Critically Assess The Strengths And Weaknesses Of The Classical School Of

Criminological Thought.

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. It is
considered that writers such as Montesquieu and Voltaire encouraged perhaps the emergence of
this new ‘classical’ thinking, by becoming involved in campaigns for more enlightened
approaches to be taken towards crime and the punishment given by the justice systems at the
time. Also the development of society craved new forms of legal regulation due to the fact that
there needed to be predictability in the system, as technology and properties in particular needed
legal protection and workers needed to be disciplined in a consistent way.

There were two main contributors to this theory of criminology and they were Jeremy Bentham
and Cesare de Beccaria. They are seen as the most important enlightenment thinkers in the area
of ‘classical’ thinking and are considered the founding fathers of the classical school of
criminology. They both sought to reduce the harshness of eighteenth century judicial systems,
even though coming from different philosophical stances.

Bentham’s contribution to ‘classical’ theory is based on the fact that he was a utilitarian,
interested in the happiness and well-being of the population and therefore believing that
punishment, in the form of the infliction of pain, should always be justified in terms of a greater
good. At the heart of Bentham’s writing was the idea that human behavior is directed at
maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain, (the pleasure-pain principle).

Bentham believed that crime was committed on the outset, by individuals who seek to gain
excitement, money, sex or anything of value to the individual.

Beccaria (1764/1963: 93) 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.

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 (consider good and bad aspect of something) 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 behavior, than seeing another
eradicated due to their actions.

Classical thinking has had a significant impact on criminological thinking in general and perhaps
a greater impact on criminal justice practice.

In Europe and America the idea of punishments being appropriate to the nature of the crime has
become a foundation for modern criminal justice systems.

Since the introduction of the classical school of criminology and classical thinking, the use 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 behaviors.

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.

weakness of the classical school of criminology

However a great weakness of the classical school of criminology is, the idea stemming from
classical thinking that all criminals are rational is not generalizable 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 behaviors, 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”

Challenges to classical school of criminology

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 rationalization of the legal system potentially means some
reduction in their power, which may backfire in terms of being a deterrent.

In late 19th century the classical school came under criticism by a form of scientific criminology
which emerged due to Darwin’s great works being published between 1850 and 1870, this
therefore had a profound effect on scientific thought and individuals views of human behavior.

Classicism defines the main object of study as the offence. The nature of the offender was
defined as being free-willed, rational, calculating and normal. The classical thinking response to
the crime was to give punishment that is proportionate to the offence.

The Positivist school of criminology however opposes this classical school of thinking,
positivism states that the object of study is the offender, and that the nature of the offender is
driven by biological, psychological and pathological influences. Their response to the crime is
that of giving a treatment of an indeterminate length, depending on individual circumstances.

Unlike classicism, positivism views criminal behavior as irrational and perhaps due to a problem
(biological, physical or psychological) that an individual has, therefore they are partially relieved
of the crime they committed.

Cesare Lombroso is related to much positivist thinking, as a psychiatrist he looked at criminals

The differences between the thinking behind both the classical school of criminology and the
positivist school of criminology highlight the strengths and weaknesses that are associated with
both. The classical school has much less biological fact and figures backing up its views,
however it has proven successful in reducing crime rates and in providing a deterrent and a way
in which to successfully contain individuals who rebel against the system.

Unlike positivism which doesn’t have any form of punishment, just a form of treatment, the
classical school shows criminals that they cannot behave in certain ways in order to maximize
their pleasure and minimize pain if it involves breaking the law, it does this successfully because
the punishment that is given is more than that of the pleasure that they would receive. Therefore
as rational thinkers, individuals contemplating criminal behaviors would not do so due to the
laws set in place to deter the behavior.

However the main weakness of the classical school of criminological thinking is that it considers
all criminals to be rational and make decisions by free will, but not all individuals are rational
and not all their behaviors are free, as if an individual had a mental illness or a physical defect,
this may totally change the way in which they act and think.

The social construction of crime has changed over time; feudal and religious influences have
changed, and affected the criminological theory used.

When the Classical school developed it was in a time of major reform in penology, there were
many legal reforms at the time due to the French revolution and the legal system was developed
in the united states, which would have had an effect on the united kingdom making an increased
effort to set laws on crime in stone.

As modernity has progressed so has the development of the judicial systems, if positivism was
used as the main criminological thinking then these systems wouldn’t exist because positivism
uses treatments to the criminal in order to solve crime. This could be why the classical school of
criminology has been so influential and still is, because it protects various organizations set out
to remove crime and it also provides a good theoretical basis on which more recent theories have
been developed.