After reading chapter four, I found the Demonic Era to be the most compelling and intriguing to me. The reason I chose this is because people in this era were unable to believe that people had a choice to do bad or good, they believed that a person was born either bad or good and had no choice of their outcome. This idea was known as the divine providence or predestination. Another part of the demonic era was the belief in Karma. Karma is believed to pass from one life to another so every time you are reincarnated, whatever Karma you had was passed on to your next life. People then believed that if you were suffering in this life bad karma was to blame and if things were good then good karma was because of the positive lives you led in the past. The final major religious explanation for evil in the world is dualism. This was based on the belief that there was an existence of a malevolent power wrestling for control of the universe with the forces of good. In most versions of dualism the evil force is destined to lose the struggle with God (http://www.criminology.fsu.edu/crimetheory.htm).
With the way the world is today and with all of the different laws we live with, I find it hard to believe that people hundreds of years ago lived with these beliefs. I do believe that there is a God but also have the ability to know that people make choices in life or are raised a certain way and that is the reason people do bad or break laws.
The classical and neoclassical schools of thought in criminology share some similarities. Among these are neither of them follow any superstitious beliefs and do not believe that people were born either bad or good and all of our actions are decided by a higher being (Vold, G. Bernard, T. and Snipes, J. (1998) Theoretical Criminology. Oxford University press, Oxford). They also share in the belief that mental illness can cause what used to be blamed on possession or supernatural.
The differences between the two...