Sunday, January 26, 2020

The Ideas Of The Classical School

The Ideas Of The Classical School In order to appropriately address the topic of discussion, its important to consider the criminological perspectives related to the debate and the principles associated with each perspective. Two schools which will be drawn upon are the Classical school, which was established towards the end of the 18th century and the Positivist school which developed towards the end of the 19th century. The Classical school was based on a utilitarian philosophy and demonstrated the idea that, for the sake of consistency, every offender must be treated equally. The Positivist school, however, opposed Classical principles, using the scientific method to study human behaviour, expressing individuality and stressing the need for the criminal to be treated with appropriate discretion. One contentious area within criminology is the idea that the criminal is normal. Jeremy Bentham, a Classical thinker, argues that this is indeed the case. Criminals are normal in that they are rational, calculated decision-makers just like everybody else. Individuals have free-will and they are guided by a hedonistic calculus the maximisation of pleasure and the minimisation of pain (Bentham cited by Walklate 2007:18). Such idea suggests that before engaging in criminal activity, the criminal calculates whether the reward outweighs the risk. i.e., is the potential pleasure worth the potential punishment? However, what this assumption fails to consider is that criminality can sometimes be a spontaneous reaction; its not always a pre-meditated one. People may act out of pure desperation; giving little thought to the consequences should he/she be caught. An ideal to support this would be the clichà ©d scenario in which an individual steals a loaf of bread to feed his/her starving fami ly. Such action involves no particular thought process; they do what they do simply because they wish to survive. However, thats not to say that rational choice is not apparent. It does have relevance to certain crimes, especially crimes such as burglary in which a planning process is undergone before hand to avoid detection and significantly increase the chances of a successful sweep, such as observations of home security and patterns in daily comings and goings. Arguably the main principle of the Classical approach can be said to be reflective of the idea that the criminal is normal this principle being that offenders should receive equal punishments, providing the offences are of the same or a similar nature. The principle revolves around the idea that everybody is equal and thus to treat everybody as equals disregards the conception that theres an abnormality in the behaviour of the criminal (Hopkins Burke 2009: 31). Their philosophy expresses that there is no place in the categorisation and labelling of individuals into specific groups based on conditions which they may or may not have; in order for there to be a truly just justice system, everybody must be treated the same. This principle has, unsurprisingly, come under a lot of criticism, a general criticism of which would argue that society is in fact unequal (in terms of the divisions in social class) and so for an offender to be punished in the same way as an affluent offender is s een to be ludicrous. Take the example mentioned previously: an individual who is forced to engage in the theft of a loaf of bread to feed their starving family should not be punished in the same way as a president of a large corporation, for example, who dips his hand into the wages of his employees to give himself a larger bonus. In one scenario the crime is very much committed out of necessity, whereas the other is a crime of greed and thus it would be unfair, morally, to treat the cases equally as they are clearly unequal in nature. On the flip side to the normality of the criminal debate, comes the idea that the criminal is sick. Where in the 18th and early 19th century, we have discussed that crime was believed to be a deliberately chosen behaviour of rational actors; the second half of the 19th century saw the emergence of individual positivism which sought to dispel the Classical approach to explanations of crime and the ways in which criminals should be punished (Sapsford 1981: 310). Such perspective doubted the ability of a criminal to choose to engage in crime and that criminality, they argued, is a form of mental illness which removes their capacity to act freely. Therefore, straight away the disparity between Individual Positivism and Classical criminology become visible. Cesare Lombroso (1876) was a key contributor to Positivist criminology. His research focused on idea that the criminal is born a criminal and they have very little choice in the matter. He studied the physical differences between the criminal and the non-criminal, whilst also taking into account the similarities and differences of the criminal and the mentally ill. Most notably, he drew the