Crimtim

1764

Italy: Cesare Beccaria's Dei delitti e delle pene published in Italian. It was translated into French, and from the French into English as An Essay on Crimes and Punishment (1767) with a commentary attributed to Voltaire.

Beccaria's Essay on Crimes and Punishment is taken as the first formulation of the principles of classical criminology. It is called classical because the later "positivist school of criminology" saw itself as a modern development that moved beyond the classical by being more "scientific" than "philosophic". (See dictionary). Beccaria built on the idea of "social contract" used by state of nature theorists such as Hobbes and (later) Rousseau, and on theories later called utilitarian (Helvetius and David Hume).

This is how Taylor, Walton and Young (page 2) claim classical theory can be summarised in seven points. Jennifer Seelig has identified parts of Beccaria's Essay on Crimes and Punishment that may illustrate six of the points. I have linked through to these.

1) Everyone is, by nature, self-seeking and this means everyone is liable to commit crime.

2) There is a consensus in society that it is desirable to protect private property and personal welfare

3) In order to prevent a war of all against all, people freely enter into a contract with the state to preserve the peace within the terms of this consensus.

4) Punishment must be used to deter individuals from violating the interests of others. It is the prerogative [monopoly? - see Weber] of the state, granted to it by the individuals making up the social contract, to act against these violations.

5) Punishments must be proportional to the interests violated by the crime. It must not be in excess of this, neither must it be used for reformation; for this would be encroach on the rights of the individual and transgress the social contract. [This is a contentious aspect of the Taylor, Walton, Young summary - But they do not back it up]

6) There should be as little law as possible, and its implementation should be closely delineated by due process

7) The individual is responsible for his actions and is equal, no matter what his rank, in the eyes of the law. Mitigating circumstances or excesses are therefore inadmissible.

1776

Britain Jeremy Bentham's A Fragment of Government published Criticising Blackstone's conservative theory. In 1768, Bentham had decided to provide a scientific foundation for jurisprudence and legislation. He formulated the principle of utility, that the greatest happiness of the greatest number is the only proper measure of right and wrong and the only proper end of government. His early manuscripts frequently mention Helvetius and Beccaria

Bentham and Crime and Punishment

Bentham's theories relate crime to learning more than to inborn propensities. His psychology is based on the association of ideas.

Utilitarian theory: One needs a balance of pain and pleasure that will lead to people doing what is socially desirable:

External link: The French Revolution and the organisation of justice

John Lewis Gillin says that, following the French Revolution, Beccaria's principles were used as the basis for the French Code of 1791. Beccaria had said

"crimes are only to be measured by the injury done to society. ... They err ... who imagine that a crime is greater or less according to the intention of the person by whom it is committed."

So the French code said exactly what the penalty for for every crime should be. Individual circumstances were not taken into account. In practice, this caused problems and modifications were introduced. Gillin says that these modifications "are the essence of the so-called neoclassical school".

The Code d'instruction criminelle of 1808 set out the procedures for investigating and judging. See Wikipedia

Code pénal de 1810 - a translation into English - see dictionary

Established by Napoleon Bonaparte on 12.2.1810. It was later revised, but remained into force until replaced by a new Penal code on 1.3.1994. John Lewis Gillin says that, The Code of 1810 permitted some discretion on the part of the judges. (See 1791 Code)

"The first attempts to tackle the problem of crime scientifically were social rather than biological. The transition between classicism and positivism was largely effected by the 'moral statisticians'" New Criminology p.37

Moral statistics just means statistics about the human as distinct from the physical or natural. Examples of its use are the titles of Bisset Hawkins book on Germany in 1838 - von Oettingen's book relating to social ethics in 1868 - and Morselli's book on Suicide in 1879. Nowadays we are more likely to call such statistics: social statistics

1835

Belgium and France Adolphe Quetelet's Sur l'homme et le dévelopment de ses facultés ou Essai de physique sociale published in Paris. It was translated into English and published in 1842 as A Treatise on Man and the Development of his Faculties. Quetelet put forward the concept of the "average man".

France Jean Étienne Dominique Esquirol's Des maladies mentales, considées sous les rapports medédical, hygienique et médico-légal published in Paris. Translated into English as Mental Maladies. A Treatise on Insanity in 1845 (Philadelphia)

From the end of July to early October 1841: Elizabeth Fry accompanied her brother and others on a tour of Holland, Germany, Prussia and Denmark. She carried with her a letter of introduction from Prince Albert (Queen Victoria's husband) to the King of Prussia. Their meeting was friendly and concluded with Elizabeth urging the king to mark his reign by "the prisons being so reformed that punishment might become the reformation of criminals; by the lower classes being religiously educated; and by the slaves in their colonies being liberated". (Whitney, J. 1937 p.229)

She visited Copenhagen in August 1841. At this time the Danish Prison Commission of 1840 had come to the conclusion that the Auburn (Silent) model was preferable to the Pensylvania (Separate) system for Denmark. Elizabeth Fry campaigned on the importance of religion to changing criminal behaviour and, as a result of her effort, Denmark built one Auburn model prison (Horsens tugthus - opened in 1853) and one Pennsylvania model (vridsløselille - opened in 1859. [Two other Danish prisons: Blegdammens fængsel opened in 1848, Vestre Fængsel in 1895] (Information from Victoria Olesen, history student, Roskilde University in Denmark)

Neo-classical criminology adapts classical criminology in the light of positivist thought. It might, for example, argue that most crimes are the result of rational choice, but that an exception must be made for people who are mentally ill. On this distinction, it has been argued that the French Penal Code of 1791 was a strictly classical one, but that subsequent revisions were neo- classical. Others argue that the neo-classical school of thought "emerged between 1880 and 1920, and is still with us today" (external source). Authors who have been identified as neo-classical include

James Anson Farrer, Crimes and Punishments, including a new translation of Beccaria's "Dei Delitti e delle Pene.". Published: London : Chatto and Windus, 1880.

