The Three School Of Criminology

In criminology, there are three main schools of thought-classical, positive and conflict. Each school of thought has a different viewpoint from one another, almost drastically so. Classical criminology believes that crime is committed when the benefits of committing a crime out weight the risk, such as imprisonment. Positive criminology theorizes that other forces, such as their psychological traits and social status, affect criminal behavior. The conflict view of criminology believes that wealthy and high ranking people in society use their power over those less powerful to control their lives.
Classical criminology is the oldest school of thought. This school of thought was inspired by Italian philosopher Cesare Beccaria, in particular his essay “On Crimes and Punishment”. In said essay, he states that many people do not commit crimes due to their fear of being punished. Beccaria also believed that crime occurred when someone made the …show more content…
The conflict view is that crime is a political concept created by the ‘haves’, those who powerful and have influence, and the ‘have-nots’, who are the working class, in order to maintain control over society. The conflict view believes that ‘true crimes’ are violations of human rights due to issues such as imperialism, sexism, and racism, police brutality, price-fixing, unsafe working conditions, and crimes of economic and political domination to name a few. One of the other major differences between the conflict ideation and the positive and classical schools of thought is that positive and classical schools view punishment as just response for crimes. The conflict view believes that the majority of those who are punished are the ‘have-nots’, who can be serious charged for minor violations whereas the ‘haves’ or the wealthy receive more lenient