Classical School of Criminology PDF

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Classical School of Criminology (Beccaria and Bentham) Comes under the rational actor model of crime and criminal behaviour. Main idea is that people have choice and freewill. Beccaria’s philosophy  Wanted a more consistent criminal justice system  Belief that criminal owes a debt to be paid back to society  Previous methods of torture were not effective and no longer sustainable  Capital punishment not necessity  Adherent of social contract theory. People have rights and responsibilities  Punishment should be based on the offence not the characteristics of the offender  Law must be fixed and judges and courts must simply apply fixed law which is transparent to everyone Bentham and Utilitarianism  Greatest happiness of the greatest number  People consciously seek out pleasure and try to avoid pain  While punishment must outweigh pleasure of commission of criminal acts, it must not impact on happiness of wider populace  Against capital punishment but thought torture occasionally needed not so much as punishment but to protect wider society e.g. confessions  Evidence he believed some behaviour learned in the context of individuals having free will.  The Panoptician - Bentham published plan for this prison in 1791 - A model for schools, asylums, workhouses, factories and hospitals. - A modern penitentiary or prison and a ‘mill for grinding rogues honest’ Limitations of Classicism 1. It tended to assume that individuals were the same and ignored the differences between them 2. Everyone was seen to be rational and logical regardless of mental capacity or indeed incapacity 3. After the French Revolution and Declaration of Rights of Man in 1798 and the Frenth Penal Code in 1791, laws were revised to allow judges more discretion because it was clear that not all criminals had full rationality...