The History of Criminology - Research Paper Example

 The History of Criminology Criminology is the methodical study of the level, nature, control and causes of criminal behavior in both the society and individual. It is a field which is an interdisciplinary in the behavioral sciences, drawing mainly upon the sociologist’s research, psychologists and social anthropologists, psychiatrists with the writings in law. This essay presents the two contrasting theories in criminology; these are the classical school and the positivist school of criminology. Classical School of Criminology: Classical school of criminology is a method in the legal system which arose in the enlightenment period in the 1700s. The Philosophers like John Locke, Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham prolonged upon the social contract theory to clarify as to why people entrust crime and how societies can successfully fight crime? The concepts can go on to play a huge role in the legal systems in a lot of nations nowadays, even though the approach in the current world tends to be a little more flexible. “According to Beccaria, crimes occur when the potential pleasure and rewards from illegal acts outweigh the pains of punishment. Beccaria’s theory was that in order for punishment to be effective, it must be public, prompt, necessary, the least possible in the given circumstances, proportionate and dictated by law” (Classical Vs. Positivist Criminology, 2013, par.2). It is significant to recognize the situation in which the classical criminology was expanded. At the time of the enlightenment, Europe was altering completely, with a lot of nations rising from the feudal monarchies and completely improving their laws. Across Europe, this law was wildly conflicting and it still applied more variably. Board of judges and another legal official’s frequently lacked a wide training, and it arranged punishments completely out of quantity to some crimes as ignoring others. A lot of people understood the need for a more consistent and efficient justice system, and this method was the result. The Classical Theory has a number of components to it. 1) Individual has the free will to choose lawful or criminal explanations to assemble their requirements or to resolve their troubles. 2) Crime is attractive only when it assures huge profits with little attempts. 3) Crime might be forbidden by the fear of penalty. 4) Penalty that is or is supposed to be severe, convinced, and swift will deter all illegal activities.  Classical criminology is basically a financial theory of crime that concentrates on the criminal act as per the definition which is given by the law. The significant idea is those individuals who are less or more free to decide any offense as to one by a choice or of behavioral choices. The comparative attractiveness of any option is influenced by the costs that are connected with an illegal action. These costs can be prepared into the criminal justice system, even though more in current situational and rational choice theory sees them as being structured into the ecological treatments. In traditional theory the significance is positioned upon as justified punishments and legal justice is organizing a rational, cost benefit computation to outcome a probable criminal, who is selecting not to commit an offence. The cost benefit weighing of pain and pleasure is seen to rule both the society’s response and of an individual’s behavior. “Additionally, cost benefit calculation may be an outcome of situational and contextual constraints or barriers that can be manipulated in order to increase the costs and reduce the opportunities to commit crime. During the twentieth century the original conceptions of classical theory were developed, adapted, clarified or even re-created, such that there are now many criminological theories sharing a similar perspective” (Einstadter, 2006. p. 48). According to the philosophers, individuals are self-interested animals, other than that they are also very rational. Whereas people will be inclined to do things that are in their own egotism, they also recognize that a number of actions are really in conflict with all this, and a lot of societies are expanding a social agreement that determines human behavior, with humans equally agreeing to refrain from actions that injure all other or society. “People also have free will, which means that they can opt to violate the social contract. For example, someone might steal or murder to accomplish a self-interested goal. By having consistent punishments in place that are proportional to the crime and applied rapidly, classical criminologists argue, the legal system will create deterrents to crime” (What is Classical Criminology? 2003, par.5). Before performing a crime with an amount of uncertainty in regarding to the penalty, individuals in a nation with a concise and clear legal system will be well conscious of the effects of violating the social contract and law, and they can think two times before doing the crime. The larger problem with classical criminology is that it doesn’t allow for extenuating conditions. Someone who cheats a business for income is considered exactly the same as a person who cheats a business to eat, and few individuals consider that this is cruel. Others feel that the statement of free will is too rather questionable, as individual might be forced into creating decisions as an outcome of their socio-economic class or situations. Positivist School of Criminology: The positivist school in criminology has made an attempt to find scientific objectivity in measuring and quantifying of the criminal behavior. The presumption of the positivist school is that the criminal behavior is mainly caused by factors, internal and external which are outside the control of the individual. In order to study the human behavior, the introduction of scientific method was made. Positivism can be sub-divided into three segments. They are the psychological positivism, biological positivism and social positivism. It has been suggested that social factors like low levels of education, poverty, membership of sub-cultures etc. can influence the people to commit crimes. Adolphe Quetelet has made use of various data, statistics and analyzed them in order to gain insight about the connection between crime and the sociological factors. He found that gender, age, education, alcohol consumption and poverty are the important factors which are related to crime. The positivist