POSITIVIST CRIMINOLOGY

POSITIVIST CRIMINOLOGY

The positivist views of criminology steered away from the theoretical approach that crime was merely a rational action. It focused on the role of social science predicting social laws that explained how human behaviour was governed. The quantitative methodology and statistical evidence provided from them was seen as vital for explaining crime.

      Positivist explanations of crime became influential because of the impact of Darwinism, the legitimisation of inequality in society and the medicalisation of criminology.

C.Lombroso (Biological Positivism) – This was a theory that developed out of Lombroso’s ideologies. He argued that criminals were biologically different from the rest of society. They were “atavists” that bore specific stigmata which made them more primitative than the rest of civilised society. Because of these primitative biological and physiological traits such as large eye sockets, jaws and high cheek bones made them the ones prone to criminal behaviour. (Criminal Man Editions.)

 

Sheldon (1949) - Similarly distinguished 3 main types of human physique in the 20^th century. These were the:

•         Mesomorphs (hard muscular types)

•         Ectomorphs (thin fragile types)

•         Endomorphs (round fleshy types)

He claimed that the mesomorphic types were the body types correlating with characteristics associated with delinquency. The ectomorphs the thin fragile types were the ones likely to avoid crime and take less risk.

 

 

NOTABLE INFLUENCED POLICIES FROM POSITIVIST CRIMINOLOGY ENFORCED

•         Studies by Beckwith elaborate on the Medical and Surgical Interventions (e.g. Sterilisation and Lobotomisations)

•         1911-30: 64,000 prisoners & mental patients in US forcibly sterilised in order to get rid of the criminal trait.

•         Similarly, Allen explains how policies were enforced to incapacitate and eliminate the biological selection deemed as criminals.

•         One the plus side it introduced indeterminate sentencing and rehabilitation which promoted the ideology that the criminals needed to be re-socialised because of their biological tendencies.

CLASSICAL CRIMINOLOGY

Classical Criminology developed from the great transformations of modernity. These were the industrial urban and scientific revolutions that led to Enlightenment. Enlightenment thinkers such as Locke, Diderot and Turgot in order of generations championed:

·         Anti Clericalism

·         Rationalism

·         Legal and Constitutional Reform

They were important for criminology as before:

·         It was believed the social world had more religious explanations and causes such as being possessed by a demon. However upon the aftermath it introduced theories that the social world has secular causes.

·         Promoted the ideology of Progress where knowledge of human affairs would be used to reform and improve society.

Classical Criminology is concerned with explaining crime as a rational thing. Prior in the pre-modern world spiritualism gave rise to specific methods of trials before in the CJS. Vold and Bernard, 1979 used the following examples of Trial by Punishment, Trial by Ordeal and Compurgation. Rather than these invalid methods Classical Criminology replaced them with naturalistic explanations of crime.

   The classical perspective was focused on reason and passion. A criminal is defined as a person who places their passion before their reasoning. This philosophical aspect argued that criminals have the “free will” to choose either, so it was their own fault and that was what separated them from law abiding citizens. It provides the first modern understanding of crime and criminal justice.

    The theory has however been criticized for being an over simplistic understanding of deviant motives and not diagnosing the social roots of crime.

Beccaria – Was the most influential classical criminologist who was concerned with explaining the rationality of crime disregarding the spiritualistic approach. (On Crimes & Punishment, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill)

Vold and Bernard, 1979- Used the following examples of Trial by Punishment, Trial by Ordeal and Compurgation. Rather than these invalid methods Classical Criminology replaced them with naturalistic explanations of crime. 

(Social Musings 2011 Disturbances)

Social Policy- These are the laws that govern the rules of behaviour and how people are treated in society. Policies are there to systematically organise society fairly and to make it a safe place for socialisation a process that is needed for society to function.

In the second week of August 2011 media coverage’s revealed that many UK cities and major towns were subject to arson attacks, looting of shop centres and other major disturbances of urban interest. The statistics resulting from what was known as disturbances was truly staggering at 5 deaths, 186 police and civilian injuries. There was also an estimate of 3500 crimes reported across London alone. A youth referred to as Mark Duggan a local man suspected of gun crime was shot dead by the police however the officers failed to notify Duggan’s family of his death. This is believed to have triggered to establishment of the riots where local members of the community marched forth to complain. However what started as a degradation ceremony to elaborate on the dysfunctional aspect of society lead to a true moral panic. The riots turned into something bloody, relentless and complete animalistic violence. David Cameron even referred to the society as actually being in a state of sickness in one of his statements. Examples of some explanations that caused the riots in such a vicious manner are the fact that:

·         Community Relations- There was a failure from the Police Service to communicate with the public about issues. This was especially the case about not reporting Mark Duggan’s death properly triggering a lot of angry members of the community.

