Classicism & Contemporary Classicism Flashcards

1
Q

What was the pre classicism period?

A
  • Spiritual explanations and response to crime
  • Punishment was arbitrary and torture was routinely used
  • A criminal justice system which was highly punitive, punishments poorly regulated & high rates of banishment by transportation
  • Court officials were determined by rank and wealth
  • Power was in the hands of the gentry & clergy
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2
Q

What was classical criminology?

A
  • Proceeded from the assumption of free will and consequently assumed that criminal activity was the result of free will and the hedonistic (pursuit of pleasure) impulses of the individual
  • Focus of crime was on deterrence
  • Two most influential writers of classical criminology were Beccaria & Bentham
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3
Q

What did Beccaria propose?

A
  • All people are born free, equal and rational
  • Aim of punishment is to prevent crime
  • Did not believe in capital punishment or transportation - preferred long prison sentences
  • Punishment only justified to the extent that the offender has infringed the rights of others or injured the public good
  • Punishment should be proportionate to the crime committed and no more than what is necessary to deter
  • Excessive punishment fails to deter and is more likely to increase crime
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4
Q

According to Beccaria what did successful deference require?

A
  1. Certainty (how likely punishment is to occur)
  2. Celerity (how quickly punishment is inflicted)
  3. Severity (how much pain is inflicted)
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5
Q

What did Bentham propose?

A
  • Utilitarian philosophy “the greatest happiness for the greatest number”
  • Pleasure-pain principle: human behaviour is directed at maximising pleasure and avoiding pain
  • Aim of punishment was deterrence -> always had to be be justified in terms of some greater good
  • Punishment should be proportionate to the crime
  • Rejected death penalty but could be used in cases of murder
  • Punishment viewed as negative - must be restricted to produce desired outcome, if it doesn’t achieve any good why are we doing it
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6
Q

What was Panopticon? and who proposed it?

A
  • Proposed by utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham
  • A circular prison arrangement with a central inspection tower in which cells would be arranged so that prisoners could be viewed at all times without knowing whether they were being watched
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7
Q

What types of punishment was Bentham critical of?

A
  • Capital punishment -> believed in deterrents, once your dead you can’t be deterred from doing it again - no hope of rehabilitation
  • Transportation -> punishment could not be measured -> possibility of death
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8
Q

Bentham believed there was no ground for punishment where..

A
  1. Its limited in efficiency: offender is mentally incapacitated
  2. Unprofitable: its ‘evil’ outweighs that of the offence
  3. Unnecessary: the ends it seeks to bring about can be achieved more easily by other means such as education or instruction
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9
Q

What are some strengths of the classicism approach?

A
  • Decrease in capital punishment, decline in cruel forms of punishment
  • Establishment and growth of prisons
  • Jurisprudence (theory of law): punishment being appropriate to the nature of the crime -> foundation of the criminal justice system
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10
Q

What are some criticisms of the classicism approach?

A
  • Problem of fairness and equality: inequality characterises society more than equality thus inequality of choice
  • Overlooks problems of incapacity e.g. those suffering from mental illness’, learning difficulties
  • Ignores maturity: children treated the same as adults
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11
Q

What is contemporary classicism?

A

Greater emphasis placed on understanding the choices made by offenders in different circumstances or location
- Concerned with criminal events and the circumstances in which those events occur

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12
Q

What is rational choice theory?

A
  • Assumes individuals proceed on the basis of maximising profits and minimising losses (cost-benefit analysis)
  • Individuals will commit offences when the benefits outweigh the risks or losses
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13
Q

What does bounded rationality mean?

A

A term used to indicate that even though individuals make poor decisions often based on incomplete or inadequate information they are noneless rational actors it is just bounded rationally

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14
Q

Define crime script?

A
  • Step by step accounts of the procedures and decision making processes involved in particular events
  • Stories using offenders accounts to identify both the decisions and situational context in which particular crimes occur
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15
Q

What is routine activity theory?

A
  • Argues that attention should be focused on the situation in which offending takes place, rather than on the offender
  • Universally applied to provide insight for crime prevention
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16
Q

Which 3 Structural changes in routine activity patterns influence crime rates?

A
  1. Motivated offenders
  2. Suitable targets
  3. The absence of capable guardians
17
Q

What are some criticisms to contemporary classicism?

A
  • RCT fails to explain offender motivation, largely unconcerned with it
  • Emphasis on situational controls may lead to the use of surveillance, limitations on basic freedoms (speech, privacy, movement) -> detrimental to the quality of life
  • Strips away what makes individuals ‘social’ and treat them simply as calculating individuals