Classical Theory- Utilitarianism

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Classical Theory- Utilitarianism

• Classical Criminology comes from the Utilitarian
  views contemporary to the mid-eighteenth century
• Cartesian Dichotomy (Rene Descartes 1596-1650)
• Power and Reasoning are divine gifts, setting Man
  apart from any other form of life
• Man had free will
• All Human conduct was an exercise of this free
  will
• Behavior had to be useful, purposeful and
  reasonable

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Classical Theory-Deterrence

• The premise of Classical Theory are based on a
  persons rational exercise of free will
• Persons who obey or break the law calculate the
  amount of pleasure derived from the act versus
  the amount of pain if punished for the act.

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Classical Theory

• If a person believes the legal penalty threatens
  more pain than the gain, they will not commit the
  crime
• Their calculation is based on
• Own experience with punishment
• The likelihood they will get caught
• Their knowledge of the law
• Their awareness of what punishment has been given
  in the past

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Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794)

• Pain Avoidance and fear of punishment would
  discourage a crime violator
• In order for a criminal to fear punishment, the
  punishment had to be clearly stated

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Cesare Beccaria

• All criminals should receive identical
  punishments Regardless of age, sanity, wealth,
  position or circumstance
• Punishment for crimes should be determined in
  advance
• The penalty should be severe enough to overcome
  the pleasures.

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Beccaria

• Dei delitti e elle pene or A Treatise on Crime
  and Punishment
• Eventually modified so that children and
  lunatics were exempted from punishment
• Beccaria is credited with eliminating torture and
  severe punishment (like hanging for petit
  larceny)
• Beccaria advocated ridding the justice system of
  corruption

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Cesare Beccaria

• Certainty and Celerity
• The more immediately after the commission of a
  crime a punishment is inflicted, the more just
  and useful it will be

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Jeremy Bentham

• Beccaria was Italian. In Italy, his ideas were
  not warmly received
• Jeremy Bentham (1742-1832), philosopher and
  jurist, supported The Classical School in
  England.
• Bentham was one of the philosophical founders of
  Utilitarianism

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Jeremy Bentham

• Agreed with the Deterrence Theory Doctrine
• for each crime a punishment whose pains would
  outweigh any possible pleasure to be gained from
  them and by assuring the certain and swift
  administration of justice, rational men, deterred
  by the realization that a net loss will
  inevitably result from the criminal act, will
  refrain from breaking the law.

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Classical School

• If the Punishment most fit the crime does that
  mean that pain for gain is the same for
  everyone?
• Does this mean that legislature should have an
  exact scale of crimes with an exact scale of
  punishments?

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Specific Deterrence

• If I know that when I was caught the first time,
  I was severely punished. I do not want that
  again.

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General Deterrence

• The punishment for that crime is rather severe.
  I would not commit that crime because I do not
  want that.

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Deterrence Doctrine

• The philosophical foundation for western criminal
  law

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Modern Adaptations

• Blumstein (1978)
• longer sentences, if not a deterrent, will keep
  an inmate in longer
• President Clinton Violent Crime Control Act and
  Law Enforcement Act of 1994