·         The Copy Cat Effect- The Initiation of the riots in Tottenham took place in the same manner in various cities across England. It seemed members of other cities wanted to be part of the action so they imitated the behaviour of the events in Tottenham. This took place in areas such as Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool, Brixton and Birmingham. This was referred to as “copy cat violence.”

·         Social Network Communication- The savageness of the events was hyped up by the social network and communication system in our post modern societies. Through the internet through messengers and social communication systems such as face book managed to speed up, gather and organise the hostility. Blackberry messenger particularly played an important role on this as well.

·         Gang Culture- Official statistics revealed that 19% of the suspects were actually members of local gangs or tied with them. Gangsters tend to have ties with the public and influence due to their gang territory. If they participated in the riots, their friends, family members and other associated who aren’t members of the gangs to could have taken part.

·         Economic Crisis- Due to the economic crisis with the “credit crunch” and cuts in government spending reduced benefits for many such as getting rid of EMA. This would leave a lot of people in a state of frustration where the situations of the riots acted as way to scapegoat their problems onto society.

·         Political Alienation- Another explanation of the riots was that those participating in it felt alienated so this was their reaction against the system which they felt had failed them. This was because they had little power or say in the way the government system was organized.

·         Family Breakdown- Many theorists, especially functionalists have emphasized the fact that family breakdown was largely the cause of the riots. This created a young “feral generation” due to being improperly socialised. There are so many lone parent families, in 2006 26% of households consisted of families with lone parents. These more recent statistics prove that the break down of the functionalist nuclear family could have had a massive impact.

·         Moral Decay- One notable explanation of the riots was by Max Hastings. He argued the Britain was embracing a moral decay which occurred in all areas of society from the ruling class to the underclass. Max Hasting cited the MP’s expense scandal and excessive banker’s bonuses to illustrate who is morally economically consuming too much from society unfairly.

To put it blunt I would argue that these were the main factors but and you could additionally put them into 2 categories. These are the internal and external factors towards the individual engaging and socialising in wider society. I divided the 2 categories into 2 sections:

INTERNAL FACTORS	EXTERNAL FACTORS
Gang Culture	Community Problems
Family Breakdown	Copy Cat Effects
Moral Decay	Social Network Communication
Criminality of the Mind	Economic Crisis

I would argue that internal factors such as family breakdown create the criminal. Children improperly socialised fail to imitate correct norms and learn moral values causing a moral decay in this feral generation. They lack role models and turn to gangs to fill in their empty voids as their new type of family and see fellow charismatic and influential peers as their new role model. Internally they are frustrated and have lost sense of morality.

    Moving on, the external factors take place after the internal factors. Due to community problems with the Police failing to communicate with the public a trigger was set in the mind of the so called delinquents. Once the trigger had been set, the stress of the internal factors is released externally to wider society by these marginalized and frustrated youths. Other youths copy the releasing of stress in many other cities as an excuse to channel out their problems too.

     In summary, this is a typical example of the post modernist perspective to society. It reveals how the functionalist society which was largely structured and organized has now reached a state of complexity, unpredictability and ever changing manner that could easily break itself down if it is disorganised even more. For example there use to be degradation ceremonies that reminded society moral stratification. These events would make a change so that society would fix itself. Examples of this include the feminist movement for equality, and the civil rights movements changing many of the laws for the stability of society. However these degradation ceremonies no longer have an affect on members of society today. They only remind society of its error but nothing major is being done to resolve the issues or press for change.

CRIME TREND AND STATISTICS(UK)

Sociologists believe that there was a post-war crime explosion due to the dramatic increase in crime rates after World War 2. From 1945 to 1992 there was an 11 fold crime increase in England and Wales. This increased from an estimation of 500000 in 1945 recorded offences to 5.6 million by 1992. However, its possible that with the new technological advances in society and improvements in the CJS, that these recordings are being performed at better standards rather than it mainly being focused on a tremendous rising.

Gender and Victimisation in Post Modern Society

Even in our post modern era, males are still largely over represented in crime statistics showing reliable evidence that men are more likely to perform crime than women.

·         Social Trends 2011 suggests that 82% of offenders are males. (Official Stats)

·         Prison Reform Trust 2012 suggests that 95% criminal inmates are males. (Registered Charity Taking on Stastistics)

Studies performed by Myhill and Allen 2002 suggest women are victims of male sex crimes.

·         20% of women are victims of sexual intimidation

·         10% are victims of rape

Age and Crime

The youth seem to be more likely to commit crime. Crime varies with age but with the increase of delinquent youth subcultures, improper socialisation, thrill seeking and glamorisation of crime by the media it seems the youth are now more fascinated by it.

·         Social Trends 2005, suggests 16-24 year olds are 10 times more likely to be cautioned/found guilty of criminal offences.