observation that criminals possess similar traits to an atavistic being which of course refers to an earlier stage in human development. Such observations included irregularity in skull size, ear size, irregularities in both height and weight and many other traits. However, he was also prepared to accept that not all criminals are born into the role and that some in fact do achieve it either through mental disorders or the environments in which they live (Lombroso 1876 cited by Sapsford 1981: 310-311). The views regarding the normality or the abnormality of the criminal have a substantial effect on the ways in which the Classicists and the Positivists believe punishment should be distributed. The history of the use of punishment is an interesting one. Michel Foucault (1979) in his book Discipline and Punish provides a great context into how the problem of crime was treated pre-enlightenment. The purpose of Foucaults research was to establish how it was that we got to the stage where incarceration became the main kind of punishment. It was 1757 Paris in which Foucault researched a man who was convicted of murder and sentenced to death by the court. By order of the court, the man was publicly taken through the streets of Paris in horse-drawn cart until he arrived at the point of execution. He was stripped to the waist, flesh was torn from him with pincers, sulphur was poured onto his hands and he was then quartered by four horses. Four hours passed before his torso was pierced onto a spike. The following day, the torso was burned and the execution process was complete (Foucault 1976: 3). What Foucault found was that the punishment was very much made into a public spectacle and these public displays were boisterous affairs people found great pleasure in seeing people condemned for their transgressions. 80 years later, a similar thing happened. A man was found guilty of murder, but instead of receiving the same brutal punishment; he was incarcerated, isolated from the outside world. High walls kept the criminal confined on the inside; the public were kept on the outside public emotions were taken out of punishment. Although Foucault was not associated with the Classical school, his observations were regarded highly by Classicist thinkers, particularly Cesare Beccaria. Beccaria was an enlightened thinker who sought great need in replacing irrational thinking with a rational one. He stated that pre-1750; punishments were barbaric and localised meaning that punishments varied from place to place (Beccaria 1764 cited by McLaughlin et al 2003: 11). Punishments were vengeful with public participation permitted through the throwing of projectiles and the hurling of abuse. Beccaria claimed that such a criminal justice system is weak and as a result, he set out to reform the way in which we punish offenders, in which Foucault insisted that his intentions were not to punish less, but to punish better (Foucault 1976: 82). For Beccaria, one of the main issues that needed to be addressed was the complex nature of the law and the written legislature. The law needed to be made clear and simple so that people can understand what is deemed acceptable and unacceptable behaviour. Law should not just be a doctrine which can only be understood by lawyers and other legal experts, but should be understood by the individual when the number of those who can understand the sacred code of laws and hold it in their hands increases, the frequency of crimes will be found to decrease (Beccaria 1963: 18). Classicist thinking requires that the punishment must be proportionate to the offence (Newburn 2007: 116). Proportionality has in itself caused confusion, with some taking it literally to be reflective of the notion: eye for an eye. However, what is truly meant by the term is that punishment should not be too excessive as it doesnt have any real impact on preventing crimes from occurring. In order for punishment to be justified, it must have a use and the use that punishment provides is its deterrence effect on the rest of society it must prevent others from committing the same crimes (Newburn 2007: 116). The most important aspect of punishment, for Classical criminology, is that the general public are discouraged from committing crimes because of the fear of suffering a similar fate to the offender who has been caught and publicly punished. Also, this punishment must be made certain. That is, that people must be made aware that crime will not be tolerated and punishment will follow. Again, this relates to the general deterrence of punishment. A significantly effective way of deterring the public is through the participation of the media in the reporting of crimes. Rarely, crimes are reported to have gone without punishment. Yet it must be said that the certainty of punishment doesnt necessarily reduce crime in all cases. There are of course instances where people are aware of the consequences of a crime but continue to carry out the crime nonetheless. Ideally, the more promptly