Foundations of Criminology
TERM 1 WEEK 1
What is Criminology?
- Measuring the extent and consequences of crime, explain the
cause(s) of crime, criminals and criminalisation.
- The defining line is an interest in crime, not the belonging to a
certain discipline (such as history, politics, sociology, psychology,
law, forensics)
What is Crime?
• Legal definition - Behaviour prohibited in criminal code
• Moral definition - Behaviour that offends the ‘collective
consciousness’
• Social definition - Behaviour that violates social norms
• Humanistic definition - Behaviour that denies basic human rights
• Social constructionist definition - Behaviour defined as criminal by
the powerful
• Harm - The harm done to people. Can incorporate wrong-doings by
states and large business corporations
Conclusion
- There are no clear-cut definitions of crime and criminology
- Criminology as a discipline is united by its topic of interest and
spans several disciplines
TERM 1 WEEK 2
The Classical School
- Enlightenment, Europe, 18th Century
- ‘The Age of Reason’
, - Law unjust and disparate
- Judges applied the law as they saw fit
- Barbaric punishments for sometimes petty crimes
- Corporal or capital punishment
- Forced labour, galley slaves
- Demanded justice based on equality and humane and
proportionate punishment
Forerunners
• The concept of Natural Law / Natural Justice
– Principles of justice deriving from the nature of humanity
– Moral and rational elements in legal reasoning
– John Locke: Man is free, equal and independent
• The Social Contract:
– We surrender certain rights and freedoms when we form a
new society. In return the government assumes
responsibilities for its citizens.
– The social contract wanted to achieve equilibrium
Beccaria on the Social Contract
- “Tired of living in a constant war, and of enjoying a freedom that is
of little value since its duration is so insecure, they sacrifice some of
this freedom to be able to enjoy the rest of it in peace and quiet.
(---) But it was not enough just to establish this contract, it was also
necessary to defend it from being abused by the individual, who
would always try not only to get his bit of freedom back, but also to
get some of the other’s. Some measures were therefore necessary
to prevent the individual from throwing society back into its former
chaos. Such measures are the punishments that are instilled against
those that violate the law.”
Basic Features
• Hedonism:
– Seeking pleasure and avoiding pain
– Maximise benefits and minimise costs
2
, • Equality:
– Equal treatment by the law
• Utilitarianism:
– Achieve the greatest happiness for the greatest number of
people (Jeremy Bentham)
• Free choice:
– We are free and rational beings who choose to commit crime
after rational consideration
Cesare Beccaria 1738 – 1794
• Crime is ‘injurious to society’
– Breached the social contract, affected the equilibrium
• Clear, rational rules needed
• Prevention the only justification for punishment
• Torture and execution abolished
– Punishment according to the damage caused to society
• Humane treatment of offenders
On Crimes and Punishment
• Restrictions: criminal law to be restricted in scope
• Presumption of innocence
• Written law code: all crimes defined in a tariff
• Limited severity of punishment: just outweighing the pleasure /
benefit of the crime
• Proportionality: punishment should correspond to the seriousness
of the crime
• Certainty and swiftness: punishment to be certain and carried out
quickly
• Punishment not to set example or to reform
• Free, rational offender: crime is a choice
• Prevention: the aim is to prevent crime
3
, Jeremy Bentham 1748 – 1832
- ‘Hedonistic calculus’ weighing pain against pleasure
- ‘Panopticon’ - the all-seeing eye
- Architecture
- Management by contract
- Open to inspection
Neoclassic 19th Century
- Punishment only justified if crime committed out of rational choice
- Children? Mentally ill?
- Room for mitigation and aggravation
- Room for personal circumstances
- Fines felt the same if poor or rich?
- Experts making judgements
Conclusions
• The individual is a free, rational being who chooses to commit crime
• Punishment should fit the crime, not the criminal
• The principles of proportionality, equality, certainty and swiftness
• Tariff: all crimes should be defined and their punishments
stipulated in a criminal code
• Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham
TERM 1 WEEK 3 – EARLY POSITIVISM
Positivism
• Positivism is NOT a theory
• Positivists aim to use ‘theory-neutral’ observations as a basis for
inductive propositions
• Stresses measurement and objectivity
• Deterministic explanations
• Empiricism
Background
4
TERM 1 WEEK 1
What is Criminology?
