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Classical School of Criminology paper 1. What are the major precepts of the Classical school of criminology? Why was this considered to be such a departure from past theories of crime? This school of criminology started during the time of Enlightenment and was expected to be an important role player in the systematic study of criminology. Thought offered here was the first naturalistic description of the crime and simple ideas about crime and a criminal justice system were determined (Bezuidenhoud, 2013, P. 126). The school, as well as its protagonists, left a legacy that can be seen in the Constitutions of most of the nations to include South Africa and develop the basis and footing of many laws and criminological philosophies. The following paragraphs are discussions of concepts as introduced by Classical School of Criminology: Rationality – the classical school suggest that individual can make a decision to commit a crime or not. For example, one can decide to steal a product such as candy at a store, the person is not forced to, based on pre-destiny. The person decides to steal the brand. This is a process that starts by thinking about the product even before and says “I need a candy but have no money, so I will steal it.” This is the process of rational thought that goes into the plan of committing a crime (Bentham, 1996). Hedonism – this concept is grounded by several scientific fields of research. From psychology, the definition of the term is given as: “the theory that conduct and especially all human behavior are fundamentally motivated by the pursuit of pleasure or the avoidance of pain” (Van der Heijden, 2004). Another definition of the term is the doctrine with the central principle that the attainment of pleasure or happiness is the major goal of life (Bentham, 1996). Human Rights – the concept is a very old idea. However, it’s applied to criminology and criminal justice as new. The rights according to The Classical School of Criminology are those fundamental freedoms by which every human being is entitled to. Government and the society have to respect the right of each person. Also, it is clear that human rights negate the necessity to imprisonment (Cranston, 973). Deterrence – as stated by the Classical school “the law was to protect the rights of both society and the individual, and its chief purpose was to deter criminal behavior. Therefore Classical law emphasized moral responsibility and the duty of citizens to consider fully the consequences of behavior before they acted. The role of punishment, according to Bentham, in itself was evil and should be used only to exclude some greater evil. Thus, the only justification for punishment was Deterrence. The Classical school saw two forms of Deterrence: a specific or individual form and a general or societal form.” Individual Deterrence is aimed at the individual who has committed the crime. The punishment should, therefore, be equal to the crime committed so that the offender will remember the unpleasantness of the punishment and not repeat the activity again. General or societal deterrence is aimed at the society at large. The severity of punishment must be determined by the degree of damage to the communal welfare. However, the goal of punishment must be to imprison the criminal from causing more damage) and deter others from crime (Gibbs, 1975). Due process – this stresses that is criminal justice’s role to verify that the defendant is guilty beyond any doubt but the state has a duty to verify the guilt of the respondent (king, 1981)...

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