Classical school (criminology)
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| - | '''Anthropological criminology''' (sometimes referred to as '''[[criminal]] [[anthropology]]''', literally a combination of the study of the [[human]] species and the study of criminals) is a field of [[offender profiling]], based on perceived links between the nature of a [[crime]] and the personality or physical appearance of the offender. Although similar to [[physiognomy]] and [[phrenology]], the term criminal anthropology is generally reserved for the works of the [[Italian school of criminology]] of the late 19th century ([[Cesare Lombroso]], [[Enrico Ferri]], [[Raffaele Garofalo]]). Lombroso thought that criminals were born with inferior physiological differences which were detectable. He popularized the notion of "born criminal" and thought that criminality was an [[atavism]] or [[hereditary]] disposition. His central idea was to locate crime completely within the individual and utterly divorce it from the surrounding social conditions and structures. A founder of the [[Positivist school]] of criminology, Lombroso hereby opposed social positivism developed by the [[Chicago school (sociology)|Chicago school]] and [[environmental criminology]]. | + | The '''Classical School''' in [[criminology]] is usually a reference to the eighteenth-century work during the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] by the [[utilitarianism|utilitarian]] and [[social contract]] [[social philosophy|philosophers]] [[Jeremy Bentham]] and [[Cesare Beccaria]]. Their interests lay in the system of [[criminal justice]] and [[penology]] and, indirectly through the proposition that "man is a calculating animal", in the causes of criminal behaviour. The Classical school of thought was premised on the idea that people have [[free will]] in making decisions, and that [[punishment]] can be a deterrent for crime, so long as the punishment is proportional, fits the crime, and is carried out promptly. |
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| - | ==History== | + | |
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| - | The [[physiognomist]] [[Johann Kaspar Lavater]] (1741-1801) was one of the first to suggest a link between facial figures and crime. [[Victor Hugo]] referred to his work in ''[[Les Misérables]]'', about what he would have said about [[Thénardiers|Thénardier]]'s face. [[Franz Joseph Gall]] then developed in 1810 his work on [[craniology]], in which he alleged that crime was one of the behaviors organically controlled by a specific area of the brain. The philosopher [[Jacob Fries]] (1773–1843) also suggested a link between crime and physical appearance when he published a criminal anthropology handbook in 1820. | + | |
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| - | == The Italian school == | + | |
| - | However, criminal anthropology per se refers to the [[Italian school of criminology]], whose most famous member was [[Cesare Lombroso]]. The Italian criminologists rejected the [[Classical school]] of criminology ([[Cesare Beccaria]], [[Jeremy Bentham]]) who had developed a "[[rational choice theory]]" before the letter. They considered that crime was attributed to a specific [[nature]], and that [[essential]] type of criminals could be found. | + | |
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| - | Lombroso divided for instance Northern Italian and Southern Italians in two different "[[Race (classification of human beings)|races]]," and claimed that "Southern Italians were more crime-prone and lazy because they were unlucky enough to have less [[Aryan]] blood than their northern countrymen." [[Enrico Ferri]], a student of Lombroso, considered [[Black people]] to be of an "[[racism|inferior race]]" and more prone to crime than others. | + | |
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| - | == Mugshot and fingerprinting == | + | |
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| - | On the other hand, [[Alphonse Bertillon]] (1853–1914) created a [[mugshot]] identification system for criminals prior to the invention of [[fingerprinting]]. [[Hans Gross]] (1847–1915), leading worker in the field of [[criminology]] was also involved in the development of the theory. | + | |
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| - | == Social Darwinism == | + | |
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| - | The theory of anthropological criminology was influenced heavily by the ideas of [[Charles Darwin]] (1809-1882). However, the influences came mainly from misconceptions of Darwin's [[theory of evolution]], specifically that some species were morally superior to others. This idea was in fact spawned by [[Social Darwinism]], but nevertheless formed a critical part of anthropological criminology. | + | |
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| - | The work of Cesare Lombroso was continued by Social Darwinists in the [[United States]] between 1881 and 1911. | + | |
