Classical School of Criminology: Origins and Principles

Posted on May 16, 2024 in Law & Jurisprudence

ADOLFO LAMBERT QUETELET (1746-1874)

Born in Belgium, Quetelet is considered the founder of the School of Mapping. Within his statistical tests, he conducted cartographic and geographic studies and found the statistical distribution of some phenomena within the geography of Europe. One of the things that most caught his attention was the problem of crime. In his book “On Man and the Development of His Faculties, Physical or Social Test” (two volumes), better known as “Social Physics,” published in 1835, he states these fundamental facts:

1. Human and social events are governed by general rules governing natural events.
2. The formation of a science that studies society in a way that it becomes a true “social engineering,” equivalent to Laplace’s celestial mechanics.
3. A method is valid only to get this engine, and that method is statistical.

Quetelet maintains that all human life is governed by natural laws, like other creatures. Therefore, the statistical probability, higher or lower, of a number of individuals committing a crime in a given place and time is given by Quetelet’s curve. The study of the criminal phenomenon as a collective phenomenon led Quetelet to three conclusions:

1. Crime is a social phenomenon, produced by detectable and statistically determined social torches. In his words: “Society carries within it, in a sense, the germ of all crimes committed. It will come along to the elements that will facilitate its development.”
2. Crimes are committed each year with absolute precision and regularity. The totals are repeated every year, not only in a number of crimes, but at the same rate. The importance of this point is that the balance of crime can be calculated in advance.
3. There are several factors involved in the commission of certain crimes, such as mass poverty, geographic location, illiteracy, climate, etc. But a single cause cannot be accepted because it shows that many commonly accepted ideas are not acceptable. For example, we found that some French high-poverty neighborhoods were not the most criminogenic.

Based on the above points, Quetelet made what he called “Thermal Laws.” These laws are mainly three:

1. More crimes against property are committed in winter than in summer. This is because life is much more difficult in winter than in summer. It is no longer so pronounced that the hard winter, as to the difficulty of finding certain factors, and people do not need, as in the last century when Quetelet wrote his laws, the wood to keep warm. But Quetelet’s laws are still in force because now we have a very interesting social phenomenon: the problems of Christmas. As we all know, at this time there is more money and also, for advertising issues, there is a real euphoria to spend, give away things, shopping, eating, etc. This makes it more likely that crimes against property are committed precisely in December, partly because of the abundance and partly by the need to make gifts. Add to this the best facilities for theft, as shorter days, darker, etc.
2. Crimes against persons were committed mainly in summer, as the temperature, heat, and human passions are aroused. This is also very notable and very easy to explain: the days are longer and therefore much more time for fun. The same temperature also makes the subject irritable. Logically, they consume more drinks, beer, wine, and while in winter people do not think of leaving home, people looking for summer outside their homes try to get some air. Then there is more contact, more social relationships, and therefore more anger, fights, etc.
3. Sex crimes occur most frequently in spring. Quetelet, noting this, is only the phenomenon of the rut of all animals, which usually win in the spring to join to perpetuate the species and, therefore, man is no exception. Also involved in this type of crime are social and psychological factors, such as fashion, which is lighter in spring, and the opportunity to go out and live after the long closure for many people representing winter.

FINAL ASSESSMENT

The Cartographic School, Statistics, Moral Statistics, whatever you want to call it, seals the beginning of Criminal Sociology and probably also that of modern criminology itself. But the Lombrosian myth overshadowed and eclipsed its valuable contribution to the scientific analysis of the crime phenomenon. In the Cartographic School, we contemplate crime as a mass phenomenon, as a social and measurable quantity, an indispensable perspective today, and the ability to apply quantitative methods to the study of social facts. Dynamic statistics, on the other hand, can verify the movement of crime, their comparative analysis, identifying the correlation that may exist between such oscillations and social problems.

THE CLASSICAL SCHOOL

The Classical School is a group of authors, incoherent, who assumed the liberal, rationalist, humanitarian, and reformer legacy of the Enlightenment, especially targeting “natural law,” following all of them after their postulates. The tenets of this school can be summarized as follows:

1. Use of logical-abstract method. Deduction is used; through some basic tenets, conclusions applicable to specific cases are drawn. It starts from the general to reach the particular.
2. The philosophical basis is natural law. Theories of “natural law” are divided into three groups: theologians, who believe that the law emanates from the divine; wise, who argue that it arises from the nature of things; and the realistic or empirical, for which just is what men feel and want it as such. The important thing is the sense of justice. The natural law of the classical school is usually rational.
3. The offense is a legal entity. The crime is not just any incident but a juridical-legal concept defined in the law. It is, therefore, an infringement. The crime is an objective fact, and the offender is subjective.
4. Free will. The attribution is based on free will and the moral responsibility of the subject. In this one, you can blame them for their actions when involved and act freely with their cognitive and volitional faculties so that their behavior is entirely deliberate and purposeful.
5. Payment of the penalty. The penalty can be applied only to the responsible persons, excluding those who lack free will, such as children or the insane. The penalty is considered an evil that applies to the offender for violating the laws harming society. The basis of it is justice and retribution. However, some authors also see it as a means of prevention because it punishes the offender to re-offend or as a means of social defense, as a utilitarian and social prevention. Its aim is also to restore social order, broken with the commission of the offense. Likewise, the punishment should be proportionate to the crime committed and the harm caused.
6. The right to punish only has the State.
7. Absolute respect for the principle of legality. It starts with the principles:
   • “Nulla poena sine lege“: No punishment should be applied that is not in the Act.
   • “Nullum crimen sine lege“: There is no crime without a law giving effect to it.
   • “Nulla poena sine crimine“: Punishment should not apply if you have not committed a crime.

Perhaps most important from a historical standpoint is that the classical school did not exist as such but is the brainchild of Enrico Ferri, who began to call “classics” to the lawyer after prepositional and Beccaria. Indeed, there were never meetings of the Classical School and had no headquarters, local or magazine, there was no head of the School, and the main representatives of this school subsequently ignored would be considered as such. The election of the representatives of the Classical School is a bit capricious, as they bring together both spiritualists, as naturalists, and those who simply opposed positivism. In the name of “classic,” authors mingle with different doctrines, even opposing each other, but in this world, one can identify certain heterogeneous authors’ hits and some common principles that would shape the thinking of the Classical School. The Classical School was the reaction against the barbarity and injustice that criminal law represented, sought humanization through respect for the law, recognition of individual rights, and limiting the absolute power of the state. Regarded as the most important representative of the Classical School is considered by all criminologists Francisco Carrara.

ts Francisco Carrara.