SOC assignment
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NeoClassicalSchoolofCriminology.pptxNeo Classical Theory
Classical and Neoclassical Perspectives
From theology to science
Causes of crime and deviance: gods and demons
Age of reason
Classical school of criminology
Rise of positivism
Neoclassical Perspectives:
Rational Choice Theory
Deterrence Theory
Types of Deterrence
Routine Activities theory
Neoclassical Perspectives
Rational-choice theory assumes people choose to commit crime after calculating whether its rewards outweigh risks
Derek B. Cornish and Ronald V. Clarke
Rational choice perspective assumes that offenders choose to commit crime because of the benefits it brings them
Neoclassicism: Rational Choice Theory
Rational choice theorists believe that factors such as poverty, IQ, impulsiveness, or broken homes are not required to explain crime.
The choice is made in context of personal and situational constraints and the availability of opportunities.
Criminal acts are specific examples of the general principle that all human behavior reflects the rational pursuit of maximizing utility, which is the modern economists version of Bentham’s principle of maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain.
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Neoclassicism: Rational Choice Theory
Rational choice theory assumes a criminally motivated offender and focuses on the process of the choice to offend.
Choice structuring: The constellation of opportunities, costs, and benefits attaching to particular kinds of crimes.
Explanations of criminal events must be crime specific because offenses have properties of their own.
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Deterrence and Choice: Pain versus Gain
Deterrence: The prevention of criminal acts by the use or threat of punishment.
Specific deterrence refers to the effect of punishment on the future behavior of the person who experiences the punishment.
Recidivism: Committing another crime after previously being punished for one.
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There must be a relatively high degree of certainty that punishment will follow a criminal act, the punishment will be administered very soon after the act, and it must be quite harsh.
The affect of punishment on future behavior depends on the contrast effect, which is the distinction between the circumstances of punishment and the usual life experience of the person being punished.
Deterrence and Choice: Pain versus Gain
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General deterrence: the preventive effect of the threat of punishment on the general population; it is aimed at potential offenders.
Deterrence theorists tend to assume a more rational human being than rational choice theorists, their models being full of complicated mathematical models defining cost/benefit ratios.
Deterrence and Choice: Pain versus Gain
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Evaluating Rational Choice Theory
Studies of active robbers, burglars, and other offenders
Offenders who plan vs. offenders who give very little thought to their crime
Focus on the criminal event
Situational factors and opportunities that affect decisions to commit crime
Situational crime prevention
Drugs and alcohol
Deterrence Theory
Neoclassical perspective
Assumes that potential and actual legal punishment can deter crime
Rational choice theory and deterrence theory often considered synonymous
Assumptions underlie the “get tough” approach, involving harsher punishments and more prisons
Types of Deterrence
Marginal: The effect of increasing the severity, certainty, and/or swiftness of legal punishment
General: Members of public decide not to break the law because they fear punishment
Specific: Offenders already punished decide not to commit another crime
Deterrence Theory
Deterrence Theory
Considerations that affect the size of any impact the criminal law may have on deterrence:
Type of criminal offense
Instrumental offenses
Expressive offenses
Whether offenders have high or low commitment to criminal behavior
Whether a crime tends to occur in public or private
Additional considerations
Research on Deterrence
Most research has focused on the certainty (likelihood of being arrested) of punishment and on the severity (whether someone is incarcerated and if so how long) of punishment
Early research results marginal deterrent effect is small
Is the Death Penalty an effective Deterrent?
Things to Consider…
Routine Activities Theory
Neoclassical perspective
Also known as routine activity theory
Focus on criminal victimization patterns
Rational choice assumptions of criminal decision-making
Assumes that crime is more likely when 3 factors are simultaneously present:
Motivated offenders
Attractive targets
An absence of guardianship
Routine Activities Theory
1979: Lawrence E. Cohen and Marcus Felson
For crime to happen, offenders, targets, and the absence of guardians must all converge at the same time and in the same location
When people’s routine activities change, crime rates change as well
There will always be a supply of motivated offenders
Routine Activities Theory
Focus on changes in the supply of attractive targets and in the presence/absence of guardianship as key variables affecting changes in crime rates
Criminal opportunity structure
Opportunity theory of crime
Routine activities inside or near one’s home result in less victimization than activities that occur away from home
Routine Activities Theory
Crime results in part from the activities that so many people ordinarily enjoy
“Rather than assuming that predatory crime is simply an indicator of social breakdown, one might take it as a byproduct of freedom and prosperity as they manifest themselves in the routine activities of everyday life”
Evaluating Routine Activities Theory
Popular because:
It seems to explain important aspects of differences in crime rates among different categories of people and among different locations
It seems to explain important aspects of changes in crime rates over time
Evaluating Routine Activities Theory
Certain studies have deepened the understanding of the factors that contribute to target availability and the absence of guardianship
Some researchers have used it to explain offending
May ignore factors that motivate offenders to commit crime
Situational Crime Prevention
Efforts in specific locations that aim to “reduce exposure to motivated offenders, decrease target suitability, and increase capable guardianship”
Examples:
Installing/increased lighting and camera surveillance on city streets and in public parks
Providing/installing better security systems for motor vehicles, commercial buildings, and homes
Hot-spot policing
Figure 3.1
Summary and Comparisons of the Classical and Positivist Schools Pertaining to Certain Issues
| Classical | Positivist | |
| Historical Period | 18th-century Enlightenment, early period of Industrial Revolution | 19th-century Age of Reason, mid–Industrial Revolution |
| Leading Figures | Cesare Becarria, Jeremy Bentham | Cesare Lombroso, Raffael Garofalo, Enrico Ferri |
| Purpose of School | To reform and humanize the legal and penal systems | To apply the scientific method to the study of crime and criminality |
| Image of Human Nature | Humans are hedonistic, rational, and have free will. Our behavior is motivated by maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain. | Human behavior is determined by psychological, biological, or social forces that constrain our rationality and free will. |
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| Image of Criminals | Criminals are essentially the same as noncriminals. They commit crimes after calculating costs and benefits. | Criminals are different from noncriminals. They commit crimes because they are inferior in some way. |
| Definition of Crime | Strictly legal; crime is whatever the law says that it is. | Based on universal human abhorance; crime should be limited to inherently evil (mala in se) acts. |
| Purpose of Punishment | To deter. Punishment is to be applied equally to all offenders committing the same crime. Judicial discretion to be limited. | Social defense. Punishment to be applied differently to different offenders based on relevant differences and should be rehabilitative. |
Figure 3.1
Summary and Comparisons of the Classical and Positivist Schools Pertaining to Certain Issues
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Connecting Criminological Theory & Social Policy
Theories of crime causation imply that changing the conditions the theory holds responsible for causing crime can reduce it and even prevent it.
Policy: A course of action designed to solve some problem that has been selected from among alternative courses of action.
Every theory has policy implications deducible from its primary assumptions and propositions
A good theory should offer useful practical recommendations.
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Policy and Prevention: Implications of Neoclassical Theories
Rational choice and routine activities theories shift the policy focus from large and costly social programs to target hardening and environmental designs that might dissuade a motivated offender from offending.
The policy recommendations of deterrence theory increase the costs of committing crimes and there will be less of it.
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Policy and Prevention: Implications of Neoclassical Theories
Lombroso believed that punishment should be only determined after a thorough assessment of offenders and their needs.
As a social defense, Lombroso recommended death or life imprisonment for congenital offenders.
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