the punishment follows the crime; the more just a justice system will be a concept which makes a whole lot of sense. The modern day criminal justice system is a rather weak one in terms of how quickly they are able to process trials through a court and decide on whether the accused is guilty or not guilty. Such lack of urgency is deemed a cruel torment of uncertainty as the criminal is forced to wait an indeterminate length of time to hear the verdict and the punishments that may follow should the verdict be one of guilt (Beccaria 1963: 19). The promptness of punishment would thus spare the criminal of this torment. However, not only does the promptness of punishment serve in the interests of the accused, it also serves in the interests of the criminal justice system. If a system is seen to be tough on crime in that they can swiftly and appropriately punish an offender, people will recognise that the chances of them evading detection are slim. Whilst the Classicist justification for punishment resembles that of a retributivist nature, the Positivist approach looks more to rehabilitate the offender and provide treatment for the sick criminal. Sentences must consider the psychological conditions behind why it is that somebody engages in crime. It would simply unfair to give somebody suffering from some degree of mental deficiency the same punishment as a person who is of sound mind. The criminal justice system needs therefore to encompass mitigating circumstances which can decrease the culpability of the accused as they are not controllably committing unlawful behaviours. Mitigating circumstances can be seen in the English Criminal Justice System, evident with the offence of manslaughter which is an offence of less culpability than murder. One partial defence for murder, written under s.2(1) of the Homicide Act 1957, is diminished responsibility which states that a person will not be found guilty of murder if they suffered f rom an abnormality of mind which substantially impaired their mental responsibility for the action (Padfield 2000: 153). Such mitigating circumstances are necessary because people are not the same and thus to punish them as equals would be inappropriate and completely unjust. Some people dont act out of their own free-will, they have little to no control over their behaviours and it would be wrong to give them the same punishments as those who are fully in control of their behaviour i.e. the rational, calculated offenders. In drawing a conclusion, its clear to see that theres been a progressive development in theories regarding the debate of the normality or the abnormality of the criminal. Classical thinking preceded Positivist thinking and their principles did not take into consideration that scientific explanations for the behaviour of the criminal could be influential to the formation of a just criminal justice system. The emergence of the scientific approach saw improvements into how we perceive the criminal. In most cases, the criminal is sick and its thus necessary to at least attempt to try and treat them rather than punish them. This saw a shift from a retributivist approach to a reductionist one which saw to rehabilitate the offender. But although the two perspectives are the contrast of one another, thats not to say that one of them, have had little impact on the criminal justice system that we see today. Todays system encompasses principles from both perspectives from the Classical school, it takes the idea that punishment must fit the crime that the serious offences must be met with a more severe punishment and subsequently, the lesser offences should receive a lesser sentence. We can see that with the sentencing tariffs in which each offence requires a minimum and a maximum sentence for the offence. From the Positivist school, the system adopts the idea that the punishment must also fit the criminal the culpability of the offender must be considered in order to ensure that the best possible sentence is imposed on the offender. The influence of Positivism has also encouraged a variety of punishments/treatments including community sentences which serves as both a retributitive punishment and a rehabilitative treatment. Beccaria, C. (1963) On Crimes and Punishments. 18-19. New York; Bobbs-Merrill. Foucault, M. (1976) Discipline and Punish. 3, 82. London; Penguin. Hopkins Burke, R. (2009) An Introduction to Criminological Theory. 31. Collumpton; Willan. McLaughlin, E., Muncie, J. and Hughes, G. (2003) Criminological Perspectives: Essential Readings. 11. London; Sage. Newburn, T. (2007) Criminology. 116. Collumpton; Willan. Padfield, N. (2000) Criminal Law. 153. London; Cromwell Press. Sapsford, R.J. (1981) Individual Deviance: The Search for the Criminal Personality in Fitzgerald, M., McLennan, G. and Pawson, G. (1981) Crime and Society: Readings in History and Theory. 310-311. London; Routledge. Walklate, S. (2007) Understanding Criminology: Current Theoretical Debates. 18. Cardiff; Open University Press.

