A

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