Schools of Criminology

Introduction

In very primary stage when none where any writing found about the crime and crime causation. during the period of primitive stage and medieval period the human are very much influenced of religious thinking as well as supernatural powers, superstitions and unknown rituals were common practiced in their daily life. on thing was due to lack of scientific development most of the societies were disturbed. at that time the criminal justice system was not developed as we have today. so it was very difficult to some one to prove his crime and to prove himself as innocent and mostly if any person commits crime his case tried by the church, priests and renounced persons of the society and there where no any parameter to understand the crime and punish the offender and many times offenders were faced barbarous or in human treatment and during that time people thinks that if person is innocence he will not feel any pain but mostly many innocent persons died due to such inhuman treatments. in minor crimes also the offenders were faced harsh punishment and those who is nearest person of the pries and church were escaped from the punishment so there where no justice and no law was prevailed to deal such matters. 

Edwin Sutherland (1883-1950) a well known sociologist and the profounder of the concept of White Collar Crime, Differential Association Theory and General Theory of Crime and Delinquency. defined about the Schools of Criminology that " the system of thought which consist of an integrated theory of causation of crime and of policies of control implied in the theory of causation" as well as E. Sutherland also defined three important points 1. the propounder of this schools are trying to explain about crime causation and criminal behavior in their point of view on that basis they made some theories of particular schools. 2. Every school is specially defines about the crime, crime prevention and crime causation to applicable presented such th eory or ideology. 3. each school presents special social conditions of the people towards crime and criminals of particular time.

Basically Schools of criminology is presenting the situation of the crime, criminal attitude, crime control systems and justice system. such ideology and theories suggest the prevailing system of that time based on what type of crime people committed and how they were punished through the system. the criminologist and sociologist were also affected and influenced from that thinking and they also written about crime and criminal justice system with affected thinking.

So in primitive nature of the societies human are mostly affected with religious beliefs, myths, religious teaching and religious stories and superstitions. non where considered about the motive, intention, environment and psychology behind the crimes. due to lack of modern and rational thinking no one dare to write about the actual condition of the crime and criminal justice system.

Pre-Classical School

This school basically defines the condition of Europe in seventeenth century where the dominance of the religion was on the top level and king or state was worked under the rule of religion. the divine rights was in the hand of the king who was to be known as nearest or messenger of the god or the god made the justice or order from his soul. the concept of crime was not so clear and was doubtful about the minor crimes and heinous crimes. due to lack of scientific knowledge the focus towards the crime was unclear.

That time one belief was that human by nature is antisocial but his antisociality  and criminality comes with the impact of supernatural powers, divine powers and external spirit. demon and devils and impact over his mentality to commit the crime against person or against society. that's why the Pre-Classical School to be knows as Demonological School. no one had made dare to find the real reason or to investigate about real causes of the crime. whole society were thinking the crime was committed by the person not by his will but by the supernatural powers. mostly the Priests, King or some time people were punished to the offenders with inhuman treatment and they thinks that if offender is innocent he will not feel any pain from punishment will over come from it but mostly for minor offences or innocent persons was failed to protect their self or sometimes they were found dead because of such barbarous punishment. during that time the people had right to punish the offender and such person only be cured by the torture and pain was faith of the people. the roman law was completely ignorant about the prevailing system of ordeals and public hanging.

such system of ordeals was also found in ancient India as well.

Criticism: This schools has been criticizes by many ways by the supporter of classical schools and other criminologist, also said that this school based on complete unscientific base. crime and criminality was in society because of beyond their control or their own wish and will its because of superstitions, supernatural power and impact of demon and devil. such school ideology and thinking completely denied where innocent and criminal have faced injustice because of inappropriate legal administration.

The Classical School

During the middle 18th Century Cesare Beccaria , who coined about modern criminology expounded naturalistic theory of criminality who rejected the impact of omnipotence or demon and devil of evil sprit. he emphasis over mental phenomenon of the individual and attributed crime to free will of the individual. he supported the utilitarian theory pain and pleasure. Cesare Beccaria pointed out the Free Will theory where Donald Taft also supported this theory. 

this theory is based on the free will theory in that way its said that its an assumption the any person can control his conduct by using his power of will and mind. such human behavior can be know as self generated and self control. fear of law and punishment change the will and prevent him to commit crime.

