Chapter 3
Schools of Thought
Throughout History
Historical Context
 Prior to the French Revolution of 1789, there
was no discernable criminal justice system in
Europe.
 Due process did not exist
 Many laws were not codified
 Punishments
included branding,
burning, flogging,
mutilating, drowning,
banishing, and
beheading
 Public Punishments
were popular events
 There are two basic schools of thought in criminology
1. The Classical School
2. The positivist School
The Classical School
 Ruthless oppression of those beneath it became the
norm.
 The growing educated classes began to see the
inconsistency in these policies
Classical Criminology
Cesare Beccaria
 Founding Father of Modern
Criminology
 Wrote On Crimes and
Punishment
 Enlightened criminal justice
system that would serve the
people rather than the
monarchy
 According to Beccaria the crime problem could
be traced to bad laws, not bad people.
 Beccaria assumed that crime is a rational
choice and individuals are responsible for the
consequences of their behavior
 His plan included the following elements:
Beccaria’s Principles
1. Laws should be used to maintain the social
contract
2. Only legislators should create laws
3. Judges should impose punishment only in
accordance with the law
4. Judges should not interpret the laws
5. Punishment should be based on the
pleasure/pain principle
6. Punishment should be based on the act, not on
the actor
Beccaria’s Principles Continued
7. The punishment should be determined by the
crime
8. Punishment should be prompt and effective
9. All people should be treated equally
10. Capital punishment should be abolished
11. The use of torture to fain confessions should be
abolished
12. It is better to prevent crimes than to punish them
 Beccaria’s book had a huge impact in the field
of criminology.
 Beccaria’s plan was used as the foundation for
many penal codes in Europe, Russia and the
United States
 Beccaria’s work influenced the first 10
amendments to the U.S. Constitution (the Bill of
Rights).
Jeremy Bentham’s
Utilitarianism
 Bentham’s work was
governed by the
utilitarian principles
 Utilitarianism assumes
all human actions are
calculated in accordance
with their likelihood of
bringing happiness
(pleasure) or
unhappiness (pain)
 Bentham proposed the “felicific calculus”
 According to this reasoning, individuals are
“human calculators” who put all the factors into
an equation in order to decide whether or not a
particular crime is worth committing.
 Bentham hypothesized that the certainty of
punishment outweighs severity as a deterrent
against crime.
 Both Beccaria and Bentham advocated a new
philosophy and a new system of legal and penal
reform.
 They believed the punishment should not be inflicted
for vengeance; rather, punishment should be for the
reduction or deterrence of crime.
Weaknesses in the Classical School
 There was no need to ask why people behave
as they do, to seek a motive, or to ask about
the specific circumstances surrounding criminal
acts.
 Factors beyond their control were not taken
into account when explaining criminal behavior.
Positivist Criminology
 During the last half of the nineteenth century,
scholars began to challenge the ideas of the
classical school.
 Positivism argues that people do not choose
freely to commit crime, rather factors beyond
their control are responsible for the criminal
behavior
Positivism is composed of three types
1. Biological Determinism
2. Psychological Determinism
3. Sociological Determinism
Auguste Comte
 Comte argued that there could be no real
knowledge of social phenomena unless it was
based on a positivist (scientific) approach.
 Darwin’s Origin of Species revolutionized our
understanding of human behavior
 Old ideas that demos and animal spirits could
explain human behavior were replaced by
knowledge based on new scientific principles.
Biological Determinism
 Physiognomy –
the study of facial
features and their
relation to human
behavior
 Giambattisti della
Porta – founded the
school of human
physiognomy
 Phrenology –
posited that bumps
on the head were
indications of
psychological
propensities
 Franz Joseph Gall
Phrenology
Cesare Lombroso
 Theory of the born criminal
 States that criminals are a
lower form of life nearer to
their ape-like ancestors than
non-criminals in traits and
dispositions
 Born criminals have atavistic
stigmata, physical features of
creatures at an earlier stage
of development before they
become fully human
Cesare Lombroso Continued
 Insane Criminal or not criminal from birth; they
become criminal as a result of some change in
their brain which interferes with their ability to
distinguish between right and wrong.
 Criminoloids make up an ambiguous group that
includes habitual criminals, criminals by
passion, and other diverse types.
Enrico Ferri
 Best known of Lombroso’s associates
 Attacked the classical doctrine of free-will
 Was more interested in controlling crime
through preventive measures: state control of
the manufacture of weapons, inexpensive
housing, and better street lighting
 Argued that crime was caused by social,
economic, and political determinants
Raffaele Garofalo
 Traced the roots of criminal behavior to
psychological features which he called “moral
anomalies”
 Natural crimes are those that offend the basic
moral sentiments of probity (respect for the
property of others) and piety (revulsion against the
infliction of suffering on others)
 Supported the death penalty to rid society of its
maladapted members
Charles Goring
 Offered the major challenge to Lombrosian
theory
 Studied 3,000 convicts and compared them to
Oxford and Cambridge University students,
hospital patients, and soldiers
 His research assistant was Karl Pearson
 Successfully disputed Lombroso’s claim of a
born criminal
Somatotype School
The somatotype school of criminology related body build
to behavior.
- William Sheldon published a book on Somatology
which assumes that people’s body types affect their
personalities
William Sheldon’s
Somatotypes
1. Endomorph – heavy with
short arms and legs.
Relatively non-criminal.
2. Mesomorph – athletic and
muscular tend to be
aggressive and apt to
commit violent crimes
3. Ectomorph – thin,
introverted, overly sensitive
Sheldon argued that
mesomorphs tended, more
than others, to be involved
in illegal behavior
Richard Dougdale
Inherited Criminality
 Studied the Jukes family
 Ada Jukes, “mother of criminals”
 Of the 1,000 descendants Dougdale found 280
paupers, 60 thieves, 7 murderers, 40 other
criminals, 40 persons with venereal disease,
and 50 prostitutes
 Dougdale argued that they were transmitting a
degenerate trait to the next generation
Psychological Determinism
Isaac Ray (1807-1881)
 Ray wrote The Medical Jurisprudence of Insanity
 He defended the concept of moral insanity.
Sociological Determinism
 Argues that society, not the decisions of individual
offenders are responsible for criminal behavior
 By focusing on groups rather than individuals, Adolph
Quetelet found that behavior is predictable, regular,
and understandable.
Sociological Determinism (Cont,)
 Gabriel Tarde believed that criminals learned crime just
as non-criminals learned legitimate trades
 The laws of imitation state that individuals imitate
others in proportion to the intensity and frequency of
contact.
 Inferiors imitate superiors
Emile Durkheim
 Crime as a normal part of society
 Crime creates social solidarity
 Crime creates social change
 Anomie: Normlessness, a breakdown of social order as
a result of a loss of standards and values