Extract A

“Children who show antisocial behaviour from early childhood are at significant risk for
showing antisocial and criminal behaviour in adulthood, a pattern known as life-course-
persistent antisocial behaviour. Such individuals can be ten times more costly to society
than the average citizen. Learning about risk factors that predict persistent antisocial
behaviour early in life is essential. Callous-unemotional traits (e.g., lack of empathy, guilt,
shallow emotions, and overt antisocial behaviour) may be a risk factor that makes children
vulnerable to life-course-persistent antisocial behaviour of a severe nature. Indeed,
antisocial individuals who present with the affective core of callous-unemotional traits start
offending at a young age and continue across their lifespan with acts that are often
predatory in nature. This approach is also likely to inform treatment options.”

“Better understanding will contribute to both pharmacological and environmental

I think this extract is written from a positive perspective because it talks about how
understanding antisocial behaviour in children would help treat psychopathy, which leads
me to believe it’s from a positive perspective as its looks at the internal or external
influences on individuals as the primary cause of criminal behaviour. According to
positivists, criminal behaviour is dictated by particular personal or social features rather
than an act of free will (or not free will alone). The extract says, “start offending at a young
age and continue across their lifespan”, which leads me to think that children start offending
but do not stop when they enter adulthood; this could be caused by social factors affecting
the individual. Positivists suggest that changing underlying social conditions will reduce or
prevent criminal behaviour. According to this theory, crime arises because of a lack of
access to appropriate tools (or "blocked opportunity") for fulfilling social purposes (e.g.,
having a good job or generally achieving economic success). As a result, some areas with
worse social and economic status offer more opportunities for illegal activity than others.
The extract says, “Such individuals can be ten times more costly to society than the average
citizen”, which led me to think that individuals with antisocial behaviour commit most
crimes because of the lack of access to appropriate tools, which leads them to turn to
criminal activity. However, this harms prisons as it would increase the number of prisoners,
costing the government. Furthermore, the extract says, “Learning about risk factors that
predict persistent antisocial behaviour early in life is essential” this led me to think that if
positivists know the risk factors that predict antisocial behaviour, then children could have
the treatment in time before adulthood.

According to positivism, various biological, psychological, and social factors influence people
to commit crimes. The extract talks about a risk factor called “Callous-unemotional traits
(e.g., lack of empathy, guilt, shallow emotions, and overt antisocial behaviour)”, a
psychological pattern of different behaviours that can appear in early childhood; this
suggests that children that have this psychological pattern would be likely to become
criminals as their brain's structure is different from a person without this pattern. Although
it is challenging to grow up a law-abiding adult in an environment with bad neighbourhoods,
little family support, and the presence of organised criminal gangs, many people who live in
these situations do. The above point tells me that people may commit a crime because of

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their environment or psychological factors; however, positivists say that a person must
ultimately decide whether to break the law despite all the influences in their life and the
opportunity to do so. Lastly, the extract says, “Better understanding will contribute to both
pharmacological and environmental interventions.” and “This gives hope that psychopathy
can be treated as successfully as other emotional disorders.”, which made me think that if
positivists understand better psychopathy, it will help children with antisocial behaviour not
to commit crimes which would contribute optimistically to society by lowing crime rates.

The positivist perspective's theoretical framework and the classical perspective have various
approaches to criminology based on how they measure and react to the crime. The positive
perspective, however, was formed in the 19th century because of the work of Martin
Seligman, who wanted to understand how people may increase their levels of pleasure and
personal fulfilment. According to the positive perspective, the research subject is the
offender, and biological, psychological, and pathological factors create the offender’s
behaviour. Depending on the circumstances, their response to the crime is to provide an
indefinitely long course of treatment. Cesare Lombroso, a psychiatrist who adhered to a
positivist perspective, compared criminals' physical characteristics to those of earlier stages
of humanity. Lombroso's ideas ran counter to the traditional viewpoint, arguing that
criminals are not rational, as they repeat ideas and are born criminals.

The classical perspective emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries because of the
work of philosophers like Freud and Jung, who perceived a direct link between a person's
biology and mental disease. In contrast, the classical perspective explains that when
individuals commit a crime, it is a free-will choice that makes a criminal choice. According to
the classicists, criminals are rational and assess the benefits and costs, so we should put
prevention measures that barely outweigh the crime’s benefits. Therefore, classical thinkers
like Beccaria and Bentham considered the death penalty useless because there would be no
restrictions. But when it comes to homicide, Bentham agrees that the death penalty should
be used if the severity of the punishment slightly outweighs the crime.

