Anthropometry:
The attempt to derive character traits by measuring
the human body. Anthropometrical approaches to crimininality
include Lombroso's measurement
of atavistic stigmata, and Sheldon's
measurement of general physique, or "somatotype."
Atavism:
Atavism refers to Lombroso's
theory that while most individuals evolve, some devolve, becoming
primitive or "atavistic". These evolutionary "throwbacks"
are "born criminals," the most violent criminals in society.
Born criminals could be identified through their atavistic
stigmata. (For a good account of
Lombroso's theories of atavism, see Gould's The
Mismeasure of Man, pages 151-75.)
Celerity:
Swiftness. Beccaria
argues that in order to be an effective deterrent,
punishments must possess celerity. A punishment that occurs
quickly after the crime helps to form a strong connection between
the punishment and the crime in the minds of the general public,
so that whenever a citizen contemplates a criminal act, he will
instantly recall the punishment and weigh it into his deliberation.
See also certainty
and severity.
Certainty:
According to Beccaria, a punishment must be certain to follow from
the crime in order to be an effective deterrent. The greater
the extent to which a would-be offender thinks that she can get
away with a crime, the less she will weigh the punishment into her
deliberation of whether or not to commit the crime. See also
celerity
and severity,
or play
the proportionality game!
Constitutional
Theories: Theories such as Lombroso's
or Sheldon's that locate the origins
of criminality in a person's biological or psychological make-up.
Refers to one's physical constitution (not a legal
constitution).
Culture:
The development of criminology to some degree can
be told as the story of a deepening understanding of culture.
For early sociological criminologists—and for many today—'culture'
is primarily understood as the values and goals that orient individual
actors. Many subcultural and labeling theorists deepen this
understanding, seeing a 'culture' as the understandings and behaviors
that arise, in the words of Howard
Becker, ". . . in response to a problem faced in common
by a group of people . . ." (Outsiders,
81). Finally, recent criminologists—especially feminist and
critical criminologists—view culture very broadly, as the beliefs
and values, tastes and interests, knowledge, behavior, and even
the very ways that individuals conceive their of 'selves'.
Culture, in short, has come to be seen as the fabric out of which
the social is made.
Deterrence:
A strategy of punishment associated with the Classical
School. Deterrence can either be specific,
punishing an individual so that she won't commit a crime again,
or general, punishing an individual to
set an example to society, so that others will not commit the same
crime. For the Classical School, punishment was primarily
justified in terms of general deterrence. See also Retribution,
Rehabilitation, and Incapacitation.
Etiology:
The study of the causes or origins of behavior. Positivist
approaches to criminology are characterized by their interest in
determining the etiology of criminal behavior.
"Ex-Post
Facto": Laws that apply
retroactively, that is, to punish actions conducted before they
were pronounced illegal.
Free Will: For
Beccaria and the classical
school, even though people are hedonistic,
they also possess reason, and can therefore
calculate the course of action that is really
in their self-interest. This gives them a degree of freedom
over their situation.
Hedonism:
The idea held by the classical
school, that people only act according to what they find pleasurable
and in their self-interest. See also Free
Will/Reason.
Incapacitation:
A strategy of punishment associated with positivist
approaches to criminology. Sick offenders are removed
from society (institutionalized or imprisoned) if they cannot be
cured and rehabilitated,
in order to protect society from harm. See also Deterrence
and Retribution.
Positivism:
In criminology, 'positivism' has two meanings. (1) Specifically,
it refers to the evolutionary assumptions and scientific methods
of the 'positivist
school' of criminology. (2) More generally, it is used
to characterize all approaches to criminology that are primarily
concerned with questions of etiology,
and which believe that social phenomena can and should be explained
in the manner of the natural sciences. And the origins of
the term? Talk to Comte.
"Promoting
the Greatest Good for the Greatest Number . . .":
The purpose of laws and punishments for the classical
school. Thinkers differ, however, on who
the "greatest number" are. For Beccaria
and other thinkers who believed that the state should be conceived
as a social contract,
this meant that because the state was created by a decision made
by each one of its citizens, it was obligated to produce the greatest
good shared equally among all of its citizens.
For Bentham, whose utilitarianism
accepted that the purpose of legislation should be "promoting
the greatest happiness for the greatest number" but rejected
the idea of the social contract, the "greatest number"
could mean the greatest good for the majority
of people in society. . . so that the interests of particular individuals
might need to be sacrificed for the greater social good. See
The Social Contract Exercise
to learn how the social contract can be used to argue for social
and legal equality.
Proportionality:
The
Classical School believed that punishments could only deter
if they were "proportional" to their crime, where proportionality
means (1) that the severity of punishments correspond to the severity
of the harm done by the crime, so that more serious crimes receive
more serious punishments, and (2) that the type
of punishment resembles the crime, so that others in society
can best associate the punishment with the crime (see general
deterrence). Beccaria
further argues that proportionality is the only punishment that
is morally acceptable according to the
social contract. Examine
Beccaria's arguments and play The Proportionality Game...
or go straight to chapter
6 of Beccaria's On
Crimes and Punishments!
Reciprocal
Obligation: The basis of the social
contract according to The
Classical School. Because people are hedonistic,
driven by their self-interest, yet rational,
capable of rationally considering what is really
in their self-interest, they will come to the conclusion that life
is more pleasurable with a degree of security—attained by everyone
in society promising not to act in ways
that will harm others. These "reciprocal obligations"—the
promises that all rational individuals would make in a society—can
be considered a society's fundamental "social
contract."
Rehabilitation:
A strategy of punishment associated with positivist
approaches to criminology. Offenders are understood
to be sick; the state attempts to cure them and reintroduce them
into society. See also Incapacitation,
Retribution, and Deterrence.
Retribution:
A justification for punishment that argues the guilty must be punished
not, or not only, for instrumental
ends, but because criminal actions simply 'deserve' to be punished.
See also Deterrence,
Rehabilitation, and Incapacitation.
Somatotyping:
The derivation of behavioral types from particular forms of the
body. Somatotyping was first applied to criminology by William
Sheldon and Eleanor and Sheldon Glueck.
Severity:
According to Beccaria, punishments ought to proportional
in their severity. See also certainty
and celerity, and Beccaria's
arguments on proportionality.
Social
Contract: The idea of Beccaria
and other members of the Classical
School that government can be thought of as created by its citizens
for certain shared and common ends. "Social contract
theory" uses this notion to determine when laws are just or
unjust, by arguing that just laws ought to be thought of as promises
that everyone in society would realize is in their best interest
to make to one another. To examine this argument in more detail,
see Beccaria's
argument for a social contract!
Stigmata:
As a term of medicine, 'stigmata' refers to the physical marks and
characteristics that suggest an individual is abnormal. For
Lombroso,
'atavistic stigmata' were those physical characteristics that suggested
an individual to be atavistic.
Such stigmata included abnormal skull sizes, hawk-like noses, large
jaws and cheekbones, and fleshy lips.
Utilitarianism:
Specifically, utilitarianism refers to the theory of Jeremy
Bentham and John Stuart Mill that the overall utility
or benefit produced by an action ought to be the standard by which
we judge the worth or goodness of moral and legal action.
More generally, utilitarian principles can be seen in the arguments
of the early social contract theorists: the idea that government
was utilitarian in nature followed from their understanding of human
nature as hedonistic, and bringing about government because they
realize it is in their benefit. See the social
contract, "Promoting the
Greatest Good for the Greatest Number," and instrumentalism.
