Positivism versus Classicism and Their Role in Ireland - Essay Example

Compare and contrast positivism and icism and outline their role as an explanation for criminal behaviour in Ireland Your Name Institution Name Abstract The paper explains two influential theories of Criminal Justice; Classicism and Positivism. It analyzes and compares the theoretical and practical importance of both as an effective solution of crime. Appreciation and criticism for both schools of thought is explained by identifying the differences they hold. Classicism bases the idea of punishment and crime on enlightenment while Positivism infers human criminal behavior as a consequence of internal and external factors and measures it through moral statistics. This study considers the ultimate goal of punishment is to maintain harmony in society and strike a balance between focus on criminal and root cause of crime. Finally, role of both theories in determining criminal behavior in Ireland is studied. Compare and contrast positivism and classicism Classical and positivist school of thought are basic part of early criminological development. Cesare Beccaria proposed Classical perspective which was inspired by “On Crimes and Punishment” in 1764. He was concerned about reforming the brutal ways of punishment for bad deeds prevailed throughout Europe. He was a man of law who believed in philosophical and procedure based punishment that can provide moral support for criminal justice. According to Classical school of thought, man is a rational being who is blessed with free will. This knowledge and sense of choice enables man to judge the good or bad and its consequences for everyone including himself. Man is fully capable to understand and avoid crime considering the logical consequence of crime as punishment (O’Mahony, 2002, p.221). O’Mahony(2002) states the principles as: people should be treated equally before the law and punished only in accordance with the law; that punishment should be based on the act rather than the class of person who commits the act; the punishment should be based on a pleasure/pain reckoning so that the pain of punishment will always outweigh the pleasure to be gained from crime; and, perhaps most importantly ,that punishment should be commensurate with the seriousness of the offence and, though a prompt and effective deterrent, should be kept to the minimum…Most importantly, since man acts on the basis of his rational, self-regarding, cost/benefit analysis of the situation, he can be swayed to avoid crime, if he sees that it carries a high risk of appropriately severe punishment.(p.221) According to Joyce (2006), this school of thought developed from the enlightenment movements in Europe and expressed through liberalism, they believed in having society as a contract instead of an arrangement made by God. It is a logical choice of those who get into it voluntarily, individual rights are considered as top priority (p.1). Joyce (2006) states, government emerged as the result of a rational choice by those who subsequently accorded their consent to its operations, and this belief ensured that the rights of the individual were prominent concerns of liberal and classical thinking. Crime was viewed as an act that infringed the legal code whose rationale was to safeguard the interests of those who were party to the social contract, especially the preservation of their personal safety and privately owned property. In such a contractual society, the equality of all citizens before the law and the presumption of the innocence of a person accused of criminal wrongdoing were viewed as cardinal principles to safeguard individual rights and liberties. The state was entitled to intervene in the lives of its citizens only when this would promote the interests of the majority. (p.1) Beccaria (1764, as cited in Joyce, 2006) advocated classical views about crime and suggested the responses for state as; 1) crime is committed as a logical consequence of an individual’s free will that could have avoid doing it.2) Classicism believes that rational understanding of an individual who commit a crime seek to increase the pleasure and shun the pain for them. Consequently, classicism guarantees the punishment as a logical consequence of committing a crime.3) It suggests devising a defined, predictable and swift legal and criminal justice system which can ensure people about the definite punishment as an outcome of committing a crime.4)Law professionals are emphasized to avoid diplomacy and free will in order to keep the spirit alive. Their task is to apply the law not to interpret for their objectives.5) Classicism, unlike positivism, do not believe in intent of crime, but it measure the crime and punish for it. In order to discourage crime, the degree of punishment is reserved higher than that of pleasure gained from crime. Main focus of state is to stop crime from persuasion instead of punishing people after transgression (p.2). According to Thomas (2003, as cited in Joyce, 2006) Jeremy Bentham introduces some reforms in classicist school of thought. Reform of the penal code, Classicists was opposed to the contemporary penal code in Britain which provided the death penalty for a very wide range of offences. They sought to adjust penalties to reflect the seriousness of the crime in the belief that the application of the criminal law was frequently disregarded because the penalties it prescribed were seen as unreasonable. The Criminal Law Commissioners (who were appointed in 1833) sought to limit the use of judicial discretion in sentencing: although their Draft Codes were not enacted, Parliament did remove the death penalty from a considerable number of offences in the early decades of the nineteenth century. (p.3) Joyce states, Jeremy Bentham introduced police reform in order to abolish rural community constable as after urbanization and industrial revolution, rural areas were very fertile for crime. This scenario required much more efficient system of police to stop crime. These reforms believe in the principle rule of