Chapter 5

Question 1

Explain the Classical School perspective

Answer 1

-a perspective premised on the belief that potential criminals, being rational beings capable of free will, will be deterred by the threat of swift, sever punishment
-emerged in response to the harsh, retributive nature of punishments in the 18th century

Question 2

Explain the Enlightenment period

Answer 2

-the Renaissance brought the spread of more rational, scientific, and humanistic ways of thinking
-By the 18th century, traditional doctrines of absolute obedience to authority were increasingly challenged, as were the prevailing concepts of justice

Question 3

Beccaria embraced the concept of free will, arguing that most potential offenders would be deterred if what three basic conditions were met?

Answer 3

1. certainty of punishment
2. swiftness of justice
3. fair penalties proportionate to the severity of the social harm done

Question 4

Beccaria’s doctrine is characterized by what four general principles?

Answer 4

1. Equality: all offenders must be treated equally, without consideration of personal character or motive
2. Liberty: “Only the law can decree punishment for crime”
3. Utilitarianism: the purpose of punishment should be “to instill fear in other men” to deter crime
4. Humanitarianism: punishment should be not only fair but humane

Question 5

Explain Jeremy Bentham on utilitarianism

Answer 5

-the concept that any law should be of the greatest benefit to the greatest number of people
-punishment is justified if it prevents more social harm than it produces
-people as rational beings will seek pleasure and avoid pain

Question 6

Felicific Calculus

Answer 6

a quasi-mathematical formula for calculating how much pain was needed to dissuade someone from committing an offence

Question 7

Williams and Hawkins found that the fear of arrest could act as a deterrent, especially when linked to which three indirect social costs of arrest?

Answer 7

1. commitment costs (an arrest can harm future opportunities)
2. attachment costs (can harm personal circumstances0
3. stigma

Question 8

Deterrence Theory

Answer 8

-refers to the belief that the threat of punishment can prevent people from committing a crime
-maintains that behaviour is governed by its consequences
-research on deterrence has been inconclusive, at best

Question 9

The Positivist School

Answer 9

-a school of criminological thought whose adherents use the scientific method to measure behavior and advocate rehabilitation over punishment
-embraced by Lombroso, the “father” of modern criminology, and his contemporaries Garofalo and Ferri

Question 10

Biological Determinism

Answer 10

a doctrine that denies free will while maintaining that our decisions are decided by predictable and/or inherited causes that influence our character

Question 11

Atavism

Answer 11

a biological condition supposedly rendering an individual incapable of living within the norms of a society; they were seen as evolutionary throwbacks
(Lombroso believed that the cause of atavism was hereditary)

Question 12

What are the critiques of deterministic explanations

Answer 12

-weakness of methodology
-limited application to the understanding of white-collar, organized crime, and political crime
-a general fear that positivist-based policies will be intrusive and possibly lead to totalitarianism
-failure to distinguish clearly between the roles of environment and heredity

Question 13

The rule of law in the CJS

Answer 13

-the CJS is based primarily on classical legal doctrine
-decisions of police, lawyers, judges are based on the law, not behavioural sciences
-there is no common model of criminal justice y which the three elements of the CJS operate towards a common goal through common strategies

Question 14

The neoclassical school

Answer 14

assumes free will and believes that some accused offenders should be exonerated or treated leniently considering situations or circumstances that make it impossible to exercise free will

Question 15

Which two principles were endorsed by the neoclassical school?

Answer 15

1. rejected the rigidity of the classical system of punishment
2. called for discretion - the power of an authority to exercise their judgment in a particular case instead of having to follow specific rules

Question 16

Just deserts

Answer 16

the premise that an individual who commits an offence chooses to do so and therefore deserves to be punished accordingly for it

Question 17

Plea bargain

Answer 17

an arrangement between he defense and prosecution in which the accused agrees to plead guilty in return for some benefit, such as a reduced sentence

Question 18

Prison Reform: Alexander Maconochie contribution

Answer 18

-reward: prisoners must earn their release through industrious labour and good conduct
-individual influence: if it is to offer constructive support, a prison should not have more than 300 inmates, or 100 for more serious offenders
-gradual release: prisons should provide for gradual release
-post-release supervision: there should be strict supervision after discharge

