Criminological Schools of Thought

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• Criminological Schools of Thought
• A school of thought is merely a foundational
  perspective by which we seek understanding of a
  social phenomenon
• There are two major schools of thought in
  criminology
• THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL (philosophical idealism)
• THE POSITIVIST SCHOOL (biological determinism,
  etc)

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• Dr. Matt Wants You to Know This!
• THE WHY of Each Perspective
• Classical
• Crime is result of bad laws / bad system
• Mans will must be altered
• Punishment arbitrary, inconsistent, severe (not
  deterrent)
• Postivist
• Crime is biologically determined
• Mind and body of criminal are different

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• Classical Realism
• THE ORIGINS OF THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL
• Has its roots in ancient Greece (secular)
• Man needed society to realize potential
• Without society, man cannot be a rational animal
• States purpose serve common good of its
  population. Laws written and enforced by rational
  men.

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• Classical Realism Takes a Left Turn
• During Middle Ages, realism assumed theological
  overtones
• Medieval monks and priests began to view the
  states authority as deriving from God
• States absolute power to punish was inherent in
  the monarchy (Divine Right of Kings)
• Crime against society or the King viewed as a
  crime against God

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The Two Views Within Classical Realism
Realism (Absolute Truth)
Ancient Greece Secular view in which power to
punish and make laws is derived from the
citizenry and the state
Middle Ages Religious view in which power to
punish and make laws is derived from God, and
carried out through monarchy
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Religious Realism and Torture
If an accused offender in the 16th and 17th
century refused a trial by jury, he or she could
be subjected to the peine forte et dure, or
pressing. Most chose this, because if they died
without being convicted of a crime, their
familys property could not be confiscated by the
kingdom. Pressing was used to secure a
confession, as well as to save the community from
an already angry God. Trial by ordeal was also
used.
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• On to Classical Idealism...
• In the mid-1700s, several philosophers began to
  evaluate the effectiveness of the religious-based
  realist view
• Blatant abuse of power in the name of religion
• Beccaria
• Bentham
• Justice system fairness and principles
• Sought an intellectual and philosophical revival

Wanted to get back to the ideas of the Greek
guysit seemed to work
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• The Idealist Belief System Beccaria
• Cesare Beccaria (1738 1794)
• Pain and suffering natural part of the human
  condition.
• Humankind is a rational species
• What controls behavior is the human will
• Humans practice hedonism (maximizing pleasure and
  minimizing pain)

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• Will is free to choose (supernatural can affect
  it)
• Means of controlling behavior FEAR of pain or
  punishment.
• State has right to punish
• Courts and prisons centralized, fair, and
  equitable
• There is a social contract
• Beccaria crime prevention and social
  protection, NOT predicting criminal behavior

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• On Crimes Punishment (1764)
• Essay of Italian prison system conditions
• Crime problem bad laws, NOT bad individuals
• All individuals should have equal treatment
• The decision-making by judges should have limits
  (NC death penalty til 77 would counter this)
• The true measure of crime is the injury to
  society, not the offenders mental state or
  social status
• (Degrees of crimes now burglary, rape, murder)

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• Beccarias 3 Keys to Punishment as a Deterrent
  (General and Specific)
• Severity
• Severe enough to outweigh act
• Too severe is of no useful value
• Intent or motive of the offender should be
  irrelevant
• It is better to prevent than to punish
• Capital punishment only useful if offenders
  death is permanent deterrent

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• Celerity
• Celerity swiftness
• Punishment must quickly follow the act
• Certainty
• Punishments should be applied in every case and
  with consistency
• Inconsistency in punishment does not relay the
  message that the act is wrong and has
  consequences

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• Jeremy Bentham and Utilitarianism
• Philosophy that actually came before idealists
  (1600s)
• Most utilitarians were not concerned with crime
  at first
• Greatest good for greatest number of folks
• Harmony maintained by rewards and punishments
• Bentham first applied utilitarianism to crime
  control and punishment as a deterrent
• Felicific Calculus Humans calculate the pros
  and cons of committing an act.

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• More About Bentham
• Highly favored imprisonment
• Hard work centerpiece of reform.
• Reward for inmate labor prevented ennui (boredom)
• Two evils by which severity of a crime is
  measured
• Evil of the first order actual harm to victim
• Evil of the second order amount of public alarm

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• Bentham Continued
• Legislation (law) should deter crime
• The law should be widely known
• People should know the actus reus of most crimes
• Capital punishment is inefficient (except
  treason)
• Swift, appropriately severe, and certain
  punishment
• Severity is least important, swiftness is next,
  and certainty is the most vital in deterring crime

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Making Sense of the Classical School A Review

• Classical Idealism
• (Enlightenment1700s)
• New ways of thinking about law and crime (liked
  the Greek thing)
• Philosophical approach
• Fairness, equality, principles
• Religion said to abuse power
• Beccaria, Bentham

• Classical Realism I
• (Ancient Greece)
• Laws made by man
• Enforced by state, not God

• Classical Realism II
• (Middle Ages)
• Divine Right of Kings
• Laws and authority come from God

