The present paper aims to explain crime by investigating various theoretical approaches and to show that from the classic era to the recent postmodern theories, a slow but steady cycle of discourse concerning crime has been occurring. In the classic times, the criminal is assumed to be a sane person with sound will who commits crime with an individualistic choice and due to incorrect decisions; In the positivism approach, the theorists' concern is directed at recognizing criminals and clarifying more fundamental biological aspects and psychological performance and they seek to explain the phenomenon of crime by dividing the people of the society into normal and abnormal people; In the modern theories the social factors causing the appearance of crime are at the focal point while critical theories greatly emphasize on the role of the society in the criminal phenomenon and its definition, finally postmodern theories consider crime totally as constructed by mindset, language and power and question its existential reality.
From the Individual's Fault to the Construct of Power (Development and Changes of Crime Theories)
