StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

The Modernism of Criminology - Essay Example

Summary
The paper "Modern Criminology" discusses the relationship between criminology modernism and science. How a commitment to science led to a strategy for dealing with crime addressing rehabilitation and welfare strategies will be elaborated. The challenge that science impacted on classicist strategy…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER97.3% of users find it useful
The Modernism of Criminology
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "The Modernism of Criminology"

CRIME, CRIMINOLOGY & MODERNITY of the of the Crime, Criminology and Modernity Taking a genesis from Gladstone Committee Report (1895) to the 1970s, this essay will discuss the relationship between criminology modernism and science. How commitment to science led to a strategy for dealing with crime addressing rehabilitation and welfare strategies will be elaborated. In addition, the challenge that science impacted on classicist strategy of applying penalties to assured offenders will also be reviewed. Criminology is defined by Garland and Sparks (2000:6) as an organized way talking and thinking about criminals, crime, and how to control crime. This means that it is embedded in social science and disclosures, the government as pertains to criminal justice and crime control, and in the culture as pertains to popular belief pertaining justice among the people. Criminology modernism was defined by Garland (1996: 1; 2000: 1) as ways of reasoning and conceptual framework problems that came about with the exit of the nineteenth century. The author describes that this modernism in criminology resulted from criminal anthropology, medical psychology, and social reforms coupled with statistical inquires. He continues to elaborate that the following 70 years were governed by the prison authority abstract framework consulted by the penal- welfare organizations. The modernism of criminology as a result of science changed the strategy for dealing with crime as it was viewed as being benevolently modernist. This is since its faith was rooted on mental reason; it envisioned a technocratic state and was committed to social production and social encroachment. This challenged the strategy for applying penalties to known offenders as retributive chastisement was substantiated as being irrational and bleak. Modernized criminology provided that the effective management of crime could only be achieved if criminals were personalized, and rehabilitative measures generated for each case and each problem. Commitment to science consequently led to change in the strategy of dealing with crime depending on the theory on which research was based. The first theory used was from anomalous psychology and medicine. This saw the birth of dealing with crime from social psychology and sociology theories. Although they were diverse theories, they emphasized a similar theme: the welfare strategy theme. This theme evidenced deprivation as the root to crime. Science emphasized that individuals who had been deprived education opportunities, family socialization, and job prospects were more prone to become delinquent. This delinquency was also seen in individuals who lacked adequate treatment for their psychological and social problems. Garland and Sparks (2000:1-22) documented that the welfare state elucidation comprising of sustain and supervision of families, personalized treatment, was the solution to crime. The authors also emphasized that crime would also be resolved through a welfare reform stipulating augmentation of the quandary of the underprivileged. Prior to reviewing the challenge that the modern criminology had on the classicist strategy of enforcing penalties on offenders, it is imperative to understand the classicist strategy. Classicist strategy was developed by Casera Becarria and Jeremy Bethany as documented by Vold and Bernard (1986:20). The purpose of this strategy was to humanize and reform the legal system. It viewed human beings as rational, hedonistic, and having a free will. It is documented that the classicist theory believed that individuals were motivated by minimizing pain and consequently maximizing pleasure. Vold and Bernard (1986:20) documented that the classicist strategy entailed a precise amount of punishment for similar offenses with no regard to involved individuals or the circumstances in which the crimes were committed. This was because every individual was willing forfeit their personal liberty in a bid to ensure they had a secure, safe, and stable environment to thrive in. as a result of rationalism of individuals, they are bound to avoid the pain that comes with punishment and hence the punishment inflicted on them will incline them to revert their ways. The classicist strategy also proposes that the pain of punishment should coincide with the social harm caused by the offender constraining others to non- conformity. Roshier (1989:7) documented that classicist strategy aimed at inflicting certain and prompt punishment as this was meant to be embedded in the human intellect creating a lasting impression that inhibited him from further acts of crime. Modernization of criminology challenged the classicist strategy of applying fixed tariff on penalties. Robinson (1998: 85-94) documented that modern criminology viewed crime as a social and not individual problem. This meant that the petty offender could not be brought to trial as their delinquency was a result of the society. This meant that crime could only be addressed if the societies from which these individuals came from were restructured. This culminated to the rise in minor and offending behavior rates in the 1960s. Modernized criminology also challenge the classicist strategy of dealing with offenders as their mind set relieved them from their criminal acts. Kury (2009: 3-6) reported that it laid more emphasis on psychological conflicts, and childhood traumatic experiences that offenders might have had to encounter during their development. Modern criminology was aimed at giving a blind eye to the criminal temptations of the offenders as they were superficial and held no water but to focus on the emotional and the psychological well being of the offenders. This posed as a challenge to classicist penalty enforcement little emphasis lay on the offenders culminated to the increase in crime rates as no rehabilitative measure was imposed on the offenders. Sir Leon Radzinowicz (1999: 469), a British criminology founding father comprehended of an existing gap between criminal policy and criminology, as evidenced by the disparity between actual way of controlling crime, and the learning of crime and punishment. Modern criminology despite incorporating science has faced challenges of enhancing inequalities by not enforcing a standard form of punishment among offenders. It has also been criticized for letting petty offenders get away with their criminal activity hence propagating the criminal activity than reducing it. In conclusion, modern criminology resulted from integration of classicist strategy and the positivist strategy coupled with the incorporation of science. Modern criminology was aimed at strategizing the welfare of the individuals who were answerable to criminal acts. It emphasized that there was no standard punishment and that it was important to evaluate why an individual engaged in deliquescent behavior rather than inflicting punishment. It resulted to challenges in the implementation of the classicist strategy which stipulated that individuals were motivated by increasing pleasure and reducing pain. It advocated for the inflicting of pain regardless of the degree of delinquent behavior and instilled fear on others not to engaging in delinquent behavior as reported Taylor (2001: 124-140). This in turn contradicted with modern criminology which attributed the punishment as not being rehabilitative. In finality, as Taylor, Walton and Young (1973:281) documented, criminology should be focused on abolishing inequalities of power and wealth. Criminology that propagates inequalities in life chances and property is doomed for failure and should be geared towards correction. Bibliography Garland D and Sparks R, 2000, Criminology, Social Theory, and the Challenge of our Times, pp1-22, Retrieved from < http://fds.oup.com/www.oup.com/pdf/13/9780198299424.pdf> Accessed on November 3, 2011. Garland, D, 1996, ‘The Limits of the Sovereign State: Strategies of Crime Control in Contemporary Society’, British Journal of Criminology, 36 (4) pp.1 Garland, D. 2000, ‘The Culture of High Crime Societies: Some Preconditions of Recent “Law and Order” Polices’, British Journal of Criminology, vol. 40, no. 3, pp.1. Kury, H. 2009, "Introduction", European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research, vol. 15, no. 1-2, pp. 3-6 Radzinowicz, L. 1999, Adventures in Criminology. London: Routledge. Robinson, M.B., 1998, "G. Barak, Integrating Criminologies", Crime, Law and Social Change, vol. 29, no. 1, pp. 85-94. Roshier, R. 1989, Controlling Crime- The Classical Perspective in Criminology, Milton Keynes: Open University Press. Taylor, R. B. 2001 “The Ecology of Crime, Fear, and Delinquency: Social Disorganization Versus Social Efficacy.” pp. 124-140 in R. Paternoster and R. Bachman, Explaining Criminals and Crime. Los Angeles: Roxbury Press. Taylor, Walton and Young, 1973, The New Criminology. Unwin Brothers Ltd: The Gresham Press. Vold and Bernard, 1986, Theoretical Criminology, Oxford: Open University Press. Read More

