Positivist Criminology:
the search for a criminal type?
Dan Ellingworth
Understanding Criminology
Friday, 24 October 2008
Lecture Outline
• The debate with classical criminology
• The basis of a positivist criminology
• Biological and Sociological Positivism
Classical
Criminology
Positivist
Criminology
Philosophy •Free-will
•Utility
Maximisation
•Individuals subject
to external forces
Problem •The Calculating
Criminal
•Under-socialisation
Solution •Deterrence •Expert Study and
Intervention
2 competing approaches to crime
Positivist Critique of Classicism
• Critical of Rationality
– The cost-benefit calculation
• Critical of Universal Sentencing
– If the context of choice is different, shouldn‟t
sentencing differ as well?
• Critical of lack of focus on criminal
– Really a theory of the state, not of the actor
Basis of Positivism
(Jeffery 1960)
• Determinism: crime is caused by factors
other than rational decisions
• Differentiation: criminals are different in
some identifiable manner from non-
criminals
• Pathology: this is something „wrong‟: not
just normal variation
Positivism and Science
• Positivism: – observation and experimentation
– objective things that can be observed
– quantification: data
• Belief in science as a higher form of knowledge– Religion < metaphysics < “positive” scientific
knowledge (Auguste Comte)
– Not “Why?” questions, but “How?”
– N.B. “Dare to Know” from last week
• Specifically: identify causes of criminality, in order to “rectify” them
Influence: Social Darwinism
•Scientific theory regarding
human evolution
•Socialisation, civilization,
culture and evolution
treated as synonymous
• Criminality seen as an
under-socialised / under-
evolved behaviourDarwin: On the Origin of Species
Crime As Pre-determined Action
Solution – expert identification of cause, and
isolation / remedy / removal from society
Biological Positivism Sociological Positivism
- Physical symptoms of
under-development
- Genetic explanations
- Psychology
- constitutional flaws
- psychoticism etc.
• Poverty
• Culture and Subculture
• Social Exclusion
Individualistic Positivism
• Cesare Lombroso
Italian physician
1835–1909
• the search for the „criminal type‟
• studied body types of executed
criminals
• Key approach: criminals are
different from non-criminals
• „atavism‟ (a return to an earlier
evolutionary form) as cause of
individual‟s deviance
• Did address environmental causes
in later versions
Enrico Ferri and Raffaele Garofalo
• Growing consideration of non-physical causes– Physical factors
– Anthropological factors
– Social factors
• Strong support for state intervention in each area incl. better housing, birth control etc. to prevent crime
• Garofalo: criminal acts demonstrated a lack of pity(revulsion against causing suffering) and/or probity(respect for property rights of others) on the part of the criminal
• Punishment is less important than measure of „social defence; against further offending
Adolphe Quetelet
• Belgian Mathematician
(1796 – 1874)
• Statistical approach to
criminality: attempted to
explain the noticeably
consistent patterns in
crime statistics.
Criticisms of Positivist Criminology• Lombroso and biological positivism
– Physical differences assumed to signal under-evolution
– Methodologically flawed
– The socially powerful assumed to be superior:
dangerous precedent
– Relieves society from any responsibility
– Expert domain expansion: danger of repressive
intervention (eg. Mussolini)
• Generally
– Deterministic / Over-predictive
– Ignores social construction of “crime”: uncritical of
official definitions and measurements
– Understates range of criminal behaviour and criminality
The „essentialising‟ of crime
• A huge range of human behaviour
designated as “criminal”: this is the only
common feature of these actions
• This „essentialising‟ of deviance allows us
to
– Feel better about ourselves
– Condemn and moralise about others
– Use the designation of „criminal‟ to justify
widespread inequalities
– “Individualisation and Differentiation”
Harms: Crime v. non-crime?
• Deliberate poisoning v. pollution
• The cigarette industry
• Low wages
• Agricultural subsidies in the West
• Adultery
Source: Professor Susanne Karstedt and Dr Stephen Farrall (2007) Law-abiding majority? The everyday crimes of the middle classes
Legacies of Positivism
• The study of the criminal, not crime
• Methodological rigour – allied to science (at least in theory)
• Potential rehabilitation of the criminal
• Crime pattern analysis
• Crime Reduction Strategies
• Continued (limited) research into genetic and psychological disposition to crime
Classical V. Positivist Criminology
Central to the debate is consideration of
agency and structure
Agency: we behave the way we do because
we choose to
Structure: we behave the way we do
because of constraints placed on us
Summary so far
Classical criminology
• emphasises agency: personal free-will
• focuses on crime deterrence and punishment
• Enduring influence: on the criminal justice system esp. punishment
Positivist criminology
• emphasises structure: circumstances
• focuses on the causal factors associated with offending
• Enduring influence: on criminological research, and rehabilitation
After Reading Week:
Sociology arrives! Durkheim and Anomie