Criminology essay
Cesare Beccaria is known for his revolutionary role in the sphere of criminal science. He is the key thinker and initiator of the abolitionist movement who made a great contribution to criminology, mainly by introducing well grounded arguments against the death penalty that still evoke different opinions on whether it has been justified to implement such kind of punishment and whether people have a right to slaughter their fellows in such a brutal way. Back in 1764, the Italian thinker Cesare Beccaria published his writing widely known under the title On Crimes and Punishments. By writing this treatise, Beccaria aimed at arguing that there should be some proportion between crimes and punishments (Bessler, 2009). It seemed quite absurd to Beccaria that the laws, which were supposed to be the direct expression of the social acceptance, ought to allow the public murder.
Beccaria stood for the elimination of the barbarous kinds of execution arguing that they are a violation to the laws of nature. He voted for the liberty of every human being. He stated his position by saying that the death penalty cannot be perceived as a human right, but rather as the national war against citizens. The essence of his writing lies in the fact that he viewed the human life itself as a natural right calling for the abolition of the death penalty. Thus, the contribution of Beccaria to criminology cannot be argued about, as in his philosophical writings, he expressed the strong and truly revolutionary opposition against the death penalty as a means of punishment. And his writings were the turning point for the criminal science in terms of the evolution of crime punishment. His writings attracted the attention of the public and authorities breaking the ancient views and raising a question of whether death penalty is at all justified. In order to break through the skeptical views on this matter, Beccaria expressed well grounded views against the barbaric and totally useless tortures practiced by people who claimed to be wise (Bessler, 2009).
Thus, the contribution of Cesare Beccaria to the development of criminal science should not be underestimated. Nowadays, people shudder with horror when reading about the violent tortures leading to unjustified deaths of numerous people who sometimes were severely punished without enough evidence that they were at all responsible for this or that criminal act (Carroll, 1998). The history bristles with the examples when totally innocent people have been severely executed by the authorities who used barbarous ways of punishment. In his writings, Beccaria expressed his indignity with death penalty, thus turning the whole criminal science upside down and causing a real revolution in the minds of people. Contemporary criminology perceives Cesare Beccaria as a key thinker who managed to give persuasive evidence that death penalty is not the right kind of punishment that should be applied even in case a person is to blame for severe criminal actions. Beccaria proclaimed the liberty of every human being and thus, taking away one’s life cannot be justified in any way.
Part II. The main components of positivism and its role
The notion of positivism finds its roots in the philosophy closely linked to logic, while criminology grew from the social science and became a major method of analyzing the essence of crime. Positivist movement was introduced in the late 19th century implementing a scientific approach to the criminology. Positivism evolved from biological theories emphasizing the idea of the so-called “born criminal” to the theories referring crime to psychological and social factors as the major cause of criminal action. The main component of positivism is logic that is based on three major aspects. These are biological, psychological and social ones. Positivism is all grounded on the rational approval or disapproval with scientific assertions (Barlow & Kauzlarich, 2010). Unlike other approaches to criminology, positivism aims at obtaining the objective facts and is much more concerned with revealing the meaning behind one’s actions.
One of the key components of positivism is rationalism aimed at uncovering the reasons behind behavior digging deep into the psyche of certain categories of individuals. Positivism is characterized by the replacement of ideological views with scientific ones that are all based on rational theories. Positivism tried to reveal some sort of defect inside criminally inclined individuals causing prejudice towards criminal behavior itself.
The major role of positivism is that it managed to avert the attention of criminal scientists from the classical standpoint that was widely promoted prior to the positivism movement. Here, it needs to be mentioned that classicism being first formulated by the prominent figure Cesare Beccaria was based on the idea that one’s decision to commit some kind of crime is rational assuming that all humans are by nature liable to commit crime (Comte & Lenzer, 1998). And this was the main difference of classical criminal science from positivism that viewed criminals as fundamentally different individuals biologically, sociologically, psychologically or in a certain mixture of all these three aspects.
