Positivism, the philosophy that knowledge should be based on empirical evidence shown in research, was developed by the French philosopher Auguste Comte (1858), who is credited with founding the discipline of sociology. Influenced by positivism, those seeking to understand criminal offending could no longer propose ideas without providing some kind of proof. Early scholars in the positive school of criminology had to figure out how to gather data and analyze it in a way that might explain criminal behavior. The focus shifted from looking philosophically at why people committed crimes and the strategic use of punishment, to scientifically understanding potential internal reasons for criminal behavior.

Therefore, the positive school of thought was a major shift from both the ideas that external supernatural forces caused crime (pre-classical) or that criminal behavior was a choice (classical). Instead, positivist criminologists saw criminal behavior as something that was, to some degree, predetermined—or caused—by internal factors like one’s biological or psychological makeup. These new researchers looked at medicine, hereditary, and evolution to try to understand offending behavior. They had some good ideas, but also some outlandish and harmful ideas. The origins of biological and psychological approaches to criminology, as well as more modern understandings, will be discussed in Chapter 4. Additionally, the positivist school has changed over time, and many theories now assess social factors in criminal offending. Biosocial theories, for example, are those that consider the impact of both biological (internal) and social (external) reasons for criminal behavior. Also, many modern criminological theories examine how economic, political, cultural, familial, and other sociological factors impact criminal offending. Some of these are better described as “sociological theories” and fit within a variety of subcategories that we will discuss later.

Developing Crime Statistics

It may be hard to believe, but statistics were not always used to explain patterns in criminal behavior. You have the positive school of criminology to thank for all the statistical methods we want you to learn now. They are the ones who brought this type of analysis into criminology.

Adolphe Quetelet, a Belgian astronomer and mathematician, was introduced to the statistical movement while in Paris (figure 3.10). Alongside French statistician Andre-Michel Guerry, Quetelet uncovered some significant patterns through the mapping of various statistical data (including crime) to geographical areas (Walsh & Hemmens, 2014). Quetelet initiated a government-backed census project, and they gathered data on various issues, including crime and other social factors. They then looked at relationships between statistical variables to figure out crime and social behavior during the 19th century. We do this a lot now, but it was a new practice then.

In 1825, France’s Ministry of Justice began a project to gather statistical data on crimes, prosecutions, verdicts, and punishments in criminal courts. They also gathered data on the age, sex, and occupation of those accused and convicted of crimes. After the first report was published in 1827, a group of statisticians, one of whom was Adolphe Quetelet, began to conduct independent analyses of the data (Beirne, 1987).

Through his analysis of these data and statistics, Quetelet figured out that crime rates were steady over many years. This led him to believe that human behavior (including crime) was similar to physics in that it obeyed certain rules.

Quetelet also developed the concept of the “average man”—an imaginary person who embodied statistical averages of a variety of human characteristics, such as height and weight. He also regarded the “average man” as the epitome of all physical, intellectual, and moral qualities. Quetelet wanted to statistically analyze who was committing crime and when they were committing crime. Remember scholars at this time were trying to figure out if there were biological explanations for criminal behavior. Quetelet believed he found some, at least in part. He observed that young people had the greatest propensity for crime. He also discovered links between crime and the seasons as he found many crimes occurred annually around the same time. Although there is not a specific theory to explain his findings, he is still a key part of the origins of criminology because he revealed a more sophisticated and nuanced look at crime that would later feed other theories.

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Licenses and Attributions for Positive School of Criminology

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“Positive School of Criminology” by Jessica René Peterson is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

“Developing Crime Statistics” by Mauri Matsuda is licensed under CC BY 4.0. Revised by Jessica René Peterson.

“Positive School of Criminology Question Set” was created by ChatGPT and is not subject to copyright. Edits for relevance, alignment, and meaningful answer feedback by Colleen Sanders are licensed under CC BY 4.0.

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Figuur 3.10. “Quetelet, Adolphe (1796-1874); astronoom, wiskundige, socioloog, Madou, Jean Baptiste, Felixarchief, 12 12861 recto” by Jean Baptiste Madou is in the Public Domain, CC0 1.0.