Saturday, January 18, 2020

Absolutism under Louis XIV

Louis XIV lived from 1638- 1715 and became the king of France in 1654. At the time he became king, France was financially ruined, politically corrupt, and divided between warring nobles and private armies and under the threat of riots from the people, especially in Paris. Louis XIV was an absolute monarch. Absolutism is the system of rule that allows one or more rulers to maintain absolute power over everything in the land. There is no higher power and even the Parliament could not overrule Louis’ decisions.As absolute monarch, Louis XIV set about reforming the state politically, economically and culturally. Louis XIV’s absolute monarchy had three components: †¢ Centralization- this meant that the monarchy was the center of everything. All decisions from the monarchy were undisputable and final. All counties and villages were expected to follow this rule to create a united state and a centralized leadership. †¢ Economic reforms- â€Å"Under the guidance of Je an-Baptiste Colbert (1619-83) a â€Å"modern† system of accountancy and yearly state budgeting was introduced.Colbert also supervised systematic attacks on corruption, removing, punishing, or paying off office holders. He also introduced tax reforms – ending exemptions, tax-farming, and military collection of taxes – and state support for industry, science, trade, and the arts. As regards the operations of the state, Colbert raised government income to the point when it could pay for quite massive expenses. Government subsidizing and directing of industry and manufacture increased productivity, raised wages, and brought France into the trade wars with the English and the Dutch.Colbert, like many French officials, repeatedly remarked that the inhabitants must pay the tax not only because it would raise additional funds, but also because paying the levy was ‘the obedience which is due His Majesty. † †¢ â€Å"Theater of Monarchy†-this is the public representation of royal power and glory. Under the theory of absolutism, sovereignty is grounded in God, not the people. The glory of the monarch is, as it were, the earthly point at which is expressed both the glory of the state – as a social whole ordered around and dependent upon the monarch – and the glory of God from whom the monarch derives power and role.It was therefore important to show, through royal events and presentations, the state as personified by the king. Louis XIV distinguished between â€Å"nature as it ought to be†, as ordained by God, and â€Å"nature as it is†, disrupted by human activity. As the new, distant and mysterious God no longer intervened directly in the natural order, it fell to the monarch to uphold â€Å"nature as it ought to be† and prevent it disintegrating into disorder. One of his reforms began with the acquisition of the providence of Roussillonnais in 1659, which was inhabited by a specific ethnic g roup known as the Catalans.Louis XIV understood that there can be no shared political allegiance without shared cultural values. Thus a government, if it is to exercise its political authority in an area, must first make the region culturally homogeneous with the ruling nation. Louis XIV undertook to replace the Catalan ethnic identity with the French one, mandating the foods, clothing, legal system, language, educational institutions, and religious traditions that should be used in the province. The Catalans did not agree with Louis and made it clear with smuggling, legal battles and even open rebellion.They wished to maintain their own culture and laws and did not want to accept the monarchy as their ruler. Like all peasants, they were reluctant to pay taxes to the monarchy and many turned to smuggling as an alternative. By the 1680’s, however, Louis XIV and his government were successful in achieving their goal of political assimilation. The Roussillonais had accepted Fran ce as their political rules but continued to conduct their legal, commercial, judicial, and religious business in the Catalan language, continued to dress as Catalans, to give their children Catalan names, and to celebrate traditional feasts.They were quite firmly French in a political sense, and equally firmly Catalan in their culture. A trend that began in the 17th century was for the ruler to govern from one location versus the many homes and palaces of the past. Louis XIV was one such ruler, moving from the royal palace of the Louvre in Paris to a permanent home in Versailles. It was from this location that he ruled France for his entire reign. Louis XIV was also known as the â€Å"sun king† due to his use of the symbol as his personal emblem.As the highest star, now accepted by science as the centre of the universe, the sun was an obvious choice to symbolize absolutism’s claim to constitute the political centre of earthly life. The sun was both terrifying and awe inspiring, dazzling through its brightness, yet also warming and beneficent, and without its presence all life would whither away. One of the ways a monarch distanced himself from his subjects was to show his magnificence and largesse. This came in the form of elaborate operas, lavish banquets and court music.It was not uncommon to have fountains with slowing wine, roast oxen, coins minted for the occasion and bread handed out to the masses. This was to show the generosity and benevolence of the ruler and assure the people that their trust in the monarchy was well placed. It also served to reiterate the idea that the monarch was the center of everything and should be respected as such. Not everything regarding absolutism was beneficial, especially for the peasants of the land.The taxes imposed