ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with a review of the social context that set the stage for a paradigm shift into positivism. The shift to positivism as a new paradigm for understanding crime is of far greater importance than any specific theories within that framework. Positivism obviously can be used to justify greater intervention in the lives of offenders than is the case with rational choice theories, because the express goal of the positive doctrine is to help, not punish, the individual. Positivism dominated American criminology for most of the twentieth century and provided the rationale for many policy developments. Raffaele Garofalo rounded out the trio of pioneering Italian criminological positivists. Garofalo rejected the legal definition of crime for a sociological approach. Scathing critiques from within the mainstream criminological community met the work of William Sheldon and S. Glueck and E. Glueck. The long hesitance of criminologists to consider biosocial explanations of criminal behavior, given a historical review, is quite understandable.
