SOC 2700 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Enrico Ferri, Cesare Lombroso, Abraham Kaplan

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 2700
• Professor: Stephanie Howells

Document Summary

Positivists saw behaviour as determined by its biological, psychological and social traits. Primary characteristics: deterministic view of the world, a focus on criminal behaviour instead of on legal issues such as rights, the prevention of crime through the treatment and rehabilitation of offenders. Positivism a philosophical system that emphasizes the positive" application of science to knowledge production. Humans were seen as responsible for their own destinies and fully capable of adapting their own behaviours and social institutions to create a society that would fulfill those destinies. Western societies were seen as the pinnacle of human accomplishment, and all else was less evolved: criminals were viewed as not fully evolved as more civilized people. The point is not the perspective from which the study is done but the assumptions that underlie the methodology for doing the study. Auguste comte is credited with being the father of sociology. G. baptista della porta related characteristics of the body to criminality.