Chapter 4/Tutorial

Question 1

Occam’s Razor

Answer 1

Take the most straightforward theory.

Question 2

Classical School

Answer 2

-Emerged during Enlightment
-Two most well-known classical school theorists Cesare Beccaria and Jermey Bentham
-• Their works used concepts such as hedonism, utilitarianism, free will, human beings as rational, logical actors
• Hedonism refers to view that humans will naturally seek pleasure and avoid pain
• Utilitarianism suggests that actions of governments and individuals should be measured in terms of their utility-i.e., how much pleasure they bring, how many people benefit (derive pleasure) from those actions

Cesare Beccaria
• Argued against secret accusations and use of torture, insisting accused individuals should have right to know their accusers and right to a fair trial
• “Was an opponent of the death penalty, arguing that punishment should be proportional to the crime”

Jeremy Bentham
• Argued that humans are rational, free-willed actors
• Human behaviour is governed by hedonistic (pleasure-pain) calculus
• Punishment should be restricted only to amount required to achieve deterrence)

Sentencing and Deterrence
• Classical School focused on law making and legal process
• Hedonism (popular explanation for human behaviour)-people would try to maximize pleasure, minimize pain
• People would make rational choices if aware of consequences of committing crime

Example of Classical School thinking in our modern system: Presumption of innocence, right to a fair trial, right to know the case against you

Question 3

Rational Choice Theory

Answer 3

• 1986 book by Derek B. Cornish and Ronald V.Clarke
• Say that crime meets commonplace needs for money, status, excitement and sex
• Reasoning criminal weighs potential cost vs. potential gain
• “How easy will it be?” “How rewarding will it be?”

Question 4

The Hedonistic Calculus

Answer 4

• Associated with Jermey Bentham
• Believed punishment was evil, punishment should not be used as retribution for crime
• Bentham proposed “penal pharmacy” which prescribed certain punishments for certain crimes, using calculated “ratio” for delivery of pan/seriousness of offence

Question 5

Neo-Classicism

Answer 5

• Aka rational choice theory
• Based on classical school notions of hedonism and utilitarianism, belief that we commit a crime because there are more benefits, then costs of the crime (cost-benefit analysis)

Question 6

The Purposive Nature of Crime

Answer 6

• Cornish/Clarke stress the “purposive nature of crime”, all crime has a purpose even though purpose may not be readily apparent to outside observers
o Ex: Smashing a window might bring a degree of pleasure, even though there is no economic gain

Question 7

Limited or Bounded Rationality

Answer 7

• Cornish/Clarke recognize offenders may exercise what they refer to as “limited” or “bounded rationality”
• Criminal decision-making may be less than perfect, offenders might make decision in spur of the moment
• Offender may not plan their crime in elaborate detail or fully acknowledge their punishment

Question 8

Cesare Lomboroso cont

Answer 8

• Measured and classified skulls and body types of prisoners, and inmates confined to insane asylums
• Concluded that criminals were “atavistic” they were degenerate, evolutionary throwbacks
• Argued that criminals exhibited distinguishing features, like apes or Neanderthals-retreating foreheads, large ears, large jaws, long arms

Question 9

Positivist School Thinking

Answer 9

• Lombrosos, early founder of Positivist school, claimed that he could identify criminals by body type, facial features, skulls
• Described criminals as “atavisms”, saying they resembled earlier human life such as extinct Neanderthal cavemen
• Said these atavisms exhibited “stigmata”-physical characteristics that could differentiate someone from being a criminal or normal human being

• Sheldon’s 1949 somatotyping theory, describing three distinct (unusual) body types:
o The ectomorph-skinny, frail, prone to nervous disorders and anxiety;
o The endomorph- round (overweight), sociable, loved to eat;
o The mesomorph- muscular, triangular torso, competitive, aggressive, and prone to violence (most likely to be a criminal)

Question 10

Criticisms of the Positivist School

Answer 10

• Criticized for supporting “science” of eugenics- notion that bad genes caused “diseases” like feeble-mindedness, homosexuality, and criminality, which could be eliminated from human gene pool through selective breeding (i.e., sterilization, segregation, and extermination)
• Criticized for discounting relationship between crime and social factors, eg., poverty, lack of education, lack of employment opportunities (Cartwright et al., 2015)