The Positivist Schools : The Positivist School

Positivist criminology emerged in the nineteenth century after people stopped relying on pure thought and reason and started to observe and analyze to understand the way things worked. “Positive philosophy was an explicit repudiation or reaction to the critical and ‘negative’ philosophy of the Enlightenment [Classicalist] thinkers” (Bohm 21). Positivism has two main elements: One “is the belief that human behavior is a function of forces beyond a person’s control [and] the second aspect of positivism is embracing the scientific method to solve problems” (Siegel 7-8). . Positivism is known for the use of science and the scientific method in their research. Positivists such as Lombroso, whom is considered the father of criminology, set the stage for examination of external forces

Other theories from the contemporary positivist perspective come from the belief that deviant determinism is based on social factors. Anomie-strain theory is an example that is based on social factors. The anomie-strain theory directs the reason that a person becomes deviant to the hands of society. This happens when society sets certain goals that may or may not be attainable by all classes of people. Sociologists that follow the anomie-strain theory believe that humans do possess free will (Thio, 2010, p. 7). When a member of society does not have the means necessary to achieve the goal that society sets for them, he or she may be encouraged to find an illegitimate means to achieve the goals.

The Classical school of criminology can be known as the free will to act at one’s own discretion, where an individual chooses to break the law upon a desirable choice. The Classical emphasizes how the system was organized, punishments for crime, and how authorities should react to crime. On the other hand, positivist school was created to see what influences an individual to break the laws, based on human beings’ behavior. Positivist school is simply trying to analyze who, what, and how crime is initiated. This study will identify the schools’ argument, and if they complement each other, the advantages and disadvantages, and the different approaches or points of view from multiple criminologist regarding the schools and theories.

The classical perspective founded by Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham; stated that at people choose to commit crime after they considered the pros and cons that could be associated with a crime, and believed that the pros outweighed the cons (Tonry,2014). The theory relied on deterring criminal acts by assuring that the consequences of crime are absolute, harsh, and quickly administered (Tonry,2014).

Criminology and the criminal justice system have framed a “taken-for-granted, common-sense” understanding of ‘crime’ and the ‘criminal’ (Tierney, 2010). ‘Crime’ is commonly understood as a violation of the criminal law; originating from religion and the sin of God and then moving towards Classicalism. Classicalism rests on the assumption of free will and recognises rational choice of the individual. It influences much of our system of justice today; especially aspects of due process. It argues that criminality is therefore part of nature; and order is maintained through law and punishments. We can see this through Beccaria’s approach of certainty, celerity and severity (Beccaria, cited in Newburn, 2013, pp116). Positivism, associated with theorists such as Lombroso, offered more of a scientific approach in identifying the causes of crime and could recognise impaired ability such as mental illness. It argues that ‘crime’ is

New deviancy theory emerged in the 1960s and early 1970s. It was primarily a radical response to positivist domination of criminology (that crime is the result of individual, physical, and social conditions).

The Positivist School of criminology began in the late 19th century and is still a part of society today. The Positivist School suggests that in order to control crime, you have to use scientific methods to look for the causes of crime. Some important developments the theory included were controlling human behavior, controlling criminal behavior, industrial revolutions, the emergence of modern science, and finally Darwin's theory of evolution. Many assumptions had been made, but a few in particular stood out to be the most important. Theorists said that human nature is determined before you are even born. Also that it is differentiated which means that criminals are different from non-criminals. The five methodologies are based on biological characteristics that may cause the criminals to commit the crimes they based on certain characteristics. The first method is physiognomy. This judges character by facial features as well as physical features. It can be traced back to Ancient Greece and Rome. The second is

Classical criminology is a way of looking at rational behaviour and free will. This approach was developed in the 18th century and early 19th century and they intended to establish a clear and legitimate criminal justice system based on equality for all. Positivist criminology is based on the understanding of crime and criminology, and its basic concept is based on the decision of behaviour. There are two types of positivists who seek to explain crimes and misinterpretations: biologics and psychological positivism. The origins of positivism and the two interrelated developments started in the nineteenth century.

