Classical Theories of Crime

The transition from Beccaria's On Crime and Punishment to the works of Enrico Ferri represent a seismic shift in not only the ideology of criminology, but the focus of the field in general. Near the beginning, criminology was a new forum in which to indict the current system of corrections and punishment in place, bringing new rationalizations and perceptions of fairness to the forefront of public awareness. Beccaria made several very bold arguments against the then-commonly used death penalty, insisting that a system created by the people in order to serve the people should reasonably allow for punishment proportionate to the crime itself. He called for stratification in the severity of punishments, and suggested that we could employ particular forms of punishment that discourage society as a whole from committing crimes.

Much like Beccaria, Ferrell's main interest is on that of the mind of the deviant himself; exactly what is it that turns a conformed, ordinary member of society into a being that considers oneself above the law? He introduces the idea of rationality to acts that are commonly considered abnormal and even insane. By blending the line between moral and immoral, just and unjust, and establishing a significant difference between the words criminal and deviant, Ferrell's ideas paint a portrait of a very different society than Beccaria's. Nonetheless, he sees an undoubtedly tangible connection between society and its deviants.

Conversely, Enrico Ferri and other positivist criminologists would come to argue that Beccaria's so-called classical criminology had not delivered on its promise to discourage and reduce crime through individualized forms of punishment. They insisted that it was time to delve deeper into exactly what forces encourage crime, whether it be social, cultural, genetic or otherwise. Ferri suggested that we locate and cut the problem of crime off at its roots, as opposed to waiting for crime to take place and punishing it accordingly. Marcus Felson went a step further by laying out what he called "Ten Principles of Crime Opportunity." The first principle is an extremely bold and shockingly all-encompassing preview of things to come; "Opportunity plays a role in causing all crimes." In the final principle, Felson offers his plan for significantly reducing the amount of crimes committed in society. He says that even though crime is facilitated by opportunity, attempting to reduce the number of opportunities presented to criminals usually provides fruitless in preventing crime. However, employing focused opportunity reduction techniques such as car alarms, surveillance cameras, and tracking devices on goods has been proven in several instances to discourage crime.

While these may be interesting lenses from which to look at, investigate, and attempt to prevent crime, they are also extremely diminished lenses. Criminology under Enrico Ferri and Marcus Felson no longer takes into account the system in which criminals are tried or the society that the crime affects; no longer concerned with what makes a deviant a deviant, criminology is simply content with finding new ways to hold them down.