Running Head: CRIME 1

Crime Prevention

Michael Branch-Parks

Ashford University

CRJ512: Criminological Theory

LaShawanda Alexander

February 4, 2017
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Crime Prevention

The Classical School of Criminology generally believes that people who

commit criminal acts do so because they want to maximize their happiness and have the least

amount of pain. When a person commits a crime the punishment should be proportionate to the

crime. According to the Classical School of Criminology video most crimes committed during

the medieval period were punishable by death. Also in that time period torture was used to not

help deter crime but to insure the public that they were safe. Over the course of time we have

developed ways that insures everyone even criminals have rights and are treated fairly even if

they have committed a crime.

The Classical School of Criminology says that discipline is a way to prevent crime. If

an obitual criminal does not want to commit a crime, then that have to be disciplined enough to

not commit the crime. The Classical School of Crime Causation has a few major components

that began in 1974 by a man named Cesare Beccaria. The first component is that everyone can be

a criminal. There are many opportunities for a person to commit a crime and when something

like that presents itself then we as an individual have a choice to make.

The next component is that crime is rational. People think rationally which involves

an ends or a means calculation. With hat being said people choose to do deviant behavior based

off of their rational decisions. The next component is free will. With rational thinking comes the

option of free will. So a person can choose to commit a crime because they want to and not

because they are made to.

The next component is crime. When a person commits a crime they get a sense of

pleasure from it. As a result, from this pleasure a person would commit another crime to get the

same feeling. The last component is punishment. When a crime is committed a punishment that
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is proportion to the crime should follow. During medieval times many punishments for almost

any crime committed was death. Those type of punishments were not proportionate to the crime.

Specific deterrence looks at the offenders individually and the punishment that is

given to them is designed specifically for them so they do not commit another crime. Specific

deterrence punishments are usually harsh punishments aimed at the offender to change their

behavior. One example is someone who has to pay a fine for speeding or someone who receives

a prison sentence. Those types of punishments are made so an individual does not commit the

same crime. General deterrence is a punishment that is not specific to one individual but is aimed

at the public to deter people from committing a crime knowing that the punishment would be

severe.

This type of deterrence would target people who thought about becoming an offender.

One example of this type of deterrence is when a teenager is sent to boot camp as a mandatory

sentence for committing an offense. This is done to make the teens who have thought about

offending fearful of the consequences of committing a crime. Today’s society has a lot different

ways of committing crimes especially with the advancement of technology. Technology gives a

criminal different and in some cases more ways to commit crimes.

There are many factors that make it hard to deter crime therefore the time it takes to

create a law to fix a crime takes longer. Corruption is a big challenge when it comes to deterring

crime. You can watch your local news station and see that there are people in positions of

authority in our criminal justice system who are corrupt and hinder the change needed to fix

criminal activity because them themselves are committing a crime. Unfortunately, race is

something that influences deterrence but not in a positive way. With the advancement of
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technology, we see people of color being mistreated by law enforcement officials which does

deter crimes from happening but also put a rift between law enforcement and civilian population.

Another challenge to deterrence is politicians. When laws are created they should be

created to be equal and fair to everyone but, if a politician has influence on the laws that are

created and that particular politician does not have the publics best interest at heart then

essentially the laws that are created are working for their favor. Another deterrence is people

who are in different society classes in life. Punishments for crimes committed should be given to

everyone fairly but what happens more often than not is that people who live in a higher class in

society are punished less than people of a lower class. When criminal commit crimes they

commit crimes they believe they can get away with or if the reward is high enough they will risk

committing a crime because the reward is worth it.

A few ways to increase the risk for criminals is to install more cctv cameras and

alarms. The Classical School of Crime Causation says that committing a crime is a rational

choice therefore criminals typically do not commit crimes where their cameras because it has the

potential to leave evidence behind. Installing more alarms has become a lot easier especially with

the type of technology we have in today’s society. When we think of the time of day a criminal

usually commits a crime we think of the middle of the night where there is no light. To increase

the risk installing more lighting could be a way to increase the risk that an offender has to make.

Decreasing the rewards of a crime being committed is a way to deter criminals from

conducting crimes. If a person has a car and has options on where to par their car park in an area

that has security officers. Criminals are all about opportunity so if we do things not to create an

opportunity then they less likely to make us a victim. If a person has to withdraw money from an

ATM machine, then do it in the day instead of in the middle of the night. There is still an
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opportunity for a criminal to rob a person but there is more of a chance they will get caught in

the daytime than if it was at night.

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References

Lawteachernet. (2017). Lawteachernet. Retrieved 2 February, 2017, from

https://www.lawteacher.net/free-law-essays/criminology/the-classical-school-of-

criminological.php

Misesorg. (2017). Mises Institute. Retrieved 2 February, 2017, from

https://mises.org/library/pitfalls-classical-school-crime-0

Northwesternedu. (2017). Northwesternedu. Retrieved 2 February, 2017, from

http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1128

Northwesternedu. (2017). Northwesternedu. Retrieved 2 February, 2017, from

http://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7363

Schoolworkhelpernet. (2017). Schoolworkhelpernet. Retrieved 2 February, 2017, from

http://schoolworkhelper.net/theories-of-crime-classical-biological-sociological-

interactionist/

Siegel, L. J. (2015). Criminology: The core (5th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.