16th Century Social & Intellectual Context

Social Context of the 16th Century

• Population increases led to more diversity and closer living proximity.
• New forms of social control became necessary due to weakened social bonds and increased conflict.

Intellectual Context (1685-1815) The Enlightenment

• Reason was idealized, leading to questioning of societal traditions.
• Scientific explanations replaced divine reasoning, secularizing society.
• Humanism shifted focus to individual capacity for self-determination and embracing human achievement.
• Individuals were seen as having free will, rationality, and hedonistic tendencies.

Thomas Hobbes and the Social Contract

• The primitive state of man was viewed as selfish and brutish, leading to constant fear.
• People were willing to surrender liberties for protection via the Social Contract.
• The Social Contract is an unwritten agreement where freedom is exchanged for state protection.
• Government authority stems from the consent of the governed, enabling law creation, enforcement, and punishment based on utilitarianism (the greatest good for the greatest number).

Criminal Justice Context and Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794)

• The "bloody code" had numerous crimes punishable by death.
• Judges became reluctant to convict, leading to a perception that people could get away with crimes.
• Jails were introduced as an alternative.
• Cesare Beccaria, an Italian aristocrat, is considered the father of modern criminal justice.
• Beccaria secretly entered jails and was appalled by the conditions.
• Jails were seen as lucrative, breeding grounds for immorality, and sources of disease, illness, and death.
• In 1764, Beccaria anonymously published "On Crimes and Punishments," advocating for legal reform, later to be excommunicated for it.
• Best way to prevent crime is to be educated on the law.
• Crime is a result of irrational laws rather than bad people.
• Beccaria was against the death penalty and influenced by Enlightenment ideals.

Key Principles of Classical Criminology

• The Social Contract
• Free will
• Rationality
• Hedonism

Benefits of Committing Crimes

• Acquisition of resources
• Moral justification
• Survival
• Protest
• Control
• Social acceptance
• Financial gain

Classical Criminology and Deterrence

• Crime occurs when individuals rationally choose to break the law after weighing potential rewards and punishments.

Jeremy Bentham (1748-1842) and Hedonistic Calculus

• Jeremy Bentham popularized Beccaria's ideas in England.
• Hedonistic calculus involves computing pleasure versus pain across seven dimensions.
  • Intensity: The strength of pleasure or pain.
  • Duration: How long the pleasure lasts.
  • Certainty: The likelihood of the pain occurring.
  • Propinquity: How soon the pleasure or pain will be experienced.
  • Fecundity: Whether the pleasure or pain will lead to further experiences.
  • Purity: Whether the pleasure comes with pain.
  • Extent: How many people will be affected by the pleasure or pain.
• Punishment aims to deter recidivism.
• Some argue no one thinks they will be caught.

Goals of Punishment and the Death Penalty

• The goal of punishment Deterrence.
• The death penalty violates the Social Contract, is cruel, ineffective, and illogical.
• It should be quick, barbaric and not porportionate.
• Discipline is preferred to death.

Principles of Justice

• Nullum crimen sine lege: No crime without law.
• Laws must be codified, available, and understandable.
• The law must apply equally to all.
• Legislators determine punishments.
• Judges determine guilt or innocence and ensure consistency in legal proceedings.
• Torture should be abolished.
• Timely, impartial, and public trials are essential, as protected in section 11b and 11d.
• Section 12 states that cruel and unusual punishments are illegal.
• Prison conditions must be improved, including classifying offenders.
• Public shaming, scared straight programs, and three-strikes laws are approaches rooted in deterrence +
• Crime is the individual's responsbility

Causes and Prevention of Crime

• Causes of crime include:
  • Material need
  • Necessity
  • Environment
  • Addiction
  • Mental health issues
• Crime prevention strategies:
  • Education, about the law
  • Implementing social structures/programs
  • Rehabilitation
  • Ensuring punishment outweighs pleasure

Focus of Prisons and Global Imprisonment

• The focus of prisons should be:
  • Rehabilitation + education
  • Opportunities to get a Diploma
  • Exit strategies
  • Providing useful skills to society
• The US has the highest imprisonment rate, while Finland, Sweden, and Iceland have the lowest.
• Prisons in the Philippines have 2-hour dance showcases that are ment to show kids that prisons could be "fun".

