Seminar Groups

• You MUST check that you have been assigned to a seminar group

• The lists are available

– on the Und.Crim. Wikisite

– Outside my office (GM4.03) for Combined Honours, and Patrick Williams office (GM4.13) for Single Hons

• If you are not on a list you MUST contact me (CombHons) or Patrick (SingHons) immediately

Classical Criminology

Dan Ellingworth

Understanding Criminology

21 October, 2008

Lecture Outline

• The Historical Context

• Classical Criminology

• Contemporary Applications

The Historical Context

• Late 18th / early 19th century marked a

period of “Great Transition” in Northern

Europe and North America

• The Great Transition was fundamental and

holistic

The rise of modernity

Pre-modern society

•Rural

•Family-based economy

•Little division of labour

•Custom and Superstition

Modern

•Urban

•Money-based economy

•Advanced division of

labour

•Rule of Law

Industrialisation

• Agriculture replaced by manufacturing

• Technologically driven increases in

production

• Specialised division of labour

Capitalism

• The appearance of wage labour

• New forms of social class

– Capitalists: property owners

– Workers: source of labour

Urbanisation

• 1750 – only London and Edinburgh had

populations over 50,000

• 1850 – 29 British cities over 50,000

• Associated social problems in the new cities

Growth of liberal democracy

• End of feudal political structures

• Replaced by liberal democracies

• The subject became the citizen

• “Divine Right of Kings” replaced

by “Government by the People for

the People”

Abraham Lincoln

Intellectual Thought

The Enlightenment: “Dare to know”

Shared Beliefs in

• Potential for human progress

• Superiority of rational thought to emotions

• The ability and right for humans to improve

their lives

• Free will

Emmanuel Kant

Basis of Social Control pre-

Industrialisation

• Punishment: harsh and symbolic

• Trial by ordeal or “compurgation”

• Widespread use of capital and corporal

punishment

• Shaming punishments

• Retribution based

Classical Criminology

• Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794)

– Italian mathematician and philosopher

– “Dei delittli e delle pene” (On Crimes and

Punishment)

– Concerned about developing a systematic,

coherent and logical penal system

Beccaria‟s Philosophy

• 4 main elements

– Free will

– The Social Contract

– Rationality and utilitarianism

– Manipulability

Beccaria‟s principles for a

Criminal Justice System

• Laws represent the framework for a society

based on free willed individuals choosing to

abide by the Social Contract

• The State has the right to punish, but

punishments must „fit the crime‟

– Utilitarian principles must guide the severity of

punishment

“For a punishment to attain its end, the

evil which it inflicts has only to exceed

the advantage derivable from the crime;

in this excess of evil one should include

the certainty of punishment and the loss

of the good which the crime might have

produced. All beyond this is superfluous

and for that reason tyrannical.”

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)

“Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation”

• Deterrence: only justification for punishment

– Inflexible penalties

– Certainty of punishment

• Utilitarian-based punishments: a “moral calculus”

Classical Criminology

• Key aspects: free will and rationality

• Aim: prevention of crime, and humane

responses to crime

• Crime is a rational response to probable

gains and consequences of an action

• The State should calculate punishments to

just exceed gains from crime

Contemporary signs of

Classical Criminology

• Rational actor: basis of modern criminal

law

– Mens rea”

– Situational Crime Prevention

• Sentencing: offence oriented sentencing;

tariffs

• Due process: rule of law; predictability of

CJS reaction; a presumption of innocence

• Deterrence theories

Evaluation of Classical Criminology

• Positives

– The basis for humane punishment: deterrence over retribution

– Rationality over inherent wickedness

• Negatives

– Ignores social context

– Assumes everyone has the same calculation to make

– Assumes all crime has a material motive and/or outcome

– Exclusive focus on punishment: ignores compliance based on normative values (personal morality, legitimacy of legal institutions, social ties)