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
        * societyitselfcausescrimesociety itself causes crime
        * unhealthy morality was a biological thing and people with bad morals had high criminal propensities
  • criminal anthropology
      * Cesare Lombroso
        * borncriminalborn 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