About the Author
The author of this article is Adv. Aksha Raj B, practicing advocate in Kollam district under the Kerala Bar Council.
Introduction
The Classical School theories of crime are distinguished from the other theories we by their emphasis on free will and rational decision-making, which modern theories of crime tend to ignore. Specifically, the theoretical perspectives focus on the human ability to choose one’s own behavior and destiny, whereas paradigms popular before the enlightenment and in contemporary times tend to emphasize the influence of external factors on individual choice. Therefore, the Classical School is perhaps the paradigm best suited for analysis of what types of calculations go on in someone’s head before committing a crime.
Definition of Criminology
The term “criminology” is defined as the scientific study of criminals, punishment, and crime. Criminology is characterised by a scientific approach to understanding criminals and crimes and how to prevent future crimes from being committed. In the 17th century, more people, especially in Europe, started to become interested in crime; up until that point, punishment was typically harsh and inconsistent across court systems. Judges were sometimes fairly inexperienced and not well-educated in law, leading to major variations in punishments.
During the European Enlightenment Age of the second half of the 17th century through the 18th century, drastic social and political changes swept the continent, and beyond. Enlightenment philosophers questioned and shed light on the purpose and place of government, and the rights and values of individuals in regard to the law. The ideas of the Enlightenment Age sparked an interest in crime and the psychology and philosophy behind crime and its associated punishments. There are various schools of thought regarding criminology.
Classical Crime Theory
The classical crime theory came about during the Enlightenment Age, which began in the mid 17th century through the 18th century. The main beliefs behind classical crime theory are that people have free will and are responsible for their own actions; therefore, crime is a result of choices made. Those aforementioned ideas are certainly reflective of the Enlightenment Age, as personal rights, values, and responsibilities were highlighted. Since people had free will and were responsible for all actions taken, they played an active role in the crime committed and should be held accountable. Classical crime theory asserts that people act rationally and are aware of the consequences, so they should be punished accordingly.
Classical School of Criminology
The classical school of criminology was developed in the eighteenth century, where classical thinking emerged in response to the cruel forms of punishment that dominated at the time. The classical view in criminology explains crime as a free-will decision to make a criminal choice. This choice is made by applying the pain-pleasure principle: people act in ways that maximise pleasure and minimise pain. Classical crime theory asserts that people act rationally and are aware of the consequences, so they should be punished accordingly. This school of Criminology Not only does it affirm that people make rational choices when committing a crime, but it also focuses on the prevention of future crimes and how that should be approached.
Jeremy Bentham and Cesare de Beccaria are considered the founders of classical criminology.
Italian scholar Cesare Bonesana Marchese di Beccaria (1738–1794), commonly known as Cesare Beccaria wrote ‘On Crimes and Punishments'(1764). He wrote this book at the age of 26 and published it anonymously, but after its almost instant popularity, he came forward as the author. Because of this significant work, Beccaria is not only the Father of Criminal Justice and the Father of the Classical School of Criminology but, perhaps most important, the Father of Deterrence Theory. Beccaria stated that; ‘It is better to prevent crimes than to punish them’. This is at the heart of the classical school of criminology. Beccaria believed that laws needed to be put into place in order to make punishments consistent and in line with the crime. He believed that crime prevention in its effectiveness is down to three main ideas, these being the certainty of the crime and how likely it is to happened, the celerity of the crime and how quickly the punishment is inflicted and also the severity of the crime, and how much pain is inflicted. Beccaria thought that the severity of the penalties given should be proportionate to the crime committed and no more than what is necessary in order to deter the offender and others from committing further crimes.
One of the more notable theorists inspired by Beccaria’s ideas was Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) of England, who has become a well-known Classical theorist in his own right, perhaps because he helped spread the Enlightenment / Beccarian philosophy to Britain. His influence in the development of Classical theorizing is debated, with a number of major texts not covering his writings at all. One of Bentham’s more important contributions was the concept of “hedonistic calculus,” which was essentially the weighing of pleasure versus pain. This, of course, is strongly based on the Enlightenment / Beccarian concept of rational choice and utility. After all, if the expected pain outweighs the expected benefit of committing a given act, the rational individual is far less likely to do it. Beyond the idea of hedonistic calculus, Bentham’s contributions to the overall assumptions of Classical theorizing did not significantly revise the theoretical model.