Classical writers accepted the fear of punishment and also accepted the pain and humiliation to create fear in to the society that people will control their actions. they also believes that prevention is better than cure. also made use of  criminal code of France, Germany and Italy also it was well defined criminal system. Beccaria made a historic Work on Crime and Punishment and show will against the retributive punishment he said the aim should be to prevent crime  and criminals for committing new crimes. so mare heinous punishment is not sufficient.

The propounder of this theory supported that the state have right to punish the offender with object to protect its citizen with support of theory of pain and pleasure where we punish the offender it means they will receives the pain and automatically people will receives pleasure. While using of vast powers by the judges they should not be arbitrary one judgment must be based on natural justice no injustice should be there.

under the influence of writing of Montesquieu, Hume, bacon and Rousseau the Beccaria propounded the classical school. Beccaria's famous work Essay on crime and punishment got authentic approval in all Europe given new dimension to criminological thinking to the present to west side area. he said natural have to human, he was against harsh punishment as like torture and capital sentence and because of the view of Beccaria several European countries made changes in their penal laws and removed barbaric punishment methods and capital sentence. there after rationalized criminal sentencing was prevailed as also punishment implemented based on first offender and habitual offender and gravity of the offence.

Criticism 

This school no longer stands long time, criminologist stress that mare free will of person is not sufficient for causes of criminality there are many more reasons behind it, bare stressed and confirmed over one cause and ignorance of other factors are not valid study of this schools so classical school was denied by the various criminologist.

Neo-classical School

This Neo classical school no longer accepted the ideology, it was completely ignorance of individual differences under different situations as like first offender, innocently involved in crime, habitual offender.

The supporter of the Neo Classist asserted that different type of offender like minors, idiots, innocent and incompetent should be treated softly and leniently in the way of punishment. neo classist very much conscious about the punishment when any person first time committed any offence it was considered by the judges as sex, age, mentality, education, family background, history of the offender, the neo classiest said their are many more types of offenders like minor, idiots, insane and incompetent who should be specially treated. they act criminally because they doesn't understand the situation and consequences of the offence or their act, this school made the segregation of mental depravity. the neo classist brought science in the criminology. they made scientific study of criminality with considering some situations and mental disorder that person unable to control himself these are the psychopathic ( a persons chronic (long time) mental disorder or violent behavior) this is the neo classist view who firstly brought the concept of first offender and habitual offender (recidivist) they supported to the individual treatment of the offender and punishment should be considered with mental condition of the accused. person using their mentality and intelligence while dealing with the situations but mentally deprived persons fails to do so and found in criminality so such offender are known as irresponsible or mentally deprived in neo classical school. so its commonly divided the criminals in society as responsible and irresponsible criminal and both are subject to liable for reformative system like probation, parole, open cell. on last stage the neo classist also considered that there should be connection between criminal and his environment.

Criticism:

The other opponent of this school also said that if any responsible or irresponsible offender in society he must be danger to the society. they need to be eliminated or segregated from society, criminologist Saleilles said the protection of the society is the primary concern. bare lenient view is not sufficient need to considered other factors and reality. the free will and responsibility will not stand before the court of law and judges for their discretionary power.

Positive School

As soon as advance development done in behavioral science it made contribution in the criminology subject also. as view of 19th century its also said that neither free will and nor innate depravity of the person responsible for but real cause is the anthropological characteristics of the offender. with some of the scientific experiment its also found the connection of criminality and brain. this school made differentiate between criminal and non criminals as some criminals can be known as Physical Criminals, Mental Criminals, Psychopath and socio economic disadvantaged.

Cesare Lombroso, Raffaele Garofalo and Enrico Ferri made hugh contribution under this school so this also known as Italian School of Criminology.

