crim units 2+ 3

17th century England

• Conflicts over power, authority, and the role of law resulted in a rejection of traditional form of authority and beliefs about punishments 

• Social contract: a group or groups of rational and self interested individuals came together to form a contract, which created society. Social rules were created that meant, while each individual gave up a bit of freedom, everyone;s self interests would be protected 

• Transition from feudalism (power in the hands of aristocracy, maintained by repression, few legal rights, for the wider population) to capitalism (an economic system where economic activity is primarily directed toward the production of commodities for sale in the marketplace)

feudalism and capitalism

• In the feudal era, there was an absence of formal legal status and rights were not acknowledged as being common to all as one’s social rank thus determined the nature and extent of the rights one was able to claim or exercise 

• The administration of justice tended to be haphazard, localized, irregular, and unsystematic. The justice system reflected the personal ties or connections of the powerful (i.e., derived from patronage, familiarity, or business associations) and the personal whim of the local ruling class 

• Men held judicial office as an extension of their wealth and rank in society. Furthermore, there was a proliferation of different types of courts, including local manorial courts, ecclesiastical (religious courts), and the king’s or queen’s courts 

• Penalties for crime were also highly individualized and varied greatly. Torture and death were not uncommon penalties, even for minor offenses. The brutal nature of the punishment also reflected the fact that holding prisoners in particular sites long term (e.g., prisons) was not used as a general form of sanction. It also reflected the arbitrary use of draconian or extreme measures when the first priority of the day was maintenance of order and orthodoxy, rather than justice and reform.   

• Major social, economic, and political changes were occurring throughout Europe and were revolutionizing both the institutions of power and social relationships generally. The “revolutions” were at two levels: economic and political 

• In production, economies based primarily on agriculture moved to become commercial market economies and then industrial economies; and in the political sphere, the emerging bourgeoisie, or capitalist class, challenged the rule of the landed aristocracy   

• The rise of the state, initially linked to the extension of monarchical power, saw the legal and criminal justice systems start to change. 

• Monarchs were able to fuse local traditions and customs into a general form of law administration– hence the development of a common law system of justice 

• Common law: judges have the authority and duty to decide what the law is when there is no other authoritative statement of the law. Forms a major part of the legal systems of countries with a history as territories or colonies of the british empire 

• The next stage of legal development was linked to the formation of the capitalist class, beginning with the age of mercantile capitalism  (merchant trading in the context of nation states) 

• This manifested in a series of armed struggles and revolutions including the french and american revolutions as the power of monarchy was replaced by new institutions and aristocracy was pushed to the side     

18th century Europe more broadly

• The spirit of enlightenment influenced changes aimed at rebuilding social structures based on rational principles 

• The rule of law and thinking about society in terms of social contract prevailed

feudalistic structures of economic and political systems

• The basic relations of power were changing (e.g., French revolution: 1789-99; American revolution: 1765-83)

• The role of the state shifted from rule on behalf of the monarchy to a responsibility to uphold universal law where equity was guaranteed  

• Social class was to be ignored within the judicial system 

• Justice was to subject to the rules of law rather than the arbitrary rulings of the ruling class 

the individual and the state

• Capitalists called for the universalization of rights against a regime based solely on hereditary privilege 

• There was also an insistence that the state no longer simply rule on behalf of a monarch or aristocracy. Rather, the role of the state was to preserve the rule of law. In this system the state apparatus acts as a distinct public authority to guarantee “equality under the law” in relation to freedom, rights, and obligations 

• Claim for universal and equal rights was relevant to the law and courts as well as all social attributes should be ignored once a person entered the court 

• Economically individual rights bolstered the idea that private property was a right that did not have to be seen in relation to traditional obligations and justified a breaking of bonds between peasants and the landed aristocracy (peasants were allowed to freely sell their labor)

• The classical approach in law and criminology was thus born of momentous changes occurring across the political, legal, social, and economic domains 

• At the core of these changes was the relationship  between individual rights, the state, and equality

the Canadian context

• Canada became a country by an act of parliament of Great Britain– The British North America (BNA) Act of 1867 – that facilitated the merging of the colonies of Upper and Lower Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick into a confederation known as the dominion of Canada

• This new country was still a part of the British Empire and was governed by monarch appointed authority 

• This did not change until the Canada Act of 1982 patriated Canada’s constitution this declares the constitution of Canada and includes the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which includes provisions for privacy rights, democratic rights, legal rights, and equality rights 

