Deck 6: Classicism and Positivism

Question 1

At the heart of the classical school of criminological thought is the assumption that the criminal is someone exercising free will and rationality.

Answer 1

True

Question 2

What were the four classes of criminal identified by Ferri's fellow Italian academic, Garofalo?

Answer 2

Like Ferri he was convinced of the importance of scientific methodology to the study of crime. he introduced the notion of 'natural crime', which was defined by two essential characteristics: offending the moral sentiment of pity (revulsion against the voluntary infliction of suffering on others) and probity (respect for others' property rights) He then identified four classes of criminal: the murderer (in whom altruism is wholly lacking); the violent criminal (characterised by a lack of pity); thieves (characterised by a lack of probity) and, finally, lascivious criminals such as some sexual offenders (characterised by a low level of moral energy and deficient moral perception) Garofalo worked very much in the positivist tradition. He was convinced of the importance of scientific method, and was much more concerned with social interests than individual rights.

Question 3

Taking forward Lombroso's work, Ferri concentrated more widely on other factors. What were these?

Answer 3

As 'one of the most colourful and influential figures in the history of criminology', Ferri was a criminal lawyer, member of parliament, editor of a socialist newspaper, university professor and in his latter years had given up socialism in favour of support for Mussolini's fascist government. In Ferri's work much greater attention is paid to, and influence attributed to, social and environmental factors in the explanation of criminality than can be found in Lombroso's studies.

Question 4

Positivism is based on the premise that:

A)natural scientific methods could explain human behaviour
B)'facts' can be arrived at via observation collected by dispassionate scientists
C)Facts can be separated from values
D)Hypotheses and testing for verification or falsification was a core method
E)Preference for quantitative (counting)over qualitative (appreciative) data

Question 5

What are said to be the problems with classical thinking?

A)are all individuals equally able to make rational decisions?
B)Should maturity be taken into account in the case of child offenders?
C)Do some people have the 'power' to make more rational decisions than others?
D)Some people are not very rational

Question 6

Much of Beccaria's approach to the prevention of crime is often distilled down to three ideas: that it is fundamentally a product of:

A)certainty (how likely punishment is to occur)
B)celerity (how quickly punishment is inflicted)
C)aftercare (how the offender was rehabilitated)
D)severity (how much 'pain' is inflicted)

Question 7

Who are the main thinkers associated with positivism?

A)Lombroso
B)Ferri
C)Bentham
D)Beccaria

Question 8

Who are the main thinkers associated with classicism?

A)Beccaria
B)Lombroso
C)Bentham
D)Ferri

Question 9

Where did Bentham believe his proposed prison, the 'panopticon' should be built?

A)in the country
B)in county towns
C)away from any sources of possible 'vice'
D)near the centre of cities

Question 10

What was at the heart of Bentham's writing on preventing crime?

A)his humanitarianism
B)the pleasure-pain principle
C)his love of family
D)his belief in God

Question 11

Systems of punishment for much of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were bloody and cruel; they rested on ideas of:

A)disabling the offender
B)revenge or retribution
C)rehabilitation
D)removing the offender from their families

Question 12

The early positivist school of criminology focused much more strongly on factors and features to explain criminal behaviour such as those:

A)within the family
B)within the individual
C)within the rule of law

Question 13

Classical criminology proceeded from the assumption of free will and, consequently, assumed that criminal activity was the result of:

A)poor diet
B)lone parent families
C)rational choice and hedonistic impulses
D)over indulgence of alcohol

Question 14

Women were held by Lombroso and Ferrero (Lombroso's son-in-law) to be less advanced from their primitive origins than men and, consequently, to be morally more deficient and have greater evil tendencies than men.

Question 15

Early biological theories of criminality focused on physical attributes and appearance. In particular, criminality was associated with abnormality or defectiveness, the assumption being that it was those that were somehow biologically inferior who were most likely to become involved in deviant activities.

Question 16

Positivism aimed to eliminate crime using newly emerging scientific methods.

Question 17

What are the problematic assumptions underlying positivism?