International Journal on Criminology Volume 1, Number 1, Fall 2013 | страница 12

The Art of Criminology in a Hostile Environment
The text above is plagiarized. The words do not belong to the person citing them. It
is not a modern text. It dates back to 1956 and was written by Denis Carroll and Jean
Pinatel for the UNESCO Congress on Criminology. The Congress took place in Paris.
Criminology developed everywhere…everywhere except France.
In fact, since the 1950s, academic pressures have never stopped pitching disciplinary
monopolies against criminology’s fight to be recognized as a scientific discipline.
Criminology is essentially just one in a long line of disciplines defending its turf as part
of a struggle for recognition. Yet these other struggles have been rapidly forgotten. In
fact, criminology is not the only discipline to have suffered. Before it, the oriental
languages (under Francis I of France), the sciences and technologies, economy and
management (during the French Revolution), political science (during the Second
Empire) and many other disciplines including penal law and journalism were not
accepted by the old Sorbonne. The situation is, unfortunately, nothing new.
One might think that Emile Durkheim himself would have been able to resolve this
famous controversy: “[…] A number of acts can be observed, all with the external
characteristic that once accomplished, they provoke this particular reaction from society
known as punishment. We make of them a group sui generis, on which we impose a
common rubric. We call any punished act a crime, thus making crime the focus of a
dedicated science: Criminology”. The rules of sociological method (Les règles de la
méthode sociologique, 1895), PUF, Quadrige, 1981, 35.
Others have also made determined and equally worthy efforts to define criminology:
Jacques Léaute, in Criminology and penitentiary law (Criminologie et science
pénitentiaire, P.U.F., 1972), states that “The aim of criminology is the scientific study of
the whole criminal phenomenon”.
Stefani, Gaston, Georges Levasseur and R. Jambu-Merlin, Criminology and
penitentiary law (Criminologie et science pénitentiaire, Fifth Edition, 1982) state that
“The criminological sciences are those that study delinquency in order to look for its
causes, its origins, its processes and consequences”.
Gassin, Raymond. Criminology (Criminologie, Précis Dalloz, Sixth Edition, 2007)
defines it as “[…] the science that studies the factors and processes of criminal action and
which determines, using knowledge of these factors and processes, the best means of
combat to contain and if possible reduce this social ill”.
Ellenberger. Criminology past and present (Criminologie du passé et du present,
1966) asserts that “Alongside the general sciences, criminology belongs to the complex
sciences, and like them it is recognizable by the following characteristics:
1. [It is] located at a crossroads with sciences from which […] it remains separate,
but to which it is related […];
2. It is not purely theoretical, and is given meaning only by its practical application
[…];
3. It is neither entirely general nor entirely specific, but rather it constantly moves
back and forth from general to specific, specific to general […];
4. It works not only with scientific concepts but also with concepts expressing value
judgments […];
5. It is characterized by an independent ethical goal: To prevent crime, rather than
have to punish it. If punishment is necessary, the minimum effective punishment should
be used, and reeducation should be combined with the punishment […]”
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