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Classicist Vs Positivist Theory Research Paper

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Comparing classicist and positivist explanations of crime

Introduction
This essay will consist of a comparison of classicist and positivist explanations of crime. Classical criminology revolved around the assumption that committing crime and criminal activity resulted from the individual’s hedonistic impulses and rational choice. While positivists explanations of crime looked, and focused more on other factors and features within the individual to explain criminal behaviour. I will be comparing Durkheim’s social explanation of crime with classicist explanation of crime.
A certain amount of crime is normal in any society (Durkheim 1893), according to him crime is a necessity in any type of society and it serves a function and also crime is …show more content…

Positivism advanced throughout an era of social and political turmoil. While classicism revolved around changing the legal system, positivists theorists were more concerned on applying scientific technique for criminological explanations of crime. As a result, positivism came to an understanding that psychological, sociological and biological where the main causes for criminal behaviour. (White et al., 2008) states that the creator of positivist theory, Cesare Lombroso, recognized that offenders express abnormal behaviour due to their heritable makeup, and thus established a biological difference among non-criminals and criminals. What influenced this idea was Darwin’s Evolutionary theory and therefore believed that all criminals have bodily characteristics that indicate atavism traits and features of primal ancestors. Thus, Lombroso argued criminals were born and social factors or ecological factors had no effect or impact. another modification of the positivism is the psychological influence, which is built on the thought that the human mind responsible for the for the movements of crime thereby this develops the idea of 'criminal mind' (Moyer, 2001). furthermore thethe sociological concept of positivism clarifies that crime is typically a socially assembled occurrence that requires to be controlled in a given society explains Gottfredson et al.,

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