CRM 1301 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Scientific Method
26 Jun 2018
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LECTURE 7: THE EMERGENCE OF POSITIVISM
AUGUST COMPTE (1798 – 1857)
Three stages of society’s evolution
1. Theological
-This is where society/humanity begin.
-The belief that good and evil are attributed to the divine.
-Heavy emphasis of the supernatural, superstitions and religion
-Such as the Demonic Era and the Age of the Monarchy
2. Metaphysical
-A discourse of ideas replaces supernatural explanations
-Move away from the supernatural/religion and look for secular
explanations
-Philosophy
Discussions and discourse of ideas
-Such as Classical Criminology
3. Positive/Positivist
-Considered the “highest stage”
-Move away from metaphysical explanation and focuses more on
scientific method, observation and experimentation
-At this stage we start to ask the question “WHY” rather than focusing
on “HOW” in regards to crime.
-We want to get to the root of the problem and understand why people
engage in criminal behavior.
WHAT IS POSITIVE CRIMINOLGY?
Method
oScientific
It is based on a collection of observable facts
The idea that the universe can be uncovered through observations
For example: A chemist has two test tubes containing two different
chemicals. When they are mixed together there is a reaction. It
wouldn’t be sufficient for a chemist to say that when Component A
and Component B are mixed this is the reaction. The chemist want
to predict what happened but also understand why it happened.
This also goes for social sciences.
oObjective
Scientists should be open minded, not bias but rather neutral.
oCausality
Cause and effect relationship
3 Conditions
The presumed cause comes before the presumed effect.
The cause and the effect are correlated to one another
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
The correlation between the cause and the effect should not
be spurious
Paradigm
oDeveloped in the second half of the 19th century
oFramework that shares a set of assumptions
oThe idea that we can apply the same tools and approaches from the natural
sciences to social sciences.
oThe goal is to address the underline causes of crime.
oThere are different theories within a paradigm but they always have the
same basic components that are the same
For example: Feminism
Feminism can be considered a paradigm as there are
different branches and strands of feminism. There is
Radical, Liberal, Marxist, etc…feminism.
The idea that there are a bunch of different branches but
they all interlace to a certain extent.
For example: Positivism
Positivism is a paradigm because there exists different
branches of Positivism.
oBiological Positivism
oPsychological Positivism
oSociological Positivism
Even though they differ on their explanation on why crime
is committed, there are shared assumptions between them
WHAT ARE THE BASIC CHARACTERISTICS OF POSITISM?
All forms of positivism share these same characters (biological, psychological and
sociological)
1. Determinism
Positivists believe that behaviour is determined.
oThere is no choice or free will but rather there are factors (either
internal or external) that cause an individual to commit crimes.
Biological and psychological look at the internal factors
Sociological looks at external factors, such as the
environment and situation
Hard
oHard determinists say that when confronting situations there is no
choice.
oThey deny the existence of free will
Soft
oSoft determinists believe that there is free will in every situation, no
matter how limited.
oThe idea of conditional free will
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Three stages of society"s evolution: theological. The belief that good and evil are attributed to the divine. Heavy emphasis of the supernatural, superstitions and religion. Such as the demonic era and the age of the monarchy: metaphysical. A discourse of ideas replaces supernatural explanations. Move away from the supernatural/religion and look for secular explanations. Move away from metaphysical explanation and focuses more on scientific method, observation and experimentation. At this stage we start to ask the question why rather than focusing on how in regards to crime. We want to get to the root of the problem and understand why people engage in criminal behavior. It is based on a collection of observable facts. The idea that the universe can be uncovered through observations. For example: a chemist has two test tubes containing two different chemicals. When they are mixed together there is a reaction.
