1. Schools of Thought throughout History
Chapter 3
Schools of Thought throughout History
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2. Chapter Outline
Classical criminology Positivist criminology Biological determinism Psychological determinism Sociological determinism Historical and contemporary criminology Future of our history

3. Classical Criminology: Historical Context
Grew out of a reaction against the barbaric system of law, punishment, and justice Many criminal laws were unwritten Public punishments were popular events Social reformers began to suggest a more rational approach to crime

4. Cesare Beccaria
Author of On Crimes and Punishments Designed a comprehensive, enlightened criminal justice system based on law Known as father of modern criminology

5. Beccaria’s Principles
Laws should be used to maintain the social contract Only legislators should create laws Judges should impose punishment only in accordance with the law Judges should not interpret the laws Punishment should be based on the pleasure/pain principle

6. Beccaria’s Principles (continued 1)
Punishment should be based on the act, not on the actor Punishment should be determined by the crime Punishment should be prompt and effective All people should be treated equally

7. Beccaria’s Principles (continued 2)
Capital punishment should be abolished Use of torture to gain confessions should be abolished Better to prevent crimes than to punish them

8. Jeremy Bentham
Concerned with achieving the greatest happiness of the greatest number
Utilitarianism: All human actions are calculated in accordance with their likelihood of bringing pleasure or pain
Proposed felicific calculus
Individuals put all the factors into an equation to decide whether a particular crime is worth committing

9. Classical School: An Evaluation
Classical criminology had a profound impact on jurisprudence, legislation, and penal and correctional policy Principle that punishment must be appropriate to the crime was universally accepted

10. Classical School: An Evaluation (continued)
Critics argued that government was to be run by the rule of law rather than at the discretion of its officials
Criminologists argued that people did not choose of their own free will to commit crime
Factors beyond their control were responsible for criminal behavior

11. Positivist Criminology
Auguste Comte argued that real knowledge of social phenomena is based on a positivist approach Darwin’s On the Origin of Species challenged traditional theological teaching Positivism and evolution moved the field of criminology from a philosophical to a scientific perspective

12. Biological Determinism
Physiognomy
Study of facial features and their relation to human behavior
Proposed by Giambattisti della Porta
Phrenology
Posited that bumps on the head were indications of psychological propensities
Proposed by Franz Joseph Gall and Johann Kaspar Spurzheim

13. Cesare Lombroso Born criminal theory
Criminals are a lower form of life
Distinguishable from noncriminals by atavistic stigmata
Atavistic stigmata: Physical features of creatures at an earlier stage of development, before they became fully human

14. Cesare Lombroso (continued)
Insane criminals
Not criminal from birth
Become criminal as a result of change in the brain which interferes with their ability to distinguish between right and wrong
Criminoloids
Include habitual criminals, criminals by passion, and other diverse types

15. Enrico Ferri Attacked the classical doctrine of free will
Showed interest in controlling crime through preventive measures
State control of the manufacture of weapons
Inexpensive housing
Better street lighting

16. Raffaele Garofalo
Traced the roots of criminal behavior to psychological features
Called moral anomalies
Natural crimes are those that offend the basic moral sentiments of probity and piety
Suggested that the death penalty could rid society of its maladapted members

17. Charles Buckman Goring
Rejected the claim that specific stigmata identify the criminal Successfully disputed Lombroso’s claim of a born criminal

18. Return to Biological Determinism
Ernest Hooten reawakened an interest in biologically determined criminality
Somatotype school: Related body build to behavior
Sheldon's somatotypes - Endomorph, mesomorph, and ectomorph
People with mesomorph traits tend more than others to be involved in illegal behavior

19. Inherited Criminality
Researchers studied the lives of several members of a family
Findings indicated that criminals transmitted a degenerate trait to the next generation
Some states permitted the sterilization of habitual offenders

20. Psychological Determinism
A Treatise on the Medical Jurisprudence of Insanity by Isaac Ray
Treatise on criminal responsibility that was widely quoted and influential
Defends the concept of moral insanity
Moral insanity - Persons who were normal except that something was wrong with the part of the brain that regulates affective responses

21. Psychological Determinism (continued)
Maudsley believed that some people may be considered either insane or criminal
According to the standpoint from which they are looked at
Intelligence tests seemed to provide an objective basis for differentiating criminals from noncriminals

22. Sociological Determinism
Quételet and Guerry argued that society was responsible for criminal behavior
Criminological research should:
Identify factors related to crime and assign to them their proper degree of influence
Laws of imitation: Principles that governed the process by which people became criminals

23. Sociological Determinism: Durkheim
Crime is a normal part of society and is necessary for a society to progress All societies have crime and sanctions Anomie: Breakdown of social order as a result of a loss of standards and values

24. Historical and Contemporary Criminology
Classical school
Crime might be solved through:
Limitations on governmental power
Abolition of brutality
Creation of a more equitable system of justice
Punishment should fit the crime

25. Historical and Contemporary Criminology (continued)
Positivist school
Greater consideration to the offender than to the gravity of the crime when imposing sentences
Search for determinants of crime in biological, psychological, and social factors