Classicim - a brief summary of Classicism PDF

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a brief summary of Classicism...

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CLASSICISM Traditional classicist criminology Cesare Beccaria – Social Contract Beccar1a was an Enlightenment philosopher who believed that people were fully responsible for their own actions. Beccarla argued that a ‘social contract’ existed, of which all members of society formed a part. Under this social contract, each person had to give up a part of his or her freedom to do as they liked, so that a universal ‘lesser freedom’ could be achieved for everyone. The criminal law’s job was then to punish those who broke the terms of this social contract by committing crime, which gave them an unfair advantage over the rest of society. It was these beliefs on how punishment for crime should work which led to Beccaria’s arguments about why crime itself occurred. Beccairia believed that individuals were free-willed, capable of rational thought and therefore responsible for their own actions, including crime. Criminals, therefore, made the voluntary and free-willed choice to commit crime, having weighed up the potential advantages and disadvantages of doing so, and decided that the pros outweighed the cons. Beccaria therefore saw criminals as ‘moral calculators’ who could be prevented from committing further criminal behaviour by punishment which acted as a deterrent, and made the disadvantages of commiting crime outweigh the advantages and pleasure associated with breaking the law Neo Classicist criminology David Matza, drift theory The criminological theory known as control theory was primanly driven by classicists beliefs in freedom of choice and the ability of each individual to prevent themselves from committing crime. David Matza pointed out that many people stop committing crime in their late teens or early twenties, even though their social circumstances remain the same. Matza therefore argued that offenders drift in and out of criminal behaviour, justifying their offending by making the decision to rationalise their behaviout in their own minds, and to neutralise law-abiding societal values temporarily. Matza identified a series of ‘techniques of neutralisation’ used by offenders to justify their behavior to themselves and others, such as denying respnsibility for their actions. Matza’s approach is clearly linked to the idea of classicism, because it relies on the view that offenders make the voluntary decision to ‘switch off’ conventional values in order to make committing crime easier, and so make the decision to start — and to stop committing crime. Hirschis Social Bond Control Theory Travis Hirschj’s work was focused on the reasons why people do not commit crime. Hirschi Concluded that crime was normal behaviour and that everyone would commit crime if there was nothing to stop them doing so — a belief in voluntary freedom of choice to commit crime which was clearly influenced by classicist criminology. Hirschi further claimed that four factors were influential in people’s decisions not to commit crime. These were attachment (caring about what others thought, such as parents), commitment (commitment to achieving conventional success, such as a good education), involvement (involvement with behaving conventionally) and belief (belief that society’s rules, including the law, should be obeyed). Hirschi’s control theory therefore related to social bonds — the stronger a person’s links were to the conventional social order, the less likely that person would be to commit crime

Gottfredson and Hirschi’S ‘self-control’ theory Gottfredson and Hirschi’s theory attempted to explain all types of crime, including corporate and whitecollar crime. This theory was significantly different from Hirschis earlier work. For Gottfredson and Hirschi, most crime was trivial, unplanned and aimed at obtaining short-term excitement. Criminal behaviour was therefore due to a high level of personal irresponsibility,and an inability to plan ahead in life or delay gratification. Situational crime prevention theory Situational crime prevention theory focused upon reducing the opportunities for crime in particular practical and geographical situations, on the management and design of the geographical environment where people lived, and upon increasing the risks of offenders getting caught. The rationale for this type of approach was that it was easier to make practical changes to the environment in order to prevent crime than it was to complex social issues, such as poverty....