anticipation but classicist observed that there are people who can’t make rational choices because they could not avoid crime. For such cases prison was introduced and during this punishment, an individual is encouraged and counseled to shun this in future. It is to evoke the natural thought process for a better life in future as Classicist believe that punishment is not the solution and responsibility does not ends with it. Another reform for prison is also introduced in order to avoid rebellion which is associated with severe prison punishments. The reform encourages and keeps an eye on prisoners with the help of inmates. They help people in becoming rational by consciously training them for this. Inmates internalize good behavior and better attitudes which result in developed and transformed human being who becomes constructive part of society after prison(2006,p.3). Foucault (1977, as cited in Joyce, 2006) states, “this approach was compatible with the view subsequently expressed that the power of prison was the power to exert discipline over inmates in order to secure social conformity through subjugation” (p.3). On the other hand, Positivist school of thought is determined by the empirical scientific and statistical methods and evolutionary theory. It rejects the existence of fee will and stresses the role of environmental and biological factors in determining the human behavior. These factors are not in direct control of human and this major difference in determining the source of influence brought the disagreement between positivism and classicism. Lombroso (1911, as cited in O’Mahony, 2002) is frequently credited with being the most important pioneer of the positivist approach in criminology. Lombroso misguidedly believed it was possible to identify born criminals from physical features that were thought to be indicative of a more primitive stage of evolutionary development, such as huge jaws and strong canine teeth. While the influence of Beccaria can still be traced in the Irish criminal legal system and Constitution, the early positivist theories of criminality and their inherent “biology as destiny” assumptions were quickly rejected and replaced by theories emphasizing the impact of the social environment. (p.221) Tovey and Share (2003) state positivists refers people react to environment just like the atoms react to heat without even knowing what they are responding to. This school of thought state that for studying them, we do not need to ask people about what and why they do something, rather, only observing such people can answer the questions like this. For example, we do not need to ask a drug user about the reason of using drug, we can easily identify that a person is addicted to it because of some negative reason. Therefore, positivism believes on some facts which are there without the consideration of how people classify them. Irish society is divided into classes but people may argue that it is not the case and people are categorised by their own levels, consequently, it can be inferred that for the subjective study and observation of social reality, observer has to be unbiased and impartial of the generally accepted point of view (p.17). Anthropologist Eileen Kane (1996, as cited in Tovey & Share, 2003)...As social scientists in Ireland have drawn almost entirely from a post-positivist paradigm, they have been led into the production of ‘facts, albeit second class ones, rather than interpretation and...An emphasis on refinements of methodology, usually quantitative’ Positivistic thinking has been endemic within Irish society. It has ‘shaped not only the social sciences, but official and public expectations about the nature of reality and what constitutes credible evidence as a basis for action’. The result is a ‘stultifying empiricism’; sociology oriented Catholic Church. As a result, Kane argues, Irish sociology has emphasised pathology, crime and deviance; poverty and unemployment; violence, drugs and alcohol; the conditions of some minorities; and the problems of rural areas. These are all fields that ‘have symbolic and political resonance for both church and state’. A further consequence for Kane is that Irish sociology (like most others) studies ‘down, in class and power terms, rather than up’, with very little if any research being done on the powerful social groups in society. That is left to (a few) investigative journalists and, in recent years, various public tribunals of enquiry. (p.38) Joyce (2006) argues that classicist’s believe of crime as a rational choice of human being was associated with many controversies and positivism challenged it in nineteenth century. Positivist rejected intent and blamed external and internal factors for motivating him to do wrong. These environmental or genetic factors are not in direct control of an individual, therefore, why should a human be punished for something he can not control. Positivist associated crime with illness that needs treatment in isolation with the rational people (p.4).Cohen (1988, as cited in Joyce 2006, p.4) states, “Positivists places the notion of causality at the heart of the criminological enterprise”. Positivists believe in interpreting human behavior by using scientific methods and quantitative research. It is accurate, calculated and based on measurable facts. According to Joyce (2006), main features of Positivist school of thought are: Positivism believes in focusing on the behavior of criminal but unlike classicism it demands to comprehend and identify a person’s background and factors influencing him rather than concentrating on the act of crime itself. Every society is considered to have a certain value system and set of rational believes. Criminals astray from such value systems, therefore, they are considered to be under socialized or negatively socialized. Positivism provides biological, environmental, psychological and sociological dynamics of crime and its existence. However, Positivist school of thought is under severe criticism. Unlike classicism, positivism believes in determinism