Durkheim, Lombroso and Beccaria, Essay Example

In order to understand the sources of modern thought with respect to criminology, it helps to study the philosophies of various thinkers. Although the criminal justice enterprise generally refers to formal political sources in practice, such as statutory sources, the development of behavioral understandings of the modern system is couched in the theories of various philosophers, sociologists, and psychologists. Some are more prominent than others in the historical development of thinking about criminology while others are less so. Arguably, the more peripheral some of these figurers, the wider their impact. Because their contributions to the field are regarded as marginal, it actually makes their ideas more salient because many are considered to be commonplace. Three such thinkers are Durkheim, Lombroso, and Baccaria.

According to Durkheim, crimes are behaviors that offend normal sensibilities of a society (Breathenach, 2002). These sensibilities are profound and concretely defined. As such, certain crimes are universal – common to all societies. As simple as these ideas may seem, their implications are broad. Many of us take these premises as logical necessities of our understanding of criminal human behavior, but one would be hard pressed to compile a minimal set of rules that every society would find sufficient and acceptable. As such, another theorist offers an anthropological understanding as opposed to a sociological one.

Lombroso saw crime is degeneration into savagery on part of the individual offender. To him, there is a continuum of severity of criminal. The most severe is the hopeless criminal, one who is doomed to criminal behavior for life. Less severe is the salvageable criminal, one who has committed crime but is not necessarily doomed to a life of crime. The least severe is the political prisoner or, as Lombroso terms it, the innocent criminal. Although these types are not necessarily empirically sound, they serve as a general method of understanding criminal behavior.

Beccaria took an ethical approach to understanding criminology. He saw the justices system as a means of not only punitive but also corrective action (Criminology Studies Online). He thought this necessary because he understood the law to be absolute. As such, laws represented conditions on liberty, and that to be just, sentences must be fair. Thus, fines should be proportional to income, and the death penalty should be eradicated. Nevertheless, these principles were couched in the concept of human free will in an indeterminate universe. The implications of Beccaria are far reaching with respect to time and thought. Much of what he postulated is implemented in the justice system today.

In order to understand the sources of modern thought with respect to criminology, it helps to study the philosophies of various thinkers. Although the criminal justice enterprise generally refers to formal political sources in practice, such as statutory sources, the basis of these sources are based in the thinking of certain people. The development of behavioral understandings of the modern system is couched in the theories of various philosophers, sociologists, and psychologists. Some are more prominent than others in the historical development of thinking about criminology while others are less so. Arguably, the more peripheral some of these figurers, the wider their impact. Because their contributions to the field are regarded as marginal, it actually makes their ideas more salient because many are considered to be commonplace. Three such thinkers are Durkheim, Lombroso, and Baccaria. The progression of their ideas has help shape our system into what it is today.

References

Breathenach, S. (2002). Emile Durkheim on crime and punishement. USA: Dissertaion.com.

Rafter, N. (n.d.) Cesare Lombroso and the origins of criminology: Rethinking criminological tradition. Retrieved from http://www.farum.it/publifarumv/n/01/pdf/Rafter.pdf

Criminology Studies Online. (n.d.) Italian classicist Cesare Beccaria. Retrieved from http://www.criminologystudyonline.com/2010/03/italian-classicist-cesare-beccaria.html