The Classical School
- Created by: EmilyEther
- Created on: 27-12-19 11:49
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- The Classical School
- Emergence of...
- Philosophers began wanting to change the CJS after the public execution of Robert-François Damiens in 1757
- Labelled the 'age of reason' - saw to differentiate men from animals
- Harsh punishment for petty crimes:
- Saw the law as being unjust and disparate
- Application of the law as the judge saw fit - harsher punishments if they were in a bad mood
- Usually corporal punishments (torturing)
- Social Contract
- Locke
- 'Man is free, independent and equal'
- Thought that punishment should be based on equality and the nature of humanity
- Moral and rational punishments (not religious - work of the devil etc)
- Surrendering certain rights to the government and they assume these rights
- Wanted to achieve a balance between what you could and couldn't do - equilibrium
- Similar to Anomie and Strain Theories about wanting to achieve equilibrium in society
- Confict theroies - wanting to achieve equilibrium but in terms of power
- Chicago School - studied how this social process affected human behaviour
- Locke
- Different from positivist - P = deterministic, something wrong with you. C = choices
- Crime as a result of a free, rational choice
- Positivism - said that they were due to determined factors
- Social Control: emphasised the role of parental control over child in the role of criminality and self-control
- Philosophers began wanting to change the CJS after the public execution of Robert-François Damiens in 1757
- Definitions
- Hedonism: maximising pleasures and minimising pains
- If pleasures outway pains regarding a certain action, an individual will go ahead with this action
- Social learning (D.A) - people receive favourable messages about committing crime - adds to the pleasures (people will accept you)
- Equality: equal treatment under the law, no special treatment if you are royal eg
- Utilitarianism: achieving the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people (Jeremy Bentham)
- Free choice: as humans, we are free and rational beings. We can choose to commit a crime after rational consideration (hedonism)
- Hedonism: maximising pleasures and minimising pains
- Cesare Beccaria
- Crime is injurious to society
- Breached to social contract and affected equality
- Against Bentham who said it was functional to society
- Needed clear and rational rules in a native tongue that everyone could understand (was previously written in Latin which only a few people could understand)
- Prevention is the only justification for punishment (act as a deterrence)
- Punishment should be in proportion to the crime - execution and torture abolished
- Humane treatment of offenders - makes the law as bad as their actions if not
- On Crimes and Punishment
- Restrictions: there should not be too many as people will commit crime anyway if there are. Should not be done for moral crimes (eg. adultery)
- Presumption of innocence: innocent until proven guilty
- Written law code: everyone should know what it is
- Limited severity of punishment: punishment should only just outway the pleasures of the action - deterrence
- Proportionality: punishments should correspond to the seriousness of the crime
- Linked to Merton's idea of a self-fulfilling prophecy: punishment reinforces idea of criminality
- Certainty and swiftness: punishment should be certain and carried out swiftly so a connection is made. If it is not, they will continue to do the action
- Punishment is not to set an example or reform: punishment for what they have done, not to make them a better person
- Crime is injurious to society
- Jeremy Bentham
- 'Hedonistic calculus': rational calculations before we commit a crime
- Panopticon: prisoners do not know when they are being watched due to the architecture so they behave well all the time
- Habits of good behaviour induced
- Prison guard paid if the prison worked - good system of it working
- Mental health concerns - develop paranoia - not going to make them less likely to commit crime?
- Neoclassicism - 19th C
- Punishment is only justified if it is committed out of rational choice
- Children - can they outway pleasures and pains?
- The mentally ill
- Personal circumstances need to be taken into account - do certain situations mean harsher punishments?
- Punishment is only justified if it is committed out of rational choice
- Criticisms
- Assumes everyone weighs up pleasures and pains - but some crimes are impulsive and badly thought out
- Not everyone is knowledgeable about the punishment for crimes - the may not know that their act is criminal
- Argues everyone should be treated alike - so first time criminals and serial killers should be treated the same?
- People have different responses to punishment - it may work on some but not on others
- Judging a crime without interpretation is problematic - murder vs manslaughter
- Doesn't question whether laws are just or not - simply says that people must follow them
- Emergence of...
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