• Canada’s legal system is defined as a bijuralism, which means the coexistence of two fundamental legal traditions: common law and civil law 

• Common was based on the decision made by judges in the royal court of GB and over time evolved into a system of rules based precedent 

• Civil law is based on roman law which is found in many places such as books, proclamations, and statues

Cesare Beccaria: Essay on crimes and punishments

• Opposed the arbitrary nature of judicial decision and was critical of the unduly harsh and barbaric forms of punishment including the death penalty and routine use of torture 

• Advocated utilitarian concept of greatest happiness for the greatest number in society 

• Crime considered an injury to society

• Purpose of punishment is to ensure the greatest overall good for everyone

• Punishment should be oriented towards deterrence rather than vengeance   

• Laws need to be clearly written 

• Punishments should be proportionate to the crime and aimed at ensuring the greatest overall good for members of society 

• Swiftness and certainty are more effective deterrents than severity

Jeremy Bentham late 1700s- early 1800s

• Saw human beings and society within the framework of utilitarianism 

• Developed beccaria’s classical view 

• Believed criminal behavior was reducible to the pleasure– pain principle (seeking pleasure/avoiding pain) 

• Argued laws need to meant to reflect a social contract between individuals and the state based on the rational exchange of rights and obligations 

• Enforcement of criminal law should be based on making adherence the most rational thing to do (i.e. the punishment to outweigh gain) 

• Making crime painful rather than rewarding

focus of analysis

• Reform of legal system to make it more accessible 

• The specific offence is the focus of judicial punishment rather than the individual or his/her social position 

• Focus on a rational, fair, and universally applied justice system 

• Focus on codifying and simplifying law so that the majority of people easily understood it 

• Deterrence: the attempt to control crime by creating a threat of punishment  

• Specific: directed at the specific individuals 

• General: directed at all members of society 

Basic concepts

• Classical theory is premised on the notion of individual rights, the human capacity to reason, and the rule of law 

  • We are seen as ultimately responsible for choosing what to do with our time and energy, and for the consequences that may arise from our actions 

  • Fundamental objective of the law is to protect individual rights and allow the free exercise of choice among individuals as far as this is possible without leading to social harm 

• Definition of crime: violation of law, rights, and social contract 

• Focus of analysis: specific offense, the criminal law 

• Response to crime: 

  • Rule of law demands that each violation of a law be treated alike 

  • Equality in process and in punishment 

  • Reform of punishment so that it is proportionate to the crime

    • Brutalization effect 

  • Goal of punishment is to achieve overall good rather than exact revenge or retribution 

  • Certainty of punishment (requiring a professionalized police force and judicial system) 

  • Fixed or determinate 

• Causes of crime 

  • Individual choice 

  • pleasure/benefit is perceived to outweigh pain/cost 

    • Social actors assumed to make rational calculations 

  • Irrational decisions: the classical model attempts to get at the root of crime by putting in place a punishment that outweighs gain so that the potential crime can be prevented  

• Nature of the offender 

  • Any of us regardless of social class or position (i.e. no specific criminality) 

  • Free will

  • Individuals are presumed to be selfish and act in their self interest 

• Individuals are perceived to have an equal capacity to reason

• Crime prevention 

  • Pleasure pain principle 

  • Reform of the legal system to make it more accessible 

• Operation of the criminal justice system 

  • Legal philosophical approach 

  • Basic principles

practical challenges in classical criminology

1. Making sure general principles serve the interests of justice and equality when faced with a specific defendant in court 

• Questions could be raised about the abstract concept of being rational and equal (e.g., mental illness)

2. Growing bureaucratization of the state 

• Courts had to fulfill the bureaucratic criterion of efficiency as much as justice and fairness. Where the criteria of efficiency and justice were incompatible, conflict resulted 

• “Corporatzation” where procedures are put into place to increase efficiency rather than to emphasize qualities such as justice 

3. Vested interests 

• Those is positions of power viewed classicism as a challenge to their entrenched authority 

• UK and australia have a hybrid of classical and pre classical models

contemporary examples

• “Just desserts” approach to sentencing rests on a classical foundation: 

1. No one other than a person found to be guilty of a crime must be punished for it 

2. Anyone found guilty of a crime must be punished for that crime 

3. Punishment must not be more than of a degree commensurate with, or proportionate to, the nature or gravity of the offence and culpability of the criminal 