Carlton County GAOL

• Designed by Henry Hoarse.
• Carleton County GAOL operated from 1862-1972 + was designed by Henry Hoarse.
• It held all types of inmates without proper facilities.
• It lacked heating, lighting, ventilation, and plumbing.
• Solitary confinement involved chaining inmates naked to the wall and floor.
• Suicide nets were in place to prevent suicide and murder.
• Death row inmates were publicly executed until Patrick Wheeland's botched execution in 1869.

Precursors to Prison

• Dungeons.
• Clerical penance.
• Debtors prisons.
• Bridewells/workhouses.
• Asylums.
• Local gaols.

The Genesis of Prisons

• Prisons emerged from demand for an alternative to capital punishment, transportation, and hulks.
• They were seen as:
  • Being more humane
  • A rational approach
  • A punishment to treat all offenders equally (depriving them of their liberty)
• They have a shift from punishment to the body of the offender to the punishment of the mind

Goals of prison

• The belief was that prisoners can be reformed.
• The goal was to transform convicts into industrious and useful citizens.
• This includes:
  • Removing corrupting influences
  • Penitence
  • Hard labour
  • Promoting discipline
  • Enforcing a routine
  • Punishment
• The bell controlled the convicts day (discipline).

Models of Prisons

• Pennsylvania model:
  • Built in PA, in 1829
  • Large cells and complete isolation
  • Problems included sanity and high cost to uphold
• Auburn model:
  • Located in Auburn NY
  • Small cells for only sleep
  • Based on silent association
  • More affordable and and effective.
• Panopticon:
  • Inmates never know if their being watched- become self regulated.

First Prison: Kingston Penitentiary

• Kingston Penitantiary could hold 31K inmates.
• It operated from 1835 -September 30th 2013.
• It was tough on youth.
• Auburn based but had elements of Pennslyvania.
• Women were an afterthought.
• Extensive use of corproral punishment- different responses for men/women.
• The Brown Commission of 1848-1849 exposed corruption in prison.
• There was also much opposiiton from labour groups.

Modern Reform (1930-1970)

• Silence was lifted.
• Inmates were paid for their labour.
• Good conduct was awarded with:
  • Lighting in their cell
  • Writing 1 lettter per 3 months
  • 1 visit per month

Post-WWII Corrections

• The medical model:
  • Inmates were seen as ill
  • Criminal behaviour- a sign of this illness
  • Focus on treatment.
• Increase in professionals
• Expanding community centres for rehabilitation

White Collar Crimes

• Occupational crimes: Worker offenses for personal gain through defrauding their company or customers.
• Organizational crimes (corporate crime): Business offenses to increase profits, such as bribery and tax evasion.

Lady Liberty

• Blindfold- Law should be unbiased
• Sword- Authority of the judicial system annd ability to punish
• Scale- Farness/ weighing evidence

Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Foundations of Conflict Theory

• All conflict is:
  • Class division
  • Social inequaltiy
  • Imbalances in power
• Crime is an outcome of broader structural issues
• Maro lvl analysis

Social Context of the 19th Century

• The Industrial Revolution
• The Emergence of Capitalism
• Factories

Factory Life

• Overworked (16+ hours)
• Mundane/ Repetitive
• Unskilled labour
• Child labour
• Underpaid (to keep wages low and high profit)
• Bad conditions

Why did people continue to work under such conditions?

• high rates of unemployment
• The reserved army of laboured

4 Types of Alienation

• Proletariat is alienated from:
  • The process of labour
  • The product of labour
  • Fellow workers
  • Oneself
• "It is not the consciousness of men that determined their being but on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness"

Class Consciousness vs False Consciousness

• Class consciousness:
  • the bujoise has
  • An awareness of one's class and abillity to act according to rational interests
• False consciousness
  • The proletariats
  • Inability to clearly see where one's interests lie
  • religion is the opiate for the masses

Communism and Solution to Crime

1. Proletariats must gain class consciousness
2. Capitalism must be eliminated
3. a new social order ( communism/ classless society)

Capitalism and Crime

• Capitalism encourages crime because capitalism is criminogenic
• The working class commits crimes as a response to inequality.
  • utilitarian crimes
  • non utilitarian crimes
• Capitalist values encourage crime

Conflict Criminology

• Laws and the CJS favors the powerful segments of society.
• CJS favors the powerful.