by Louis XIV and his government went far to provide funds for the monarchy and various military skirmishes, but The accumulative effect of these taxes was well observed by the royal commission ers sent to investigate the collection of taxes in the Orleanais and Le Maine in 1687 who observed that: there are hardly any peasants that own property†¦there are only small farmers who own nothing. The proprietors must furnish them with cattle, advance them money on which to live, pay their tallies and take in payment the peasant’s entire portion of the harvest. Even this is sometimes insufficient to cover his debts.Thus the small farmers earn nothing; they leave the land as destitute as they came to it. What cash was left they said went into paying taxes so that there was almost no money left for individuals; from this comes the decline of commerce. As a result, riots and rebellions by the peasants were common. Tax collectors met with violence or even death in some instances. It was not until Louis XIV’s General Controller of Finance†, Jean-Baptise Colbert changed the way things were done regarding the taxes. Colbert's everyday management of the taxes was intelligently conceived precisely to reduce the difficulties experienced earlier.Much effort went into collecting existing taxes as equitably as possible, into preventing the accumulation of arrears (those of the final years of the war being formally cancelled), and into making the most unpopular forms of coercion a last resort. 94 Although the revenue from indirect taxes was greatly increased this was achieved without creating new levies. The significance of this policy was emphasized when financial pressure was increased after the renewal of war in 1672, with the new duties of 1675, the marque d'etain and the papier timbre, setting off the last major rebellions of the ancient regime.Under Louis XIV’s absolute rule, France enjoyed a peaceful and prosperous era. Colbert reformed the taxes and they dwindled down to custom duties, a tax on salt and a tax on land. He also encouraged trade and commerce by the merchants and inventors of the land and sought to decrease the Frenchà ¢â‚¬â„¢s dependence on foreign goods. These acts stopped the internal civil wars until almost a hundred years later. During Colbert's ministry the position of the laborers was doubly affected, by more stringent tax assessment and by a sequence of good harvests which resulted in low grain prices.Since these trends favored the mass of poor peasants, there was little prospect of uniting communities in revolt behind an unpopular minority of the rich, whose difficulties were in any case only relative. It was not until Napoleon that France had internal discord again. Other areas of improvement were the legal reforms Louis XIV implemented. The major legal code instituted at this time was the basis of the Napoleon Code which in turn is the basis for the modern French legal codes.The War of Spanish Succession began when the King of Spain, Charles II, bequeathed all his possessions to Philip duc D’anjou, who was the grandson of Louis XIV. This made Philip the king of Spain. Aside from the fact that others wanted to claim the throne for themselves, the crowning of Philip assured Louis XIV of a Spanish alliance in his quest to expand. Other countries joined the side of the Holy Roman Empire, who wanted to stop France from expanding any further. Philip and Spain sided with Louis XIV and France. The war was fought both in Europe and in North America, where it was known as the â€Å"Queen Anne’s War.† The war lasted for over a decade and as a result, Philip was removed from the line of succession for the throne of France. This made the opposition happy since a union of France and Spain was now impossible. In the end, Louis XIV’s numerous wars and extravagant palaces and chateaux effectively bankrupted the State (though it must also be said that France was able to recover in a matter of years), forcing him to levy higher taxes on the peasants and incurring large State debts from various financiers as the nobility and clergy had exemption from payin g these taxes and contributing to public funds.Yet, it must be emphasized that it was the State and not the country which was impoverished. Before his death in 1715, Louis XIV determined that his five year old grandson, Louis XIII would succeed him to the throne. He is alleged to have told the child â€Å"Do not follow the bad example which I have set you; I have often undertaken war too lightly and have sustained it for vanity. Do not imitate me, but be a peaceful prince, and may you apply yourself principally to the alleviation of the burdens of your subjects†.Although Louis XIV did make some mistakes during his reign, he had many victories as well. His display of absolute monarchy set an example for many of the European princes, who followed his examples of art, food and political systems. Absolutism fell out of favor among the monarchy not long after Louis XIV died but the gains that he made provided a stable base for France to prosper in the future. Louis XIV had been ma rried twice and fathered both legitimate and illegitimate children, none of whom followed in his footsteps of absolutel rule.Works Cited Briggs, Robin. Communities of Belief: Cultural and Social Tension in Early Modern France. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995. Parker, David. â€Å"French ‘Absolutism'. † History Review (1997): 14+. Stewart, David. Assimilation and Acculturation in Seventeenth-Century Europe: Roussillon and France, 1659-1715. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1997. Wilson, Peter H. Absolutism in Central Europe. London: Routledge, 2000.