The focus of the positive perspective is frequently on people's capacity for personal growth
and development. It adopts a more positive view towards mental health, emphasising the
significance of comprehending a person's inner resources and developing them to
encourage effective change. Positivist criminologists advocate for reform. Positivists think
that reform (both within the person and society as a whole) is necessary to bring about
change and lower crime rates; punishment will not fix the system that generated a crime.
Linking to the extract, there is a possibility for treatment for antisocial behaviour in children
if professionals understand more about psychopathy. Treatment can help children with
antisocial behaviour not to develop psychopathy later in adulthood and support individuals
in adulthood to stop reoffending by rehabilitating them, which would decrease the crime
rates and improve the individual's life without punishing them. Recognising patterns within
individuals is another strength of the positivist perspective meaning that positivists pay
close attention to patterns of criminal behaviour to understand why individuals demonstrate
criminal behaviour, such as age, racial demographic, mental state, and socio-cultural and
environmental factors. According to the extract, identifying "callous-unemotional traits"
would indicate that the individual has antisocial behaviour, which can help identify patterns
among people, especially children, so they do not develop criminal behaviour in adulthood

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and treat them as soon as possible. Also, it can help professionals better understand
psychopathy by identifying it early in life, which helps decrease crime rates, society and
individuals who suffer from antisocial behaviour as they can get treatment in time.
Furthermore, recognising patterns in individuals with antisocial behaviour can help
individuals living in poorer neighbourhoods and with low-income family support to get the
help they need in order not to develop criminal behaviour in the future. On the other hand,
the classical perspective's strength is demonstrated by the fact that many aspects of
classical concepts are still highly relevant today. All court systems still operate on the notion
of deterrence, which was the foundation for Sir Robert Peel's first commissioners when he
founded the Metropolitan police to lower crime rates. Prisons are also utilised as strong
deterrents.

A weakness of the positive perspective is that it can be too optimistic and overlook potential
problems. With the positive perspective, individuals may focus more on their successes than
their failures and therefore fail to identify areas that need improvement. Additionally, the
positive perspective can make individuals arrogant and no longer strive for growth if taken
too far; this can lead to a lack of ambition and hinder their potential for personal gain.
Linking to the extract, as positivists try to understand psychopathy better, they could
overlook some problems as positivists focus on the offender and are too optimistic that the
individual would be guilty because of social, psychological, or biological influences; this
further can make individuals arrogant and even not motivated to improve themselves if
positivists take it too far which would lead to an over-emphasis on self-determination
without considering external influences. Moreover, positivists focus on the positive aspects
of a person's personality rather than on what they have done wrong. This would make
people with antisocial behaviour more inclined to commit crimes and, therefore, less likely
to feel remorse for their actions and even lack the ambition to improve themselves.
Rehabilitation is not always advantageous either since people can choose to commit crimes
even though they are aware of the repercussions and that it is wrong, rather than as a result
of social, psychological, or biological pressures. However, people who exhibit "life-course-
persistent antisocial behaviour" differ from those who do not because their brains are wired
similarly. These people also exhibit early warning indicators that, if caught early enough, can
be treated to prevent adulthood. However, a weakness of the classical perspective is its
failure to sufficiently recognise human behaviour's complexity. The classical perspective is
based on a linear and deterministic model, which assumes that all behaviours result from
external rewards and punishments. This perspective fails to account for external and
internal influences, such as emotions, the role of beliefs and values, individual differences,
the effect of heredity and social environment, and the role of free will and choice in
behaviour. Missing these external and internal influences would lead to an over-emphasis
on outside factors without considering personal agency.

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References
Case, S. et al. (2021) “Freewill, Classicism and Rational Choice,” in The Oxford Textbook on
Criminology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 440–473.
Case, S. et al. (2021) “Biological and Psychological Positivism,” in The Oxford Textbook on
Criminology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 474–513.
Case, S. et al. (2021) “Sociological Positivism,” in The Oxford textbook on criminology.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 514–559.
Case, S. et al. (2021) “Critical Criminology,” in The Oxford Textbook on Criminology. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, pp. 560–589.