Positivism

Positivism

1. Individual Positivism

   • Emergence of New Knowledge
     • Jean Etienne Esquirol
       • Homicidal monomania (obsession with murder)
         • Monomania - people with this aren't idiots, they just lack empathy and solidarity
         • Criticised for being an excuse for committing crimes - blaming mental illness for actions
           • Crime as an illness
     • French Revolution - challenging classicism's authority in criminal courts
       • Pinel questioned why state has such power over who is to live or die
         • Formulated a science of mental illness
   • Theorists
     • Lombroso
       • Responsible for emergence of criminology
       • Atavism (biological)
         • The idea that criminals revert to their more primitive ancestral type i.e. their minds haven't fully developed, its all down to individual's genetic makeup
         • Throwback
       • Concluded that the criminal existed as a lower form of human evolution than the average man
     • Galton
       • Fingerprinting
       • Composite photos
     • Hegel (1807)
       • Physical stigmata
         • Physiognomy = assessing someone's character based on their facial features
         • Phrenology = measuring human skulls
     • Foucault (2001)
       • Monstrous murderer
   • Body types and crime (somatotypes)
     • Endomorphs
       • Heavy, soft/round build, extravert personality
     • Mesomorphs
       • Muscular, athletic build, aggressive personality
     • Ectomorphs
       • Small, lean, delicate/weak build, introverted personality
     • Most people posses parts of all three (hybrids)
   • Genetic transmission theories
     • 1920s twin studies
     • Studying links between testosterone and aggression
   • Useful quotes
     • "Lunatics and criminals are as manufactured articles as are steam-engines and calico printing machines" - Maudsley 1874
       • Criminals are produced by society and biologically into acting in certain ways
     • "Whoever fights monster should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster" - Nietzsche 1966
       • Society aims to capture criminals, but in turn must avoided becoming criminalised

2. Sociological Positivism

   • The Chicago School
     • e.g. of direct hands on observation
     • A school studying the sociology/criminology of the city its in!
       • 100 years prior to study, Chicago was a flat prairie
       • Academics no longer relate their interest to their environment as much
   • Robert Park: Human Ecology
     • Pragnitism
       • Knowledge being transaction between person who wants to know something and the environment they want to know things about
     • Formalism
       • The way we think/interact is determined by broader social structures
     • Cities as super organisms; fusions of subpopulations

3. Criminological positivism

   • Early C19th
   • Unity of scientific method - adoption from natural sciences
   • Characteristics
     • Focus on the criminal not the crime
     • Emphasis on social defence and treatment rather than punishment
   • Emergence of positivist crminology
     • Expansion of sciences and technology
     • Freud
       • Id
         • Having no control over oneself
           • Pressures/expectations of society
       • Super ego
         • Already feeling guilty before committing a crime
           • Offenders offending to relieve the guilt they already have
     • The Italian School
       • Founded at end of C19th by Lombroso (1835–1909) and two of his Italian disciples, Ferri (1856–1929) and Garofalo (1851–1934)
       • Lombroso's conception of the "atavistic born criminal"
       • Typology of criminals
         • Differentiation of criminals into separate 'types'
           • Born criminals
             • Those with true atavist features
           • Insane criminals
             • e.g. alcoholics, idiots, epileptics etc.
             • Open to more psychological explanations
           • Criminaloids
             • Crimes were explained largely by opportunity
           • Epileptic criminals
             • Passion to commit crime because of humour, love or anger
               • Propelled by irresistible force