In Criminology there are two main approaches when talking about why criminals commit crime: positivism and classical criminology. Throughout the decades there have been many criminologists that debate this subject like positivist Cesare Lombroso who believed that criminals were less evolved than non-criminals and believed they had a more primitive mind. Whereas Bentham viewed all people as rational decision makers and created the pain-pleasure theory. In the Sage Dictionary of Criminology the definition of Classical Criminology is “An approach to the study of crime and criminality which is underpinned by the notion of ration action and free will. It was developed in the late 18th century and 19th century by reformers who aimed to create a

The Classical School of Criminology was developed by two utilitarian philosophers, Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham during the early 17th century. The Classical School of Criminology is an important theory in the framework of criminal behavior, with principle themes that include: criminal acts are of individuals free will and rational deliberation, calculating, and hedonistic beings. Criminals make a rational choice and choose criminal acts due to maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain. As well as minimizing crime, the would be offender must be convinced that the likely punishment for the crime would be swift, certain and proportionately (Paternoster & Bachman, 2001, p. 11).

Criminology earliest development traces back to the early 1700s, however did not fully bloom until the 1800s when criminal laws were being made and enforced (Altrichter, 2015). With this in mind, the first school to be developed through criminology was the classical school. The classical school was founded upon the thoughts and ideas of Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham (Altrichter, 2015). Cesare Beccaria implicated the idea that a crime is to be punished depending on its severity and rather not the criminal (Altrichter, 2015). Jeremy Bentham contributed to the classical school by stating that through a series of weighing the pleasure and pains of their results, this would increase or decrease the chances that a criminal would create a crime (Altrichter, 2015). The most notable idea that developed through the classical school is that criminals have a free will and can thinking

The intellectual shift is the extension of the focus on science from the classical model. It is about understanding the world and making progress by changing it. Based on the ideas of positivism, there is distinction between the normal and the deviant and the deviant behaviour is determined on factors outside the control of an individual. Positivism focuses on the characteristics of the offender and not the act (Jung, 2017, Slide 4). Some types of the positivisms are biological and psychological. The psychological positivism focuses on psychological explanations for crimes. It argues that criminals are made and not born. Through psychological positivism, becoming a criminal and

In positivist criminology, a person commits a crime because outside factors influenced them. For example, a person is more likely to commit a crime if they live in poverty. In today’s society, it is easier for someone to rob or steal rather than to get a job and work for their money. Not to mention, it is harder for those who live in poverty to get jobs since most employers only want the best of the best working for their company. Living in poverty can also affect a person’s mentality. Trying to figure out how to overcome poverty can be stressful, and this can take a toll on people’s mental health and cause them to commit acts that they wouldn’t have committed if they were in their normal state of mind.

Crime is a socially constructed phenomenon. It is not static but dynamic and is defined into existence. It changes over time and place. For example, early definitions of crime such as classicism defined individuals as rational, free and responsible for their own actions. The emergence of positivism was an attempt to bring scientific methodology to criminology. Positivists believe in objectively quantifying cause and effect. In the early twentieth century a sociological lens was applied. Functionalist sociologists such as Durkheim argued that crime had a positive function for society by reinforcing societal norms and values (Ziyanak and Williams 2014). Anomie and strain theory proposed later by Robert Merton examined how poorer classes experienced frustration through lack of opportunities leading to strain. There are many others including labelling, control and cultural deviance, however; this shows that our understanding of criminology is not static and like crime itself it changes over time and place.

Criminology is the scientific study of crime as an individual and social phenomenon. Criminological research areas include the incidence of crime as well as its causes and consequences. They also include social and governmental regulations and reactions to crime. Nation master.com (2013) highlights that “in criminology the positivist school has attempted to find scientific objectivity for the measurement and quantification of criminal behaviour”. The Positivist School of thought presumes that criminal behaviour is caused by various internal and external factors which are outside of the individual 's control. The scientific method was introduced and applied to the study of human behaviour. Positivism can be broken up into three segments which include biological, psychological and social positivism Nation master (2013)