not so. Hence, the invalidity of this theory.