The Main Concepts And Limitations Of Classicism

In this essay I will discuss the main concepts and limitations of Classicism. Criminology and classicism begin to emerge at the time on the Enlightenment in the eighteenth century. Before this time, socities throughout Europe provided harsh punishments to law breakers. Enlightenment thinkers disapproved strongly of injustice.

A concept of classicism is that criminals choose to commit crime. Individuals have free will: and are guided by hedonism, which means individuals want the maximisation of pleasure and the minimisation of pain. These ideas changed the focus to punishing offender’s behaviour rather then the offender’s social or physical characteristics (Walklate, S. 2007).

Another concept proportionality, refers to the punishment needing

This neccessitated a rational justification for the states right to punish (Bradley, T & Walters, R. 2011). Ceasare Beccaria is considered the founder of the classical school of criminology. He argued that there was a contractual relationship between the individual and the state. This relationship occurred to prevent chaos. As a part of this relationship individuals gave up some of their liberties in the interest of the common good, with the purpose of the law being to ensure that these common interests were met (Walklate, S.

Deterrence encourages the individual to calculate the costs of committing the crime. Convicted offender’s merit punishment proportionate with the seriousness of the harm they caused. This punishment is for the specific offense they committed and not for any other reason. If the punishment is too harsh it is counterproductive and results in a lack of respect for the law. If the punishment is too lenient, it will not serve as a deterrent (Henry, S & Lanier, M, 2010).

The concepts in classicism were not without contradiction and limitations. The first limitation of classicism was the assumption that people were equal. Pure classicism took no account of individual differences. Even when differences were clear, such as the difference between adults and children (Henry, S & Lanier, M, 2010).

Determinate sentences are intended to make justice fair and to make possible offenders aware of what sentences they could receive. This does not answer whether determinate sentencing reduces the sentencing inequality between people who are sentenced for similar crimes. Unless criminals think rationally before committing offences, there is little point to the deterrence argument. Another related issue is that unless the meaning of the gain to the criminal is known, there is no way to create punishments that will counter the gain (Henry, S & Lanier, M,