Henri Joly, Le Crime. Etude sociale. Published: Paris, Versailles [printed], 1888.

Gabriel Tarde (1843-1904) and his pupil Raymond Saleilles (1898).

First Annual Report (1932) stated aims as:

To initiate and promote scientific research into the causes and prevention of crime.

To establish observation centres and clinics for diagnosis and treatment of delinquency and crime

To coordinate and consolidate existing scientific work in the prevention of delinquency and crime.

To secure cooperation between all bodies engaged in similar work in all parts of the world, and ultimately to promote an international organisation.

To assist and advise through the medium of scientific experts the judicial and magisterial bench, the hospitals and government departments in the investigation, diagnosis and treatment of suitable cases.

To promote and assist in promoting educational and training facilities for students in the scientific study of delinquency and crime.

To promote discussion and to educate the opinion of the general public on these subjects by publications and by other means.

12.4.2005 Terrorism, Crime and the collapse of Civil Liberties: John Lea's address to the Criminology Society at Middlesex University. Better than the Albert Hall "I could not be happier with an audience of thousands in the Albert Hall", John Lea told the Middlesex University Criminology Society in the Lecture Theatre on Enfield Campus in April 2005.

Students and staff were equally pleased to listen to one the world's most cited criminologists make every part of his lecture clear and fascinating - Just as he has at every lecture since I first heard him thirty five years ago.

John's topic, "Terrorism, Crime and the Collapse of Civil Liberties" began with an exposition of one law. He explained clearly the constitutional arguments against the United Kingdom's 2005 Prevention of Terrorism Act.

Although it "might be argued that terrorism is a special case and requires special measures", John outlined other erosions of established legal safeguards in a succession of United Kingdom criminal laws.

By now anxious about the open, legal state, we slipped into a greater state of anxiety as John explored law's intersection with the global secret state. He talked about "the formation of a new type of globalised system of coercive information extraction" since the destruction of the World Trade Centre in September 2001 and the subsequent war to control Afghanistan. The first stage was establishing Guantánamo Bay in Cuba for the reception of those to be interrogated - And claiming it as an area of United States administration outside the protection of United States law and, in certain respects, outside of international law. The secret state seeks to be secret, but John claimed enough has been revealed about Guantánamo to recognise it as intersecting with UK law and security, and not just the responsibility of the United States. British citizens recently released from Guantánamo have said that they were interviewed by British security service (MI6) officers whilst they were there.

Since the US legal system has asserted its jurisdiction over any territory administered by the United States, Guantánamo's usefulness has declined and has been replaced by a system of truly international interrogation. John documented reports of large numbers of people who "disappear" and are sent for interrogation in countries where the US courts cannot reach them.

"There are now possibly up to 10,000 ghost detainees in this new global system of incarceration and interrogation and permanent detention without trial".

This secret international system intersects with the provisions of national law openly debated and processed through Parliament. The 2005 Prevention of Terrorism Act allows the Home Secretary to issue a control order on the basis of "reasonable suspicion" that someone is involved in terrorist activity. John argued that "some of the evidence" leading to this suspicion may come, via the UK security services, from the USA. "In short, evidence extracted by coercive interrogation may find itself into the working of the new British anti-terror regime".

By focusing on one law and its inter-relationships, John sought to show that the threat to civilised, liberal, society is much much wider than one law.

Part of his argument, somewhat mysteriously called "trickle up", is that "anti-terrorist" developments are not a simple response to terrorism, but a single feature of a general turning away from the "steady growth in the stability of international legality" since the second world war. They are just one element in the move towards what international lawyer Philip Sands has called "A Lawless World" (Sands 2005). The dirty water also "trickles down", contaminating public standards and expectations of the rule of law, and undermining liberty in areas unrelated to terrorism. What we are looking at, according to John's title, is a "collapse of civil liberties".

Our pond of national law now sloshes about in a global ocean. Placing UK law in the context of the global secret state was a strength of John's analysis. Its inevitable weakness was not having time to place that in the context of a changing world political structure. What began as criticism of a single national law, ended, for me, with unanswered questions about the fate of liberty in a post-national world and what international measures might defend it.

"Terrorism, Crime and the Collapse of Civil Liberties" is available as work in progress at http://www.bunker8.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/misc/terror.htm.

John Lea's talk was the third in a series of well-attended events organised by Middlesex University Criminological Society this year. Student organiser Fitzroy Maxwell (Max), who has himself given enormous enthusiasm and energy to organising the events, credited their success to team work.