Question 19

John Haviland contribution

Answer 19

design prisons to reform then confine inmates

Question 20

John Howard contribution

Answer 20

instrumental in establishing prisoner advocacy groups

Question 21

Charles Lucas contribution

Answer 21

maximum vs minimum sentences; system for the classification of inmates based on their moral improvement; separation of adult and young offenders

Question 22

Modern Law Enforcement: Sit Robert Peel contribution

Answer 22

-the power of the police depends on public approval of their actions and behaviour
-maintaining the respect of the public means securing their cooperation to respect societal laws
-the police must demonstrate absolute impartiality, courtesy, and friendly good humour
-the police must use minimal force when trying to restore and/or enforce the law

Question 23

Legal Reform: Isaac Ray contribution

Answer 23

the legal definition of insanity was so limited in its scope that lawyers were ill-equipped to assess mental disorders and that expert medical testimony was required in cases involving insanity pleas

Question 24

Moral Insanity

Answer 24

a form of mental illness in which the offender’s ability to reason is temporarily interrupted; basis o modern verdicts of “not criminally responsible”

Question 25

M’Naghten Rule in Canada

Answer 25

-underpins the designation of not criminally responsible because of mental disorders (NCRMD)
-created in 1992
-people found to be NCRMD are sentenced to custodial forensic psychiatric facilities where they receive ongoing care by psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses, and other staff who assist in stabilizing and rehabilitating the individual

Question 26

Criminalistics

Answer 26

-the science of crime detection and investigation, including such areas of specialization as weapons and DNA analysis
-Alphonso Bertillon: first to apply this technique to law and crim. refined the process of photo ID

Question 27

criminalistics: Hans Gross contribution

Answer 27

-asserted every criminal case should be treated as a scientific problem
-provided detailed descriptions and illustrations for investigative strategies based on medicine, ballistics, chem, anthropometry, fingerprinting, and serology, etc.
-modern crime investigation techniques, including DNA matching, fingerprinting, etc., can be traced back to Gross
-these techniques fall into the broad category of criminalistics known as forensic science, which is essentially “the application of science to law”

Question 28

Social defense

Answer 28

a term used by the italian legal scholar Enrico Ferri, who argued that punishment should be based on individual and social considerations
-punishment should not be applied for its own sake, but for the sake of society

Question 29

Neopositivist School

Answer 29

-approach to CJ popular between the 1930s and 1960s, which focused on the development of rational penal policy, emphasizing the systematic resocialization of offenders through treatment and rehab
-social defense recognizes that the state has a right to protect itself and society against individuals who choose to break the law
-also speaks to the need to protect the rights of citizens - including offenders - against the potential arbitrariness of the courts

Question 30

Crime Prevention

Answer 30

-can be achieved can be achieved only through understanding what law is, why laws make some human bahviour a crime, and what influences human behaviour
-crime prevention through environmental design works reasonably well for property-related crime but not for crimes against the person
-a new approach focusing on engaging and mobilizing communities in target risk areas is being introduced
-there is a growing recognition that reactive strategies to crime don’t work, and the concept of crime prevention is gaining traction

Question 31

Clarence Ray Jeffery

Answer 31

-a pioneer of the crime prevention model who argued that in order for a crime to occur, three key elements must be present: motivation, skill, and opportunity
-focus should be to reduce opportunities presented by the social and physical environment

Question 32

Tadeusz Grygier

Answer 32

the champion of the Social Protection Code, which is called for a fair and flexile justice system that promoted principles of rehab and embraced a humanitarian approach

Question 33

Denis Szabo

Answer 33

-the father of canadian criminology
-criminology is inseparable from criminal policy: one cannot be studied without proper consideration of the other

Question 34

Ezzat A. Fattah

Answer 34

-in 1974, fattah was invited to set up a criminology program at SFU; the first in western Canada
-also been a champion of human rights through Amnesty International and was instrumental in Canada’s repeal of the death penalty

Question 35

Paul and Patricia Brantingham

Answer 35

developed the field of environmental criminology