Classical and Positivist School of Thought in Criminology The classical school of criminology as originally articulated by Cesare Beccaria was based upon a philosophy of human rationality: people would choose pleasant over unpleasant sensations. If there was no expected punishment for crimes, people would behave in a lawless fashion. If punishment was expected, people would strive to avoid pain in a utilitarian fashion. Beccaria's theories arose in a response to earlier systems of justice which tended to extract the same harsh penalties for all crimes, regardless of their nature. Beccaria acknowledged that sometimes the interests of people might be commensurate with the laws that were good for larger society; other times they might clash (Cesare Beccaria, 2014, Criminology). The purpose of the laws was to incentivize for rational individuals the pursuit of good acts that preserve social stability. Punishment must serve a practical function and it must also be proportional...
The punishments should only severe enough so that from a rational standpoint the criminal would understand that to behave in a law-abiding fashion would behoove him more than to transgress the law but anything more severe than that was not needed.Criminology Theories Biological Theory of Crime The biological or bio-physiological theory of crime regards human behavior in general and of deviance and criminality in particular as mainly the result of internal states of mind (Schmalleger, 2009). More specifically, the biological perspective, as it was originally detailed in the 19th century by Cesare Lombroso, emphasized the role of heredity in conjunction with the (then) new concept of Darwinian Evolution also in conjunction with
Self-Regulation Bandura understands that the development of self is influenced by the environment but that the individual also has significant responsibility of determinism that makes the individual responsible for his or her behaviors. According to Boeree self-regulation is absolutely essential to behavior control and provides the backbone of human personality. Boeree describes the three steps that Bandura suggests that contribute to self-regulation; self-observation, or the process of observing our own behavior
Ethical Theory & Moral Practice Debates about theory and practice are ancient. Each generation considers the dynamics that surround issues about the interdependency of theory and praxis to be uniquely challenging. Complexity is a variable closely linked with knowledge. As science has added layer upon layer of knowledge, decision-making dilemmas have been confounded by new and staggering concomitant factors. In concert, theoretical frameworks for social science disciplines have been adapted to
Firstly, there is exposure to a model, which however does not necessarily facilitate learning. This is followed by knowledge of the model's behavior and the results of that behavior and finally the acceptance or rejection of the model by the individual as a guide to his or her actions (Weiner, 1980, p. 230). In this regard one can refer back as well to the work of Tarde who suggested
Theories of DelinquencyIntroductionTwo theoretical frameworks through which juvenile delinquency can be examined are Strain Theory and Social Learning Theory. For instance, Strain Theory suggests that societal pressures and the inability to achieve socially accepted goals through legitimate means lead to delinquency. In contrast, Social Learning Theory posits that delinquent behavior is learned through social interactions and observation of others. This paper explores the similarities and differences of these theories and
There are a variety of theoretical explanations that have been put forward to explain female abuse and violent crimes against women. These include feminist and gender theories and extend to theories of genetic pathology. However, in the criminological literature a distinction is made between two categories of explanation. On the one hand, there are theories that tend to focus on individual pathology and forms of deviance that can lead to these
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