Transcript Brief History of Criminology - Washington State University

CAUSE
CRIME
Punishment
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Seventeen year old Arnold T. Ross has been
arrested and charged with first degree murder
and aggravated rape of his girlfriend's eight
month old son.
Girlfriend called police
The baby was rushed to a local hospital where
he was pronounced dead
Ross reportedly has a long criminal history,
including arrests on drug possession charges,
obscenity, battery on a correctional officer,
three counts of battery on a school teacher,
theft, weapons charges, and assault.
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The 40-year-old man, a married teacher,
had never exhibited abnormal sexual
impulses
When he began visiting child pornography
websites, visiting prostitutes, and making
sexual advances to young children, his wife
left him
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Eventually he was convicted of
child molestation, and entered
a treatment program for
pedophiles
He continued to display
inappropriate sexual behavior,
and was expelled from a
rehabilitation program
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At this point, doctors ordered an
MRI scan that showed a large
tumor in the right orbitofrontal
cortex
The tumor was removed, and the
man successfully completed his
therapy and returned home
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An egg-sized brain tumor caused a man with no
history of pedophilia to begin molesting children
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Demonic Perspective (Middle Ages, 12001600)
Classical School (the late 1700s and the
early 1800s )
Neo-classical school (emerged between
1880 and 1920 and is still with us today)
Positivism (the mid 1800s and early 1900s)
Sociological Criminology (mid 1800s till
now)
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Looks for the cause of criminal behavior in
the realm of the supernatural
The human beings are seen as torn
between supernatural forces of good and
evil
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Temptation Model
Possession Model
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People are weakened and seducible by the
multiple forms taken by the devil (e.g. sloth,
anger, lust, pride, envy, greed, etc.).
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No matter how tempting the devil's offers
might be, the individual always retains the
ability to refuse to sin
“Good force" offers rewards and frequently
promises spiritual aid to help the beleaguered
individual resist the devil's temptations
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Fights and thefts
Brutal assaults and murders
Highway Robberies
Rape and economic crimes - like frauds and
swindle, existed in the Middle Ages, but are
more common today
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Those in charge of law and order believed
that people would only learn how to behave
properly if they feared what would happen to
them if they broke the law
Even the ‘smallest’ offences had serious
punishments
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Penalties have varied over the ages and in different
cultures
Typical sentences were banishment, fines,
flogging, the cutting off of one or both ears or a
hand, or death by hanging
Stealing from churches always commanded the
death penalty
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Shaming and public humiliation
The use of the pillory and the stocks originated in England (13th century). The criminals
were publically displayed and humiliated. A scroll proclaiming the offense(s) was pinned
to the pillory.
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Ducking Stool
The ducking stool was a seat on a long wooden arm. Women who were convicted of being scolds or
gossips were tied to the seat then ducked into the local pond or river. The last woman to be ducked in
England suffered the punishment in 1809.
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Banishment
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Bastinado
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Banishment is one of the oldest known forms of criminal punishment. It has never completely gone
away, even in the United State. Expelling an offender from the tribe or group or village and forcing an
offender to leave his home and go abroad or to another region either permanently or for a fixed period
of time.
Was beating a person on the soles of their feet with a stick. Because the soles of the feet are vulnerable
it was very painful. Bastinado was commonly used in parts of Asia.
Birching
This punishment meant beating a person across the backside with birch twigs. Birching was a punishment
for minor crimes. In was abolished in Britain in 1948. (Although it was used in prisons until 1962).
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Mutilating or amputating the part of the body
Mutilation included blinding, cutting off hands, ears, lips and noses or cutting out the
tongue. Through the Middle Ages mutilation was used as a punishment for stealing or
poaching.
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Prison
Before the 19th century prisons were not commonly used as a punishment. Prison
tended to be a place where people were held before their trial or while awaiting
punishment. Prisons were very dirty and extremely overcrowded. Many prisoners died of
typhus, which was called goal fever.
By the mid-18th century imprisonment, with hard labor, was beginning to been seen as a
suitable sanction for petty offenders.
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Beheading
Beheading with a sword or an axe may have been more merciful than hanging but that was not always
the case. Sometimes several blows were needed to sever the persons head. In England beheading was
normally reserved for the high-born.
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Burning
In 1401 a law in England made burning the penalty for heresy. In the 16th and 17th centuries 'witches'
in England were usually hanged but in Scotland and most of Europe they were burned. In the 18th
century in Britain women found guilty of murdering their husbands were burned. Was abolished in
Britain in 1790.
Hanging
Sometimes the hanged man broke his neck when he fell but until the 19th century he was usually
strangled by the rope. The last public hanging in Britain took place in 1868.
Stoning
A crowd throw stones at the condemned person until he or she is dead. It was common in the Middle
East in Bible times and it is still used in the region today.
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Once possessed by an evil spirit the person
is no longer responsible for his/her actions
The devil controls the individual's mind
and body resulting in evil behavior.
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One way of "curing" the individual is
through exorcism-a religious ritual aimed
at jettisoning the unclean spirit from the
body
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The demonic perspective is not dead today.
