Both the classical and positivist schools have a common viewpoint concerning a crime - that crime a happening that causes a violation of the fundamental values and beliefs of a societal system. The beliefs and values are often manifested as laws that the society relies upon for direction. There are two primary diverging and favorite schools of thoughts in criminology; classical school and positivist school. Goode (2015) affirmed that th e classical school makes emphasis on the offence while the positivist school puts its focus on the actor. The traditional school of thought argues that when a human being commits a crime, they are assumed to have acted out of their free will. It presumes that persons need to be held accountable for every wrongful act that they orchestrate. Kewley (2017 argued that in the positivist mindset, takes a separate position as it looks for a rationale standpoint for the quantification and measurement of the criminal behavior. It argues that criminal behavior is as a result of other psychological and social factors and that makes particular individuals be inclined to criminality than others.
Joseph Ruzich on February 3rd, 2016 on the Chicago Tribune did report an incident of crime. It involved a Cicero man of fifty-nine years old who has been charged with an attempted murder case for allegedly shooting out of his neighbors in an ambush state Monday. The old man, Wiencek, was charged with two accounts of murder attempt with a firearm and other two accounts of aggravated battery. It is reported that he allegedly ambushed the victims and fired five grand rounds from his gun while they were walking towards their home. He, however, surrendered to the police and dropped off his weapon.
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Through a classical school of thought, we have the free and clear will to decide and choose our behavior. In that regard, the man could have seen it consciously correct and thus chose to shoot his two neighbors in an ambush. The Cicero police officers confronted him, and he immediately surrendered and dropped off his weapon. The classical view of thought also asserts that the fear of punishment can stop an individual from doing a crime. He quickly surrendered to the police as he was confronted in his home.
According to Vito and Maahs (2015) , the positivist school has a firm resolve that every person is right but is the society and an individual’s background that can turn them into doing criminal activities. The article has no mention of the history or his life experiences, but that can be a factor through careful scrutiny. The victims were his neighbors, and most probably they have lived cohesively for quite a while. That is what is least expected from such setups. The person could have unintentional became a criminal. It could have been as a result of psychological and social pressures that were happening in his life at that particular moment ( Vito & Maahs, 2015) . The character might have been under the spell of a specific drug, and that can inherently cause them to do what they never wanted to do.
I believe in the classical school of view as a more realistic thought system as compared to the classical school perspective. It is correct that the society, personal background, psychological and social pressures can shape an individual. It is also more correct that every person has the responsibility and free will to select whatever they want to do.
References
Goode, E. (2015). Deviant behavior . Routledge.
Kewley, S. (2017). Strength based approaches and protective factors from a criminological perspective. Aggression and violent behavior , 32 , 11-18.
Ruzich, Joseph (February 3, 2016) Cicero man charged with shooting two neighbors during ambush. Retrieved from: http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/ct-cicero-shooting-charges-0204-20160203-story.html
Vito, G. F., & Maahs, J. R. (2015). Criminology . Jones & Bartlett Publishers.