which discards the existence of free will and human responsibility of committing crime, rather puts the whole responsibility on uncontrollable factors. Under socialization concept of positivist puts a question mark on quality and accuracy of social standards. For example, Marxist believes that in a society, authority and power relationship figure out the dominant human behaviors. Most deteriorating is the belief of associating crime with lower income group which does not provide any explanation of crime in top economic position of society. Positivist school of thought puts over emphasis on the individual and his circumstances rather than reflecting on the crime which leads to injustice in terms of less punishment for rigorous crime (p.5-6). Joyce (2006) explains Classicism has got edge on Positivism in some views like mere law implementation which is irrespective of any human concern can lead to bias. However, Classicists also faced criticism in some areas: classicists believe on philosophical interpretation of crime rather than providing concrete facts and evidence derived from scientific or other measurements. Their overemphasis on the existence of rational set of believes in every individual which can be controlled and can not be affected by any external or internal factor. Poverty and mental incapability should not rule out rational thinking in rational and responsible human beings. Consequently, they underestimate and overlook the economic or environmental factors leading to a criminal behavior. Social divisions and classes rule out the idea of everyone is equal in law. Classicist believe of consistent implementation of law is affected by destabilized judgment (p.4). O’Mahony (2002) states, the sharp rise in Ireland in recent decades are very frequently explained in terms of social changes. The main candidate causes are: rapid urbanization and the decay of communal solidarity and the formerly dominant Catholic moral value system; industrialization and the growth of a market-driven, consumerist, materialistic, individualist ethos; and globalization in terms of travel, commerce and communication and especially in terms of the omnipresent Anglo-American entertainment monoculture, which transmits vast amounts of sometimes liberating information alongside powerful new models for interpersonal behavior.(p.228) O’Mahony (2002) narrates another demographic rationale which presents Ireland as a low crime rate area before the emigration of adult males and such groups. This is another reason which associates poor and unstable economic condition with increasing crime rate in Ireland. None of the system is best as in criminal justice system, individual is blamed and accused of the crime he commits irrespective of his class, family, hereditary or social conditions. This kind of issues point towards the differences between classical and positivist schools of thought. Irish law clearly defines the exceptional situation and cases that include; mistakes, provocation, accidents, mental illness, insanity, immaturity or duress. Other than these elisions, in this way law rejects genetic and environmental influences by holding an individual as entirely responsible for the crimes he commits (p.229). For example, O’Mahony(2002) states, one Irish report on the penal system(ICP and ICC 1985) warns against “a sentimental, demeaning and ultimately subversive tendency to deny justification for punishment by diminishing the individual offender’s responsibility and therefore his guilt to vanishing point, on the grounds of environmental, psychological or other factors. Human dignity is compatible with being punished, since punishment entails recognition of the autonomy and responsibility of the offender, who is held able to answer for himself and his offense. (p.229) In past punishment methods also gave rise to crime and despotism. Pope Innocent III outlawed and substituted Priestly cooperation in trials of fire and water by compurgation at the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215(Vold, Bernard & Snipes, 2002).In those days trial by battle and than trial by ordeal was used to punish the victim and save the innocent. According to Vold, Bernard and Snipes (2002), Trial by ordeal was condemned by the Pope in 1215 and was replaced by compurgation, in which the accused gathered together a group of twelve reputable people who would swear that he or she was innocent. (p.3) Irish law and constitution define and interpret criminal law based on natural law and concepts linked with criminology theory of classicism (Doolan, 2003).According to Tebbitt (2000) Durkheimian positivism is associated with ‘the cement of society, by Devlin. He concentrated on individual and focused on the progress of society can uphold by moral laws and favored natural law which incorporated morality as a higher justification (p.42). Positivism and classicism influenced the development of criminal justice theory. Former represented crime and its solution as a scientific and statistical measurement of morality while the later emphasised on the idea of enlightenment and focused on individual. Classicism relied on poor ideal of control of crime and rationality which led to Positivism that reflected on causes of crime and factors stimulating it. Both perspectives are essential for accurate and efficient implementation of criminal justice policies. Violation of law calls for a precise understanding of crime and criminal in order to root it from the base. References Doolan, B. (2003).Principles of Irish Law (6th ed.). Dublin: Gill & Macmillan Ltd. Joyce, P. (2006).Criminal Justice: An Introduction to Crime and the Criminal Justice System.Devon: Willan Publishing. O’Mahony, P. (Eds.). (2002).Criminal Justice in Ireland. Dublin: Institute of Public Administration. Tebbit, M. (2000).Philosophy of Law: an Introduction. London: Routledge. Tovey, H. & Share, P. (2003).A Sociology of Ireland (2nd ed.).Dublin: Gill & Macmillan Ltd. Vold, G.B., Bernard, T.J., & Sinpes.J.B. (2002).Theoretical criminology. N.Y.: Oxford University Press. Read More