Law and You > Criminal Laws > Criminology > Classical School of Criminology
The term criminology is used both in a general and special sense. In its broadest sense criminology is the study (not yet the complete science) which includes all the subject matter necessary to the understanding and prevention of crime and to the development of law, together with the punishment or treatment of delinquents and criminals. In its narrower sense, it is simply the study which attempts to explain crime, to find out ―how they get that away. Thus at its widest and most commonly accepted criminology means the study of crime, criminals and criminal justice. Similarly, it is the scientific study of crime, including its causes, responses by law enforcement, and methods of prevention. It is a sub-group of sociology, which is the scientific study of social behaviour. The term “criminology” is defined as the scientific study of criminals, punishment, and crime. Criminology is characterized by a scientific approach to understanding criminals and crimes and how to prevent future crimes from being committed. In this article we shall discuss Classical Theory of Criminology or Classical School of Criminology.
Scientific Theory:
There are countless theories but they can be clearly classified into two groups: a) Scientific Theories which are considered “true” or “facts” because they have been found experimentally to work and we know why they work, and b) Un-scientific Theories which are not experimentally tested.
A scientific theory is defined as a hypothesis or a group of hypotheses about some phenomena that have been supported through research using the scientific method. A hypothesis is basically an educated guess. Scientific facts are measured and/or observed. For example, anything released from a height falls back on the earth. This is a scientific fact because it can be observed and has the same effect in each case. The scientific facts never change. Newton studied this phenomenon using a hypothesis and put forward the theory of gravitation, which is a scientific theory. Thus, a scientific theory is an interpretation of facts. Different scientists may have different interpretations depending upon the hypothesis used by them. A scientific theory can be changed and rejected over time.
Characteristics of Scientific Theory:
- Based on Facts: It should be based on verifiable observations supported by facts and figures through experiments and observations.
- Testable: Scientific theories should be such that they can be proved experimentally or theoretically using existing proved theories.
- Replicable: Theories should be replicable by anyone and at any place.
- Stable and consistent: The theory and corresponding experiments should give the same and precise results every time.
- Definite Relations: A scientific theory should be able to define the causal relationship between the variables instead of casual connection.
Unscientific Nature of Theological Theory of Crime:
The main points of Theological theory of crime are:
- Law is given by God to define sin and crime.
- Man commits a crime because of his fallen nature.
- God ordains government to deter and/or punish criminals.
- God offers salvation. Those who accept are changed and are no longer in obligation to their fallen nature.
If we try to apply the characteristics of scientific theory, we can observe that they are not applicable to unscientific theory. This theory changes depending upon time, place, religion, values of society, degree of tolerance, etc. Similarly, the demonological theory was considered unscientific.
It has been generally accepted that a systematic study of criminology was first taken up by the Italian scholar, Ceasare Bonesana Marchese de Becaria (1938-94) who is known as the founder of modern criminology. His greatest contribution to the science of criminology was that he, for the first time, proceeded with the study of criminals on a scientific basis and reached certain conclusions from which definite methods of handling crime and criminals could be worked out. Thus the ‘theories of criminology’ or ‘the schools of criminology’ are of a later origin.
Schools of Criminology or Theories of Criminology:
As civilization advances, the nature and variety of crime undergo change. We have numerous theories regarding crime, each reflecting a particular stage of development of civilization and a particular point of view. Criminology and penology are branches of social science. Various scholars have attempted to explain the causation of crime and criminal behaviour. Each school of criminology explains crime in its own manner and suggests punishment and measures suit its ideology. Each school represents the social attitude of people towards crime in a given time. As it is a science, no theory is free from drawbacks and criticisms.
Edwin Sutherland pointed out that a school of criminology connotes “the system of thought which consists of an integrated theory of causation of crime and of policies of control implied in the theory of causation”. Therefore, a school of criminology implies the following three important points:
- The adherents of each school try to explain the causation of crime and criminal behaviour in their own way relying on the theory propounded by the exponent of that particular school;
- Each school of criminology suggests punishment and preventive measures to suit its ideology; and
- each of the school represents the social attitude of people towards crime and criminal in a given time.
