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Classical and Positivist Criminology

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Classical and Positivist Criminology Positivist Criminology: the search for a criminal type? Dan Ellingworth Understanding Criminology Friday, 24 October 2008 Lecture Outline • The debate with classical criminology • The basis of a positivist criminology • Biological and Sociological Positivism 2 competing approaches to crime Classical Positivist Criminology Criminology Philosophy •Free-will •Individuals subject •Utility to external forces Maximisation Problem •The Calculating •Under-socialisation Criminal Solution •Deterrence •Expert Study and Intervention Positivist Critique of Classicism • Critical of Rationality – The cost-benefit calculation • Critical of Universal Sentencing – If the context of choice is different, shouldn‟t sentencing differ as well? • Critical of lack of focus on criminal – Really a theory of the state, not of the actor Basis of Positivism (Jeffery 1960) • Determinism: crime is caused by factors other than rational decisions • Differentiation: criminals are different in some identifiable manner from non- criminals • Pathology: this is something „wrong‟: not just normal variation Positivism and Science • Positivism: – observation and experimentation – objective things that can be observed – quantification: data • Belief in science as a higher form of knowledge – Religion < metaphysics < “positive” scientific knowledge (Auguste Comte) – Not “Why?” questions, but “How?” – N.B. “Dare to Know” from last week • Specifically: identify causes of criminality, in order to “rectify” them Influence: Social Darwinism •Scientific theory regarding human evolution •Socialisation, civilization, culture and evolution treated as synonymous • Criminality seen as an under-socialised / under- evolved behaviour Darwin: On the Origin of Species Crime As Pre-determined Action Biological Positivism Sociological Positivism - Physical symptoms of • Poverty under-development • Culture and Subculture - Genetic explanations • Social Exclusion - Psychology - constitutional flaws - psychoticism etc. Solution – expert identification of cause, and isolation / remedy / removal from society Individualistic Positivism • Cesare Lombroso Italian physician 1835–1909 • the search for the „criminal type‟ • studied body types of executed criminals • Key approach: criminals are different from non-criminals • „atavism‟ (a return to an earlier evolutionary form) as cause of individual‟s deviance • Did address environmental causes in later versions Enrico Ferri and Raffaele Garofalo • Growing consideration of non-physical causes – Physical factors – Anthropological factors – Social factors • Strong support for state intervention in each area incl. better housing, birth control etc. to prevent crime • Garofalo: criminal acts demonstrated a lack of pity (revulsion against causing suffering) and/or probity (respect for property rights of others) on the part of the criminal • Punishment is less important than measure of „social defence; against further offending Adolphe Quetelet • Belgian Mathematician (1796 – 1874) • Statistical approach to criminality: attempted to explain the noticeably consistent patterns in crime statistics. Criticisms of Positivist Criminology • Lombroso and biological positivism – Physical differences assumed to signal under-evolution – Methodologically flawed – The socially powerful assumed to be superior: dangerous precedent – Relieves society from any responsibility – Expert domain expansion: danger of repressive intervention (eg. Mussolini) • Generally – Deterministic / Over-predictive – Ignores social construction of “crime”: uncritical of official definitions and measurements – Understates range of criminal behaviour and criminality The „essentialising‟ of crime • A huge range of human behaviour designated as “criminal”: this is the only common feature of these actions • This „essentialising‟ of deviance allows us to – Feel better about ourselves – Condemn and moralise about others – Use the designation of „criminal‟ to justify widespread inequalities – “Individualisation and Differentiation” Harms: Crime v. non-crime? • Deliberate poisoning v. pollution • The cigarette industry • Low wages • Agricultural subsidies in the West • Adultery Source: Professor Susanne Karstedt and Dr Stephen Farrall (2007) Law-abiding majority? The everyday crimes of the middle classes Legacies of Positivism • The study of the criminal, not crime • Methodological rigour – allied to science (at least in theory) • Potential rehabilitation of the criminal • Crime pattern analysis • Crime Reduction Strategies • Continued (limited) research into genetic and psychological disposition to crime Classical V. Positivist Criminology Central to the debate is consideration of agency and structure Agency: we behave the way we do because we choose to Structure: we behave the way we do because of constraints placed on us Summary so far Classical criminology Positivist criminology • emphasises agency: • emphasises structure: personal free-will circumstances • focuses on crime • focuses on the causal deterrence and factors associated with punishment offending • Enduring influence: on • Enduring influence: on the criminal justice criminological research, system esp. punishment and rehabilitation After Reading Week: Sociology arrives! Durkheim and Anomie.
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