Chapter 3 (65-75)

• the emergence of positivist crim
  • positivism: method of analysis based on the collection of observable scientific facts
  • positivist criminology: search for uniformities in the area of crime / criminal justice
  • movement away from French feudal society
  • aim: moral reformation through deprivation of liberty and the prevention of crime through deterrence
  • prisons had failed to regulate the conduct of “dangerous crimes”
    • working class, unemployed, and unemployable (posed a threat to law and order)
  • Adolphe Quetelet
  • social mechanics
  • young males, the poor, and those with bad / no jobs were more likely to commit and be convicted of crimes
  • crime has three chief causes
    • accidental: wars, famines, natural disaster
    • variable: free will, personality
    • constant: age, gender, occupation
  • society itself causes crime
  • unhealthy morality was a biological thing and people with bad morals had high criminal propensities
• criminal anthropology
  • Cesare Lombroso
  • born criminal
  • scientific criminology had to be based on an analysis of the individual criminal
  • examined skulls of delinquent corpses
    • similar to the insane, American blacks, Mongolian races, and prehistoric man
  • Charles Goring
  • social action is inherited and those with a genealogically deviant inheritance would be unable to adapt to social life
  • eugenics
    • positive: middle and upper classes should be provided with incentive to reproduce
    • negative: social undesirables should be isolated, sterilized, and castrated
  • adverse environmental conditions and mental defectiveness caused recidivism
    • sociological facts and mental capacities were independent of each other
    • defective qualities of individuals in a given species weren’t influenced by social environment
• neoclassical criminology
  • decreased (?) classical (gabriel tarde)
  • individuals should be accountable for their actions whether or not they have free will
  • many classical legal reforms were impractical
    • individuals are unique and shouldn’t be subjected to uniformity of treatment
  • decreased positivism (gabriel tarde)
  • based in determinism, so if crimes were truly out of their control, rehabilitation wouldn’t work
    • resulted from leniency from prosecutors
  • neoclassical compromises
  • an offender’s character is open to analysis
  • punishment should fit the crime - imprisonment should be mainform
  • treatment of criminal should be individualized
  • punishment should also include deterrents
  • death penalty should be abolished

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