Spatial Distribution

Crime trends seem to largely fall on the special distribution of the environment to society’s members. In locations of society that are in more poverty where spatial distribution in more condensed crime rates tend to be higher. However in locations where spatial distribution is less condense and more open crime rates tend to be lower.

·         Simmons et al 2002 research studies suggests that householders in urban council estates/high unemployment are 6.5 times more likely to be crime victims than those in affluent rural communities.

·         Nicholas et al 2007’s more recent research suggest that householders in “hard pressed areas” are nearly twice as likely to be victims of violence rather than those from “wealthy achiever areas.”

Leniency of Crime

The CJS tends to be more lenient to certain types of offenders. This largely applies to the young and often at times females if you were to perceive it in the perspective of the chivalry thesis. For example:

White Collar Crime (Sutherland 1949)

This is crime that is financially motivated and non violent for illegal monetary gains. For example tax evasion, fraud, health and safety violations, illegal sales practices and false advertising.

Ethnicity and Crime Trends

Crime trends tend to vary amongst those from different ethnic groups. Ethnic minority groups such as Blacks and Asians are largely at the risk of:

•         Blacks/Asians being burgled 50% higher than whites

•         Blacks/Asians being robbed 100% higher than whites (Clancey et al., 2001:12)

•         Blacks being homicide victims 450% higher than whites

•         Asians being homicide victims 150% higher than whites (Home Office, 2006: 7)

Racially motivated crime tends to be more occurring amongst ethnic minority groups as well. For example ethnic minorities are largely vulnerable in this context:

•         Pakistanis/Bangladeshis are 3-times more likely than whites to be victimised

•         Indians are 2.5-times more likely than whites to be victimised (Bowling & Phillips, 2002: 3)

Hidden Figure of Unrecorded Crime

Traditionally there have been 2 kinds of main problems with the Official Crime Statistics. These are non reported crimes and non recorded crimes. If crimes occur but aren’t reported this affects the reliability of data about the true amount of crime that is taking place. Also if crimes aren’t recorded when they are reported then this also affects the reliability of the statistics. Looking in detail of the recording of these issues:

·         Chaplin et al 2011 research suggest that 62% of crimes go unreported.

·         Walker et al 2006 research suggests that of the crimes that do get reported a large 30% go unrecorded. This partial reporting/recording of crime means that OCS only reflects a proportion of overall offences.

In order to tackle this problem of reliability, the introduction of the NCRS in 2002 gradually improved recording rates. Although, recent surveys have not indicated rates of non-recording.

Crime Class and Corruption

Many Criminologists believe there is an over representation of crimes of the powerless. These include people who are marginalised, ethnic minorities, the socially excluded and youths. The systematic organisation of the criminal justice system fails to show a fair representation of the powerful or those in authority. For example there Box 1983 explains how there is an invisibility of corporate, state crime and while collar crime. These crimes are largely performed by those in power and often go undetected. Official Statistics seem to publish more about crimes being performed by the powerless or lower class stereotypes.

    Moving on, police crime tends to be performed in England and Wales and there is evidence it goes unnoticed or isn’t taken seriously. When members of the public complain there seems to be a culture that protects the officers who at times abuse their power and authority.

·         Official Statistics in 2010/11 suggest 51% of complaints against the police service or one the fellow officers are not investigated.

·         Official Statistics in 2010/11 suggest 88% of investigated complaints against the police service are not substantiated.

·         Official Statistics in 2003/04 suggest 9% of substantiated complaints led to misconduct proceedings.

·         Official Statistics in 2003/04 suggest only 1% of substantiated complaints led to criminal proceedings. (Cotton, 2004)

Victimisation Surveys

Victim surveys get closer to the “dark figure of unrecorded crime”. This is because they allow victims to state the crimes inflicted to them at an anonymous form where they aren’t recorded by the police. However there are still problems with the reliability because a large proportion of victims don’t want to take part in them due to fear and danger. Some examples of crimes that still go unreported using this method of investigation is as follows:

·         Domestic Violence

·         Rape

·         White-Collar Crime

·         Paedophilia

·         Corporate crime

Postmodern Exaggeration of Crime and Deviance

Criminologists have largely come to a consensus that the “post war crime explosion” is an over exaggeration for many reasons due to:

·         Increased public awareness of media/interest in crime. It has also been largely glamorised in films as the norm of stereotypes.

·         Household Insurance

·         Improved Transport/Communications

·         Feminism and Women’s Employment

·         Increased Technical Efficiency/Professionalism of Police

·         Increased Police Numbers (Farrell 1992, Social Trends 2007)

Now data gathered about crime is more accurate due to the technological advances and the professionalism of the police investigating crimes. Crime is also glamorised and the public want to be aware of it due to media interests.