Book Description

Excerpt from Notes on Crime and Delinquency Development of the Science of Criminology. - Criminology as a system first developed in the eighteenth century. Beccaria summed up the best writings on this subject in 1774 in a book called "Crimes and Punishments." This became the standard for reform in criminal procedure. Its influence is still felt. From it the Classical School took origin. The Classical School was founded on the writings of eighteenth-century Philosophers. This school dominated codes and procedures of the nineteenth century and still influences those of today. The Classical School held that a certain crime must always be punished in the same manner, because all persons are equal; therefore all committing the same crime are equally responsible. Attention was fixed not on the criminal, but on the crime. The theory of punishment was based on deterrence through intimidation. All the principles of the Classical School were based upon the theory of Free Will and the personal moral responsibility of the criminal. All were therefore equally responsible and no individual study of the criminal was necessary. The Neo-classical School developed from the Classical. This school held that some exceptions must be made according to the degree of personal responsibility. It possessed little means, however, of determining this degree of responsibility, and made few exceptions. The Correctionalist School introduced the idea of correction through moral reform of the individual instead of correction through fear alone. The fundamental principles of the classical School were little changed by by the newer schools. these principles still remain essentially the same as when formulated by Beccaria in 1774. Influence of the Classical School. - The Classical, Neo-classical and correctionalist schools paved the way for a new science of criminology. These older schools founded an orderly system based upon definite codes and procedures which had before hardly existed. Philosophy versus Science. - The attempt was made by the older schools to fit the penalty to social requirement. The theory of punishment and reform was not based on biological science: a philosophy rather than a science. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.