The main schools of criminology are:
- Pre-classical or Demonological School
- Classical School
- Free- will School
- Ecological School
- Geographical School
- Typological School
- The Socialistic School
- The Sociological School
Pre-classical or Demonological School:
The period of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in Europe was dominated by the scholasticism of Saint Thomas Acquinas (1225-1274). Scholastic means the system of theology and philosophy taught in medieval European universities, based on Aristotelian logic and the writings of the early Christian Fathers and emphasizing tradition and dogma. During this period, Europe was characterized by a dominance of religion in-state activities. The concept of scientific thinking was at an early stage. The concept of crime was vague and obscure. Criminal justice was based on the doctrine of demonological school.
Pre-Classical School of criminology is the most ancient theory of crime. According to this theory, a man by nature is simple and a crime committed by the man is a handiwork of the devil. They believed that there are two kinds of forces in the world: Gods and Satanic forces. God’s force keeps us away from crime and helps us to do good deeds, whereas the devil force distracts man from the right path and makes him commit a crime. It makes man reckless, loses the sense of morality and removes the fear of God from the individual. Such a person becomes unable to foresee the consequences of his actions.
Thus, according to this theory, the offender commits a wrongful act not because of his own free will but due to the influence of some external superpower. The offender was regarded as an innately depraved person who could be cured only by torture and pain.
The medieval trial by ordeal was a harsh method that relied on divine intervention to determine the guilt or innocence of the accused. The trial by ordeal is defined by its appeal to supernatural forces to determine guilt or innocence. The trials were overseen by members of the clergy who oversaw the test conditions and determined the guilt or innocence of the accused in a manner prescribed by the Catholic Church. Though the trial by ordeal was forbidden by Pope Innocent III in 1215 (thirteenth century), its prevalence in Europe continued to be wide enough that it even came over to colonial America. Other trials by ordeal were also found throughout India, Southeast Asia, and in many parts of Africa.
The chief objective behind the infliction of punishment under this school was to drive away the Demon from the soul. For this whipping was the most common form of penalty. Other punishments inflicted were tender organs of the body were exposed to cruel treatment, burning, laceration and maceration. Trial by ordeal included ordeal by hot water, ordeal by hot oil, ordeal by cold water, ordeal by a hot iron rod, ordeal by a snake and the ordeal by the sacrament. This approach was unscientific, irrational and cruel.
Though the system of punishment appears to be most irrational and barbaric in today’s modern world it was accepted in that period. It was completely ignored by Roman and forbidden in Islam. This system fell into disuse in India, with the advent of British rule in India and subsequent rationalization of the penal laws. The pre-classical thinking, however, withered away with the lapse of time and advancement of knowledge.
As the times developed people started analysing and questioning the demonological theory which led to the scientific development and therefore, led to the formation of the classical school of criminology. The theosophists, notably St. Thomas Aquinas and the social contract writers such as Donte Alighieri, Machiavelli, Martin Luther and Jean Bodin provided immediate background for Beccaria‘s classical school at a later stage.
Classical School of Criminology:
The classical school of criminology came from the Enlightenment period, specifically from the 18th century. Not only does it affirm that people make rational choices when committing a crime, but it also focuses on the prevention of future crimes and how that should be approached. The main belief of this school is that all men are self-seeking and therefore they attempt to commit the offence on account of the free will and not on account of being possessed by an evil spirit. According to the theory of this school, men possess free will and therefore, act as per their pleasure and in order to cause pain (hedonism) to the victim. The theory devised by the pre-classical school was rejected.
Cesare Beccaria’s Contribution:
Beccaria was an Italian philosopher, reformist, and politician who advocated for swift and consistent punishment for breaking the law. In 1764, He published ‘Dei Deliti e Delle Pene’ (“On Crimes and Punishments”) arguing for the need to reform the criminal justice system by referring not to the harm caused to the victim, but to the harm caused to society. He believed people were rational-minded and had free will. He also believed in fair and just punishments and basic human rights for all. Beccaria believed in three ideology that:
- Every individual has free will in doing an act and should not be restricted;
- Every individual acts rationally for his wants and goods, thus law should be protective of an individual.
