The Classical school of criminology is an eighteenth-century body of thought about crime reform and the best methods of punishment developed a group of European philosophers and scholars. It happened during the Enlightenment, a period in Western history when reason was promoted as a basis for legal authority. Cesare Beccaria, an Italian philosopher, is credited with founding the Classical school.
Cesare Beccaria and other members of the Classical school of criminology believed that understanding the basics of human nature, criminal behavior could be reduced. The school was founded on the premise that people act in their own best interests. They believed that rational people sign a social contract in which they acknowledge that living in a peaceful society is in their best interests. The school wanted to reduce crime reforming the criminal justice system, which they believed was cruel and excessive without cause, as well as ineffective as a deterrent.
The Classical school of criminology argued that swift punishment, rather than lengthy trials, would be the most effective deterrent for criminal behavior. Criminal acts, they believed, were irrational behavior perpetrated people who couldn’t or wouldn’t act in their own or society’s best interests. Members of the school argued that punishments for specific crimes should be applied consistently across the board, regardless of the circumstances, to demonstrate to people that criminal activity has definite consequences.
Fair and equal treatment of accused offenders was a major part of the criminal punishment reform that the Classical school of criminology fought for. Prior to the school’s fight for reform, judges could punish criminals based on their own preferences, regardless of the severity of the crime, which some saw as tyrannical. Cesare Beccaria and other members fought for the legislature to set punishments for specific crimes rather than giving judges unrestricted power. They believed that if judges could only use legislatively sanctioned punishments, trials would be expedited and criminals would be sentenced sooner.
Criminals were more likely to be deterred if they knew what type of punishment they would receive and how quickly they would receive it, according to the Classical school’s argument for quick trials and clearly defined punishments. Members of the school believed that preventing crime was more important than punishing it, but that if there was a clear punishment system in place, criminals would use logic to figure out that committing crimes was not in their best interests. In the late eighteenth century, European rulers accepted the classical school of criminology, which is thought to have influenced the Western justice system.