Outline the main problems with the biological approach to crime and Essay

Outline the main(prenominal) problems with the biological approach to umbrage and sinfulity - Essay Example(1)The main theme of Demonic emplacement is that crime was caused largely by demonic influence. Although the devil made me do it is certainly an explanation of criminal behavior, it is non a scientific theory. Supernatural forces cannot be observed, and the demonic perspective (like our little green marionette example) is therefore not testable. Toward the end of the 1700s, the demonic perspective was challenged by a group of philosophers who came to be called important school criminologists. (1)Classical school believed that God instilled in humans the capacity to exercise free leave alone and the ability to choose a course of behavior through crusade. Several scholars chief among them Cesare Beccaria and Jeremy Bentham used this prevalent platform to argue for legal reform. In doing so, these penal reformers also articulated a scientific scheme of criminal behavio r. Classical school theory dominated criminological thought into the late 1800s, until it was challenged by a new group of theorists.The influence of the classical school of criminology began to wane in the late 1800s. One reason for this decline was that changes in the legal system based on classical theory failed to reduce crime (i.e., crime rates continued to increase).43 More importantly, the underlying assumption of the classical schoolthat behavior was the payoff of rational calculation was criticized for being too simplistic. Throughout the 1700s, scientists such as Galileo and Newton made great discoveries about the workings of the physical world. These demonstrations of cause-and-effect relationships were made through careful observation and analysis of natural events. It was not long before scholars applied this scientific method beyond the physical world to the social world. Auguste Compte, the nineteenth century scientist considered the father of sociology, argued tha t human behavior was