Basic Introduction

• Criminal justice system is based on classical theory
• Our form of government is based on classical theory
• Not a real theory (philosophy of government); social institutions
• Focuses more on legal definition of crime than behavior
• Contemporary theories have moved to criminal behavior
• Students are very comfortable with this theory

Social Heritage/Background

• Developed in 18th Century; time of though an expression

• Many factors were coming together

• People has began challenging aristocrats (upper class); could no longer control

• Question governmental power and church

• Martin Luther in the 16th Century

• Power was called into question

• Revolution in France and the American Colonies

• Major documents (Declaration, U.S. Constitution, and Bill of Rights); questioned authority

• Rise in the middle class (began gaining power and influence)

• Development or mercantilism and the industrial revolution (helped the middle class); mobility

• Rise of the Protestantism and protestant work ethic (hard work=success in this life, not after life); individualism

• Protestantism equals individualism (Questioned catholic authority)

• Rise in science (St. Augustine 4th and 5th Century; Thomas Aquinas in 13th Century)

• Emergence of a Commonalities among people (coming together)

• Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794); father of classical theory; works focused on free will; was a protest writer
  who sought to change governments by applying rational thought and the idea of social contracts

• Beccaria's work laid the foundation for the American and French Revolution; both occurred shortly after published

• Beccaria's book was comdemned by the Roman Catholic Church

• Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)utilitarian theory (Greatest good for the greatest number); laid ideas of deterrence theory

• Kant and Bach

• Early 19th Century (1800s) Sir Robert Peel's and Peel's Principles

Intellectual Heritage

• Mood of reform and revolution

• Observation and experience could determine much about the world (science)

• People began having more free time

• Engaging in discussions of morals, ethics and responsibilities

• Hedonism (maximize pleasure and minimize pain); Bentham and hedonistic calculus

• Question government and the church

• Idea of the social contract (Locke); government serves the people

• Human Dignity (Declaration of Independence)

• Emergence of Natural law

• Idea of the social contract began to emerge with Thomas Hobbes (1588-1678); Shift from
  spiritualistic arguments to naturalistic arguments to explain behavior

• Social contract theories ultimately constructed philosophies to explaining crime and the states' responses to crime

• Other social contract thinkers began to emerge Lock (1632-1704)

Basics of the social contract

• Original state of human nature is a condition of constant war, we want to surive
• Rational and self-motivated people want this state of war to end
• People thus formulate moral laws for peace
• We are better offer in a a world of rules (the alternative to worse)
• Without moral rules we would be subject to the whims of other people's self interest
• We accept the conditions of this social contract through implied consent

Prior to Classical Criminology

• Spiritual explanations of crime
• Examples of primitive cultures and natural disasters - famines, floods, and plagues are punishment for wrong doings
• Middle Ages - spiritual view of the world was intertwined with political and social organization (theocracies)
• Major source of spiritual view resulted from St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
• State had moral authority to punish because it was acting on behalf of God (monarchies)
• Crime was a private affair; problem was that feuds began to develop (last years or resulted in extinction)
• Feudal lords turn to methods in which god could intervene to prove guilt and innocence
• Trial by battle; favored the strong
• Trial by ordeal began to emerge later (running on fire, floating in water); Pope banned in 1215 an implemented compurgation,
  but was still used by many (beginning of the trial by jury)
• Charles Colson; special counsel to President Nixon believed crime could only be cured through Christianity
• Spiritual explanation survived past the conception of classical theory (Puritan colony on Massachusetts Bay;
• modern prisons and Quakers)

Changes of Government

• Shire Reeves and local magistrates; king and military

• Harsh sentences

• Huge discretion

• Little/no written law

• Punished for an act that was not illegal

• Abuse of power and corruption

• Crime was often a private matter; lex talionis (law of retaliation)

• Barbaric punishment (Braveheart); significance of screaming

• Public humiliation (stock and pillar [good targets], brank (birdcage), ducking stool)

• Hangings

• Mutilation (Cut off body parts, blinding, castration, ripping insides out)

• Tar and feathers, tar, chemicals such as sulfur

• Ropes and horses

• Flogging (Caning, cat-o'-nine tails, Russian knot); June 16, 1952 (Delaware, burglar 20 lashes)

• Branding (physical and clothing)