Classical School of Criminology in today’s crime and criminal behaviour: An analysis
Classical thinking says that criminals make a rational choice, and choose to do criminal acts due to maximum pleasure and minimum pain. The classical school says criminals are rational, they weigh up the costs and therefore we should create deterrents which slightly outweigh what would be gained from the crime. This is the reason behind the death penalty being viewed by classical thinkers such as Beccaria and Bentham as pointless, because there would be no deterrent. However when considering manslaughter, as Bentham also believes, if the severity of the punishment should slightly outweigh the crime then surely capital punishment should be used, there doesn’t seem to be any stronger a deterrent to other criminals thinking of undertaking the same criminal behaviour, than seeing another eradicated due to their actions.
Classical thinking has a significant impact on criminological thinking in general and perhaps a greater impact on criminal justice practise. Since the introduction of the classical school of criminology and classical thinking, these of capital punishment, torture and corporal punishment has declined. Neither Beccaria nor Bentham believed in the death penalty, apart from, Bentham argued, in the case of murder.
The second half of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries also saw the establishment and growth of the prison, as a major system of punishment, the idea and concept of prison was to take punishment away from the body and instead punish the mind and soul, and these are the keys to changing a person’s outlook and views of their criminal behaviours. But there are cases like Deborah Jeane Palfrey, known as the ‘D.C. Madam,’ committed suicide before being sentenced. Her case reveals the potentially powerful effects of formal sanctions on individual’s decision making.
Many elements of classical ideas are very useful in modern society and these show the strengths that the theory does have. Deterrence continues to underlie all judicial systems and indeed underpinned the principles of the first commissioners of Sir Robert Peel, in the creation of the Metropolitan police. Prisons are also used as major deterrents and also to try and reduce rates of crime.
However a great weakness of the classical school of criminology is, the idea stemming from classical thinking that all criminals are rational is not generalisable to the whole population nor is it entirely valid, due to the fact that there may be biological factors stopping an individual from being able to think and behave rationally. Therefore it may not be the particular choice of the individual as they may have been born that way; they may not have the ability to make a rational decision due to a mental illness such as schizophrenia. They may be disorientated or even drugged which affects the brain functioning and therefore any behaviours, resulting in an individual becoming irrational. Also, if people act due to principles of rationality and free will then why is it that the poor are predominating in the criminal justice system, classical thought doesn’t include factors of necessity in order to survive. As Jeffrey Reiman (1979) said; “the rich get richer and the poor get prison”.
White and Haines (2004) said that the classical school of criminology has 3 main challenges to it. Firstly; how to make such ideas serve the interests of justice and equality when faced with a particular defendant in court. (Not all criminals appear to be acting rationally and of free will) Secondly; that for criminal justice bureaucracies such as the police, growing efficiency may not always be compatible with an emphasis on equal justice, as their gain is to decrease crime rates. Thirdly a power issue, the rationalisation of the legal system potentially means some reduction in their power, which may backfire in terms of being a deterrent.
However, crime is considered as a disease of mind which need to be treated. For this purpose criminal justice system is giving emphasis on probation. Probation is defined as a criminal sentence served under the supervision of a corrections officer rather than having the offender serve jail time. Probation helps in deterring the offenders from committing further crime, at the same time it doesn’t give a feeling of punishment.
Conclusion
Once the Age of Enlightenment presented a more logical framework of individual decision-making and rationality in the 18th century, the Classical School of criminological thought became dominant, largely due to the propositions in Beccaria’s On Crimes and Punishments (1764). Along with many proposed reforms, his perspective focused on the assumption that individuals have free will and make a rational choice to commit a given offense after first considering the risk of getting caught and punished, a proposition that established the deterrence theory of reducing offender behavior. Thus, the goal was to deter individuals from engaging in criminal activities by increasing their likelihood of being caught and/or punished via formal sanctions. But due to the earlier mentioned reasoned this school of Criminology can’t be considered as a perfect one.
References
- The Classical School of Criminological Thought, Chapt.3 by SAGEPublications, Inc, www.sagepub.com
- UNODC ‘Classical: Pain-pleasure decisions ‘ May 2018, www.unodc.org
- Amanda Ferguson, Natalie Boyd ‘ Classical School of Criminology ‘ 15 March 2022, www.study.com
- ‘The Classical School of Criminology’,26 August 2021,www.lawteacher.net
