TRENDS OF CONTEMPORARY CRIME: ETHNOCRIMINOLOGICAL APPROACH AND INTERPRETATION OF GENDER DIFFERENCES, SOCIAL CLASS AND MIGRATION

Abstract

Purpose: The aim of this paper is to point out the importance of the ethnocriminological interpretation of crime in relation to these characteristics. In the division of criminology into phenomenology and etiology, general and clinical, ethnocriminology is a part of general criminology because the scope of its study includes the characteristics of ethnicity, that is, the characteristics of certain marginalized social groups, by race, gender, certain religious characteristics and the influence of these characteristics on the occurrence of crime, as well as the ways of social reaction to these phenomena according to the ethnic characteristics of the perpetrator or victim.

Design/Methods/Approach: The main methods that will be used in the paper are description, historical method and analytical method in the theoretical observation of phenomena, in a cause-and-effect sense, related to the ethnocriminological concept, as well as in the analysis of individual cases of media reporting in which elements of the ethnocriminological or ethnovictimological approach can be observed.

Findings: As early as the 19th century, the term criminal saturation was used in anthropological theory, and in the synthetic concept of modern criminology, it is possible to single out a series of phenomena that are described and directly related to race and ethnicity and crime, which also includes explanations related to interactionism and labeling, as well as parts of critical criminology in relation to the crime of marginalized social groups.

Originality/Value: The ethno criminological approach, in a cognitive and methodological sense, indicates that when it comes to issues of ethnicity in criminology, it is noted that in older sources this concept is most often linked to a critical attitude towards discrimination expressed in relation to certain ethnic groups and their characteristics and in terms of criminal etiology, i.e. a direct causal connection with certain types of crime. It is noticeable that attention is drawn in detail to the position of minority groups, critically reviewing various forms of discrimination committed against them. It links ethno features to ethnic minorities, and before that it writes about segregation, as well as minority groups in relation to race, ethnicity, religion. Criticism of ethnocentrism is a mandatory way of noticing certain ethnological characteristics of the population, potential perpetrators or victims of crime in order to prevent and combat crime. Rigidity of attitudes is ethnocentrism, and the concentric circles of knowledge about customs, with their rules, with their trappings do not represent their abolition, but rather an understanding and introduction of modern forms of combating crime while respecting diversity. Movements of migrants in the first quarter of the 21st century represent an additional reason for drawing attention to ethno-criminology. In the literature, it is possible to find a connection between ethnocriminology and the criminology of colonialism. In particular, the questions of epistemology and research methodology were critically observed because this would achieve a critique of the social and historical denial of colonialism and racism.

Keywords: ethnocriminology; method; victimology; gender; class; racism.