C. Ray Jeffery

The word criminology was not defined until 1885 by Raffaele Garofalo. Even though the word was not coined until 1885, criminology and criminal justice have been in society for many years. Adler et al. (2018) explain that the earliest code of law known by society was the code of Hammurabi in 1972. Throughout these years, there have been many criminologists, theorists, and other important individuals that have shared their ideas of criminology and the meaning of criminal justice.

The words criminology and criminal justice sound similar, but their meanings are different. Criminal Justice focuses on the legal system. This includes crime statistics, punishment, and rehabilitation. However, criminology focuses on a different aspect of the crime. The study of Criminology focuses on why a crime was committed, and how it may affect individuals. Alder et al. (2018) explains to readers that when they think of criminology, they can think of the saying who, what, when, why, and where. Criminologists want to know who commits the crime and who is involved. Furthermore, they want to know why they committed the crime; what was their motive? Criminal Justice does look at motives, but criminology tries to understand the deeper meaning. Many individuals who study criminology focus on ways to prevent crimes. One individual who had a large impact on crime prevention was C. Ray Jeffery.

In an interview conducted in 1996, C. Ray Jeffery starts off the interview by describing his family history, and how he interviewed the field of criminology. He starts the interview off by telling the interviewer how his family was already involved with criminal justice as his father worked with the criminal justice system. Two other factors in his college that influenced his career in criminology was BF Skinnier and the Classical approach to criminology. McLeod (2018) explains that BF Skinnier was known for his experiments that used animals which he would place in a box labeled the “skinner box.” These studies were used to understand the operant conditioning. However, these were not the exact reasons Jeffery became a criminologist.

Despite being known for criminology, C. Ray Jeffery did not start in this field. C. Ray Jeffery (1996) speaks about his undergraduate degree is in economics and philosophy. Furthermore, he was attending a graduate school for a major in the same study but changed to a degree in sociology. Jeffery then speaks about his first article that was focused on legal and social criminology. Jeffery (1996) explains that this publication describes the development of laws. After this publication, he started focusing on different aspects of laws.

The Criminologist, C. Ray Jeffery (1996) tells the interviewer that he is considered the first one to study how someone can condition delinquents, but his study ultimately failed. To understand why it failed, one would have to use the researcher and articles of other criminologists and sociologists. Jeffery decided that his experiment failed because he was not able to control all aspects of the delinquents’ environments. He would then write a book on the environmental designs. In the 1970s, C. Ray Jefferey devoted the Crime Prevention Through environment design, which is known as CPTED. One of the theories of crime is that an individual’s environment may make them more likely to commit a crime. Jeffery’s idea was that if citizen’s could make a large positive impact on their society, there would-be lower crime rates. His idea for this design came from his research.

Furthermore, Jeffery (1996) explicates that the first edition of this book only focuses on the environmental design; however, the next few editions added biology and genetics. He added these topics because through research, he was able to gain a deeper understanding of biology and genetics. Diana Fishbein (2008) explains that after being inspired, C. Ray Jeffery participated in numerous research projects that were based on gang violence and prevention. Through the research he participated in, he concluded that deviant behaviors could stem from genetics, or it can be a behavior that is learned. Because of this conclusion, he supported the learning theory; this theory states that deviant behavior can be learned from individuals who are influenced or taught deviant behaviors by the people they are with, whether they are friends or family.

Jeffery had found, through his research, that gender and racial differences may be able to affect the rates and types of deviant behaviors. Furthermore, Alder et al. (2018) explains to readers that C. Ray Jeffery believed that the brain was the organ of the mind. Readers can assume that this means that the brain is the place where the mind resides. However, C. Ray Jeffery (1996) stated, “the brain is the organ of behavior and no theory of behavior can ignore neurology and chemistry.” Therefore, he added biology and genetics to his theories and designs.

Despite all this work and research, many individuals refused to understand what C. Ray Jeffery was trying to get society to understand. During the interview in 1996, Jeffery used words like “confused” or “ignored” to describe how people viewed his theories or crime prevention methods. He provides some examples in this interview that can show viewers how harmful this confusion could be. One example is that many researchers choose to ignore the individual facts of criminals, for example, testosterone levels in males. Instead, they tend to focus on race, ethnicity, and factors that do not focus on certain individual’s characteristics. Another example shows how this confusion can be harmful to the programs or government. C. Ray Jeffery (1996) explains that Oscar Newman used millions of dollars in government money for crime prevention based on C. Ray Jeffery’s book titles, “CPTED.” However, society did not understand that Newman’s programs did not participate or take part in what C. Ray Jeffery was attempting to do.

C. Ray Jefferey was a criminologist that made a large impact on society. Throughout his lifetime he held many titles, including a writer and criminologist at Florida State University. With his writings and theories, he was able to change some views of criminals. One of his works, “Crime Invention Through Environmental Design,” and multiple other works would be taught throughout schools in the United States. Unfortunately, Feishbein (2008) explains that C. Ray Jeffery died on December 6, 2007, from a physical illness he was struggling with. Jeffery’s work inspires many and will be used to educate others throughout the years.

References

Adler, F., Mueller, G. O., & Laufer, W. S. (2018). Criminology. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Fishbein, D. (2008, December 2). C. Ray Jeffery. Retrieved August 04, 2020, from https://www.asc41.com/obituaries/2007obits.html

Fishbein, D. (interviewer). (1996). C. Ray Jeffery - Oral History of Criminology [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.yyoutube.com/watch?v=vaaCAWOWUbk&feature=youtu.be

Garcia, T. (2013). Labels and Its Effects on Deviance. Correlation between Internalization and Deviance, 1-18.

Mcleod, S. (2018). Skinner - Operant Conditioning. Retrieved August 04, 2020, from https://www.simplypsychology.org/operant-conditioning.html