Introduction

The earliest theories of crime reflected religious and spiritual beliefs – ideas based on theological understanding of the battle between Good and Evil. Crime was thought to be the result of supernatural forces: people engaged in crime because they were possessed by forces of Evil or had submitted to the temptations of Satan. In the intellectual history of criminology, the popularity of various theories has tended to ebb and flow. While both Cesare Beccaria and Cesare Lombroso argued that crime is caused by natural rather than supernatural forces, and while both Beccaria's classical criminology and Lombroso's biological explanations became unfashionable, their influence endures. Beccaria's assertions that offenders are rational thinkers who freely elect to engage in crime serve as the basis for many legal systems. The aspiration of 'blind justice' – that the law should be applied equally to everyone – also comes from classical criminology, as do contemporary attempts to enhance the certainty and severity of punishment.