Criminology Tutorial 1 CLASSICISM AND POSITIVISM

Questions for Discussion:

In preparing for the tutorial you should consider the following questions which will form
the basis for tutorial discussion. You will also need to review your lecture notes.

1. How do classicist writers such as Beccaria and Bentham understand human behaviour –
and in particular, why people commit crime? PAGE 7

2. What are the major principles of criminal law and punishment which they advocated?

3. What did Beccaria mean by the idea of ‘proportion between crimes and punishments’
and why did he think this was important?

4. Can you identify classicist principles in our modern criminal justice system, and the way
we think about crime and punishment today?

5. What was the historical context in which the classicist writers put forward their
reforms? How did their work replicate the intellectual and political concerns of their day?

6. What are the principles of study adopted by positivists?

7. How does the positivist school understand human behaviour – and in particular, why
people commit crime? How is this different from classicist criminology?

8. How did the positivists understand the concept of ‘harm’ in relation to crime, and what
were the implications for the way the criminal justice system should respond? How was
this different to the way harm was understood by classical criminologists?

9. Can you identify positivist principles in our modern criminal justice system, and the way
we think about crime and punishment today?