Classical Criminology Flashcards
What was the Classical School?
- Emphasis on free will choices and human rationality
- A view of behaviour as hedonistic
- A focus on morality and responsibility
- Concern with political structure and the way the government interacts with citizens
- Concern for the basic rights of all people
- Predominantly Structural (focused on the legislation of criminal law and justice system rather than criminal behaviour)
- Predominantly Macro theoretical (majority of the criminological theories were political theories)
Pre-18th Century theories of crime
- Theories of crime were inspired by religious beliefs and superstition
- Punishments were harsh and inhumane
What two explanations for the role of evil spirits play in sinful behaviour did judo-christian teachers offer?
- Temptation (the devil tempts)
- Possession (wrongdoers are possessed by evil spirits)
What was intellectual heritage?
- Humanist philosophy - all men were free and had natural rights
- Philosophy of social justice
- Critique of harsh & barbaric government
- Reforms encouraged
- Education & enlightenment (belief in power of human reason - logic)
What did Tomas Hobbes believe?
- Men were naturally selfish; if unrestricted men will pursue own gratifications by all means possible
- State of Nature; solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short; war of all against all; might was right
- Need for social contract and a “leviathan” (ex. A common power/authority/government) to make and enforce rules
What did John Locke believe?
- The social contract
- Humans were guided by the law of nature (based on religious morality)
What is the Social Contract?
- A political philosophy to justify government
- A contract that exists between the state & its citizens
- State exists to serve the citizens
- Individuals surrender to the state only the limited rights necessary to ensure protection of all citizens
- Life cannot be surrendered
- New contract/philosophy served the needs of the emerging middle class
What is Classical Criminology?
- A movement of reform that favoured legislating of a balanced criminal code of law
Developed the first organized thoughts on
- Crime
- Criminals
- A criminal justice system
- Not really a theory of crime causation
- Important task for this time was making punishment just, fair, proportionate (the crime is equal to the punishment), and less cruel
- Wanted to eliminate torture
- Focus is how crime should be addressed by law and what political structure should be created
Who was Cesare Beccaria and what were his principles?
- One of the founders of the classical school
- He was an Italian philosopher and classical theorist
He believed
- Rights of governments to punish
- That punishment must be regulated by a penal code
- Imprisonment as the standard form of punishment
- The punishment must fit the crime
These idea’s reformed much of our justice system today (our charter)
Who is Jeremy Bentham?
- British philopsopher
- Concerned with achieving “the greatest happiness of the greatest number”
- He popularized Beccaria’s visions with utilitarianism writings
- Utilitarianism assumes that all human actions are calculated in accordance with their likelihood of bringing happiness (pleasure) or unhappiness (pain)
What are the 4 objectives of punishment?
- to prevent all criminal offences
- to convince the offender to commit the least serious crime possible
- to ensure that a criminal uses no more force than necessary
- to prevent crime as cheaply as possible
What are the principles of Classical Philosophy?
- Hedonism (mans behaviour is guided by pleasure seeking and pain avoidance)
- Free will (rejects prevailing idea that supernatural powers and will of god was primary force behind all human behaviour, including crime)
- Rational punishment rather than revenge
- Social Contract (individual bound to society only by his consent, people are responsible to each other)
- Law is necessary condition of the social contract
- Greatest good for the greatest number is the basis of making and enforcing law (utilitarianism)
- Deterrence
- Due process
How is Utilitarianism seen in our laws today?
- Declaration of the Rights of Man (“The law shall inflict only such punishments as are strictly and clearly necessary.” France, 1789)
- Charter of Rights and Freedoms (“Everyone has the right not to be subjected to any cruel and unusual treatment or punishment.” Canada, 1982)
What are the contributions of the classical school?
- Legal reform
These reforms provided the foundation for progressive criminal law and the criminal justice system in Canada:
-Equality before the law
-Guarantee of one’s rights
-Establishment of fixed penalties
-Due process safeguards
-Separation of judicial and legislative systems
How is deterrence found in the Classical School?
Deterrence for the Classical School is a legal concept
- Combines utilitarian and hedonistic thought
- Assumes individual can assess relationship between the personal gain of his violation and the cost of the punishment; thus requires free will
- Assumes individuals act to maximize pleasure & minimize the pain
