Development Of Criminology Since The 19Th Century

The definition of crime is “an action or omission which constitutes an offence and is punishable by law”. However, for some this does not stop individuals doing so, even knowingly it is socially unacceptable.

Criminology is the scientific study of crime from a social perspective; the social impact of crime, the causes of crime and the criminals themselves. Criminologists study this to further explain the reasons to why the criminals do what they do. Further into modernity, there was an increase in trying to understand crime scientifically rather than religiously as it was done in the early 18th Century. Criminology interconnects with other fields such as; psychology, economics, religion and sociology etc. Criminology as a stud creates a lot of questions while trying to understand and investigate such as; what is crime? What causes crime? How can crime be prevented or controlled? However, these answers can be answered through various of research methods such as; surveys, questionnaire’s and statistics etc.

Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909), was a sociologist working in the late 19th century, who was often known and called 'the father of criminology. ' He was one of the key contributors to biological positivism movement and founded the Italian school of criminology. It was in the late 19th century that the term ‘criminology’ was coined, as it was also mentioned in works of Raffaele Garofalo in 1885 an Italian criminologist. The positivist approach conducts that criminal behaviour has its own characteristics, in doing so most of the criminological studies within the positivist approach has been able to key point the alterations between ‘non-criminals’ and ‘criminals’. This approach has now known to be as individual positivism, however, other theorists have other ideas and understanding as that they believe that crime is ultimately caused by society. As they focused on the external ‘causes’ as to why individuals have committed crimes and gone against laws; which is known as sociological positivism. Lombroso’s theory of why individuals committed crimes was simply that they inherited criminality. He had published a journal called “Criminal man” in (1876), which in doing so began the creation of the new positivist school of criminology (History Extra, 2016). Lombroso’s main concept of his work was ‘atavism’, which described that criminals were almost accidents of the evolution scale as something had gone wrong. This led to his theory that criminals could be identified as they shared similar attributes. However, later in his career he did finally agree that there were sociological contributors to individual’s criminality. During his studies he was one of the first criminologists to examine females as criminals, as Lombroso believed they would commit crime most commonly due to passion.

Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794) also known as the Father on Classical Criminology, was an Italian criminologist, politician, journalist and philosopher. Beccaria in his very early years of his studies created one of his most infamous works known as “On Crimes and Punishments” (1764). One of the key aspects of Beccaria’s work is that he had strong beliefs that powers in criminal law had no latent to abuse or misuse their power over criminals and the law (Paula, M, 2018). Beccaria once famously said “It is better to prevent crimes than to punish them” which led to the realization that it is better not to punish an innocent man, than let a guilty individual free. This heavily contrasts with the traditional classical views were innocent individuals were killed and tortured for justice and peace (Paula, M, 2018). Beccaria’s three principles to help prevent punishment being used to avenge and not to keep order in society was swift, certain and severe. The punishment must be quick and can not drag for a long period of time and society must know they will be punished for the crimes committed and must outweigh the reward of the crime committed. The concept of the Rehabilitation concept is that if an individual commits a crime, it cannot just be caused by the individual’s choice but by their sociological surroundings as the might not have entirely “free will”. Rehabilitation may also be offered to criminals that our mentally ill or have a disease as, rehabilitation decides to see individuals as individuals and try not to relate people’s situations, which is why rehabilitation can be compared to a medical hospital, as they are perceived as patients receiving ‘treatment’.

There were several schools of criminology that developed early 19th Century which included the most famous and well known in modern day; the positivist school that focused on one viewpoint on how crime had developed and what made someone a criminal and on the other hand there was the Classical school both with similarities and differences. However, both Positivists and Classical schools do in fact share the same concept that criminality behaviour can be minimalised as many humans carry the characteristics as some criminologists would believe such as Lombroso. Both Classical and Positivists have the same belief that individuals who commit serious offences can only be primitive or atavistic or individuals that can adapt into societies habitat.

To conclude, Criminology since the 19th century has managed to create concepts and ideas to answer the questions as to why we have crime in society: why people commit crimes and how can crime be prevented. In modern day criminology, the concepts and ideas that were founded and created in the 19th century have not changed drastically as we still see harsh punishment across America which is now known as the ‘Death penalty’. Both schools have created an impact, changed and formed society we live in as it has affected laws and values which in doing so has changed.