Modernity and Enlightenment Reason - Essay Example

icism Progress through Maximising individual freedom 2. The perfection of legal system 3. Punishment must respect individual rights and responsibilities due process 4. Punishment as deterrence and retribution Criminological Positivism Progress through: 1. Reason in science applied to human affairs 2. Recognizing the determinants of human action 3. Response to crime Rehabilitation of known offenders Pre-empting through removing sources: welfare - addressing poverty, addressing family life Welfare and Rehabilitation Modernity & Enlightenment Reason A belief in progress through the application of reason to human affairs The visible presence of class conflict and social misery in Europe, the rise of scientific interest and industrial innovation, and the idea of evolution and stages in human development were all to influence the establishment of positivism as an approach to human affairs. Positivism was founded upon the belief that society (civilisation) is progressing ever forward, and that the social scientist can study society, provide a more accurate understanding of how society works, and ultimately provide a rational means of overcoming existing social problems and ills by using scientific methods. Social scientists were interested in promoting a positive view of the social order, and in providing positive interventions in social life to make things better. This required systematic study of existing social problems, and the development of a wide range of techniques and strategies to deal with issues relating to schooling, poverty and family life. Under the rubric of positive reform, a wide variety of "experts" - medical, doctors, psychiatrists, health workers, teachers, criminal justice officials and social workers - began to devise "scientific" ways to raise children better, to professionalise parenting, to deal with personal troubles and individual deficiencies, to deal with young offenders and generally to engineer wide scale social reform. The development of positivism was related to efforts to adopt natural science methods and concepts in the study of society. Positivism is based on the idea of a scientific understanding of crime and criminality. It assumes that there is a distinction between the "normal" and the "deviant" and attempts to study the specific factors that give rise to deviant or criminal behaviour. Behaviour is a reflection of certain influences on a person, whether biological, psychological, or social in nature. It is believed that offenders vary: individual differences exist between offenders and these in turn can be measured and classified in some way. The focus of analysis therefore is on the nature and characteristics of the offender, rather than on the criminal act. The positivist approach is directed towards the treatment of offenders. Offending behaviour is analysed in terms of factors or forces beyond the conscious control of the individual. Since each individual offender is different from all others, treatment must be individualised. One strand of scientific research attempted to provide biological explanations for criminal behaviour; the other focused on psychological factors associated with criminality. Biological positivism Biological positivism was first popularised through the work of Lombroso. Borrowing heavily from evolutionary theories, Lombroso attempted to distinguish different types of human individuals, and to classify them on the basis of racial and biological difference. In a form of "criminal anthropology", the argument here was that a general theory of crime can be developed on the basis of measurable physical differences between the criminal and the no criminal. For Lombroso, the criminal was born, not made. The idea of a "born criminal" reflected the notion that crime is the result of something essential to the nature of the individual criminal. The emphasis on biological factors in explanations of crime was reflected in a number of subsequent studies. The study conducted on 355 male inmates of Pentridge prison. Attempts to measure intelligence, and to argue that criminals were innately less intelligent than the general population, were also popular. According to Sheldon, human body types can be classed into three broad categories: endomorphic, mesomorphic, and ectomorphic. There was a positive correlation between body type and criminal activity. Biological explanations tend to be fairly pessimistic about positive actions to prevent or deal with crime. Psychological positivism had different historical origins and a different orientation towards the offender and criminal activity. The criminal was made and not born. Psychological positivism ranges from personality traits to psychoanalytic theories. This strand of positivism emerged in England form within the Criminal Justice Institutions. Psychological theories tended to centre attention on the processes of the mind in explanations of criminal behaviour. Criticisms of positivism centre on the characterisation of criminal offending similar to a sickness. Positivism, Scientific Criminology and The Rise of Criminal Man D.Garland, Punishment and Welfare (1985) Report of the Departmental Committee on Prisons / Gladstone Report 1895. "Era of Criminology" - Rise of Science Applied through Rehabilitation & Welfare European Enlightenment - Human Nature and Reason Reason- Progress as Individual Freedom (Classicism) Reason- Progress as Scientific Determinism (Positivism) Enlightenment