• Again, law was often abused to maintain authority; political tool

• Overly harsh and unfair justice systems

• People began to rebel

Classical Criminology

Assumptions (Structure and Meaning of Government) -Ideas come from Beccaria

1. People have certain rights (Essentialism, absolutism)

2. Government is created to protect rights, while giving up a few rights

3. Legislatures enact laws to protect rights; write laws down, law should contain punishment

4. Laws and punishments should be published for all to view

5. Role of judges should be solely to determine guilt; and should follow punishment as stated in laws

6. Seriousness of crime should be determined solely by the extent of the harm that it inflicts on society

7. Punishment should be proportionate to the crime with the purpose to DETER

8. Punishments are unjust when the severity exceeds what is necessary to achieve deterrence

9. Excessive severity fails to deter crime, it actually increases it

10. Punishment should be swift, certain, and severe

11. Crime is a transgression (sin) against the social contract; it is morally wrong (Justifications for laws)

12. Punishment is necessary to preserve the social contract (Justification for punishment)

13. All people should be treated equally, fairly, and with dignity

Assumptions (Individual Behavior/Motive)

1. People have free will (Opposite argument; science and positivism)

2. We are rational beings

3. Use free will to make rational choices

4. Choices maximize pleasure and minimize pain

Introduced the idea that a person is master of his or her fate
Removed demons and possession from human behavior; rationalize punishment
The rational conclusion is to increase costs and decrease benefits of crime

Idea of maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain laid the foundation for positivism (hedonistic calculus)

Nature of Punishment

• Punishment is aimed at controlling behavior (Deterring)

• Punishment should offset the pleasure (Hedonistic Calculus)

• Pain > pleasure (reasonably)

Three elements necessary to make punishment work

1. Certainty ************

2. Severity (Not too severe); death penalty???????

3. Swiftness/celerity

Studies seem to show certainty is the key issue (Many [politicians/public] likes to focus on severity)

• Examples of getting tough

• Three strikes and your out (Won't work under Classical theory)

• No certainty (Do not think they will be caught)

• No celerity (Punishment is not fast enough)

• Increasing punishments

• Lowering juvenile certification ages

• Harsh sentencing guidelines

• Get tough on crime

Problem with getting tough on crime

• Law of criminal justice thermodynamics

• Increase in severity of a penalty will result in a less frequent application of the penalty because of discretion

• Examples

• Death penalty - jurors are apprehensive to handle down a death verdict

• Three strikes and your out

• Plea-bargaining (Practical concerns; prison space)

Possible Solutions (Discussion)

• Canning

• Televised death penalties

• Speed up death penalty appeals

• Should punishment be harsher (Are we sick of crime)

Ultimate Goal of Classical Theory is DETERRENCE

Three Types of Deterrence

1. Specific Deterrence-Punishment the individual to keep individual from committing future offenses (Off set the pleasure)

2. General Deterrence-Populace sees others being punished, so populace does not commit future offenses (Do not want to be punished)

3. Restrictive Deterrence-Refers to a reduction in the number of offenses one commits or/and a reduction in the seriousness of the offensive one commits (Two types)

Two Types of Restrictive Deterrence

1) Probabilistic

• Law of averages mentality

• More offenses equals a greater chance of being caught

• Intuitive feeling

• Example-Speeding, get nervous and slow down

2) Particularistic

• Refers to offender or potential offender's ability to identify clues in the immediate environment that leads that person to think I have a good chance of getting caught

• Based on knowledge and experience

• Examples

• Know where the police generally are

• Develop a skill for evading detection

Weaknesses of Classical Theory

1) Iatrogenic effects (i-at-re-jenik)

• Refers to the fact of the learning that takes place in a criminal

• Theory mentions nothing about learning

• Perception of arrest goes down, crime goes up

2) Certainty issues

• Criminals do not think they will be caught

3) Learn the penalty

• Criminals learn the penalty

• Become less deterred

4) Age/Crime Curve

• Young people focus more on pleasure than pain

• Why don't adults???? (Theory does not explain)

• Leads into the next weakness

5) Extra Legal Consequences

• Older you get, more consequences you face

• Theory does not take into account

• Lose children, wife, job, respect (Social aspects)

• Negative effects from label, people, and audience (labeling theory; reactionism)

6) Does not take into account other variables

• Social causes

• Psychological

• Audiences

• Political concern (conflict perspective)

Policy Implications

1) Dominates today criminal justice policies

• Our current system is based on Classical theory

• Even our form of government

2) Dominates may conservative approaches (Crime Control Model)

• Get tough on crime approach

3) Guided Scholars

• Countless studies

• Death penalty, drunk driving, drug use .etc.