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| - | ==The theory== | + | |
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| - | In the 19th century, Cesare Lombroso and his followers performed autopsies on criminals and declared that they had discovered similarities between the [[physiologies]] of the bodies and those of "primitive humans", monkeys and apes. Most of these similarities involved receding foreheads, height, head shape and size, and based on these Lombroso postulated the theory of the ‘born criminal'. Lombroso also declared that the female offender was worse than the male, as they had strong masculine characteristics. | + | |
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| - | Lombroso outlined 14 physiognomic characteristics which he and his followers believed to be common in all criminals: unusually short or tall height ; small head, but large face ; fleshy lips, but thin upper lip ; protuberances (bumps) on head, in back of head and around ear ; wrinkles on forehead and face ; large sinus cavities or bumpy face ; tattoos on body ; receding hairline ; bumps on head, particularly above left ear ; large incisors ; bushy eyebrows, tending to meet across nose ; large eye sockets, but deep-set eyes ; beaked or flat nose ; strong jaw line ; small and sloping forehead ; small or weak chin ; thin neck ; sloping shoulders, but large chest ; large, protruding ears ; long arms ; high cheek bones ; pointy or snubbed fingers or toes. | + | |
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| - | Lombroso published several works regarding his work, ''L'Uomo Delinquente'', ''L'Homme Criminel (The Criminal Man)'', ''The Female Offender'' (original titled ''Criminal Woman, the Prostitute, and the Normal Woman'') and ''Criminal Man, According to the Classification of Cesare Lombroso''. | + | |
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| - | ==Rejection== | + | |
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| - | During Lombroso's life, British scientist [[Charles Goring]] 1870–1919 was also working in the same area, and concluded that there was no noticeable physiological differences between law abiding people and those who committed crimes. Maurice Parmelee, seen as the founder of modern criminology in America, also began to reject the theory of anthropological criminology in 1911, which led to its eventual withdrawal from the field of accepted criminology research. | + | |
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| - | ==Modern times== | + | |
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| - | Despite general rejection of Lombroso's theories, anthropological criminology still finds a place of sort in modern criminal profiling. Historically (particularly in the 1930s) criminal anthropology had been associated somewhat with [[eugenics]] as the idea of a physiological flaw in the human race was often associated with plans to remove such flaws. This was found particularly in America, with the American Eugenics Movement between 1907 and 1939, and the [[Anti-miscegenation laws]], and also in Germany during the [[Third Reich]] where 250,000 mentally disabled Germans were killed. | + | |
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| - | Criminal anthropology, and the closely related study of Physiognomy, have also found their way into studies of [[social psychology]] and [[forensic psychology]]. Studies into the nature of [[twins]] also combines aspects of criminal anthropology, as some studies reveal that identical twins share a likelihood of criminal activities more so than non-identical twins. Lombroso's theories are also found in studies of [[Galvanic skin response]] and [[XYY syndrome|XYY chromosome syndrome]]. | + | |
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| - | ==See also== | + | |
| - | * [[Biosocial criminology]] | + | |
| - | * [[Pathognomy]] | + | |
| - | * [[Personology]] | + | |
| - | * [[Phrenology]] | + | |
| - | * [[Physiognomy]] | + | |
| - | * [[Criminology]] | + | |
| - | * [[Criminal psychology]] | + | |
| - | * [[Scientific racism]] | + | |
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Revision as of 10:55, 12 December 2010
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The Classical School in criminology is usually a reference to the eighteenth-century work during the Enlightenment by the utilitarian and social contract philosophers Jeremy Bentham and Cesare Beccaria. Their interests lay in the system of criminal justice and penology and, indirectly through the proposition that "man is a calculating animal", in the causes of criminal behaviour. The Classical school of thought was premised on the idea that people have free will in making decisions, and that punishment can be a deterrent for crime, so long as the punishment is proportional, fits the crime, and is carried out promptly.
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