Modernity Reason emancipates Reason and the possibility of progress Time -from circular and recurrent to Linear and progressive Domains of Reason Politics / morality - the logic of rational justification Science - the logic of rational justification The future is open Classical Jurisprudence - J.Bentham & C.Beccaria Humanity = reasoning & hedonistic The offender = reasoning & retribution Punishment as deterrence & retribution The Victorian general prison Role of Modern Governance Provision of "mechanisms of security" (Foucault) - Orderly expression of self interest The social contract Criminal justice in tune with liberal, free market governance Reason as Science The language of determinism Crime as determined behaviour 19thc. Statistics Analysis & Social Surveillance Moral statistics - Guerry & Quetelet - a Science of Aggregate Populations "Police Science" - Knowledge of= power over populations Foucault - knowledge - Power J.Donzelot, The Policing of Families (1979) 19th and 20th C - "Expert Scientific intervention" Surveillance, regulation, discipline and support Aimed at normalising the abnormal 19th Century - Criminal Justice Policy Dominated by debate between Reason in Law v Reason in Science Progressive expansion of interest in the latter re. Specific "problem populations" Historical conditions for the "Era of Criminology" Crisis of the 19th C Prison Increasing levels of crime Fear of social unrest Invention of criminology Criminal Anthropology C.Lombroso, L'Uomo Delinquente 1876 The influence of Darwin Criminality & Atavism The law of biogenetics Criminal as biological entity Difficulty/impossibility of treatment Early British Positivism D.Garland, British Criminology Before 1935 Influence of medicine and psychiatry Criminality as a medical/psychological condition/disease Crime= problem of mind Crime can be treated Post Lombrosian Biologies of Crime Phrenology, Somatyping, Neuroscience 1895 Gladstone Report Rejects classicist free will Rejects Lombrosian biological determinism Crime = psychological problem with social psychological sources The problem of the family and early experiences Importance of Freud- Psychodynamic models. J.Donzelot - Policing the Family Psycho dynamically legitimated Systems of support, regulation and coercion Articulated through medical, social welfare, psychiatric, educational professionals Focussed on families/parenting practices Aimed at producing socially approved and legally sanctioned behaviour in the young. High Modernity & the Culture of Crime Control - The Case of Juvenile Justice Theory, Policy and Context Classicism - Classical liberalism, Laissez faire Individualistic Positivism - Faith in Science/Crisis of classicism Sociological Positivism - Recognition of the "Social" as an object of management Modernity and Self Production Reason in Science embodied in government policy- Social Progress Modernity implies a met narrative of progress Criminology = contributory narrative of progress Rise of expert systems / technocracies Gladstone Committee Report 1895 New culture of control = penal - welfare complex Reform - rehabilitation Extending role of the state embodying "expert systems" / technocracies The New Penal - Welfare Regimes Normalisation - Community corrections & Welfare Correction - Specialist Institution Segregation - The Prison C.Burt, The Young Delinquent (1925) The family & the origins of delinquency Young offenders & Rehabilitation through psychotherapy 1933 Children and Young Persons Act Magistrates to be concerned with the welfare of the child rather than their guilt. Delinquent - Neglected Depraved - Deprived Punishment - Individualistic Treatment J.Donzelot, The Policing of Families (1979) Interpenetration of institutions of welfare, education and penalty Blending of disciplinary, welfare and rehabilitative regimes Penal / welfare complex Post - War Social Democratic Welfare State Extended role for the state Mandate for extensive social reform State managed economic growth = inroads into presumed structural causes of crime E. McLaughlin, Probation Work: Social Work or Social Control (1998) "The Epidemiological Age" - the expertise + the political will to remove the social & psychological sources of crime. 1960s - The Problem of Juvenile Delinquency Post war growth + welfare state but problem of juvenile delinquency Discovery of the Problem Family Family as an object of treatment and reform Crime -A challenge to us all (1964) 1. Decriminalisation 2. De-institutionalisation 3. Diversion 4. Informality 5. De- stigmatization Juvenile court as rehabilitative clinic Classicism challenged (Responsibility, guilt/innocence, punishment, offence by positivism (welfare, treatment, rehabilitation, need) Children & Young Persons Act 1969 Raising the age of criminal responsibility Transferring responsibility from central government (Home office) to local government (Social Services) From just desserts to individual social-psychological need From punishment to care and control D.Garland, The Culture of Control (2001) Modern Criminal Justice - Eclectic 1. Neo- Classical Foundation - Police, courts, prison system, prosecutorial authority. Language of Reform, general punishment, penalty and due process. 2. Superstructure - Probation, parole, treatment, juvenile court 3. Language of rehabilitation, individualised therapy, welfarism, criminological research, Partial Implementation of the 1969 Act S. Cohen, Visions of Social Control (1985) 1. Net Widening 2. Up Tariffing Read More