What Is Criminology?
The term criminology is derived from the combination of two words – crimen, which means crime and logia, which means study. Thus, it refers to the scientific study of the nature, extent, causes, and control of criminal behaviour. It is the scientific study of the causes of crime and suggests appropriate remedies.
What Are the Schools of Criminology?
In the different stages of time, various criminologists gave their perspectives on the meaning of crime, criminals, and causes of crime, and there is a variation in the opinions of every criminologist. This variation further led to formulations of different criminal behaviour. As a result, the scientific explanation of criminal behaviour is stated in the form of different theories, known as schools of criminology.
Different Schools of Criminology
1. Pre-classical School
Jeremy Bentham is considered the founder of the pre-classical school. This school, also known as the Demonological school, existed during the 17th and 18th centuries. During this time, religion was at its peak level. Worshipping and sacrifices were usually the prescribed method in pre-classical school.
There was no existence of scientific explanations. There was a belief that there existed another part of the world that is full of evil powers, and every individual is controlled by the supreme power of that world. Therefore, the people are influenced by those evil powers, due to which the person loses their sense of morality and then commits crimes.
This school believed that an individual is not in a position to differentiate between what is right and what is wrong because when the person commits a crime, the sense of understanding is influenced by evil powers.
The treatment suggested in this school was of giving extreme torture to the person who committed the crime.
Later this school was criticised on the basis of punishment provided under this school.
Why has Pre-Classical School Known As Demonological School?
As mentioned earlier pre-classical school was more based omnipotence of God which they considered a sovereign power. Further during the 17th century religious and spiritual conceptions started gaining attention which had given scope for the advancement of the demonological school.
Nature Of Punishments During Pre-Classical School
During the pre-classical school nature of punishments was severe such as whipping, ordeal by hot water, burning, ordeal by hot oil, etc. the main aim behind the infliction of such harsh punishment was to stop an individual from following a path of demons and to urge an individual to follow a path of the divine. The offender was exposed to cruel treatment in order to avoid the repetition of offenses. Though this approach was unscientific and inhuman it was accepted in that period. They were keen on the principles in which they believed i.e. the sovereign authority of God.
2. Classical School
This school was propounded in the 18th century. The supporter of classical school was Cesare Beccaria. It rejected the theory of pre-classical school.
Classical school was based upon the free will concept and determinism, that the person commits the crime out of pleasure and pain.
It is believed that punishment should be directly proportional to the intensity of crime.
This school completely focused on crime.
Classical school ignored the difference between the first offender and habitual offender, which later became the reason for its criticism.
- Cesare Beccaria is the ‘Father of Criminology’. Cesare Beccaria is an aristocrat and his thinking on the punishment system in Europe was irrational. Beccaria is a major contributor to the Criminal Law of Europe in the eighteenth century. Beccaria’s view on punishments was preventive, as stated in his book, “its contents were designed to undermine many if not all of the cherished beliefs of those in a position to determine the fate of those accused and convicted of a crime. [An] attack on the prevailing systems for the administration of criminal justice. it aroused the hostility and resistance of those who stood to gain by the perpetuation of the barbaric and archaic penological institutions of the day[1].” Beccaria believed in three ideology that:
a. Every individual has free will in doing an act and should not be restricted.
- Every individual act rationally for his wants and goods, thus law should be protective of an individual.
- Every individual’s behaviour is predictable and so, it can be predicted and controlled.
Jeremy Bentham is an English philosopher and contributed more towards Law and Punishments. Jeremy Bentham supports and follows the general principles of Cesare Beccaria. Moreover, Jeremy Bentham also made his contribution to the Classical School of Criminology, as both of them belonged to a similar time period, where the Criminal system in Europe is more severe. Jeremy Bentham propounded the concept of utilitarianism’, which was expressed as, an “…irrational system of absolutes but by a supposedly verifiable principle. The principle was that of ‘the greatest happiness for the greatest number’ or simply ‘the greatest happiness.” Bentham propounded the “Of the four sources Sanctions or Sources of Pain and Pleasure”, which provides the form of the severity of punishment. Moreover, he places that calculation for punishments isn’t necessary, small disproportion shall be ignored.
Main Reforms Advocated by the Classical School
The system of law, its mechanisms of enforcement and the forms of punishment used in the eighteenth century were primitive and inconsistent. Judges were not professionally trained so many of their decisions were unsatisfactory being the product of incompetence, capriciousness, corruption or political manipulation. The use of torture to extract confessions and a wide range of cruel punishments such as whipping, mutilation and public executions were commonplace. A need for legal rationality and fairness was identified and found an audience among the emerging middle classes whose economic interests lay in providing better systems for supporting national and international trade.
Conclusion
It can be said that all these schools were developed from the circumstances or situations that were prevailing in that era and thus developed such sentencing procedures which suited their time. The main aim of all the above schools was to protect society by preventing crime. For this, few schools opted lighter forms of punishment, whereas few opted for a severe form of punishment.
This article is written by Dipti shete during her internship.
