Week 3: Classical and Neoclassical Theories Flashcards
(15 cards)
What are the 8 assumptions of most classical crime theories?
- Human beings are fundamentally rational and their behaviour is based on rational thought and free will
- Pain and pleasure are the two primary primary factors that influence human behaviour
- punishment acts as both an specific and general deterrent for crime.
- Right and wrong and intrinsic and undeniable in nature
- society has benefits that isolation does not
- in order to have the benefits and protection of society, people have to forfeit some of their personal freedoms.
- Certain key rights of the individual are necessary and government that restricts those rights should be disbanded
- crime lessens the contractual bond between individuals and their society and therefore threaten the benefits that come with a cooperative society.
What is the Code of Hammurabi?
It is an early set of laws established by the Babylonian King Hammurabi. It was intended to maintain civil society and promote peace and prosperity. It was similar to Mosaic law.
What is common Law and what is it’s modern day significance?
The law originating from usage and custom rather than from written statutes. The term refers to non-statutory customs, traditions, and precedents that even today help guide judicial decision making. It became a major influence in criminal law for English speaking countries.
What is the Magna Carta and what is it’s modern day significance?
It was initially written to uphold the feudal system and prevent kings from mistreating their subjects. It became a guarantee for basic liberties for all British Citizens that are still used today. It was the first official “bill of rights” and challenged the prevailing idea of “might is right”.
What was the Enlightenment in the context of criminology and what key thinkers of the time contributed to the field?
The Enlightenment was a social movement that arose during the 17th-18th c. that built upon ideas such as empiricism, rationality, free will, humanism, natural law etc. It indirectly contributed to classical criminological thought.
Significant Figures of the time included:
- Hobbes and Rousseau who developed the idea of the Social Contract (the agreement among individuals to live cooperatively and give up some freedoms in exchange for the protection and support of their government)
- Locke: suggested that behaviour is shaped by human experience (Blank Slate).
Who is Cesare Beccaria and what are his major contributions to classical criminology?
Beccaria (1764) lived during a time where people were tortured, there was institutionalized terror, and capital punishment applied to many minor offenses.
Beccaria believed that people made the choice to break the law because they believed doing so would advance their own interests. He believed that people have free will and would commit crime if it suited them and they thought they could get away with it.
He believed that punishment, in order to be effective, had to be SWIFT, CERTAIN, and PROPORTIONATE. He emphasized that it also had to be public to enhance deterrence. Punishment was not for retribution, it was only for deterrence.
Who is Jeremy Bentham and what are his contributions to classical criminology.
Bentham is the founder of the classical school. He believed that pain of the crime must outweigh the pleasure.
Said that people are hedonistic (like pleasure and avoid pain) so punishment must be just painful enough to outweigh any pleasure.
He also pushed for punishment to be used as deterrence not as retribution
Punishment had to be the right intensity and duration, it also had to be certain and immediate.
He encouraged the development of a centralized police force and also developed the Panopticon Prison.
What is the most lasting and significant contribution by Beccaria and Bentham?
Thanks to the work of Beccaria and Bentham, today our lawmakers, law enforcers, and judges are separate. So the people who uphold the law are different then the people who make the laws.
They also led to court processes becoming open and transparent and contributed to the development of the right to a jury of one’s peers.
What are the five principles of classical theory still around today?
- Rationality: Humans have free will and the actions they undertake come from rational choice.
- Hedonism: pleasure or pain are the major determinants of choice
- Punishment: criminal punishment is a deterrent to unlawful behaviour and deterrence is the best justification for punishment.
- Human Rights: society is made possible by individuals cooperating together so society owes to it’s citizens respect for their rights in the face of government action and for their autonomy in so far as such autonomy can be secured without endangering others or menacing the greater good.
- Due Process: an accused person should be presumed innocent until proven guilty and the accused should not be subjected to punishment until guilt is lawfully established.
What are some limitations and benefits of classical theory?
Limitations:
- Encouraged the idea of fixed sentencing which limits judges’ discretion
- failed to consider other explanations besides free will and rational choice for why people commit crimes
- Put to much reliance on rationalism (are people always rational?)
Benefits:
- Contributed to deterrence theory (general and specific)
- Established rights like equality under the law (did it really though….) and innocence until proven guilty.
- It reduced support for capital punishment
What is Neoclassical Criminology?
A contemporary version of classical criminology that emphasizes deterrence and retribution with a reduced emphasis on rehabilitation due to a belief in rehabilitation’s insufficiency.
Explain rational choice theory and name it’s two variations.
Rational Choice Theory is a perspective holding tht criminality is the result of consicous choice. It predicts that individuals choose to commit crimes when the benefits outweigh the costs of disobeying the law.
Its two variations are:
1. Routine Activities theory
2. Situational Choice theory
What is Routine Activities Theory?
Routine Activities theory suggests that crime is created by a scenario involving a motivated offender, a suitable victim, and a lack of a capable guardian.
It comes from the idea that lifestyles and law abiding people have predictable ruitines that motivated offenders will take advantage of if a suitable guardian is not present.
This theory looks considers a combination of choices made by perpetrators and choices made by victims and believes that people who take crime prevention strategies are less likely to be victimized
What is Situational Choice Theory?
Situational Choice Theory believes that a combination of situational opportunities plus rational choices combine to create crime. Crime occurs more in certain settings that create good opportunities for criminal behaviour.
What do both Routine Activities theory and Situational choice theory recommend as a way of reducing Crime?
Target Hardening, making targets less enticing for perpetrators, making it more difficult to commit and get away with the crime. (e.g. security cameras.)
This really only works on property based crime because as soon as you apply target hardening to people, it starts to look a lot like victim blaming…
