SOCI 250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Homicide, Asteroid Family, Cesare Beccaria
18 Apr 2015
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Right: inherently bad, weak character making bad choices (individual) We"re all rational actors - maximize pleasure, minimize pain. We become more punitive if we think it"s personal. Structural conditions, unemployment, poverty, inequality might increase criminal involvement. Answers to these q depend on what you think the cause is and the theoretical. One of the most common beliefs in primitive cultures is that the full moon caused criminal activities. Broad spiritual approach included a spiritual explanation of crime & formed the basis for criminal justice policies in europe. To save ppl by getting demons out of you. Giving st pain for eternal gain in the afterlife. Emerged at a time when the spiritual approach that had dominated european thinking for over 1k years, was being challenged by enlightenment thinkers. The enlightenment (18th century), reason and logic, will allow humans to obtain objective truth about the universe and human behaviour.