- Every individual’s behaviour is predictable and so, it can be predicted and controlled.
Beccaria proposed that, the punishment of a crime that is decided should be proportionate and in accordance with its seriousness. This thought was based on the simple reason that torture was inappropriate and thus allowed the weak to incriminate and the strong would be found innocent before the adjudication because of social position. The ideology of Beccaria was supported by various criminologists that emphasises upon the criminal rather than the crime. The classical school focuses on the principle of deterrence instead of the retributive theory.
Beccaria’s Recommendations:
- Laws are the conditions under which independent and isolated men get united to form a society. People sacrifice and the sum of all these portions of liberty sacrificed by each for his own good constitutes the sovereignty of a nation and their legitimate depository and administrator is the sovereign. The tangible motives of punishment must be established against infractors of the laws.
- Only the laws can decree punishments for crime; authority for this can reside only with the legislator who represents the entire society united by a social contract.
- Judges in criminal cases cannot have the authority to interpret laws, because they are not legislators. For every crime that comes before him, a judge is required to complete a perfect syllogism in which the major premise must be the general law. Everyman has his own particular point of view and, at different times, sees the same objects in very different lights. The spirit of the laws will then be the result of the good or bad logic of the judge; and this will depend on his good or bad digestion.
- Basis of all social actions must be utilitarian concept of the greatest happiness for the greatest number.
- On the seriousness of crime, he said that Crime must be considered an injury to society.
- All people should be treated equally. The punishment of a noble man should in no wise differ from that of the lowest member of the society.
- Punishment Should be Based on the Act, not on the Actor. Crimes are only to be measured by the injuries done to the society they err, therefore, who imagine that a crime is greater or less according to the intention of the person by whom it is committed.
- There must be a proper proportion between crime and punishments. Pleasure and pain are the only springs of actions in beings endowed with sensibility….If an equal punishment be ordained for two crimes that injure society in different degrees, there is nothing to deter men from committing the greater as often as it is attended with greater advantage.
- The more promptly and the more closely punishment follows upon the commission of crime, the more just and useful will it be. The more immediate after the commission of a crime a punishment is inflicted the more just and useful it will be….An immediate punishment is more useful; because the smaller the interval of time between the punishment and the crime, the stronger and more lasting will be the association of the two ideas of crime and punishment.
- One of the greatest curbs on crime is not the cruelty of punishments, but their infallibility. The certainty of punishment, even if be moderate, will always make a stronger impression than the fear of another which is more terrible.
- Prevention of crime is more important than the punishment, which means that publishing the laws is very important.
- Secret Accusations and tortures should be abolished in favour of humane and speedy trial.
- Purpose of punishment is to deter rather revenge.
- Capital punishment should be abolished.
- The use of torture to gain confessions should be abolished.
- Imprisonment should be widely employed and it should be improved.
- It is better to prevent crime than to punish them.
Beccaria’s principles were used as the basis for the French Code of 1791. The greatest advantage of this code was that it set up a procedure that was easy to administer. As a practical matter, however, the Code of 1791 was impossible to enforce in everyday situations, and modifications were introduced. These modifications, all in the interest of greater ease of administration, are the essence of the neo-classical school.
Jeremy Bentham’s Contribution:
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) was an English jurist and philosopher who devoted his life to developing a scientific approach to the making and breaking of laws. He is also credited with the founding of utilitarianism, which means actions are right or good if they benefit the most people and promote happiness. Utilitarianism assumes that all human actions are calculated in accordance with their likelihood of bringing happiness (pleasure) or unhappiness (pain). People weigh the probabilities of present future pleasures against those of present and future pain.
