Positivist Criminology

Question 1

The crisis of classicism

Answer 1

• Social inequality, famine, marginalized communities were considered dangerous
• failure of security institutions to reform deviants; this caused fear of criminality, panic, terror, increased crime rates, and disbelief in deference
• phrenology (examination of cranial ridges and shape/structure to explain social behaviour) emerged
• anthropometry (measurement of human physical traits in attempt to correlate with psychological traits)
  emerged

Question 2

Positivism/positivist criminology

Answer 2

Studying the world through scientific facts; goal is to explain and predict patterns

Question 3

Quetelet

Answer 3

• Wanted to identify the causes of crime in relation to social mechanics
• crime obeyed lawlike regularities and constancies
• criminal behaviour is the outcome of causal relationships
  → main causes included external factors like society and the environment; internal factors like virtue, personality, and morality also played a role
• believed in the moral inferiority of marginalized populations and social outcasts (was convinced there were biological defects that caused unhealthy morality)

Question 4

Lombroso

Answer 4

• Believed in the concept that people are born as criminals and could be identified by physical features/defects (crime is a result of innate and inherited characteristics)
• supported anthropometry and phrenology as the scientific method that should be used to discover the causes of criminality
• opposed the idea of free will
• his idea of anthropometry consisted of finding abnormalities in the bone/skull anatomy in which he believed it was a sign of primitivism (lower evolutionary stage; animalistic, ferocious, lack of self control)

Question 5

Goring

Answer 5

• Attempted to discover the mental and psychological factors that distinguished criminals from law-abiding citizens
• believed the causes of criminality were adverse environmental conditions, mental disabilities, and defective qualities that are inherited; emphasis on defective qualities (born criminal)
• using eugenics to eliminate the inherited characteristics associated with criminality
  → positive eugenics: incentives for marriage and reproduction among “healthy” indiviávais
  → negative eugenics: isolation and sterilization of the socially undesirable
• evidence of physical inferiority in criminals (Lombroso)

Question 6

Neoclassical criminology

Answer 6

• Character as the source of criminality (not entirely free or determined)
• character varies with each individual meaning rehabilitation programs should be tailored according to it
• punishment measured according to the seriousness of the crime
  → punishment must be exemplary rather than vengeful (setting an example for society that crime is not tolerated) and aim to deter future wrongdoing
  → imprisonment as the normal method of punishment; abolition of the death penalty