The backdrop for the creation of the classical school of criminology was
             the movement in Europe, traditionally referred to as the Enlightenment.
             Generally, the Italian thinker Cesare Beccaria is credited with the
             creation of classical criminology, but it is important to remember that in
             creating his ideas, he did not so much generate original concepts as link
             together and systematize the ideas that were already circulating in the
             Enlightenment in to a cohesive theory of criminology. His influences were
             thinkers, such as Locke, Bacon, Rousseau, and Diderot. At the heart of his
             conception was the belief, taken from Locke, that the was an underlying
             system of natural laws, which one could use as the basis of human law:
             A law of nature is a law prescribing conduct which is separate from
             and independent of the conventions of mankind: independent, that is,
             of the positive laws of states, and of established social conventions
             or customs . . . positive law or social convention may or may not
             correspond in fact to what is required by nature.
             (Locke 15)
             In this spirit then, Beccaria and his followers sought to examine
             criminology in terms of its underpinnings and how it was to be treated.
             They proceeded on this route by defining several characteristics of humans,
             including the Cartesian notion that man is fundamentally a rational animal
             Jeremy Bentham, the British philosopher, extended Beccaria's ideas
             and was also influential in setting the groundwork for the classical
             school. His ideas consisted of the conception that it was the pleasure
             principal and the avoidance of pain, or rather a primary sort of hedonism
             that was the main functioning element by which humans lived. He felt this
             urge so primary that he even began his major work on criminology, The
             Principles of Morals and Legislation, wit...