International Journal on Criminology Volume 1, Number 1, Fall 2013 | Page 14

The Art of Criminology in a Hostile Environment
humanities and the social, economic, or political sciences. When the observations are
practical, we see a return to their disciplinary origin, even if this is highly disputed: Can
psychiatry really be a way of understanding all criminal behavior? Does sociology have
all the answers? Can psychology be sure of the origin of criminal ideas and acts, of the
victim’s position etc, when their fragmentation necessitates a selective vision if
totalitarianism is to be avoided? 7
Because criminology in France is seen as a specialism and not as a discipline, the
effects of norms and changes to norms give little occasion for study that might enrich the
perspectives of public policies for the territory or the town in question. The discipline
thus gives little attention to collective criminality (organized crime and terrorism), to
transnational criminality (cartels and mafias), to forms of criminality attributable to the
state of the modern world (the “dark side” of globalization), or to the development of
criminal networks with the opening up of markets, the development of new technologies
and new forms of consumerism.
The National Criminology Conference, which benefited from the presence of field
professionals and analyzed observations by representatives of diverse origins and
opinions in an attempt to end the clandestine practices of members and partial
institutions, 8 submitted its conclusions in July 2011. The report only began to pose
problems for some when, after a few reformulations and conditions, it came to creating a
criminology department. The decree creating such a department within the National
Council of Universities, as well as the educational and research structures to accompany
it, was published in the official journal of March 15, 2012. It was repealed in August of
the same year, due to a change in the political majority.
France’s National Criminology Conference aimed to make global and integrated
research in the undergraduate, masters, and doctoral systems possible 9 and to guarantee
democratic access for all (this is not currently the situation in private or even public
university programs). Initial, specialized, or ongoing training for teachers, researchers,
and professionals in the penal system or generally involved in dealing with crimes
committed or suffered would ideally guarantee scientific content based on an ethic of
independence and freedom of the universities, as required by the traditional deontology
of university personnel and by the pedagogical imperatives that they follow. In the words
of Edgar Morin and Stéphane Hessel, these considerations are typical “of a love of the
knowledge delivered and the people that it is delivered to”. 10
There are three easily identifiable levels of criminological intervention. The first is
prevention programs for all forms of vulnerability, corresponding to various professions,
which aim to reduce the risk factors affecting vulnerable children and adolescents. These
programs aim to strengthen protection measures and assist harmonious (re)integration.
The second, when prevention fails, is intervention throughout the penal process by
professionals with critical knowledge based on experience and exposure to research.
Their knowledge areas range from the effects of violent acts to those of past violence, as
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7
“Science ou justice. Les savants, l’ordre et la loi” Autrement 145 (1994), Série
Mutations/sciences en société.
8
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The price of these clandestine practices is high: the partisans of existing disciplines ensure that
many criminology teaching jobs go to pre-selected or inside candidates, and many teachers
expressing an interest in criminology are passed over for promotion.
L. Villerbu, Rapport Villerbu, 39-62.
E. Morin and S. Hessel. Le chemin de l’espérance (Paris: Fayard, 2011), 20-21.
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