Pre classical school of criminology:

The demonological school is another name for the pre-classical school. With the supremacy of the
church and religion in Europe during the 17th century, the demonological hypothesis flourished.
There were few scientific explanations for the causes of crime at the time, and the concept of crime
was imprecise and ambiguous. As a result, spirits, demons, and mysterious power were invoked to
explain criminal behaviour. The underlying notion was that a man commits a crime owing to the
influence of an external force that is beyond man's control and comprehension. God's wrath was
thought to be used to punish the wrongdoers. The violators were pursued through battles and stone
pelting, with the belief that if the criminal was innocent, no harm would be done.

As scientific knowledge was yet unknown, the concept of crime was hazy and ambiguous. It was
thought that a man's actions were guided by a higher power or spirit, and that he was naturally
simple. It was thought that a man commits a crime because of the power of 'Demons' or 'Devils.' As
a result, an offender commits a crime under the influence of an external superpower rather than of
its own free will. However, little attempt was made to investigate the true reasons of crime. The
proponents of the pre-classical school's demonological view of criminality acknowledged the
omnipotence of spirit, which they regarded as a great power.

The crimes and criminals were accepted as proof of actuality, and the individual was in possession of
the 'Devil' and 'Demon,' with the only means to heal it being a testimony of the spirit's efficiency.
Worships, sacrifices, and water and fire ordeals were commonly recommended to identify the spirit
and free the person from its control. Battle trials were a typical method of judging a criminal's fate.

Classical school of criminology:

Cesare Beccaria, Jeremy Bentham, and Romilly are the founders of the classical school of
criminology. This school's main belief is that all men are self-seeking, and hence are tempted to do
the crime. Men, according to this school, have free will and behave according to their pleasures and
pains (hedonism). This school rejects the demonism idea, which states that men act under the power
of spirits.

Beccaria recommended that the penalty be proportionate to the severity of the crime. Beccaria
believed that torture was inappropriate and that by allowing the weak to implicate and the strong to
be pronounced innocent before the adjudication, the powerful would be judged guilty. Classicalists,
who focus on crime rather than the criminal, follow Beccaria's viewpoint. Instead of punishment, the
classical school emphasises the notion of deterrence.

Neo-classical school of criminology:

There is a difference between entire free will and determinism, according to this idea, and no one
possesses total free will. The neoclassical approach permits a judge to consider mitigating factors at
his discretion. Prior to the establishment of this institution, all offenders were treated the same
regardless of their age, mental health, gender, or other factors. Because Neo-Classicalists considered
this as unfair and unjust, they allowed change to occur. This theory allows for the inclusion of
mitigating factors such as the individual's physical and social environment.

Neo-classists took a scientific approach to criminology, recognising that certain extenuating

circumstances or mental diseases rob a person of his normal capacity to control his behaviour. As a
result, they justified the leniency of equal punishment in the case of certain psychotic criminals. Prof.
Gillin commented on this subject, saying that neo-classists are a reaction to the severity of the
classical idea of equal punishment for the same crime. Neo-classists were among the first to draw a
distinction between first-time offenders and repeat offenders. They favoured offender
individualization and therapy approaches that needed the penalty to be tailored to the accused's
psychopathic circumstances. Though the 'act,' i.e., the criminal conduct, continued to be the sole
determining criterion for assessing criminality without regard to purpose, the neo-classists indirectly
focused on mental causation.