Consider the popularity of stories about
possession, horror movies, tabloid tales and
the spiritual imaginings of many people today
 Mario
Garcia ended up in jail
on charges of puncturing his
mother-in-law's esophagus
with a pair of crucifixes
 Prior to the incident, the
mother-in-law displayed
erratic behavior.
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EnXaIIYQb
j4&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1u8EPw
Nkss
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Started in Europe (the late 1700s and the
early 1800s)
Criminal justice needed to be updated
Throughout Europe the use of torture to
secure confessions and force selfincriminating testimony had been widespread
Classical school was against tortures
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Infliction of bodily pain to extort evidence
or confession
Torture employed devices such as the rack
(to stretch the victim's joints to breaking
point), the thumbscrew, the boot (which
crushed the foot), heavy weights that
crushed the whole body, the iron maiden
(cage shaped like a human being with
interior spikes to spear the occupant)
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Two famous writers during this classical
period were Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794)
and Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
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People should be presumed innocent until
proven guilty (no torture)
The law should be codified (written) with
punishments prescribed in advance
Punishment should be limited (less harsh)
to only that necessary to deter people from
ever committing it again (no capital
punishment)
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Punishment should be severe, certain, and
swift
Severity is the least important, certainty the
next in importance, and celerity, or swiftness,
is about as equal in importance as certainty)
The criminal justice system should be
organized around crime prevention
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Punishment should be just a bit in excess
of the pleasures derived from an act and
not any higher than that
Since punishment creates unhappiness, it
can be justified if it prevents greater evil
than it produces.
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People act as human calculators, they put
all factors into a sort of mathematical
equation to decide whether or not
to commit an illegal act
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A revision of classical school
Neo-classical criminologists recognized
that the free will approach had a number
of shortcomings
Leading proponents were Gabriel Tarde
(1843-1904) and his student Raymond
Saleilles (1855-1912)
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Some behaviors are very irrational
Self-defense or mistake of fact
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If a defendant goes into a supermarket and
places eight items in a basket which is
presented to the cashier
Both honestly believe that all eight items have
been scanned, and the defendant pays the
sum shown on the bill
A store detective, however, notices that a
mistake was made by the cashier so that only
seven items were actually priced
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Young mum-to-be Claire Wilson (21) met her
tragic death in Grimsby was stubbed eight
times by Alan McMullan (54)
McMullan claimed he stabbed her in a
random street attack because he "was unable
to resist" voices in his head telling him to kill.
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Positive treatment toward "mental illness"
type explanations
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The accurate determination of motive in any
crime is highly subjective
Social scientists have used several
approaches to categorize motives
One strategy is to distinguish b/w
instrumental and expressive motivation
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Expressive actions are those motivated
exclusively by rage, anger, frustration, or
more generally, the heat of passion (selfdefense, accidental homicides)
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An instrumental crime is one from which the
criminal hopes to gain something, such as
money or pleasure.
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Eric and Lyle Menendez were convicted of
first-degree murder for the brutal shotgun
slaying of their parents in Beverly Hills.
Their defense was based on the “abuse
excuse” (expressive motivation)
Or brothers wanted to collect $11 million in
insurance (instrumental motivation)
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Arguments (53%)
Participation in other felony crimes,
especially robbery and drug offenses
(32%)
Youth gang activity (8%)
Brawls under the influence of drugs or
alcohol (4%)
Miscellaneous situations such as
killings by babysitters, gangland
slaying, and sniper attacks (1%)
A.
B.
C.
Familial (especially spouses and
siblings)(22%)
Acquaintances (including friends,
girlfriends, boyfriends, neighbors, and
coworkers)(57%)
Strangers (21%)
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The demand for facts, for scientific proof
(determinism)
There are body and mind differences
between people
Criminals can be treated, rehabilitated, or
corrected (if not, then they are incurable
and should be put to death)
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Most people believe the leading figure of
positivist criminology (often called the father
of criminology) was Lombroso (1835-1909).
On Criminal Man (1861)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n29YBwB
UTxM
Bodily constitution indicates whether a
person is a “born criminal”
 “Born criminal” violates the laws
 “born criminal” is an “atavism” (throwback to
an earlier stage of human evolution)
 Physical makeup,
mental capabilities,
and instincts of primitive man
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Atavism
Defective
genes
Mental and
Physical
Inferiority
Inability to
Learn and
Follow legal
rules
an atavism is an evolutionary throwback, such as traits reappearing which had
disappeared generations before
Criminal
Behavior
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Born criminal is unsuited for society
Theories of genetic superiority call for
policy in which whole peoples are to be
eliminated from the genetic stock of the
world in order to prevent crime
Theories of individual genetic inferiority
call for castration of those said to be
habitual criminals in order to prevent
them from producing more defective
children who, presumably will be
criminals
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Search for factors outside the individual socialization, subcultural membership, social
class
Explains crime by reference to the
institutional structure of society
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Society
Neighborhood
Parents
School
Peers
Role models