He supported and followed the general principles of Cesare Beccaria. He believed in hedonism, or the idea that people are driven to seek pleasure and avoid pain; people typically make choices that lead to their greatest chance of happiness. Bentham thought that, since humans were what he considered hedonists, they would shy away from committing crimes if there were effective punishments in place.
Bentham proposed a precise pseudo-mathematical formula for this process, which he called ―felicific calculus. According to his reasoning individuals are ―human calculators who out all the factors into an equation in order to decide whether or not a particular crime is worth committing. Bentham reasoned that if prevention was the purpose of punishment, and if punishment became too costly by creating more harm than good, then penalties need to be set just a bit an excess of the pleasure one might derive from committing a crime, and no higher. For example, if rape and homicide were both punished by death, then a rapist would be more likely to kill the victim (as a witness) to reduce the risk of arrest.
The law exists in order to create happiness for the community. Since punishment creates unhappiness, it can be justified only if it prevents a greater evil than it produces. Thus, Bentham suggested if a hanging a man‘s effigy produced the same preventive effect as hanging the man himself there would be no reason to hang the man.
Criticism to Classical Theory:
The greatest achievement of this school of criminology lies in the fact that it suggested a substantial criminal policy which was easy to administer without resort to the imposition of arbitrary punishment. The contribution of classical school to the development of rationalized criminological thinking was by no means less important, but it had its own shortcomings.
- The classical school proceeded on an abstract presumption of free will and relied solely on the act (i.e., the crime) without devoting any attention to the state of mind of the criminal.
- It erred in prescribing equal punishment for same offence thus making no distinction between first offenders and habitual criminals and varying degrees of gravity of the offence.
Due to the theory devolved by Beccaria the earlier concepts of crime and criminals which were based on religious beliefs and myths were denounced and therefore, the emphasis was upon the criminal rather than the crime which eventually led to the need for concentrating on the personality of an offender in determine the causation of crime.
Neo-Classical School of Criminology:
The ‘free will’ theory of classical school did not survive for long. It was soon realized that the exponents of classical school faltered in their approach in ignoring the individual differences under certain situations and treating first offenders and the habitual alike on the basis of similarity of act or crime.
According to Bentham, Criminology is a well-recognized concept and helps in adjudicating the criminal liability of the offender. The different schools of criminology defined the term crime according to the rationality of the society then and devised theories based upon it. Each theory in itself considered different factors for the causation of crime and allotted punishments based on such reasons.
The neo-classists asserted that certain categories of offenders such as minors, idiots, insane (seriously mentally ill) or incompetent had to be treated leniently in matters of punishment irrespective of the similarity of their criminal act because these persons were incapable of appreciating the difference between right and wrong. This tendency of neo-classists to distinguish criminals according to their mental depravity was indeed a progressive step inasmuch as it emphasized the need for modifying the classical view. Thus, the contribution of neo-classical thought to the science of criminology has its own merits.
Thus, it would be seen that the main contribution of neo-classical school of criminology lies in the fact that it suggested that an individual might commit criminal acts due to certain justifying circumstances and such situations must be taken under consideration while discharging the criminal liability. Therefore, along with the criminal act, the other factors such as the, the personality of the criminal, the motives, previous life, history, general character, etc., should not be lost while assessing his guilt. Today’s jury system has inculcated the approach of the Neo-classists by granting leniency to the aforementioned classes. As to the shortcomings of neo-classical school of criminology, it believed that criminals are a nuisance to the society and therefore, must be expelled.
Conclusion:
The nature and scope of criminal theories changed as and when time and societal norms changed. According to Pre-Classical School of Criminology, fear of God starts removing as soon as an individual gets attracted towards the world of demons. Here, God acts as a check on individual activities in order to keep him away from the satanic world. The Classical School improved the system of bodily punishments to the punishment for the soul by deterring the wrongdoer in prison. the emphasis of the school was upon the criminal rather than the crime which eventually led to the need for concentrating on the personality of an offender in determine the causation of crime. The Neo-Classical School if Criminology suggested that an individual might commit criminal acts due to certain justifying circumstances and such situations must be taken under consideration while discharging the criminal liability.