Analysis of Positive and Classical Schools of Criminology

Analysis of Positive and Classical Schools of Criminology

Joseph Brown

AJS/514

March 12, 2018

A. Martha Dalesio

Analysis of Positive and Classical Schools of Criminology

Classical Criminology

Back in the 18th century people were tired of the public executions. They thought those would deter to the crime happening back then, but it just made people feel disgusted. This moderate view was developed by Cesare Beccaria, an Italian scholar who firmly believed in the concept of utilitarianism. Utilitarianism is the view that people’s behavior is motivated by the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain (Siegel, 2010). The classical has a few elements to it and they are; people have free will, which means that they can choose to do wrong or right. When the reward of a crime looks so promising, criminals will be all over it like a rat on cheese. Some crimes can be stopped by the outcome of the consequence (J, 2015). Positivist Criminology

Cesare Lombroso, or as he was known in the 19th century the father of criminology had his own theory of why criminals did what they did (J, 2015). He said that their skulls were not shaped like normal people’s skulls. Those with the abnormal skulls and jaws were born with certain traits that did not let them commit crimes according to free will, as the classical criminology stated (J, 2015). After some more intense research Lombroso came up with the theory that there are two types of criminal: The insane criminal and the criminaloid (J, 2015). The insane criminal has a few characteristics of a criminal, but was not born a criminal. The criminaloid had none of the physical characteristics of the born criminal but became criminals later in life (J, 2015).

The hot topic of America today is stricter gun control laws because of the senseless shootings happening all over the country. But, if we back it up we should look at other factors that contribute to shootings. You know start the smaller problems and work up to the big problems such as; stricter alcohol policies. Alcohol and violence go together like hamburgers and fries. There is a correlation between the two, when a person commits a crime with a gun most of the time they are under the influence of a substance. In a 2010 study the researchers found a strong relationship between alcohol and gun violence (Lopez, 2016). Normally a person has good judgment, but under the influence of alcohol their judgment becomes a little shaky and they make the wrong decision. It’s like when a person plans outa robbery the closer the time comes to do the job the person becomes nervous and scared. So he takes a drink of “liquid courage.” To deter this sort of crime stricter rules should be set in place. Maybe there should be longer sentences for first time offenders instead of a slap on the wrist. When they do the crime for the first time some of them become cocky and tell the officers they will get off easy because it’s their first time and that’s a slap in the face of the justice system.