Crime
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The theories on crime deterrence and punishment have changed throughout history. Beccaria, Lombroso and Durkheim are three theorists who have changed the way deterrence, punishment and crime generally is viewed within society. This research paper will first explore each of the theorists ideas separately. It will then examine the similarities and differences between each theory.
Cesare Beccaria, born in 1738, focused on deterrence as the means of crime prevention. Beccaria fits into the Classical School of thinking, and wrote in a time when torture was used regularly to obtain information from people, and where capital punishment could be used for any type of offence. Punishment was based on a retributive means, where the punishment, or harm, given was equal to the harm caused by the perpetrator. In 1764, Beccaria published a book called “On crimes and Punishments”, where he theorized that this approach did not discourage determined criminals from committing crimes. He suggested, however, by taking away their liberty through incarceration that this would deter other would-be criminals not to commit similar crimes, and would also prevent the perpetrator to recommit the crime again. He based this theory on the utilitarian ideals: “the greatest happiness shared by the greatest number” (Beccaria 1764/1994, p. 227).
In his book, Beccaria theorized the deterrence to a crime would increase in effectiveness the faster the punishment was delivered. He also argued that the punishment should be proportionate to the crime committed, as, following the utilitarian ideals; this would be in the interest to the greater good. Beccaria also examined the fact that at the time punishment for the same crime could range from nothing to the death penalty, as it was to the complete discretion of the magistrate to what punishment was appropriate. Beccaria argued that the same crime should attract similar penalties, as this, according to his theory, would act as a greater deterrence.
Beccaria believed that the death penalty did not work as deterrence to crime. He theorized that killing a person was retributive and had shown in the past that this did not stop the determined criminal committing an offence. He believed, on the other hand, that taking away a persons liberty through incarceration was a greater deterrence, as the duration of the punishment is a far stronger deterrent than “the more powerful but momentary action” (Beccaria 1764/1994 p. 281) of capital punishment.
Unlike Beccaria, Cesare Lombroso looked at the physical and psychological aspects of the makeup of a “criminal”. Born in 1835, Lombroso was a doctor who theorized that some “criminals” were biologically determined. From the Positivist School of thinking, his research emphasised the need to study the individual using measurements from economic, social and anthropological data. Lombroso performed many autopsies on male criminals throughout his research, where he found many features that were comparable with primitive humans (Vold, Bernard and Snipes 1998). He also performed research on living people, both criminals and non-criminals. His findings of both the autopsies and the study involving live specimens were published in 1876 in the book “Criminal Man”.
In his finding, Lombroso develops and explores his theory on criminal behavior, where he claimed that certain physical aspects, such as anomalies in the size of the head, eye defects, pouches in the cheek, defects in the thorax and imbalance of the hemispheres of the brain could assist in ascertaining whether a person is a “criminal” (Lombroso 1911). He called these factors, as well as others not mentioned above, “atavism”. He also theorized that a “criminal” is a throwback to primitive times, as shows “the ferocious instincts of primitive humanity and the inferior animals” (Lombroso 1911, p. xxv).
In his book “The Female Offender”, published in 1909, Lombroso theorizes that most females are not criminal. He found that the women that are criminals, most are only occasional criminals that commit through means other than biological. However, according to Lombroso, there are some females offenders that are atavistic criminals. The female atavistic offender is often harder to detect and is often more vicious than her male counterpart.
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