Cursos / 1º Ciclo / Faculty of Law :: Criminology

HISTÓRIA DA CRIMINOLOGIA - 2025/2026

1º curricular year
Semestralidade: 2nd semester
ECTS: 3

Teachers

Leading Teacher: Prof. Doutora Fátima Rodrigues
Assistant Professor: Prof. Doutora Fátima Rodrigues

Class type and School hours

Teórico-prática : 2 Horas

Teaching Language

Portuguese

Main Aims/Objectives

- To know the emergence conditions and the development of knowledge about crime and the social reaction in Western countries, placing them in their respective theoretical, socio-cultural, political and ethical contexts;
- To address the major criminological issues from a perspective that integrates historical and interdisciplinary elements;
- To historically analyze the criminological knowledge produced in Portugal and to situate it internationally.

Specific Aims/Objectives

- To make students aware of the need to resort to historical-critical analysis methodologies of crime and punishment;
- To acquire conceptual tools suitable for the historical analysis of crime and criminology;
- To operationalize the theoretical-methodological frameworks acquired at the level of empirical research.

Skills to be acquired

Students should be able to:
- identify the historical analysis of Criminology, considering its special complexity in relation to the historical "a priori" (M. Foucault);
- identify the different phases of the evolution of knowledge about crime and the criminal, since the 17th century, particularly in Portugal.

Teaching Procedures

Audio-visual resources
Analysis of scientific texts
Practical exercises

Programme

I- The method of historical analysis.
How is history made?
- The uncritical realization of history (simplistic model);
- Historical research with method (complex model); -
The two great critical traditions of the history of science: the historicist tradition and the logicist tradition.

II - The evolution of criminological thought and its relationship with the History of scientific thought in general:

- Emergence and evolution of criminological thought, starting from the perspectives of Pires and Garland: introduction to the different schools of criminology;
- From the Classical School to the Cartographic School. The transformations that took place in criminological thought in the passage from the 18th century to the 19th century;
- Positivism as the dominant philosophy of knowledge in the 20th century and its repercussions on the knowledge of crime and criminal justice;
- The conditions of possibility of a science of crime and the delinquent: the Italian Positivist School and its antecedents;
- The decline of Criminal Anthropology;
- The Differential Development of Criminology in Europe and North America;
- The great references of Criminology during the second half of the 20th century;
- Criminology in the history of the present time.

III - History of Criminology in Portugal

- Methodological issues;
- Stages in the constitution and development of Criminology in Portugal: research, training and knowledge transfer;
- Portuguese Criminology in the first decades of the 20th century (creation of the Criminology Institutes and academic research);
- Period of decadence of Portuguese Criminology;
- Its rebirth over the last 40 years.

Evaluation Type

Continuous assessment: Two written evaluation tests.
Final evaluation: Written exam.

Teaching Resources

Audio-visual resources
Analysis of scientific texts
Practical exercises

Sustainability Objectives

The program contributes to SDGs 4, 10, and 16 by promoting quality education through the analysis of historical methods and criminological thought, empowering students to understand social complexities. By investigating inequalities in the justice system, it helps formulate inclusive policies. The evolution of criminology can contribute to proposing policies and practices that strengthen institutions of justice and peace.

Keywords

Scientific method
History
Portuguese Criminology
Historical evolution

Main Bibliography

Complementary Bibliography