Crime and

Criminology
Chapter 1
SOC 112
 Criminology
- scientific study of crime

1. Concern throughout history

- first developed = criminal law

a. Physical characteristics
- “evil” disposition

b. Relationship = traits and behavior

- Greeks
 History of Criminology
- skull of Socrates
- alcoholism / brutality

c. Greeks / Romans = red hair

- deformed / disfigured

d. Middle Ages
- uglier
- criminals born / not made
- physical irregularities
 History, cont.
- della Porta: Human Physiognomy
- facial features / human behavior

a. Early 1800s
- Gall / Spruzheim
- Science of Phrenology
- “bumps on head”

b. Benefits
- introduced: biological factors into crime
 History, cont.
- biological determinism

3. Criminology: 18th century

- apply rationality / rule of law
- Cesare Beccaria / Jeremy Bentham
- Classical School of Criminology

a. Reaction against barbaric system (1789)

- crimes against state / crown / church
- some specific / others not
 Classical School
- discretionary power / judicial level

b. Laws unwritten
- arbitrary / cruel sentences
- ‘due process’ did not exist
- punishment: torture
- England: over 200 offenses / death

c. Modern / industrial Europe

- medieval penal practices
 Classical School
- government violence to control
- “inquisition”

d. Educated class
- inconsistencies of policy
- mid-18th century: social reformers
- Beccaria: Classical School

4. Cesare Beccaria (1738 – 1794)

- law degree
 Beccaria, cont.
- reforms to modernize
- (1763) prison research
- works of: Voltaire / Montesquieu / Rousseau

a. “On Crimes and Punishment” (1764)

- called for: enlightened CJ system
- people / rather than monarchy

b. “Father of Criminology”
- rule of men vs. rule of law
 Beccaria, cont.
c. Following principles:
- based on “Free Will”

(1) Law used to maintain social contract

(2) Only legislators should create laws

(3) Impose punishment according to law

(4) Judges should not interpret the laws

 Beccaria, cont.
(5) Punishment based on pleasure / pain

(6) Punishment based on act / not the actor

(7) Punishment determined by the crime

(8) Punishment should be prompt / effective

(9) All people should be treated equally

 Beccaria, cont.
(10) Capitol punishment abolished

(11) Torture to gain confessions abolished

(12) Better to prevent crimes than to punish

d. Greatest impact on rule of law

(1) Voltaire: wrote commentary for French

version
 Beccaria, cont.
(2) Six Italian editions / several French,
plus English edition

(3) After French Revolution: served as

guide for French Penal Code

(4) Russia: Catherine the Great / new

legal code / translate principles
 Beccaria, cont.
(5) Prussian king: revised Prussian law
to principles

(6) Austria-Hungary emperor: used

book to ban capitol punishment

(7) Influenced USA in writing first ten

amendments
 Beccaria, cont.
5. European legal scholars / reformers
- indebted to Beccaria

a. Jeremy Bentham (1748 – 1832)

- greatest happiness for greatest numbers

b. Rational crime control

- scientific approach: making/breaking laws

c. “Utilitarian principles”
 Bentham, cont.
- utilitarianism
- “assumes that all human actions are calcu-
lated in accordance with their likelihood of
bringing happiness or unhappiness”

d. Do what we perceive = happiness

- utilitarianism / pleasure pain principle
- weight probabilities
- “human calculators”
- put all factors into the equation
 Bentham, cont.
e. 1820 to 1861: reduced capitol offenses
- 222 to 3
- murder / treason / piracy

6. Neo-Classical School
- spin off of Classical

a. Questioned “free will”

b. Age / insanity / literacy