Biological positivism was based on certain predisposition to the appearance of criminals and positivist scientists who explored this aspect created a whole description of the criminally inclined individual. Some of the positivist scientists supported the opinion that the blame should be removed from some individual criminals with biological defects on the grounds that these defects show that the individual acted without free will. Some other positivist scientists focused on the psychological and social factors as the major causes of criminal acts. The social positivists expressed an opinion that all people are to some extent affected by the environment, thus the criminal is a product of the society as it had direct influence on the criminal’s behavior. Finally, psychological positivism focused on the notions of aggression, violence, sexuality and psychopathology (Comte & Lenzer, 1998). These scientists developed the theories of personality and strongly believed that the criminal behavior should be investigated on the basis of the offender’s personal psychological traits.
Judging from the above stated facts, it can be concluded that positivism was wholly based on three main components: biological, social and psychological. All of these components form the basis of the positivist movement. In such a way, positivism surely made a great contribution to the evolution of criminal science.
Part III. The role of prisons and their effectiveness in modern American society
The role of prisons and their major functions cannot be identified without giving a definition of the notion of prison itself. It needs to be mentioned that over the past decades, the role of prisons has evolved. People tend to view prisons as correctional institutions, however, their definition changes along with the constantly changing American society (Gilling, 1997). Prisons are generally considered to be special state institutions that limit the liberty of convicted offenders for the sake of social security, but this definition seems to be no longer accurate (Lombroso, Gibson & Rafter, 2006). The philosophy concerning incarceration and its major role has changed from rehabilitation to limitation of freedom of those individuals who pose some sort of threat to the public safety and security. Today, criminalists perceive prisons’ major function as keeping offenders away from the public in order to ensure the public safety and avoid repetition of crime (MacCormick, 1950).
The justification for imprisonment lies in the fact that it reduces the crime rate within the country. And this is probably one of the most actively debated issues in modern days. Some criminal scientists argue that the increase of prison populations does not necessarily reduce criminal activity (O’Brien & Yar, 2008). Thus, it is arguable whether imprisonment leads to the decline of crime rates. Simply locking up the offenders does not guarantee the safety of common public in the streets, although to some extent it is really so. However, the essence of crime is quite complex, and that is why there is no definite answer to whether prisons are at all effective in modern society.
In fact, it should be admitted that nowadays prisons cannot be perceived as the most effective or desirable policy for ensuring social safety. In the United States, however, prisons are still used as the basic means of keeping criminals away from the public. Nonetheless, prisons have long stopped being means of either correction or rehabilitation. And thus, their effectiveness has considerably dropped. Although it is evident that prisons provide the society with some kind of protection from crime by keeping offenders away from the public for some period of time, all this does not ensure that criminal activities will extinct (Sampson & Laub, 1993). Modern American society surely seeks to protect itself against the violent acts of certain individuals, but imprisonment is hardly the most effective way to achieve this. And even extremely long sentences for some kinds of crimes or life imprisonment cannot guarantee that the American society can live in a peaceful environment without any criminal activity around. Thus, there should be found some alternative and more effective ways of preventing crimes and reducing crime rates.
Conclusion
To conclude, the above research investigated different aspects of criminal science. Firstly, it gave a full-fledged analysis of the contribution of Cesare Beccaria to criminology and the sociology of deviance. It needs to be said that Cesare Beccaria played a revolutionary role in the way that he was among the key thinkers who voted for the abolishment of death penalty that was customary in ancient times. He managed to reveal the essence of such kind of punishment showing that it is a violation of basic human rights. His contribution lies in the fact that he has given evidence and much justified information on the negative sides of death penalty as a direct violation of the laws of nature. Thus, his contribution to the criminal science should in no way be underestimated.
Secondly, the presented research revealed the basic features of positivism and its key components that are categorized as social, psychological and biological. All of these essential components of positivism have been fully discussed and argued about. The research also pointed out that positivism is all about rational thinking based on scientific logic. Such issue as the role of positivism for the evolution of criminal science has also been defined and investigated. Its major role implies turning from the classical school of criminology to a new and totally different one.
Thirdly, the research analyzed the role and effectiveness of prisons as means of ensuring social security within the United States. In fact, prisons have stopped being institutions of rehabilitation or punishment, but turned into the institutions that keep criminals away from common people who require safe and secure living conditions. However, it has been admitted that imprisonment does not guarantee the decline of crime rates as simply locking up the aggressive and violent individuals cannot ensure total extinction of criminal activity within the country. The above research is based on the existing investigations in the sphere of criminal science summarizing and analyzing their application to the criminology of modern days.
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