NCJ Number
107380
Date Published
1987
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This paper considers the deterministic arguments of the early positivists and weighs their viability for understanding criminality today.
Abstract
Questions raised by the positivists concerning human nature and criminality remain unsettling, as behavior is viewed as determined by factors not under the rational control of the individual. Such a view risks making criminal law and the criminal justice system a meaningless endeavor, since they are apparently based in the view that persons are responsible for choosing their behaviors. The optimism of the determinists rests on their belief that behavioral stimuli can be rationally structured within society to produce lawabiding citizens. Whereas the classical emphasis on persons choosing their behaviors aims to increase the cost attending deviant behaviors, the positivists would redesign the environment to manipulate the contingencies of reinforcement to eliminate criminal behavior. To date, there is no proof either that humans operate in a rational mode nor have their behavior mostly if not totally determined. The debate, however, becomes irrelevant if particular programs and strategies can be shown to reduce specific criminal behaviors.