Ceasare Lombroso 

The well known criminologist who first time coined the personality of the offenders in the physical characteristics as Italian school of criminologist thoughts who was known as modern criminologist, he was educated modern medicine and was specialist is psychiatry. during that period he worked in military and he handled the mentally afflicted soldiers but later he was associated with the University of Turin. in that time he publish his work as title of Criminal Man in which he explained some of the scientific methods about to explaining criminal behavior and how they shifted from crime to criminal. he also made anthropological experiments on some persons and made some initiative study over the physical characteristics of the offender and some of the patients, he come towards come that some of the physically inferior with high criminal tendencies and he also realized that criminals are less sensitive about pain and suffering and no care about other persons. so he made Hugh study over the anthropological and biological base which connected to criminal behavior and also supported to the Darwin theory. he classified criminal into 3 categories like a) Atavists or Hereditary Criminals as born criminals, where no environment relevance such as incorrigible offenders. as per the Lombroso defined the criminals posses some of the physical characteristics where we can identify such person as criminal like physical characteristics are like peculiar size of shape of head, big eyes, enlarged jaw and cheek bones, fleshy lips, abnormal teeth, long or felt chain, retreating forehead, dark skin, twisted nose, broad shoulders, muscular body etc. later on he also connected criminality with biology, psychology and environment. but here Enrico Ferri challenged his theory about such offenders are incorrigible and said environment plays vital role in criminality.

b) Insane Criminals: such offender are mentally deprived or suffering with some mental disorder they need of medical and special treatment than punishment.

c) Criminoids: he defined such person posses criminal tendencies to overcome form the inferiority form the particular situation in the way to survive in society.

Enrico Ferri: 

A criminologist who made contribution in this school, he challenged Lombrosian thoughts and by deep research he pointed out that mare biological reasons are not sufficient other factors should be considered such as emotional reactions, social infirmity, bolt, inferiority complex and environment also matters in criminality that why Enrico Ferri known as founder of Criminal Sociology. he suggested some classification of the offenders like a) Physical or Geographical b) Anthropological c) Psychological or social. he strongly suggested various factors are responsible which combined effect on individual, social cultural variations, social disorganization and social control mechanism plays vital role. social rapid change, urbanization growth with criminality. Ferri suggested that criminals should be treated under what condition and environment which affected to their life. better remedy is that to remove such conditions from their life like illiteracy, he classified criminals as born criminal, occasional criminal, passionate criminal, insane criminal and habitual criminal. he also suggested some of reformative programs to correct the offenders but he also asserted that punishment is also very much important to readjust in society.

Raffael Garofalo

He was one of the exponent of the positive school. who born in Neples in 1852, he was magistrate in Italian Court, he closely study of the circumstance and environment of living condition of criminals. he believed that criminal is creature of his own environment. he was also worked as professor of criminal law who approached the problem crime and criminals. he classify such offender as murderers who have lack of sentiments pity and probity (honesty and integrity). violent criminals, criminal lacking sentiments of probity(honesty) such as theft. lustful criminals who indulge in sexual crimes.

Gabrial Tarde.

He criticize to positive school, social environment most important than biological and physical factors. law is essential factor to control the crime. people adopt the behavior of their associates as children learn form elders and parents. such as beginner offenders tends to be habitual offenders. social factors impact over person as media, movie, television it impacts of teenagers. he said crime as social phenomena sometimes its starts with fashion or some time as custom. there different types of crime in urban and rural level.

Conclusion:

The overall study of Schools of Criminology has defined how the writing was stated about the causation of crime. during the pre classical school how the people and criminologist also affected by the thinking that such supernatural powers are responsible for the crime. later on some where the criminology turned towards the development in classical made the contribution about the free will that man commits crime because of free will and also denied denied the thinking of  pre classical school, there after neo classical school also made some scientific view on different types of mentally ill offenders which are segregated in responsible and irresponsible offenders. then positive school made hugh contribution to know about the causation of criminality on hereditary, physical characteristics, brain, environment. so here we can say the subject of crime and criminology is not made on day it was gradually developed form year to year with the help of other behavioral sciences so today we are using very well developed criminology and criminal law.