Reflection on Learning: Criminology Theories and Reflection

This essay presents a student's reflection on learning criminology, focusing on two key theories: Classicism and Positivism. The student utilizes the Gibbs Reflective Cycle to analyze these theories, detailing their understanding of crime, punishment, and criminal behavior. The discussion of Classicism emphasizes free will, rational thinking, and the role of punishment in deterring crime, while also acknowledging its limitations in explaining motivations. Positivism is then explored, contrasting it with Classicism by examining individual and sociological perspectives on criminal behavior. The essay highlights the differences between individual positivism, which focuses on biological and psychological factors, and sociological positivism, which emphasizes the influence of social context. The student concludes by recognizing the importance of both theories in understanding criminology and acknowledging that crime cannot be eradicated the same way. The student also mentions the implications of these theories in explaining different social behaviors and crime mentality. The student reflects on the application of both theories to understanding the complexities of criminal behavior and how it can be controlled.

Running head: REFLECTION ON LEARNING
Reflection on Learning
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1REFLECTION ON LEARNING
Introduction
Reflection is an application based learning which enables deeper understanding and
sense making of the learning as it gives individuals a chance to look at their learning in
retrospect and link them with real life contexts (Griggs et al. 2018). Reflection enabled me to
develop my personal understanding of the reasons of crime and the effects of it. During my
course, the two theories that I found most interesting was Classicism and Positivism as
criminology theories. I have chosen the Gibbs Reflective Cycle, which enables a framework
for reflection. It includes stages such as, description, feelings, evaluation, conclusion and
action (Cherkis and Rosciano 2018). The essay reflects on these two theories, Classicism and
Positivism, following the model of Gibbs Reflecting Cycle.
Discussion
Classicism
Classicism developed post-renaissance period. The main idea of classicism is based
on free will and rational thinking. What I understand from the reading is that it is one of the
most influential theory of criminology and this theory propagates the idea of jail (Burke
2017). The beginning of classicist theory started with the idea that people are equal in front of
law. Which later contributors rejected and claimed that law cannot be same for everybody as
people have different social context. According to the classical theory, crime is rational. For
example, when people steal it not because of some pre-destined reason but because the
person has thought about the crime and has decided to commit it.
Classicism also believes in hedonism which indicates that the action of crime gives
the person pleasure and the act is often rationalized by human tendency of avoiding pain.
This is the part where punishment comes in. imprisonment is an effect of crime and thus,

2REFLECTION ON LEARNING
people avoid committing crime to avoid the pain of jail. This seems relevant as it is often
seen that powerful people commit crime as they have lesser chance of being incarcerated.
The learning gave me the basis of understanding crime and punishment. There have been
numerous theories that talk about this while classical theory gives a rational basis of learning.
The theory has one major limitation. It does not give any thought about the motivations to
crime and why people still commit crime despite the presence of judiciary and law
enforcement (West 2017).
When I first started learning about classicist theory of criminology, I was immediately
hooked. The theory answered many of my old queries and I felt excited to learn about this.
The learning of the theory is useful for me as this gives me a base on which my future
learning of criminology will depend. There have been numerous studies that have been built
on this theory and have rejected many parts of it but the importance of it cannot be denied as
it gives the basis of criminological behavior (Paternoster and Fisher 2017). I can use the
understanding of this theory to make sense of the petty crimes and people’s selfish behavior
and become more adept in interpreting the aspects of social contexts. Further studies
regarding this theory and applying this in future studies and practical experience will also be
helpful for me.
Positivism
Positivism developed in the late nineteenth century and is a theory that challenges the
classical school of thought in criminology. This is distinct from classicism in the very
definition as this negates the idea that crime is committed through free choice and rational
decision making. It claims that a set of characteristics differentiates criminals from the others.
The following researches post positivism, thus, focuses on the differences in characteristics
between people showing criminal behavior and non-criminal behavior (Pycroft 2018).

3REFLECTION ON LEARNING
Through the course I also learnt about two different approaches of positivism. The individual
positivism focuses on the biological and psychological aspects of criminals thus linking the
committing of crime with individual pathology. Sociological positivism opines that social
context is the most powerful motivation for crime as the environment and society that we live
in largely shapes the psychology and pathology of individuals.
When I learnt about positivism, initially I could not comprehend the differences
between the two aspects of criminology. As I went on studying and discussed with more
people, I realized the difference between the two. From my perspective, the two thoughts are
interrelated. While the first thought is related with the personal psyche or internal factors the
later focuses more on the external factors. Another major difference that I realized was that
individual positivism claims that crime is a violation of personal morality while sociological
positivism claims that it is borne out of collective morality. These theories can justify the
gang behaviors and crime (Sian 2017). In gang crimes, it is seen that people share similar
thinking and morality and thus the acts that they commit are largely born out of their
desperation to survive which has become a behavior and vicious cycle which they cannot
escape.
The learning of this theory is essential for my future as this can be used to understand
criminal behavior in the society. It also gives the answer to the question that why people
commit crime or their motivation for committing crime which was the limitations of the
classical theory. This is effective in my future work skill development as I will be able to
apply this learning in actual scenarios and explain criminal behaviors of people and how that
can be controlled (Wincup 2017). I have learnt from the study that crime cannot be totally
eradicated and thus, the learning of this theory I can conduct further research on
criminological behavior of people and approaches that have shown positive results.

4REFLECTION ON LEARNING
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it is evident that both the theories classicism and
positivism are important in the understanding of criminology. While the former theory
provides the basis of the theories and concepts of criminology and justice system, the later
gives a more detailed knowledge about criminal behavior and the internal and external factors
that affect or motivate people to commit crimes. These theories gives me the idea that all
crimes are not same and thus cannot be eradicated the same way. The implications of the
learning is immense as I can use the learning to explain different social behaviors and crime
mentality.

5REFLECTION ON LEARNING
References
Burke, R.H., 2017. An introduction to criminological theory. Routledge.
Cherkis, F. and Rosciano, A., 2018. Reflective practice: Implementation across
curriculums. International Journal of Nursing Research Health Care, 7.
Griggs, V., Holden, R., Lawless, A. and Rae, J., 2018. From reflective learning to reflective
practice: assessing transfer. Studies in Higher Education, 43(7), pp.1172-1183.
Paternoster, R. and Fisher, D., 2017. The foundation and re‐emergence of classical thought in
criminological theory: A brief philosophical history. The Handbook of the History and
Philosophy of Criminology, pp.173-188.
Pycroft, A., 2018. Consciousness in rather than of: advancing modest claims for the
development of phenomenologically informed approaches to complexity theory in
criminology. Journal of Theoretical and Philosophical Criminology, 10.
Sian, K., 2017. Born radicals? Prevent, positivism, and ‘race-thinking’. Palgrave
Communications, 3(1), pp.1-8.
West, R., 2017. Classical Criminology. The Wiley‐Blackwell Encyclopedia of Social Theory,
pp.1-4.
Wincup, E., 2017. Criminological research: Understanding qualitative methods. Sage.