Ishaan Deepak Joshi, MIT-WPU Faculty of Law
ABSTRACT
Since ancient times, the possible causes of and remedies to crime have been speculated by scholars. It has been considered that criminology has its origins in the eighteenth century according to the criminologists of the classical school of thought. This school of thought was established by Cesare Beccaria. A variety of scholars have undertaken the attempt of coming up with a plausible explanation for criminal behavior. Every school of thought in criminology explains the concept of crime in its own unique manner, followed by suggestions as to suitable punishments and measures to justify the school’s beliefs. A school of thought is not just a systematic theory, but is actually the society’s attitude towards crime and criminality during a particular period of time. Biological theories originated early on have viewed criminality as a result of a defective function/trait in an individual. Such an imperfection can be in nature genetic or biological; biological theories of the present focus on the differences between biological and genetic factors in interactions with the surrounding environment. As per this positivist school of thought, punishment will fail to have a deterring effect due to the individual’s inherent abnormality. This article aims to understand the theories, justifications, importance and criticisms of the positivist theory of Criminology.