Friday, January 10, 2020

Chinese Dress Essay

Chinese clothing is an important part of their culture. Although China no longer dresses in their older more traditional styles, the traditional garments are still worn for holidays and ceremonies. There have been many historical changes in Chinese clothing, and the Chinese style choices vary depending on what region is being scrutinized. Hanfu is a term that includes all traditional Chinese dress worn prior to Manchurian and western influences. All Chinese citizens living under the Ming dynasty, and many dynasties prior to it adopted this style of dress. It was widely worn by all until the beginning of the seventeenth century and the start of the Quing dynasty. Hanfu, which was the widely accepted style in China for over three thousand years, consists of the Shenyi. A one-piece robe, which wraps around the body, the Shenyi is made up of different parts. The Jin, or the upper front of the body, the Jiaoling Youren, which means â€Å"crossed collars to the right† in Chinese and is the collar usually seen on the Hanfu of both men and women. The collar is only tied to the left as burial dress. The Qu and Mei are the cuffs and sleeves, and the Chang is the name of the skirt. The first recorded dynasty in China was the Shang dynasty. Although they did wear Hanfu clothing, most specifically the Shenyi, the garment worn by them was actually made of two separate pieces. The jacket, referred to as the Yi, and the skirt, or the Shang. It did not become a one-piece garment for many years. During the Shang dynasty the colors most often used for the garments were warm colors such as red and yellow. As time moved forward the Chinese began to decorate the fabrics with red and yellow designs. Different regions of the country had different norms as far as Hanfu dress. During the Zhou dynasty the western people used different styles of the Hanfu Shangyi to differentiate between classes. The differences in classes are shown through the two styles of sleeves, the broad and the narrow, and the decorations that the wearer hung from his or her belt such as pieces of jade. When the Quing dynasty took over, so did a new style of clothing. The Qipao was the traditional style for women and the Cheongsam was the style commonly worn by men. All Chinese were required to switch from the old Hanfu style of dressing or they would be killed due to the new rulers in place. The Qipao is a one-piece dress that traditionally fits loosely on the body and was designed to hide the woman’s figure. It is also sometimes referred to as the mandarin gown. In the early nineteen hundred the Qipao was updated into the dress we recognize as traditional Chinese dress today. The close fitting dress with a high neckline is now often worn as a party dress and has been copied and worn by American women as well. The Cheongsam is the men’s version of the Qipao. It is a two-piece outfit made up of a pair of simple pants and a top with a high neckline extremely similar to that of the Qipao. The Cheongsam is traditionally made in the color black, and was the formal dress worn by Chinese men up until the introduction of the western-style suit.

Thursday, January 2, 2020

Progressive Era Essay - 904 Words

â€Å"I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself, and there I take my stand† (Susan B Anthony). The Progressive Era came about after a time of mass urbanization and industrialization occurred in America. This period was a time of developments in political and social aspects, however, the most pertinent reform took place in the Americans’ homes, as those who have been fighting for equality since the Seneca Falls Convention—which took place in July of 1848—were finally granted suffrage through the Nineteenth Amendment—passed in 1920. The Progressive Era was a time of progression or change in society as awareness was brought to ills including urban poverty, unsafe working†¦show more content†¦The passage of the Nineteenth Amendment shows that women are becoming more respected and have more influence in society. These Settlement houses and fight towards prohibition were some o f the first sparks of the expansion of women’s influence throughout America, they were no longer in the constraints of their homes, but began to make a difference in the world. The status of women began to change during the Progressive Era, they were being granted with more and more opportunities in America. Women began to graduate from college and enter in the field of law, medicine, science, or journalism. As Americans began to notice a change in the lives of the American women, the term â€Å"New Woman† had been coined. This term was â€Å"used at the end of the nineteenth century to describe women who were pushing against the limits which society imposed on women† (academic.brooklyn.cuny). The term implies a woman who was young, college educated, athletic, interested in a college career, and wants a marriage based on the equality of genders. During the end of the Progressive Era, World War I began. â€Å"During the conflict that was placed before them, [wom en] not only gained the gratitude of many in theirShow MoreRelated The Progressive Era Essay798 Words   |  4 Pagesall power rested with the politicians and businessmen. Reformers known as Progressives attempted to undo the problems caused by industrialization. The Progressive movement sought to end the influence of large corporations, provide more rights and benefits to workers, and end the control possessed by party leaders. At the national level, Progressivism centered on defeating the power of large businesses. The Progressive Era was a period in American history in which improving working conditions, exposingRead More The Progressive Era Essay984 Words   |  4 Pages The Progressive Era nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Progressivism in the United States took place in the period between the Spanish-American War and the entry of the United States into the great World War. 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