4. Punishment must not be less than of a degree commensurate with, or proportionate to, the nature or gravity of the offense and culpability of the criminal 

• These principles seek to focus on the offense, not the offender; to deter the offender from reoffending; and to ensure that justice is served by equal punishment  

• The protecting canadians from online crime act (Bill C-13) came into force in 2015

• The just desserts model formed the basis for much of the debate around Canadian reform such as Bill C-13 

• Created a new criminal offense for nonconsensual distribution of intimate images as well as increased law enforcement powers to combat cyberbullying (e.g. search, seizure, and tracking of electronic evidence)

• Focus is on the offense, deterrence, and a clearly defined penalty that largely removes judicial discretion 

• Webster and Doob (2015) found that:

• Harsher prison sentences do not deter crime 

• Mandatory minimum sentences do not reduce recidivism 

• These approaches may increase crime rather than prevent it (i.e. offenders come out of prison more entrenched in criminal lifestyles) 

critique of classical theory

• Problems with fairness

  • Does not examine circumstances of the offender, focuses on the offense  

  • Rationality may be influenced by structural variables 

  • People do not have equal capacity to reason

    • Children, people with intellectual disabilities, mental illness 

  • Neo-classical reforms needed to be introduced that could attend to extenuating circumstances that challenged classical notions of conscious intent or choice (the concept of mens rea or guilty mind) 

• Neglect of social inequalities 

  • If theory holds, we should see even distribution across all sectors of society 

  • Rational choice may lead some to offend precisely because of social inequalities 

• There is a difference between formal law (written) and substantive law (that which happens in practice) 

  • Those that understand the law or who have adequate legal resources may be able to exploit it while others with less understanding or without the same access to lawyers may be disadvantaged 

• The legal process is itself influenced by broader social inequalities (e.g., the wealthy have access to legal advice that affects how they are dealt with in the legal system) 

• Punishments may also be in proportion to the crime but will be experienced in markedly different ways 

conclusion for unit 2

• Classical theory has to be understood within context of wider social change (transition from feudalism to capitalism) 

  • Within this social climate, classicalism challenged aristocracy in matters of crime and justice

  • It promoted the rights of individuals as equal and rational 

• Classicalism focuses on the offense and not the offender   

• Contemporary influence of classical thinking can be seen the “just deserts” principle of sentencing 

  • I.e. classical thinking has had a profound effect on the Canadian justice system and can be seen particularly clearly in the debates of the 1980s and 1990s

• A weakness of the approach is its erasure of broader inequalities and social structures that contribute to crime 

introduction to unit 3

• Positivism represents a shift from philosophizing to a more rigorous, scientific enterprise. It promotes the systematic, scientific study of social problems (i.e., to classify, quantify, and record facts) 

  • A major break with the classical tradition that saw crime as primarily a matter of individual choice 

  • Positivists believe crime is explained by reference to forces and factors outside the decision making ability of the individual  

• Social scientists are meant to be neutral observers (value free) 

• The science of criminology has three major approaches 

1. Biological 

2. Psychological 

3. Sociological 

• Central to these perspectives is the idea that crime can best be explained by examining individual differences between people and demonstrating how these differences are, in turn, linked to certain biological or psychological factors that predispose certain people to criminal behavior 

positivism and its social context

• the belief that society is always progressing, and that scientists can understand how society works and ultimately overcome social problems by using scientific methods 

• Emerged in the 19th century through the immense influence of science and technology (steam engine) 

• Consolidation of capitalism and capitalist mode of production: major technological development 

• Entrenchment of mass industrial production and growth of urban centres, working class (proletariat) and harsh living and working conditions (child labor)

rise of the proletariat

• Rise was accompanied by major industrial, social, and political conflict and upheaval 

• The capitalist class was faced with opposition from the working class over the conditions and nature of work,  and in some cases over ownership and control of production in society 

• Life for the working class consisted of child labor as well poor living and working conditions (harsh, dirty, overcrowded) 

• Nineteenth century was a time when the working class began to organize itself industrially, politically, and in some cases militarily 

  • Workers began to combine into industrial organizations (trade unions) 

  • Material conditions experienced by the working class meant that there was greater analysis of, and sympathy for, the idea of a new type of “classless society” 

    • This was reflected in the proliferation of alternative working class publications, pamphlets, daily presses, and in the formation of socialist, anarchist, and labor political organizations and parties  