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF The Modernism of Criminology

Philosophy and the Theory of Architecture

The Journal of Criminal Law, criminology, and Police Science, Vol.... Present changes revolve mainly around the need to cope with environmental concerns but the despising of modernism runs deeper.... Attention is given to the views of Prince Charles on architecture as they represent those that are dissatisfied with modernism and who hearken back to earlier architectural thinking.... Another noticeable change in thinking is the almost universal despising of modernism....
12 Pages (3000 words) Essay

Modernity In Criminology

Within the past two decades, judicial decisions, legislative modifications, and administrative alterations have transformed the juvenile court from a nominally rehabilitative social welfare agency into a scaled-down second-class criminal court for young people.... ... ... ... Politicians and the public have repudiated the court's original rehabilitative premises and endorsed punishment of young offenders....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Modernity and Enlightenment Reason

Era of criminology" - Rise of Science ... istorical conditions for the "Era of criminology" ... nvention of criminology ... ositivism, Scientific criminology and The Rise of Criminal Man ... arland, British criminology Before 1935 ...
6 Pages (1500 words) Essay

Crime in the Perception of Right-Wing Criminologists

Criminologists like Baudrillard have a modernist understanding of criminology that involves modernity as an individualistic and modern rationalist thought, for which the modern, centralised and democratic development of crime, means the expansion of science and communication as a rational means of production.... It must be the role of right-wing criminologists in assessing criminology to stand outside such conventional wisdoms and to problematise each of crime seeming certainties....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

The Criminal Justice Policy

The Positive School of criminology: Three Lectures Given at the University of Naples.... Understanding Restorative Justice Through The Lens of Critical criminology in Cunneen, C.... (eds) The Critical criminology Companion.... While classicism sought to deter, modernism sought to prevent in a different manner completely; without threat of punishment, and without the dubiously evasive utilitarian approach that was arguably its demise....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Criminology and its Modernism

criminologists need to think beyond the confines of criminology and although it is a subject destined to decline it needs to rebuild itself in order to deal with social and legal departments of the world in which it aspects to intervene.... wen T,2007, Internet journal of criminology; Culture Of Crime Control:Through A Post-Foucauldian Lens http://www.... According to the modernism theory, Individuals are drawn towards crime and delinquency because of imbalances between various sociological factors as family orientation, job and education opportunities and these deprivations lead to social and psychological problems....
4 Pages (1000 words) Coursework

The Principles of Feminist Criminology

This shows hence that no single form of criminology can exist.... This shows hence that no single form of criminology can exist.... The application of feminism to the field of criminology provides a critical assessment to the most basic regulations, reproduction of power, ordering the society and control.... The paper "The Principles of Feminist criminology" states that social disorganization theory is criticized by feminists because it only makes parenthetical reference to women....
9 Pages (2250 words) Essay

Postmodernism across Arts, Philosophy, and Architecture

It marked the departure of the modernism hence replacing it.... The level of satisfaction during the modernism was very low due to the fact that the consumers were not engaged in the design developed by the modernism hence postmodernism played an important role in helping improve the level of satisfaction of the consumers.... It was responsible for the disappearance of the modernism that consumers viewed it as a destructor to the identity of consumers....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us