So, Classical Idealism was the foundation of what
we know today as the CLASSICAL SCHOOL of
CRIMINOLOGY
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• The Positivist School of Thought
• Positivism is the explanation of phenomena via
  the scientific method
• Positivists seek to know etiology
• Philosophy inadequate
• Goal was personal and social betterment
• Dates to the 1500s
• Positivism came of age with Charles Darwins
  theory of evolution

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• General Assumptions Within Positivism
• Demands facts and scientific proof (determinism)
• Body / mind differences between people
• Punishment should fit individual, not crime
• Criminal justice system scientific experts and
  the elite
• Criminals can be treated, corrected, or
  rehabilitated if not, then put to death
• Used to differentiate and marginalize

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• Franz Joseph Gall Johann Spurzheim
• No one mathematical equation can determine
  complete cause and effect
• Benefited from experiments science
• Took perspective of plurality (all things work
  together dialectically)
• Does not rule out alternative explanations or
  factors

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• Phrenology (Gall Spurzheim)
• Skull protuberances or depressions relationship
  to personality traits
• Brain divided into 37 organs or faculties
• Each faculty specific moral, intellectual, or
  sexual trait
• The larger the faculty, the more pronounced the
  trait
• Inmate classification in 19th and 20th century

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Self Esteem
Human Nature
Friendship and Love
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Pennsylvanias Eastern State Penitentiary used
the work of Gall Spurzheim as a classification
system for inmates during the 1800s. Convicts
were thought to display peculiar faces that
reflected criminal instincts
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• Cesare Lombroso (1835 1909)
• Criminal behavior physical characteristics of
  the body (was a medical doctor)
• Criminals unique physical type
• Criminals evolutionary degenerates
• Physiognomy, Anthropometry, and Phrenology
• 1870 autopsy of Atavus
• Primitive characteristics ATAVISTIC STIGMATA
• Differentiate the born criminal from non-criminal
• The Criminal Man (1876)

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• The Atavistic Stigmata
• The Born Criminal
• Five stigmata to qualify as born criminal
• Born criminals were inferior, much like primates
• Large ears, thick lips, tattoos (high tolerance
  for pain), extra fingers/toes, protruding brow or
  jaw, acute sight, large eye orbits
• Women needed only three of the stigmata
• Moral sense is different. Traits like children
• Revengeful and cruel if spited
• Usually kept in line by piety, maternalism, and
  weakness

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Lombroso would have likely found numerous
atavistic characteristics in these two men. The
distortion in their physical appearance is
probably due to interbreeding within their
immediate family.
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• Degeneracy
• Mental degeneracy additional cause of
  criminality
• Last book was Crime Its Causes and Remedies
  (posthumously published in 1911)
• Criminal by Passion most likely women, sudden
  rage or violence, usually young, few anomalies of
  skull, and good facial features
• Insane Criminal Not criminal by birth, share
  physical traits of degeneracy, kleptomaniacs,
  homicidal maniacs, pederasts
• Occasional Criminal includes those less intense,
  commit crimes because of deficiency in law, weak
  will (criminaloids)

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The basic difference between Lombrosos work and
Gall Spurzheim is that phrenology was not as
fatalistic or deterministic. Lombrosos atavism
condemned individuals to a life of primitive
impulses. Gall Spurzheim felt as though will
and spirit controlled behavior. They also
believed that rigorous training could strengthen
inadequate faculties.
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• Somatotypes (Constitutionalism)
• Somatotype
• Derived from the word soma (the physical entity
  of an organism)
• A physique or morphological type of a human body
• Those who first studied this area known as
  constitutionalists strictly biologically /
  mentally determined
• Later practitioners acknowledged social and
  environmental factors (poverty, education, family)

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• Ernst Kretschmer (1888-1964)
• Research first began by using two distinct
  personality types
• Cycloids (the circular insane) emotions
  fluctuate between happiness and sadness
• Schizoids (schizophrenic insane) display
  multiple personality
• Then divided human physiques into three distinct
  categories
• Asthenic, Athletic, Pyknic

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• Asthenics
• Lean, slightly built, thin, narrow shoulders
• Most likely to commit petty theft
• Athletics
• Tall, muscular, coarse bones
• Most likely to commit violent crimes
• Pyknics
• Manic / depressive
• Short and fat, thick necks
• Most likely to commit deceptive practices

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• William H. Sheldon (1898-1977)
• Drew upon Kretschmers work and brought to US
• Studied the correlation between biology and
  delinquency
• Devised three body types, but argued that all
  people can possess qualities of all 3
  simultaneously
• Scaled body types from 1 7 (dog show scale)
• Endomorphs, Mesomorphs, Ectomorphs

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• Endomorph (1 7)
• Body may be heavy, tissues soft, extrovert,
  relaxed temper
• Mesomorph (1 7)
• Large trunk, muscular, temperament is aggressive
• Ectomorph (1 7)
• Body is lean, finely tuned nervous system,
  introverted

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CLASSICAL SCHOOL
POSITIVIST SCHOOL
Constitutionalism
Naturalism
Determinism Asks Why Scientific Method
Free Will Idealism Asks How
Kretschmer (Somatotypes)
Gall Spurzheim (Phrenology)
CESARE BECCARIA
Lombroso (Atavism)
Sheldon (Somatotypes)
JEREMY BENTHAM