• Ruling class compromised for the legal recognition of industrial unions and the extension of the vote to male members of the working class 

• In canada, the winnipeg general strike of 1919 is one of the most famous examples of labor organization 

  • Strikers demanded the right to collective bargaining, eight hour work days, and a living wage 

  • After six weeks the strike ended and the strikers accomplished some of their goals but not their quest for fairer wages and hours 

  • most importantly, strikers were guaranteed their jobs back, employers agree to recognize unions, and legislation was enacted to allow for collective bargaining

central ideas of positivism

• The visible presence of class conflict and social misery in Europe, the rise of scientific interest and industrial innovation, and the idea of evolution and stages in human development all influenced the establishment of positivism as an approach to human affairs 

  • Positivism was founded on the belief that society is progressing ever forward, and that social scientists can study study, provide a more accurate understanding of how society works, and ultimately provide a rational means of overcoming existing social problems and ills by using scientific methods

• Social scientists require a systematic study of existing social problems and the development of a wide range of technique and strategies to deal with issues relating to schooling, poverty, and family life  

• Society is viewed as an organism made up of different components that work together 

  • If one of the components was dysfunctional, then correction was required to restore social equilibrium 

• As with the natural world, the social world is seen to obey general laws of operation  

• Crime is explained by reference to factors outside of individual decision making 

  • Marked a major break with the classical tradition that saw crime is a matter of individual choice 

• Crime can be explained by examining individual differences and by demonstrating how these are linked to certain biological or psychological factors that predispose people toward criminal behavior 

• Darwin’s theory of evolution was (mis)appropriated to: 

  • Justify and explain colonialism and imperialism (might makes right) 

  • Promote racist biological determinism– with impacts still being felt today 

• Understanding crime: 

  • Criminals are deviant (distinguished from ‘normal’) 

  • Violation of social consensus (assumes moral consensus exists about deviancy) 

  • Crime and deviance can be studied in a scientific manner and extend beyond a legal definition (such behavior ranges outside official violations of the law) 

definition of crime within positivism

• Violation of social consensus 

• Extends beyond a legal definition 

• Deviant behavior with respect to social norms 

focus of analysis within positivism

• Focus is not on the offense but on the study of the nature and faulty characteristics of the offender (related to biological or psychological factors that lead to criminal behavior) 

• Positivism also attempts to measure unrecorded crime and deviant behavior (dark figure of crime) 

causes of crime within positivism

• Pathology, illness, bio-chemistry, etc., Individual deficiency, not a matter of individual choice 

• Determined by factors outside of an individual’s conscious control (biological, psychological, social)

nature of the offender within positivism

• Predetermined and/or predisposed to certain types of behavior 

• Biological and social conditioning and individual differences

responses to crime within positivism

• Focused on individualized treatment tailored to the diagnosis and classification of the offender, not on punishment 

• Indeterminate sentences to fit offender

• Punishment should not depend solely on the nature of the criminal act but on the nature of the offence, diagnosis, and classification of the offender

crime prevention within positivism

• Focus on diagnosis and classification 

• Early intervention to prevent criminality or deviance 

• Identify cause and effect relationships so that crime can be predicted

operation of the criminal justice system within positivism

• Measurement and evaluation 

• Essentially neutral

biological positivism

• First popularized by the work of Cesare Lombroso the criminal man (1876) 

• Lombroso was heavily influenced by evolutionary theories and attempted to classify individuals on the basis of racial and biological differences

• The argument was that a general theory of crime can be developed on the basis of measurable physical differences between the criminal and noncriminal 

• According to Lombroso, the criminal was born rather than socialized (atavism) 

• Believed that the atavistic criminal was closer to an ape than a human being 

• Criminals were perceived as biological inferior

• Further divided the population into the “epileptic criminal”, the “insane criminal”, the “occasional criminal” and so on 

• In explaining female delinquency and criminality he argued that because of the essential nature of the female sex (which was seen as passive), the female offender was biologically more like a man than a woman

biological deterministic view

sought to establish a link between criminal traits and stages of evolution by studying cadavers of inmates    

• One third of all criminals are throwbacks to carnivorous cave dwellers “who tear and devour raw flesh” 

• They are easily identified from the general population because of physical traits 

• A form of criminal anthropology emerged that posited a general theory of crime based on measurable differences between criminals and on criminals 

• Criminals could be identified based on a series of physical stigmata such as:

