True Story: Classical Vs. Neoclassical Criminology

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The crime rate is rapidly increasing among our society today and it seems there are more prisons being built than there are schools in this country. It is clear there is an issue of overpopulation prisons due to the large number of repeat offenders that are present in the criminal system. Consequently, it leads me to believe there should be other options to prevent overpopulation of jails due to repeat offenders. However, one must ask if classical criminology or neoclassical criminology are solutions to preventing future crimes. This analysis will consist of a combination of both theories with regards to the movie, “True Story”. In this essay, I plan to discuss how the movie supports my ideas of how and why the character is related to the …show more content…
In this theory, it is suggested that criminals commit crime based on their environment. For instance, if a child grows ups in an unstable environment that lacks the values that many of us experience in society than the child is more prone to breaking the law and should not receive harsh punishment because they are unaware of the act being wrong. Craig states, “Neoclassical criminology defines crime more broadly as actions that offend against a shared understanding of morality. It added an analysis of environmental factors beyond rational self-interest. In neoclassical thinking, it is possible to do more to deter crime than just to catch and punish criminals; the environment can be changed in ways that make crime less likely to occur. Neoclassical criminologists sought to explain crime as a result of problems such as poverty, low intelligence or family structure.” (Craig, 2007) Under the circumstances, I do not feel neoclassical criminology applies to this case because it does not appear that Longo is underprivileged or comes from a dysfunctional home environment. In fact, Longo seems to be very intelligent because has was able to manipulate Finkel to testify for him after stealing his identity and remain in hiding from the FBI after murdering his entire

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