Theories And Viewpoints Of Criminology: Classicism And Positivism

Development of Criminology

Discuss about the Criminology and Criminal Justice.  

Criminology is perceived as a study discipline that commences with significant theories and viewpoints of influential individuals on such theories such as the classicism and positivism. This paper emphasizes on two essential points, firstly, there is a need to have knowledge about the various theories of criminology and secondly, the age-old viewpoints on crime are still present in the modern and scientific age (Weisburd 2015). In fact, it would be more appropriate to state that criminology operates in a culture that combines several approaches of action and thoughts. The development in criminology began with the writings of criminal law reformers in the eighteenth century, Jeremy Bentham and Cesare Beccaria, in particular. The classical school of criminology is basically associated with free will, choice, rationality, progress and choice. However, the followers of the positivist school like Cesare Lombroso, Francis Galton and Enrico Ferri challenged the classical criminology school in the nineteenth century. The positive school, on the other hand, emphasizes on the criminal and determinism. These theories have been re-worked and they persist to influence the criminal justice systems.

This school of classical criminology aims at creating fairer and rational system for organizing punishment, establishes social order, and ensures a greater legal quality of citizens irrespective of social position. According to Cesara Beccaria, human actions are based on personal decisions made freely and is not influenced by any external or internal forces. He believed that punishments would be a significant deterrent if they were proportionate to the crime and would prevent the offenders from committing crimes, knowing that they would be subjected to punishments (Reid 2015). His approach reflected secularism in that he did not believe in traditional concepts of divine law and favored humanist theory of punishment, emphasizing on human beings accountable for pleasure and pain. Jeremy Bentham believed punishments should be determined as causation of pain in direct proportion to the damage caused to the interest of the public.

Lombroso is considered the foundation of modern criminology and he believed that several criminals had unique physique. His belief that criminals could be distinguished from non-criminals based on their physique was subjected to challenges. Along with Lombroso, Enrico Ferri asserted that causation of crime is based on three main factors: the anthropological, social and physical factor (Maxfiel and Babbie 2014). The commission of crime is the outcome of three causes, the anthropological condition of criminal, the physical in which the accused is residing and the social environment in which the person is born, living and operating. The anthropological element highlighted constitution and heredity. On the other hand, the physical factors reflect the issues such as season and climate; and the social element emphasized on religion, education etc.

Classical Criminology Vs. Positivist Criminology

These two approaches of criminology differ from each other in terms of their area of focus where the classic school approach is based on criminal administration whereas the positivist school approach is based on the criminal person. These two approaches differ in their approaches as well where classic school approach considers human nature is based on free will whereas the positivist approach considered human nature is determined by social, biological and psychological environment. The most significant difference between the two approaches with respect to the purpose of sentencing is that the classic approach of criminology states that the sentencing purpose purports to punish for deterrence. The positivist approach considers that treatment and reform should be the sole purpose of sentencing (Morrison 2014. ).

As per the dictionary meaning, crime is defined as an act that is punishable by law and is deterred by several statutes, as it is injurious to public welfare. An act is considered as crime when it infringes the exiting legal jurisdiction within which such crime takes place. Therefore, it can be rightly said that crime is a form of conduct that is strictly prohibited under legal code.

In Australia, the States and Territories usually govern the criminal law each having their own respective laws. The criminal laws are enacted either through legislations or through the parliament in the form of statutes. According to Ferrell (2014), there are several elements that must be present to establish that a person is guilty of committing a criminal offence. The first essential element includes ‘actus reus’ which is the physical carrying out of any actions that is strictly prohibited. The other essential element includes the ‘mens rea’, which signifies the intention or the criminal mind of a person to carry out a certain act that is deterred in law.

The criminologists attempts several ways to acquire knowledge about crime such as personal experience, or as an offender or a victim of crimes which forms the various sources of obtaining knowledge about crime. In addition to these sources, the other important sources of information about crime include the media and the official statistics on the crimes punishments and victims.

The notion of ‘victim’ dates back to the ancient communities where it was associated with the concept of ‘sacrifice’. There have been vast changes in interpreting and comprehending the concept of ‘victimization’ over ages. Traditionally, a ‘victim’ referred to a person or animal that was killed during a religious ceremony for pleasing some supernatural power or deity. Over the centuries, the notion of victimization has been given different meanings. In the modern era, the term is understood as any sufferings, losses or injuries that an individual has sustained for any reason whatsoever. People may become victims of natural disasters, discriminations, accidents, warfare and other form of injustices. Victims of crime are usually considered to have been affected by criminal conducts (Lynch 2014).

