The founding school of criminology, holding that people act on free, rational choice, so punishment should be certain, prompt and proportionate to the offense, functioning as a deterrent rather than as retribution. Founded by Cesare Beccaria and developed alongside Jeremy Benthams utilitarian penal design.
Facts
Core ClaimSourced to the subject's own accountPunishment should be proportionate to the crime and applied consistently, deterring crime through rational calculation rather than through severity or cruelty. 1 Origin YearSourced to the subject's own account Standing CritiqueThe positivist school criticized the classical assumption that all offenders act as equally free and rational calculators, arguing that biological, psychological and social differences between individuals shape criminal behavior. 2 Cross-Tradition Connections
Developed By
Held Differently
Durkheim's anomie concept responds to the Classical School's assumption of rational, uniformly deterred actors by locating crime causation in social structure rather than individual calculation.
Informed
Deterrence theory was developed by the classical school of Beccaria and Bentham.
Rational choice theory revived the classical school emphasis on rational calculation within a modern criminological framework.
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