SOSC 2650 : SOSC 2650

• School: York University
• Department: Social Science
• Course: SOSC 2650
• Professor: Anita Lam

Document Summary

Also a larger question as to whether criminal sanctions effectively deter. Existing studies reveal that longer sentences do not deter offenders more than shorter sentences, that imprisonment does not deter offenders more than community based sanctions, etc. The failure to demonstrate that harsher punishment deters offenders more effectively than lenient punishment is strong evidence against a simple rational choice perspective. Positivist school - direct physical & psychological study of the criminal. Assumed that there was something different about those who offended that distinguished them from those who did not offend. The key to understanding this was to study offenders scientifically to probe their bodies. & their brains for evidence of individual differences. Concluded that the criminals possessed biological traits that determined their behaviour. Crime was not due to a sinful soul or chosen freely but rather was predetermined by a person\s constitutional makeup. Lombroso found cranial abnormalities in the skulls of criminals.