- Measuring the extent and consequences of crime, explain the
cause(s) of crime, criminals and criminalisation.
- The defining line is an interest in crime, not the belonging to a
certain discipline (such as history, politics, sociology, psychology,
law, forensics)
What is Crime?
• Legal definition - Behaviour prohibited in criminal code
• Moral definition - Behaviour that offends the ‘collective
consciousness’
• Social definition - Behaviour that violates social norms
• Humanistic definition - Behaviour that denies basic human rights
• Social constructionist definition - Behaviour defined as criminal by
the powerful
• Harm - The harm done to people. Can incorporate wrong-doings by
states and large business corporations
Conclusion
- There are no clear-cut definitions of crime and criminology
- Criminology as a discipline is united by its topic of interest and
spans several disciplines
TERM 1 WEEK 2
The Classical School
- Enlightenment, Europe, 18th Century
- ‘The Age of Reason’
, - Law unjust and disparate
- Judges applied the law as they saw fit
- Barbaric punishments for sometimes petty crimes
- Corporal or capital punishment
- Forced labour, galley slaves
- Demanded justice based on equality and humane and
proportionate punishment
Forerunners
• The concept of Natural Law / Natural Justice
– Principles of justice deriving from the nature of humanity
– Moral and rational elements in legal reasoning
– John Locke: Man is free, equal and independent
• The Social Contract:
– We surrender certain rights and freedoms when we form a
new society. In return the government assumes
responsibilities for its citizens.
– The social contract wanted to achieve equilibrium
Beccaria on the Social Contract
- “Tired of living in a constant war, and of enjoying a freedom that is
of little value since its duration is so insecure, they sacrifice some of
this freedom to be able to enjoy the rest of it in peace and quiet.
(---) But it was not enough just to establish this contract, it was also
necessary to defend it from being abused by the individual, who
would always try not only to get his bit of freedom back, but also to
get some of the other’s. Some measures were therefore necessary
to prevent the individual from throwing society back into its former
chaos. Such measures are the punishments that are instilled against
those that violate the law.”
Basic Features
• Hedonism:
– Seeking pleasure and avoiding pain
– Maximise benefits and minimise costs
2
, • Equality:
– Equal treatment by the law
• Utilitarianism:
– Achieve the greatest happiness for the greatest number of
people (Jeremy Bentham)
• Free choice:
– We are free and rational beings who choose to commit crime
after rational consideration
Cesare Beccaria 1738 – 1794
• Crime is ‘injurious to society’
– Breached the social contract, affected the equilibrium
• Clear, rational rules needed
• Prevention the only justification for punishment
• Torture and execution abolished
– Punishment according to the damage caused to society
• Humane treatment of offenders
On Crimes and Punishment
• Restrictions: criminal law to be restricted in scope
• Presumption of innocence
• Written law code: all crimes defined in a tariff
• Limited severity of punishment: just outweighing the pleasure /
benefit of the crime
• Proportionality: punishment should correspond to the seriousness
of the crime
• Certainty and swiftness: punishment to be certain and carried out
quickly
• Punishment not to set example or to reform
• Free, rational offender: crime is a choice
• Prevention: the aim is to prevent crime
3
, Jeremy Bentham 1748 – 1832
- ‘Hedonistic calculus’ weighing pain against pleasure
- ‘Panopticon’ - the all-seeing eye
- Architecture
- Management by contract
- Open to inspection
Neoclassic 19th Century
- Punishment only justified if crime committed out of rational choice
- Children? Mentally ill?
- Room for mitigation and aggravation
- Room for personal circumstances
- Fines felt the same if poor or rich?
- Experts making judgements
Conclusions
• The individual is a free, rational being who chooses to commit crime
• Punishment should fit the crime, not the criminal
• The principles of proportionality, equality, certainty and swiftness
• Tariff: all crimes should be defined and their punishments
stipulated in a criminal code
• Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham
TERM 1 WEEK 3 – EARLY POSITIVISM
Positivism
• Positivism is NOT a theory
• Positivists aim to use ‘theory-neutral’ observations as a basis for
inductive propositions
• Stresses measurement and objectivity
• Deterministic explanations
• Empiricism
Background
4
