CRIM 2311 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Meta-Analysis, Social Disorganization Theory, Cesare Lombroso
Document Summary
Individual-level theories: crime rooted in the individual, not society. People who committed crimes were thought to be possessed by evil spirits. The individual criminal is a person who is capable of calculating what they want to do (free will) Individuals guided by a pain and pleasure principle calculating risks and rewards. Connected 18th century ideas of democratic liberalism to issues of criminal justice. His 1767 book of classical school thought on crime p. 19. (cid:440)armchair thinking(cid:441)-no testing done of these theories. The rather uncomplicated view of the (cid:440)rational man(cid:441) did not fully answer the question of what caused crime. Did not consider the importance of other social circumstances. The positivist school: search for empirical facts. Cesare lombroso (the (cid:440)father(cid:441) of criminology) sought to determine multiple causes of criminality. He wanted scientific proof that crime was caused by features within the individual, particularly the body and mind.