Criminological Theories & Their Impact on the Crminal Justice System
As revenant to the old covenant, crimes and forms of justice began thousands of years ago. The phrase “An eye for an eye” was highly endorsed even till the early eighteen hundreds. Compared to the relatively complex criminal justice system we have today, justice for a crime committed in the old days falls in the extreme ends of the norms society has built today. The question as to how the criminal justice system has evolved over the years can be answered by the many leading criminological theories presented since the early seventeenth centuries. These theories not only brought an important understanding of crime and behavior but influenced many of the laws and regulations we have today.
One of the earliest and most important forms of criminological theories came from a group of individuals, era known as the classical school. The leading figures of the classical theory are given to Cesare Beccaria, father of classical criminology, and Jeremy Bentham. Both men incorporated its view of crime and the type of justice which should be followed in response to it, explaining that the current forms of punishments in their time was incorrect and unjust (Sitze 2008). Becarria believed the government’s role should be preserving public safety and not try to avenge it but rather impose order. According to the classical theory people are assumed to be rational and want the goods and services crime provide. However, these individuals will commit the crime if they do not fear being caught and punished. In simpler forms, criminals are said to be the same as noncriminal since they commit crimes after calculating the costs and benefits (Walsh & Ellis 2007). Therefore, individuals use the concept of hedonistic calculus when committing types of actions. Although many of its implications are bashed by many researchers, the classical theory does bring about important contributions.
One of the things the classical theory emphasizes is on the fact that the crimes should fit its punishments and should be given to all members who commit the similar crime (Walsh & Ellis 2007). The work of Beccaria emphasized that those being accused should be able to confront those that are accusing them and be able to know the charges they are being accused for. Most importantly, the accusers should be able to receive the right for a public trial as soon as possible and should not have to experience cruel or unusual punishment.
On an opposite note, the positivist theory challenged much of the validity of the classical theory and incorporated a different view of the causes of crime. The lead figure of the positivist class is Cesare Lombroso, father of criminology, known for his book The Criminal Man. In the positivist theory, crime is approached through a scientific perspective and incorporates causation as a result of inferiority over the regular population (Paternoster 2010). The theory emphasizes on the fact that