There are many unique theories as to why humans commit crime, engage with others in crime, and are lured or motivated by a criminal lifestyle. By studying these theories, one is afforded a chance to develop and then test potential solutions to this enormous social problem that has afflicted humanity since the beginning of time. The various ways of deterring, controlling, preventing, and punishing crime throughout history has changed drastically. Attempting to attack the problem of crime head on, has not worked; so developing different ways to learn why, adapt, and address the root causes of crime is the current strategy. One very important point is that the structural frameworks and contributions from both classical school of …show more content…
Other critiques offered were due to weak methodologies and there was very little empirical support. A main focus of critics tends to be that natural scientific methods are inappropriate when applied in the human or social science arena.
Compare & Contrast:
The comparative traits among the classical and biological positivism theories are that human behavior is implicated as being responsible for why we commit crime, and that crime is able to be deterred.
Contrasting traits between these two is that biological positivism rejects the concept of free will that is found in classical school of criminology. These leads into the explanation why positivism criminology is formed from hard determinism belief that crime results from external and internal forces that are beyond the control of the individual.
Summation:
All modern criminal justice systems assume the classical position that people are beings of free will, who deserve to be punished when they violate the law. Positivism did not disprove or destroy any principles set forth by the classical theory, it simply shifts the emphasis from one to another. However, positivism school set the framework for turning the study of criminal behavior into the current day biosocial