Classical Theory In The Criminal Justice System

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“In what ways have classical theory and positive theory influenced the criminal justice system?”

For the past two hundred years the presence of a policing system has been existent in order to manage and maintain control within the UK. Within this essay the Author will analyze the characteristics between the two theories, classical and positivism, acknowledgement of the main element of each theory and founders contributions, finally, whether these were related to the criminal justice system in place today in the 20th century.

Classical theory corresponds to the criminal justice system during the 18th century in relation to the date the main concept of this theory was to provide a more reasonable approach to crime and the punishment. The …show more content…

As a result of this statement Lombroso started to enhance on phrenology. Phrenology was the study of the Franz Joseph Gall, which in general was the study of skull feature and whether bumps could be related to people’s inner personality. (Cherry n.d.)

Over a number of years the founders of both classical and positivism theory have helped in the evolution of the present criminal justice system today. Classical theory started to become enhanced on by Cohen. L and
Felson. M during 1979. Classical theory started to take a second approach this was the Routine Activities Theory, the concept of this particular section of classical evolution was that crime is committed due to the rational decision of the offender. This theory was based on three aspects that made the offender commit a crime; these three factors are if there is a suitable target, motivation and lack of …show more content…

Secondly the factor of having a suitable target must also be present in order to carry out the activity an example this would be an individual holding a single occupant of a car against their will in order to gain the car from the victim. The final factor of guardianship is classed as taking control in order to reduce the chance of crime happening to the person or their property. (Anon 1994,

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