Biological and Classical School - 1265 Words

Introduction The Classical School of criminology emerged during the eighteenth century after the European Enlightenment period. It was during this time that law enforcement and laws were disparate and unjust and punishment was brutal. Members of the Classical School would demand justice that based on equality and human punishment that was appropriate for the offense. According to Williams and McShane 2009, the Classical School was uninterested in studying the criminal per se; it gained its association with criminology through its focus on lawmaking and legal processing. The Positive School of criminology focused on explaining and understanding social behavior of criminals. The members of this school used the approach to the study of†¦show more content†¦With the biosocial theory, the biological characteristic of an individual is only one part in the equation of behavior. The other components are physical and social environment. Mednick thought that individuals should lea rn from his or her family and with peer groups to learn how to control the urge for criminal behavior and living an antisocial life. C. R. Jeffery stated in his book Advances in Criminological theory that the perspective of the biosocial theory is that sociological, psychological, and biological characteristics should be seen as interacting together in a systems model to produce criminal behavior. According to Schmalleger 2006, the Positive School is built-upon two principles. The first principles is that the belief that human behavior is determined not by the exercise of free choice but by the causative factors beyond the control of the individual. The second principle is that the application of scientific techniques to the study of crime and criminology. The Positive School believes that humans live in a world in which cause and effect operate, and social problems can be remedied by means of a systematic study of human behavior (Williams McShane, 2009). Members of this school believe that punishment should be for treatment and not punishment. Positivism attempts to explain the cause of crime and offers a basis for rehabilitating criminals and using the indeterminateShow MoreRelatedBiological Explanations of Criminal Behavior1430 Words   |  6 PagesBiological Explanations of Criminal Behavior Nature and nurture contribute to the way a person behaves. This can be applied to the behaviors of criminals. According to Fishbein (1990, pg.37), â€Å"behavior [is] primarily attributed to inherited predispositions and genetic influences.† Nurture is the environmental influence that shape human behavior (Fishbein, 1990, pg.37). Human genetics and environmental factors contribute to the uniqueness to a person’s behavior. However, there are underlyingRead MoreRational Choice Theory: Criminology901 Words   |  4 Pagesdetermining the origin of criminal acts are: Classical and Neoclassical; Biological; Psychobiological; Sociological; Social Process; Conflict; and Emergent. The concept of choice plays a different role under each of these theories. In some, individual choice plays a dominant role, while in others, individual choice is marginalized. The theoretical model in which choice theory plays its largest role is the Neoclassical, a development of the earlier C lassical School, itself originated in the 18th centuryRead MoreThe Classical School And The Positivist School881 Words   |  4 Pagestwo schools of criminology, which respectively are the classical school and the positivist school. I will begin by comparing and contrasting the historical background of both schools using the founders of each school. I will then continue the paper by comparing their assumptions, their findings and their key policy implications. I will do this by explaining each school’s purpose and goal. I will then argue and explain how the classical school is respectively stronger than the positivist school forRead MoreThe Problem Of Criminal Justice System882 Words   |  4 Pages There are many ideas and schools of thought that surround the idea of criminal justice. Initially the main goals of these schools of thought were to classify and punish crimes, however in the recent past we are seeing a shift toward the deterrence and prevention of crime. Early classical, biological, and psychological theories helped shape what is today’s criminal justice system. One of the earliest theories that attempted to explain the cause of crime is classical theory. In 1764, Cesare BeccariaRead MoreA Study on Operant and Classical Conditioning1477 Words   |  6 PagesOperant and Classical Conditioning Classical conditioning best explains reflective responding that is largely controlled by stimuli preceding the response, while operant conditioning is the kind of learning influenced by stimulus events that follow the responses. (Weiten). In operant conditioning, reinforcement is defined as after the fact. Reinforcement follows a response and increases tendency to make the response. In classical conditioning, the reinforcement comes before the response is madeRead MoreThe Classical School Of Criminology1216 Words   |  5 Pagesmost famous schools of that are Classical Theory and Biological/Positivist Theory. These theories contain insights to why people commit crimes and the most effective way to deal with these individuals and eventually reduce the crime rate. This paper will discuss how these schools of thought compare to each other, the Christian Worldview and to United States current criminal justice system. The first step to compare these theories is to better understand them. The Classical School of CriminologyRead MoreThe Classical School Of Criminology1327 Words   |  6 Pagesfamous schools of thought are Classical Theory and Biological/Positivist Theory. These theories contain insights into why people commit crimes and the most effective way to deal with these individuals and eventually reduce the crime rate. This paper will discuss how these schools of thought compare to each other, the Christian Worldview and to United States current criminal justice system. The first step to compare these theories is to develop an understanding of them. The Classical School of CriminologyRead MoreThe Classical School Of Criminology776 Words   |  4 PagesCh3 q1. The major principles in the classical school of criminology include as a being, one makes fundamentally sane decisions, and those decisions come from liberated will that is accompanied with coherent choosing. Another standard is painfulness and happiness, which are used as determining factors of human conduct. As a deterrent, violations of the law set the standard for the rest of society to abide by. Ones principles of acceptance and non-acceptance are inherent in our lives, in which it cannotRead MoreClassical and Positive School of Criminology Essay1020 Words   |  5 PagesThe Classical School of Criminology and the Positive School of Criminology are two of the main theories that try and explain the behavior of delinquents. The Classical School of Criminology was developed in the late 1 700s by Cesare Beccaria. Classical theorists were trying to decrease punishment and obtain equal justice for all. According to Beccaria and Jeremy Bantham, and English philospther, human nature is characterized by three central features: 1) People are not bound by original sinRead MoreThe Process of Conditioning963 Words   |  4 Pagesconditioning. According to Weiten (2008), conditioning involves learning associations between events that occur in an organism’s environment (p. 169). Although psychology has a grasp on how we learn through classical and operant conditioning, it is impaired by biological constraints. Classical conditioning, also referred to as Pavlovian conditioning (Weiten, 2008), was discovered by a Russian physiologist, Ivan Pavlov. This form of learning presents how an unconditioned stimulus (UCS), or a neutral