• Abnormal dentition (protruding teeth, asymmetric face, large ears, supernumerary fingers and toes, eye defects, affinities toward tattoos

phrenology

• Shape and size of skull corresponds to brain functions and ability 

• Early studies attempted to correlate skull size and criminality

physiology and criminality

• Looks to physiology or body structure as a key determinant of criminality

• William Sheldon proposed a theory based on body build (somatype) to identify likelihood of criminality (e.g., muscular and strong type is seen as likely to offend) 

• According to Sheldon, human body types can be classified into three broad categories: endomorphic (soft and round), mesomorphic (muscular and strong), and ectomorphic (thin and fragile) 

• Each body type was associated with a particular temperament: endomorphs were relaxed/sociable/fond of eating; mesomorphs were energetic/courageous/assertive; and ectomorphs were brainy/artistic/introverted 

• Mesomorphs were most likely to become criminals  

intelligence testing

• developed by Alfred Binet in France in 1904 to distinguish between intellectually normal and inferior children

• Developed the Binet scale which measured children on their ability to do specific tasks

• Goddard argued that intelligence was an inborn, fixed, solitary entity that could be measured 

• Criminals were considered to be innately below normal intelligence 

genetics and criminality

• Early theories sought a genetic explanation for criminality 

• It was believed that individuals with an extra chromosome were predisposed to criminal activity

• According to XYY chromosome theory, criminality is related to a deviant genetic makeup

• It was held that those who had this kind of chromosomal abnormality were predisposed to criminal activity because of their abnormal height and mental structures  

eugenics

• The term was coined by Francis Galton in 1883 (greek for well born) 

• Positive and negative traits were believed to be inherited 

  • Negative traits included mental illness, mental retardation, criminality, and other social defects such as sexual perversion and prostitution 

• Adherents to this perspective argued that marriage laws, sterilization, the prohibition of certain individuals from procreating,  and segregation to those deemed defective could improve the quality of society 

  • Alberta sexual sterilization act, passed march 7 1928, resulted in the creation of the Eugenics Board which had the power to authorize sexual sterilization of individuals 

  • Lasted from 1929-1972 when the act was finally repealed 

  • Authorized 4,725 of the 4,800 cases brought before it 

  • 2,822 individuals were sterilized 

psychological positivism

• Psychological theories focused on the processes of the mind in explaining crime 

• Crime was seen as externally caused biological problems (e.g., war injury) or internal psychological factors (e.g., mental illness) that were treatable 

• In contrast to the atavistic perspective, the criminal is made, not born 

• Offenders are seen as sick and treatable 

• The task of the criminal justice system is to understand the underlying causes of criminality and to develop treatment strategies 

• Emerged from England from within the criminal justice institutions themselves 

  • Doctors and psychiatrists discovered there were major differences between individual offenders and that there was a whole range of offenders who did not seem entirely responsible for their actions 

• Broadly speaking psychological theories tended to include several types of perspectives such as 

  • References to psychoanalytic theory such as analysis of the conscious and unconscious as well as how basic and emotional/developmental processes affect behavior 

  • Personality traits, such as studies of aggression and passivity, and the psychological structure of personality as these related to behavior 

  • Psychiatric issues from a childhood focus/point of view. Analysis of deprivation of universal needs during childhood as leading to the formation of certain personality patterns later in life 

contemporary examples

• Two major strands of psychological positivism:

1. Forensic psychiatry/psychology: influenced by practitioners in the field

• Primary concerns of forensic psychiatrists 

• Service provision to the criminal justice system 

• Rehabilitation 

• Determination of culpability (examining, testifying, etc) 

• Predicting possible reoffending 

• Criminal profiling (pinpointing the personality of an offender) Geographic profiling (identifying the likely area where the offender lives)  

2. Academic theories (e.g., control theory or biosocial)

control theory

• Traced to the psychodynamic theories of Freud 

  • Assumes human beings are impulsive and anti-social 

  • Central concern is how individuals learn self control 

• More recent theories see offending as related to a lack of self control 

  • Gottfredson and Hirschi see a lack of self control as made up of elements such as impulsivity (inability to deter gratification), lack of perseverance, preference for risky behavior, preference for physical as opposed to mental activity, self centeredness, a low threshold for frustration  

  • Childrearing is linked to the development of self control

  • Poor childrearing (lack of supervision by mother, poor attachment to father, absentee parent) increases likelihood of criminal offending 