Reporting Crime and Proper Recording of Crime Statistics

There are various forms of victimizations that are forbidden by law, such as robbing, raping and swindling, etc. However, not all forms of hurtful and deceitful relationships or practices are subjected to legal prohibition. For instance, a customer may be overcharged for an item that can be purchased at low prices elsewhere or underpaying a worker who could otherwise receive higher wages for performing the same work at another employment place.

Victimization may be studied scientifically; the suffering of the victims may be categorized as subjective approach and objective approach. The subjective approach refers to the description of the conditions of the victims from the viewpoint of philosophy, ethics, morality and intense emotions. The objective approach refers to requirement that the observer must be open-minded, fair, neutral and dispassionate while determining the suffering of such victims and survivors of crimes.

However, there are disagreements amongst the observers with respect to two people who are both wrongdoers and victims. In some cases, where the criminal justice system has framed the victims who lost his parents or wife, husband, persons who are actually the victims are often framed as the wrongdoers; they are reviewed as the same by significant segments of public. On the other hand, in cases where the defendants had to face knife-wielding wife, or have been involved with gangs with guns have insisted to be considered as victims instead of a wrongdoer. Under such circumstances, when the several interpretations of facts lead to contrary conclusions about who is the offender and the victim, the objectivity approach is required to determine the person responsible for violating the law.

To complicate the matter more, objectivity approach or the need for impartiality is required when the injured party has violated the law. Siegel (2018) states that people engaged in illegal activities are likely to be injured more than the law-abiding counterparts are. It is quite possible that the people engaged in any illegal activities can become genuine victims who are entitled to legal protection. The harms suffered or the injuries sustained by them are more severe than the offenses such persons commit against the law-abiding persons. It is imperative to ensure that such victims receive sufficient protection and administer justice.

However, in order to deter the illegal activities or punish the offenders, it is equally important to report about the crimes. A victim is required to recognize and report a crime and the law enforcement officials must ensure that such report is recorded appropriately. An act is said to be criminal if the there is a legal prohibition of such act. a victim must recognize that the committed is a crime, is unlawful in the country in which it had been committed. After recognizing the crime and its gravity, the witness must report the same to the police. It is important to understand the reporting behavior as well because, all reported offences often results in non-recorded crimes. 

Although the police is statutorily obligated to record criminal behavior but they have considerable discretion to determine whether any matter is serious enough to give more detailed attention to it. The significant distinction between official and unofficial crime statistics is that the official statistics on crime, victims and punishments is more important source of information relating to crimes than unofficial statistics as it enables it determine whether there has been an incline in the crime trend over the ages (Ferrell 2014).

Nevertheless, crime statistics presented in the official statistics on crime does not reflect the complete and true picture of the crime issues. The criminologists are also aware of the incompleteness of the picture of crime and encourage reporting of crimes and proper recording of the same as well as careful reading of such crime statistics is highly recommended. In order to ensure true picture of crime statistics, it is important to understand the law at the time when such crime is recorded and whether legal definition s of such crime is the same or has undergone changes. This would automatically feed into the crime statistic, thus, enabling to deter further criminal activities.

Reference list

Ferrell, J., 2014. Cultural criminology (pp. 904-913). Springer New York.

Langton, L. and Truman, J.L., 2014. Criminal victimization, 2013 (Revised).

Letoruzé, E. and Jutting, J., 2015. Official statistics, big data and human development. Data Pop alliance–White paper series, available at www. odi. org.

Lynch, J., 2014. The evolving role of self-report surveys of criminal victimization in a system of statistics on crime and the administration of justice. Statistical Journal of the IAOS, 30(3), pp.165-169.

Maxfield, M.G. and Babbie, E.R., 2014. Research methods for criminal justice and criminology. Nelson Education.

Morrison, W., 2014. Theoretical criminology from modernity to post-modernism. Routledge.

Plummer, M. and Cossins, A., 2016. The cycle of abuse: when victims become offenders. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, p.1524838016659487.

Pratt, T.C. and Turanovic, J.J., 2016. Lifestyle and routine activity theories revisited: the importance of “risk” to the study of victimization. Victims & Offenders, 11(3), pp.335-354.

Reid, S.T., 2015. Crime and criminology. Wolters Kluwer Law & Business.

Siegel, L.J., 2018. Criminology: the core. Cengage Learning.

Weisburd, D., 2015. The law of crime concentration and the criminology of place. Criminology, 53(2), pp.133-157.

Wincup, E., 2017. Criminological research: Understanding qualitative methods. Sage.