school has suggested that there are many other factors in deviant behavior in addition to pain avoidance and pleasure seeking. Positivist theory supposes internal and external factors which are out of the control of the individual. This includes psychological, biological and environmental causes. The positivist school has made the first effort to apply a scientific method while studying the human behavior. This has eventually served to make criminology as a respected and accepted scientific discipline. One of the best known and earliest proponents of the positivist thought, by name Cesare Lombroso has suggested that biology is also a criterion which may pre-condition particular individuals to have a tendency towards criminal behavior. He has said that the shape of the skulls, the height of the cheek bones and other factors also influence the individuals in committing crimes. This was the first time that there was an application of scientific method in the field of criminology. He has also suggested that by examining the skeletal and cerebral features, criminals could be predicted. Even though these findings have been rejected by many researchers, the positivist school has nonetheless had great influence on the field of criminology. He was the first person to identify that crime can be considered as a complex process and also recognized multiple causes like the environmental causes which have played a role along with the biological factors and he has also represented how a case study can be made use of in the research of criminology. Subsequent to the Positivist Approach, in the 20th century, the general trend was to take a sociological approach in criminology which means that most of the researchers give importance to the social factors which are related to criminal behavior and crimes. “Today, there are two major approaches within the sociological framework: social-structural and social-process. The former focuses on the ways in which social situations and structures influence criminal behavior, while the latter researches how individual people choose to become criminals” (The History of Criminology: Schools of Thought, 2008, par.8). Here it cannot be said that one approach is right and that the other is wrong. It can be also said that both of them work together in order to show a complete picture of crime and also its causes. In addition to sociology, psychology and biology also play an active role in the specialized research of criminology. Comparison: Following the classical school, the subsequent chief chapter in the history of criminology is known as the Positivist School, which was headed by the Italian Cesare Lombrosoth. Both the schools take the same view of crime that a crime is an action which violates the basic beliefs and values of the society. Those beliefs and values are apparent as laws which the society agrees upon. The positivist model is different from the classical model. According to the positivist model, the individuals are driven into crimes by external factors which are out of their control. Therefore, it can be argued that individuals aren’t free and responsible for committing various crimes. The positivist school is prone to deny the implication of crimes in the lives of the people. Sometimes it is same as the classical thought but the requirement is the way of approaching crime which follows with both determinism and choice. “It exaggerates the differences between criminals and non-criminals. By focusing upon what makes a criminal different from the population, it tends to suggest an image of the normal and the abnormal, of them and us. In fact many criminals overlap with the population” (Carrabine & Lee, 2004, p.65). The positivist theory neglects the working of the criminal system. The crimes are considered to be unproblematic categories. Both the positivist and the classical theory appear in different varieties. Though both the theories have their roots in the past, both are still alive and functioning well in the criminal justice system of today. The classical theory focuses on criminal administration where as the positivist theory focuses on the criminal person. The positivist school has its roots in modern science while the classical theory has its roots in enlightenment. The classical school is of the view that the criminal is morally responsible for his own behavior while the positivist school is of the view that the criminal acts of a person is determined by factors like psychological, biological and social environment. In the classical school, the laws are statutory and there is proper specification for illegal acts but the laws used in the positivist school are social laws and the illegal acts are defined by analogy. The purpose of sentencing as per the classical theory is deterrence while the purpose of sentencing according to the positivist theory is reform and treatment. The criminological experts in the classical school are philosophers and social reformers while the experts in positivist school are scientists and treatment experts. Though both the classical and positivist theory express mutually contradictory images of the criminal justice and crime both exist in the present legal system and they are continuing to influence the working of the penal system. Reference List Carrabine, E. & Lee, M. (2004). Criminology: A sociological Introduction. Rutledge. Retrieved from http://books.google.co.in/books?id=OSnTFARme_sC&pg=PA65&dq=history+of+criminology+positivist+school&hl=en&sa=X&ei=prlKUciWII3jrAfK3oHYBw&ved=0CC4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=history%20of%20criminology%20positivist%20school&f=false Classical Vs. Positivist Criminology. (2013). Hub pages. Retrieved from http://jacinda1977.hubpages.com/hub/Classical-Vs-Positivist-Criminology Einstadter, W. J. (2006). Criminological Theory: An Analysis of Its Underlying Assumptions. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Retrieved from http://books.google.co.in/books?id=r3IMdD2xZ8MC&pg=PA48&dq=classical+theory+of+criminology&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hKVKUYWZIsHZPOvogIAI&ved=0CD0Q6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=classical%20theory%20of%20criminology&f=false The History of Criminology: Schools of Thought. (2008). Info Barrel. Retrieved from http://www.infobarrel.com/The_History_of_Criminology_Schools_of_Thought What is Classical Criminology? (2003). Wise Geek. Retrieved from http://www.wisegeek.org/what-is-classical-criminology.htm Read More