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Differences of Criminal Law Thoughts between Classical School and Modern School
Hello, the following are the differences between the two schools of criminal law:

Historical background and research methods.

Classical school is the product of the Enlightenment. Enlightenment is a rational thinking activity, which emphasizes that individuals should evaluate all social and political measures with rational consciousness. Influenced by this thought, the classical school attacked the unreasonable penalty system at that time. The rise of modern school was influenced by natural science at that time, trying to seek the causes of crime and the countermeasures of crime by empirical way of scientific research. Therefore, the research method of evidence is fundamentally different from the philosophical speculation of the classical school.

2. Methodology

A, the classical school adopts speculative method and deductive method to study, with the theoretical viewpoints put forward by enlightenment thinkers or even earlier thinkers as the major premise, and uses the logical thinking method of syllogism to infer the irrationality and unfairness of the legislative provisions and judicial practice at that time, and deduce its own conclusions or opinions; Modern school adopts empirical method and inductive method, based on the actual objective facts, and summarizes its own views from the investigation and study of objective facts.

B, the classical school advocates the theory of free will, thinking that everyone has free will, and criminal behavior is the result of individual voluntary choice; However, the modern school advocates determinism and admits that everything has a causal relationship, and criminal behavior is determined by some factors, not the result of personal free choice.

C, the classical school adopts the legal definition of crime; However, the modern school did not adopt the legal definition of crime. They live to create a new and clear concept and definition of crime, or they don't put forward a clear definition of crime, but use the word crime vaguely, including all acts that endanger society.

3. Research hotspots

The classical school and the modern school have their own emphasis on the study of crime, which is embodied as follows:

A the classical school focuses on criminal behavior, while the modern school focuses on criminals.

The classical school focuses on the legal aspects of criminal behavior and closely links crime with criminal justice. Moreover, the important purpose of their study of criminal behavior is to apply the law "fairly" and realize the adaptation of crime and punishment; Modern school focuses on the phenomenological aspects of criminal behavior and criminal causes. The important purpose of studying crime is to find out the laws and causes of crime and seek ways to eliminate it.

4. Criminal countermeasures

There are also great differences between the classical school and the modern school in dealing with criminal behavior. The classical school regards punishment as the most important countermeasure to reduce and eliminate crime, and makes a fuss about how to use punishment better for criminals, so as to get drunk and give full play to the deterrent role of criminal law; The modern school thinks that criminals should be corrected and treated scientifically, so it puts forward many scientific "alternative measures of punishment" to deal with criminals.

5. Causes of crime

According to classical criminology, crime is the choice of the offender under the control of free will, so the actor should bear full responsibility. Modern school fundamentally denies the existence of free will and advocates expelling the false proposition of free will from the field of criminology research. As Philip said, "How can you believe in the existence of free will when modern psychology armed with modern empirical research methods denies the existence of free will and proves that any behavior of people is the result of the interaction between personality and people's environment?" On this basis, the analytical positivist criminologists put forward their views on the causes of crime. After analyzing a lot of anatomical data, Cesare Cesare Lombroso put forward the theory of natural criminals. He believes that crime is determined by criminals' personal genes, and these genes are obtained through heredity, so the so-called criminals are born. Because of his theory of natural criminals, Cesare Cesare Lombroso is also known as the pioneer of the school of criminal anthropology. Although everyone denies the existence of free will, Philip's exposition of the causes of crime is obviously different from that of Cesare Cesare Lombroso. In his view, the causes of crime should include anthropological factors, natural factors and social factors. Among the above three factors, Philip values social factors most, which is the biggest difference from Cesare Cesare Lombroso. Therefore, Philip is also known as the school of criminal society.

6. The basis of penalty discretion

Classical criminology school pays attention to the crimes committed by criminals, but basically ignores the subjective aspects of criminals. In classical criminology theory, punishment is based on punishment, which includes retribution and deterrence. I hope to achieve the purpose of crime prevention by punishing punishment. However, modern criminologists question how effective this punishment is. Philip believes that "classical criminology only pays attention to punishment, and pays attention to determining repression measures with the help of various spiritual and material terrorist consequences after committing crimes." The modern school replaced the theory of moral responsibility with the theory of social responsibility, thinking that since crime is the result of the joint action of anthropological factors, natural factors and social factors, the so-called free will does not exist. Therefore, it is not the actor who should be punished for the crime, but the actor, and the basis for his responsibility is not the social harm of the crime, but the essence of criminal responsibility for personal danger is to defend society.

7. Punishment methods

Although the classical criminal school opposes severe punishment and advocates the humanity and leniency of punishment, the idea of equivalent revenge exists everywhere in the punishment countermeasures of the classical criminal school, and they hope to achieve the purpose of crime prevention through deterrence and revenge of punishment. Modern school questioned the existence of penalty deterrence, and thought that since the causes of crimes are diverse, we should not fantasize about relying on penalty measures to deal with crimes. In fact, crime prevention has never been a problem that can be solved by punishment, which requires a lot of other sanctions and alternative measures.

8. Differences in the theory of criminal responsibility

According to the classical school, a crime is an act that a free-willed person violates the requirements of rationality, so he should bear moral responsibility. Modern school believes that people have no free will and no moral responsibility. Criminals should bear criminal responsibility because their actions have threatened or destroyed society. The state imposes sanctions on criminals. It is to defend society.

9. Differences in the basis of penalty discretion

The classical school believes that under normal circumstances, everyone has equal free will, so the severity of penalty application should be based on objective harmful consequences. The modern school believes that the discretion of the severity of punishment should be based on the subjective malignancy of the actor. The result of behavior should not be the standard.

10. the difference of punishment teleology

The classical school thinks that karma is natural reason, and punishing criminals deserves it. But it should be equivalent retribution, otherwise the punishment will exceed the guilt, which violates the principle of fairness and obviously does not conform to the spirit of justice. Modern school believes that punishment is not retribution for crime, but to ensure the safety of public life. On the one hand, it educates and improves criminals and prevents them from committing crimes again; On the other hand, it warns ordinary citizens to be afraid and not to break the law.

Generally speaking, the old school emphasizes norms and the new school emphasizes facts. Conservatives often start with norms, which are formulated for ordinary people; At the same time, the old school pays attention to the protection of individual freedom. When the general norms are applicable to specific people, in order to alleviate people's weaknesses, it is also required to examine whether the personal knowledge level is applicable to the requirements of the general norms. The new school generally starts from the facts and thinks that everyone is different. Some people are born with the social danger of crime, while others are not. But at the same time, they pay attention to the defense of society, and even think that people without ordinary knowledge are harmful to society, so they demand all people according to the standards of ordinary people.

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