Criminology 1500 words Assignment
BRD205: Crime through the ages
Week 1 Introduction
Disciplinarity & Interdisciplinarity
The problem of deviance can only be solved by an interdiscipline response to deviance
In its modern form Criminology has had over one hundred years to assume a truly interdisciplinary nature, yet the dominant approach remains discipline-based.”
Binder, 1988
“
The general rejection by sociologists of contributions from other fields seems based not only on normal disciplinary chauvinism, but also on a strongly held normative view that social conditions are more responsible for crime than innate individual differences.”
Binder, 1988
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What disciplines are interested in deviance?
Sociology
Psychology
Law
Political science
Economics
Medicine
Genetics
Nutrition
Anthropology
History
While I was still a graduate student [with sociology as the major field], I asked myself how it was possible to have three giants such as Sutherland [sociology], Hall [law], and Skinner [psychology] within 100 yards of each other [at Indiana University] without any significant mutual interaction. They might as well have been on different planets, so far as graduate education in criminology was concerned at Indiana.”
Jeffery, 1978
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All theoretical perspectives in most areas of study, emerge and develop within particular contexts:
Social
Economic
Political
This results in particular assumption, understandings and agendas
Classical Criminology
The rational perspective
The Enlightenment
Assumptions:
Individuals were essentially selfish, self-seeking and rational
Individuals sought to maximise their pleasure, while minimising their pain
I am apt to suspect the Negroes, and in general all the other species of men… to be naturally inferior to the whites.”
Hume
“
The vast amount of Enlightenment literature refers to ‘men’
Which equates to White Males who owned property
Member of the radical group known as the “Academy of Fists”
Fellow members Pietro and Alessandro Verri (brothers) encouraged Beccaria to write an essay on penology
Pietro wrote a history of torture, Alessandro was a prison official
Beccaria knew nothing of Penology, but he was heavily influenced by what he saw as arbitrary and unjust punishments, and a lack of judicial process
Cesare Beccaria (1738 – 1794)
Arbitrary punishment…
Three categories of offences:
minor offences,
clergyable felonies, and
non-clergyable felonies
By the 18th century the definition of clergy had been broadened to include anyone who could read
Lack of due process…
After the charge was read, each prisoner was asked to plead to the charge – guilty or not guilty
A defendant who refused to plead was subjected to the ordeal of peine forte et dure
Beccaria’s radical ideas
Called for;
Introduction of public trials
End of torture
End of capital punishment
The intent of punishment is not to torment a sensible being, nor to undo a crime already committed. The end of punishment, therefore, is no other than to prevent the criminal from doing further injury to society, and to prevent others from committing the like offence.”
Beccaria
“
Utilitarian Liberalism
Hedonic Calculus
{N[C(I*D)]+Ny[Cy(Iy*Dy)]}
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
Propinquity
Certainty
Magnitude of Pleasure
Positivist Criminology
The determinism perspective
Positivism
Deviance too, could be objectively and scientifically studied
Three forms of positivist criminology
Biological
Psychological
Sociological
Assumption: Deviant behaviour is more or less caused by determining factors beyond the individual’s control
Born to a Jewish family in Northern Italy
Medical Doctor
Fought during the unification movement in Italy
Director of several asylums
Chair of Legal Medicine and Public Hygiene – University of Turin
Developed an interest in spirituality late in life
Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909)
Atavistic Characteristics
Smaller skulls with marked deformities
Physically taller and heavier
Darker skin, eyes and hair
Large ears
Protruding jaws
Impaired muscular strength
Lower sensitivity to pain (physical and emotional)
Critical Criminology
The radical perspective
Critical Criminology
Radical tradition originating in the late 1960s/early 1970s
Originally, U.S. – non-Marxist conflict; Britian – Marxist conflict
Seek to analyse crime and deviance within the economic and political context of capitalism
Actually wrote very little about crime!
Father of social theory
Methodology (following Hegel)
Abstraction
Social Conflict
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
Early Capitalism
Law
Used by the most powerful to protect their own interests by criminalising the least powerful
Calls into question the notion of ‘crime’
Your assignments
Disciplines:
Compare and contrast
Evaluate
Multidisciplinarity
And learning objectives