Foundational Theories of Criminology

Classical and Positivist School of Thought in Criminology

The classical school of criminology as originally articulated by Cesare Beccaria was based upon a philosophy of human rationality: people would choose pleasant over unpleasant sensations. If there was no expected punishment for crimes, people would behave in a lawless fashion. If punishment was expected, people would strive to avoid pain in a utilitarian fashion. Beccaria's theories arose in a response to earlier systems of justice which tended to extract the same harsh penalties for all crimes, regardless of their nature. Beccaria acknowledged that sometimes the interests of people might be commensurate with the laws that were good for larger society; other times they might clash (Cesare Beccaria, 2014, Criminology). The purpose of the laws was to incentivize for rational individuals the pursuit of good acts that preserve social stability. Punishment must serve a practical function and it must also be proportional to the crime. The punishments should only severe enough so that from a rational standpoint the criminal would understand that to behave in a law-abiding fashion would behoove him more than to transgress the law but anything more severe than that was not needed.

Beccaria stated that judges must be objective and that the accused should be judged by a jury of his or her peers. This was not necessarily a given in earlier eras where punishments were often capriciously based upon the will of the sovereign rather than upon the rule of law. Beccaria also noted that laws must be written clearly and unambiguously so people could make rational decisions based upon weighing the pros and cons of different option. Irregular enforcement would also discourage compliance vs. objective and universal application, regardless of the individual's social status. Beccaria strongly believed that torture was not an acceptable means of extracting a confession and was more likely to make a weak, innocent person confess than to motivate a hardened criminal to do so (Cesare Beccaria, 2014, Criminology).

In contrast to classical theories of criminology, positivist theories focused on understanding why crimes were committed, versus attempting to deter them through rational means. Positivists tended to view human beings as irrational actors subject to forces beyond their control. Positivists emphasized the biological and sociological factors which could motivate a criminal to act outside the law. During the 19th century, some positivist theories espoused the now-discredited concept of phrenology, or the idea that criminal tendencies could be read by studying the 'lumps' on a person's skull. Left-handedness, small stature, and other physical factors were also used to explain crime. Theories of body 'type' (such as if one was a mesomorph, ectomorph, or endomorph) were also used to explain human nature and the tendencies to commit certain crimes (Positive, 2014, Criminology).