4) Public and Government Acceptance

• Makes it easier to blame (rational and free will)

• Justifies punishment (Makes you feel good)

5) Punishment

• Punishment is the key

• Does not care about rehabilitation (Question if this even works)

6) Death Penalty?

• Is it too harsh????

7) Certainty, Swiftness, and Severity

• Severity; easy to solve

• Certainty; advances in science, investigation, and training; increase police officers (How many); economic issues

• Swiftness; Economic issues

Final Note

• Relatively easy policy implications

• Change system

• Other theories; makes changes in the arrangement of society

Classification of Theory

1) People as intrinsically evil

• Maximize their pleasure

• Must control and restrict

• People are self-interested

2) Structural or Process

• Structure-Societal institutions (Government and Criminal Justice System); focuses on how government should control behavior (macro)

• Process-Crime as rational and fluid behavior (fluid and dynamic process); crime as a decision process

3) Macro

• Focus on social institutions

• Government (Legislature, executive, and judicial)

• Criminal justice system (Police, courts, and corrections)

4) Micro

• Focuses on the individual

• Rational being with free will that makes choices

• Individual chooses to commit crimes (No outside force)

5) Bridging theory

• Macro and micro concerns

• Societal (Social institutions)

• Individual

• Connection is somewhat week

6) Essentialism/Normative

• Certain basic; real and higher rights

• Emphasis on protecting them procedurally

• Pass laws (due process, formalize laws and punishment)

• Reaction of the audience is not a real issue (Norms and laws)

Routine Activities

• Contemporary classical theory

• Developed by Cohen and Felson

• Crime occurs in the normal routine of everyday life

• Rational-calculating potential offenders are systematically related to the routine activities by which people live

• Changes in the modern world
  1) we spend more time away from our home
  2) greater opportunity to commit crime
  3) we own more and more property with modernization

• More suitable targets (electronics smaller and more expensive; American dream accumulation of wealth and stuff, more people in the world)

• Less guardians (both parents working, larger numbers of people who are strangers)

Assumptions (Three things must exist or converge in time and space)

1. Motivated offender (motivated individual, predisposition towards committing a crime)

2. Absence of a capable guardian (law enforcement, parent teacher); social institution of control

3. Suitable target (Property and person); easy access; weak

Policy Implications

• Attack any one of the above factors (All three must converge for crime to exist)
• Routine activities theory lead to a huge body of knowledge regarding to limit criminal activity

Focus on the Suitable Target Aspect (Easiest of the three to manipulate)

• CPTED (Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design)

• Access Control (Target Hardening); locks, bars, unbreakable glass, alarms, fences, safes, security camera, lighting, street and neighborhood design, electronic locks, security badges, passwords, scanning devices

• Surveillance (increase the chance the offender will be observed); cameras, window placement, doors that face street, bank layouts, computer logs, taping phone calls, lighting can fall her too, walking college students to car

• Activity Support and Motivation Reinforcement (Building community atmosphere; strengthen social institutions of control); element of increasing capable guardians, walking college students to car)

Problem of Suitable Target

• Result is often situational crime control

• Prevent crime at the particular time and space only

• Examples (All inter-related)

1) Tactical displacement

• Criminals will just worker hard, learn a new way

2) Extinction

• Closely related to tactical displacement

• Programs have short term effects

• Programs die out

• Criminals learn new ways to commit crime (disarm the alarm, get around the club, get around camera)

3) Territorial or Spatial Displacement

• Simply go somewhere else to commit the crime, easier place

• Problem in Wentzville

4) Temporal Displacement

• Wait to a later time

• Leave for school, work, or vacation

5) Functional Displacement

• Change to a new offense

• Stealing motor vehicle to carjacking

• Burglary to robbery

• Selling drugs to robbery or burglary

• Gambling to selling drugs

6) Target Displacement

• Change victims

• Burglarize home without alarms or dog

• Steal cars without alarm or club

Role of the Victim

• Suitable Target (Property and person)

• Routine activities theory interjects the role of the victim in their victimization

• Focus on the person (Victimize me all over their face)

• Who would you rob (policeman or elderly lady); studies show the off-duty police and military less likely to be victimized

• Young vs. old, man vs. women, short vs. tall)

• Dressing sexy and rape

• Programs to educate people; how not to be a victim