Criminological Theory Essay 1 - Classicist & Positivist Criminology PDF

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Criminological Theory Essay 1 - Classicist & Positivist Criminology...

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Introduction to Criminological Theory Assessment - Week 7, Classicist & Positivist Criminology There are two different and distinct types of Criminology. These were both thought up of by different people who all had different ideas about the root cause of crime. In this piece of work I will explain the differences and my understanding of both Classicism and Positivism. The Classical School, also known as Classicism, is mainly attributed to the writings and thoughts of both Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham who lived from 1738-1794 and 1748-1832 respectively (Hughes 2017). Classical thinkers believe that everyone has the potential to become a criminal and that people who commit crimes do so because everyone has free will and because we are all rational thinkers who always way up the good and bad of situations before making a decision (Law Teacher 2013). Although Beccaria and Bentham had similar thoughts they also both had thinkings that were attributed to them personally. For example, Cesare Beccaria believed that the seriousness of the crime should only ever be judged, based on how much harm it causes to others and that the punishment should always be delivered soon after the crime has been committed so that the criminal's mind associates the punishment with that particular crime (Newburn 2017). Beccaria also believed that the law existed in the first place to keep the social contract intact and to keep the society safe as a whole, not just to benefit the privileged few (Biography 2016). Bentham believed, differently to Beccaria, that continuous repeat-offenders should face increased penalties and punishments when they re-offend because there is a chance that the offences that they shall commit could be grow in seriousness and therefore we should attempt to prevent them re-offending (Newburn 2017). Jeremy Bentham is also believed to be the father of Utilitarianism, which is the belief that the laws of society should be in place to benefit the largest proportion of people in society. Bentham also believed that the best form of punishment for people who committed crimes was imprisonment and he even thought up a design for a prison, whereby the prisoners could never be 100% sure if a guard was watching them or not, although this prison never came into fruition (Crime Museum 2017). But Bentham believed that the punishment for crimes should be in proportion to the seriousness of the offence and that they should be limited so that they only result in the desired outcome and nothing else (Newburn 2017). So overall, Classical thinkers tend to look at the offence itself and believe that there is never an excuse for crime because we are all rational free will thinkers (Oddy 2017). However, in contrast to Classical thinkers, believers of Positivist Criminology, which the emergence of is often associated with Cesare Lombroso, who lived from 1835 to 1909

(Hughes 2017), believe some crimes can be excused due to different circumstances relating to the offender. Lombroso believed that criminals were a different group within our society and that they were very distinct from other members of society through biological, psychological and sociological differences. The idea of the biological differences between criminals and non-criminals originally stemmed from the racist standpoint of Lombroso, as he suggested people with darker skin were more likely to be criminals and commit crime than people with lighter skin, who he said were less likely to commit crimes. This is why his theories are now often discredited by modern criminologists, although he did pave the way for modern criminology to emerge from the Classical School. (Morgan 2017). To attempt to back-up his theories that criminals were biologically different, Lombroso visited prisons in Italy conducted tests and experiments on the prisoners who were imprisoned there. Lombroso claimed that criminals were almost a different species as he claimed to have found in his studies that criminals tended to have a larger and different shaped head compared with non-criminals. He also claimed that criminals tended to have very pronounced jaws and ears that stood out from the head, like in chimpanzees. Lombroso also had the idea that criminals who committed different crimes had different facial features from each other as he claimed that thieves had upturned or flattened noses compared with murderers, who Lombroso claimed had noses similar to beaks (Newburn 2017). Another thinker of Positivism was Sigmund Freud who fathered the idea that criminals were psychologically different to other members of society. Freud believed that everyone had an Ego, which was a combination of peoples Superego and their Id. Freud said that the Superego was people's knowledge of right and wrong and that people’s Id is the impulsive side of our ego and that the Id wants to be satisfied immediately and that when the Id is satisfied that this is when we feel pleasure. Freud claimed that in criminals the Id was more powerful than the Superego which then results in their criminal behaviour as they want to feel pleasure more than the following the law. This is different, Freud claimed, to the Ego of non-criminals as he said that their Superego was more powerful than the Id and was able to suppress it in their mind (Morgan 2017). So, in contrast to the Classical thinkers the supporters of Positivism looked more into the offender and why they committed the crime. Positivists believe that criminals are born differently to non-criminals and not made, as Classicists believe, and that this is why they commit crimes as they are abnormal and different. Positivists also tend to believe that the best response to crime is to give the offender and treat them through rehabilitation in an attempt to enlarge their Superego so that it can successfully control the Id. This is why the punishment is often indeterminate in Positivist thinking as it depends on the individual circumstances of the offender (Oddy 2017).

Bibliography Biography (2016) on https://www.biography.com/people/cesare-beccaria-39630 (accessed on 07/11/2017) Crime Museum (2017) on https://www.crimemuseum.org/crime-library/famous-prisonsincarceration/jeremy-bentham (accessed on 07/11/2017)

 ondon Metropolitan University Hughes, W. (2017) Introduction to Criminological Theory. L Lecture on 06/10/2017 Law Teacher (2013) on https://www.lawteacher.net/free-law-essays/criminology/the-classical -school-of-criminological.php (accessed on 07/11/2017) Morgan, J. (2017) Positivism, Science and Biological Positivism. L  ondon Metropolitan University Lecture on 20/10/2017 Morgan, J. (2017) Freud. L  ondon Metropolitan University Lecture on 27/10/2017 Newburn, T. (2017) Criminology, 3  rd edition. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge Oddy, V. (2017) Guide to classicism -v- positivism. L  ondon Metropolitan University Seminar on 27/10/2017...