2.6 The Positivist School of Criminological Theory
2.6 The Positivist School of Criminological Theory
Brandon Hamann
The Positivist School of Criminological Theory was in direct conflict with the Classical School. Think of it like two people who think they know everything having a very loud argument in public. While the Classicists believed that criminal behavior could be explained through rationality of choice and a cost/benefit analysis (more on this later), Positivists believed criminal behavior was a product of scientifically explained phenomena. It was not a matter of choice, according to Positivists, but a matter of observable, empirical fact that criminality could be identified. And there was no better way to prove it than with…SCIENCE!!! The Positivists can be broken down into three subsections: the Biological Positivists, the Psychological Positivists, and the Social Positivists, or as they are more commonly known, the Chicago School.
2.6.1 The Biological Positivists
The Biological Positivists were not Criminologists in the general definition of the word. Not really. They looked at the Social Sciences as some kind of mutated disease because all they did was theorize all day. None of their theories were verifiable because there was no concrete proof to say whether what they were talking about was true or not. At the time, the only true science was medical, or biological science; all other science was pseudoscience – statements or beliefs not based on scientific facts – or “fake science.” So, the medical/biological scientists went out to prove that they knew better how to answer the questions about criminal causation that the so called “Social Scientists” were just theorizing about. The Biological Positivists believed that some people were born criminals, and some were not, and medical/biological science was going to be the tool that could prove it.
Figure 2.3: Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
The first scientist to give the Biological Positivists their argument for how criminal behavior was caused was none other than Charles Darwin[1] (1809-1882). Charles Darwin, a British naturalist who is considered the founder of evolutionary science, wrote On the Origin of Species (1859), where he observed what he later conceptualized as natural selection – survival of the fittest. A few years later, he applied his observations to humans in Descent of Man (1871), where he exclaimed that some humans may be an evolutionary throwback to a primitive version of modern mankind (Fedorek, 2019). Darwin never wrote about human criminal behavior causation specifically, but his works on species evolution did have a major influence on the Biological Positivists to come (Fedorek, 2019).
Figure 2.4: Cesare Lombroso (1835-1909)
Perhaps the most influential Biological Positivist was Cesare Lombroso[2] (1835-1909), an Italian phrenologist, physician, and the founder of the Italian School of Criminology. What made Lombroso so influential was his use of the Scientific Method in his research experimentation, which helped to le