Age Of Reason: Classical Criminology

Classical theory had its beginning during the time of the Enlightenment Period or the “Age of Reason”. This was a time that spanned the time of the transition from the Protestant Reformation in 1517 through the American and French Revolutions in 1776 and 1789. During the time before the “Age of Reason”, the Catholic Church was the primary source of social and cultural influence throughout what was known as the “Dark Ages”, since the fall of the Roman Empire in 476 A.D. Enlightenment thinkers drew most of their ideology from the Greek philosophers Socrates, Aristotle, and Plato. They explicitly rejected the theological worldview, considering it a fraud. Enlightenment thinkers believed that human beings could understand the world through

Prior to this theory laws were considered relational and obligational, there was not a very well-defined purpose of laws. With classical theory laws became subjective, which led to the development of rights for the people. Cesare Beccaria is credited with changing the criminal justice system for most of the known world. His way of thinking led to the creation of the U.S. Bill of Rights and the modern criminal justice system. He believed laws were created in order to create a form of social contract. He believed that the purpose of punishment was to be used as a deterrent to keep criminals from committing more crimes. Punishment should be swift and severe, but only severe enough to outweigh the potential pleasures or personal benefits derived from committing crimes (Julianhermida.com, 2016). The Rational Choice theory derived from classical theorist. With this theory, it is believed that criminals consider the risks and rewards of committing a crime before they commit the act (Bohm & Vogel,

The predominant difference between classical theory and neoclassical theory is the assumption of human beings having free will. In neoclassical theory, it was conceded that certain aspects or factors, something like a person’s sanity, may play a vital role in that person’s ability to exercise their free will. Early psychiatrists that made the connection between insanity and crime rejected the idea that criminal acts were sin, and provided the first secular and scientific theories of crime. However, they only focused on what is considered to be violent crimes. The insanity-crime connection was formalized when the M’Naghten Rule for determining legal insanity was introduced into court as a requirement. These modifications to classical theory caused the beginning of psychiatrists testifying in court to determine a person’s sanity, and offenders began receiving sentences for purposes of rehabilitation. In the end, the emphasis placed on classical theory and the revisions of neoclassical theory are what the criminal justice system of the United States are based on today (Bohm & Vogel,