  • Association with criminals will increase likelihood of criminality 

  • Skills gained as part of socialization can help individuals resist criminal opportunities

  • They believe their theory applies as much to white collar crime as to street offending 

modern explanations

• Biosocial explanations focus on personality types 

  • Linked to biological predispositions (nature) and developmental experiences (nurture) 

• Eysenck suggested criminal behavior could be explained by two key variables 

  • Differential ability to be conditioned: genetics can affect one’s ability to be conditioned 

    • Sensitivity of the autonomic nervous system that you have genetically inherited will determine whether you are an extrovert or introvert which in turn influences how well you are able to be conditioned in society 

  • Differential quality of conditioning: effectiveness of family conditioning (childrearing) techniques 

    • The content and method of childrearing will have an impact on the child’s subsequent behavior 

• Biological potentials are set through inheritance which interact with environmental potentials to determine together the overall propensity of individuals to commit crime 

• Provide compelling support for the relationship between mental health, substance use and abuse, and criminality 

• Recent research has examined the contributions of various factors to criminal behavior 

  • Genetic, biochemical, and psychopharmacological  

  • Medicalization of deviance: a process in which criminal behaviors are reconstructed as medical issues/problems

contemporary positivists genetic contributions

See a dynamic relationship between biological factors (inherited predisposition) and environmental factors (external inputs that modify behavior) 

Recent research has examined the contributions of various factors to criminal behavior such as 

• Genetic contributions 

• Examined the effect of inheritance on criminal behavior

• Traits such as intellectual defects or aggression are seen as genetically determined and closely associated with criminal behavior 

• Twin and adoption studies compare biological and nonbiological siblings to test the influence of genetic inheritance 

contemporary positivists biochemical contributions

• Look at impact of biochemical differences on human behavioral patterns 

• Hormonal activity, metabolic processes, and the influence of toxins (such as lead poisoning) are examined in terms of various behaviors such as aggression and the overall propensity to commit crime 

• Another stand of research examines psychophysiological variables, such as heart rate, blood pressure, brainwaves, arousal, and attention levels. It is suggested here that different physiological processes have implications for neurotransmission and psychological impairment

contemporary positivists pharmacological inducements

• Inducements such as cocaine, alcohol, amphetamines etc and their effects on human behavior, especially criminal behavior 

• Drug crime relationship is challenging and complex 

• Goldstein’s tripartite model describes the connections between drug use and violence to provide a framework for beginning to understand this relationship of substance use and criminality

• Points include that some drugs (alcohol, methamphetamine, cocaine, and PCP) increase the potential for individuals to engage in high-risk/violent behavior.

critique of positivism

• Largely concerned with street crime and juvenile delinquency while neglecting white collar and state crime 

• Consensus about criminality without determining whose norms are the benchmark and that norms change over time 

• Blurred distinction between sickness and criminality

• Fails to acknowledge complexity of individual development, renewal, and transformation 

  • Can lead to both racist and sexist conclusions

• Once a cause of offending has been isolated, further problems arise in diagnosis, classification, and treatment 

• Analogy with sickness presents problems with circular reasoning 

  • Incarcerated populations are defined as being either psychologically or biologically deficient

  • Unclear whether criminality causes impairment or impairment causes criminality 

  • Reducing complexities of human behavior to a single cause:

    • Can lead to unsupported conclusions which link certain groups or biologically determined traits to criminality 

    • Prescribes potentially intrusive and unethical treatments 

    • Neglects the social influences of crime 

    • Inability to predict dangerousness 

• Lack of certain accuracy with criminal profiling

conclusion for unit 3

• Positivism emerged to promote the virtues of scientific reasoning over the philosophical approach championed by classical thinkers

• The emphasis of positivism is on the scientist as a neutral observer with the task of uncovering natural laws that regulate human behavior, including criminal offending 

• Specific methods such as experimentation and survey design are seen to reveal specific causes of criminal behavior within the individual– causes that are either biologically or psychologically determined  

• Reduction of offending is seen as possible through treatment programs aimed at eliminating causal agents 

• Sentencing should be aimed at rehabilitation rather than deterrence 

• Positivism has a tendency to reduce the complexities of human behavior to single identifiable causes and to prescribe treatments that are intrusive or unethical 

• Criticism lies in positivism’s characterization of criminal offending as akin to a sickness 

• Recent writing within positivism has tended to move away from overarching generalizations concerning human behavior