Classical school (criminology) Classical school (criminology) In criminology, the Classical School usually refers to the 18th-century work during the Enlightenment by the utilitarian and social-contract philosophers Jeremy Bentham and Cesare Beccaria. Their interests lay in the system of criminal justice and penology and indirectly, through the proposition that "man is a calculating animal", in the causes of criminal behavior. The Classical School of thought was premised on the idea that people have free will in making decisions, and that punishment can be a deterrent for crime, so long as the punishment is proportional, fits the crime, and is carried out promptly. The system
The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham in many points of detail, and which omits Bentham's writings on religion; and also the 3-volume "Jeremy Bentham's Economic Writings" (1952–54) edited by Werner Stark, which has likewise been subject to criticism. The series is being published under the auspices of the Bentham Project at University College London, whose library holds the majority of Bentham's surviving manuscripts. Since 2010 the Project has also run Transcribe Bentham, a project for transcribing Bentham's manuscripts through crowdsourcing, the output of which is intended, once edited, to appear in future "Collected Works" volumes. The Bentham Project is governed by the Bentham Committee, which was