Enlightenment Thought In The Development Of Classical Criminology

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Evaluate the role of Enlightenment thought in the development of Classical Criminology.
In this essay I will be writing to ‘Evaluate the role of Enlightenment thought in the development of Classical Criminology’. I will do this by researching key theories and perspectives in the criminological field and seeing if there is a comprehensive relationship between criminological theory and political culture. I will be focusing on how the classical school grew out of the enlightenment.
The European enlightenment was the progressive move towards moving out of the religious belief when it came to who ruled the society and law in that time. The words enlighten and enlightened are used to signify something that comes from Enlightenment was seen as a positive …show more content…

I believe that yes in some cases the role of the new enlightenment period did have an impact within the development of the classical school of criminology. Without enlightenment cause the demise of religion and its power over the law there wouldn’t of been a chance for the criminal justice system to arise and start to establish a new method of incarceration and deterrence towards crime, allowing Beccaria and Bentham to start there research and have the massive influence towards the punishment of crime and the need to make it fair and establish the idea that there needs to be definitions of every crime and what needs to be done when they have been committed. This also goes into the fact that people are now seen to have their own sense of free will within life and also to commit crime which introduced the rational choice theory which is still used today, although it isn’t entirely the same this was the foundation behind this. This was in the twentieth century when rational choice assumptions close to the ones in the classical era was rediscovered. Focusing this time that the pleasure seeking, self interested rational humans make their own individual choices of their future by weighing up the possible consequences they may fact by the criminal justice sanctions should they

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