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The Schools of Criminology

 

            The classical school is very different than the thinking demonstrated from the positivist approach to crime. Free will, individual decision making, and the benefit of society to the individual are the bases of classical criminology. Classical school deals with the crime using punishments and deterrence actions. Positivism, however, disagrees with the concept of the individual and free will and instead praises the idea of enduring evolutionary traits that define a basic criminal personalty, and which can be solved using scientific methods. .
             Classical school of criminology uses subjective factors to define criminal activities while positivist school of criminology uses a more objective method such as scientific investigations. To simplify, the classical perspective is a person makes the decision on criminal activity while the positivist believes that certain traits present in a human being effects behavior. .
             The founders of the classical school, Beccaria and Bentham, were theorists on crime and punishment developments. The classical school strongly believed torture to be wrong and ineffective. According to the school, crimes are committed through free will, people knowing what they are doing and should be punished. Those consequences should be strong enough to deter other potential criminals from the crime and should be harsher than the criminal gain. The classical school theorists felt that people didn't have to be sentenced to death for a serious crime. They thought that if the punishment was certain and swift, people wouldn't commit the crimes.
             According to Beccaria, crimes occur when the potential pleasure and rewards from illegal acts outweigh the pains of punishments. Beccaria's theory was that in order for punishment to be effective, it must be public, prompt, necessary, the least possible in the given circumstances, proportionate and dictated by law. The classical school has several different elements: 1) people have free will to choose criminal or lawful solutions to meet their needs or settle problems.


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