International Journal on Criminology Volume 1, Number 1, Fall 2013 | Page 4

International Journal on Criminology––Volume 1––Number 1––Fall 2013
The Art Of Criminology In A Hostile Environment
Alain Bauer
“The necessity of teaching criminology has been unanimously declared
by all participants”.
This unanimity is unsurprising, since criminology already has a long history as a
scientific discipline. Following the works of Cesare Lombroso (1876), Enrico
Ferri (1881), and Raffaele Garofalo (1885), it developed through numerous
international congresses of criminal anthropology (Rome, 1885; Paris, 1889; Brussels,
1892; Geneva, 1896; Amsterdam, 1901; Turin, 1906; Cologne, 1911). This tradition
continued with international congresses of criminology (Rome, 1938; Paris, 1950;
London, 1955). However, all sciences are disposed to dissemination through organized
teaching.
In fact, at the first International Congress of Criminal Anthropology, Tarde,
supported by Enrico Ferri, proposed that students only be admitted to criminal law
courses on condition that they first joined a prisoner patronage society and that they took
part in weekly visits to prisons, either as groups or individually. In 1890, The Saint
Petersburg International Penitentiary Congress expressed a wish “that a chair of
penitentiary science be created in universities”. A similar wish was formulated in 1895 by
the Congress of the International Union of Penal Law held in Linz (Austria).
Since then, the idea has frequently been re-expressed. In London, in 1925, the Ninth
International Penitentiary Congress affirmed that “legal training should be complemented
by teaching of criminology”. The Third International Congress of Penal Law, the First
International Congress of Criminology and the Twelfth Penal and Penitentiary Congress
subsequently expressed similar wishes. Finally, on December 17, 1952, the Meeting of
Specialized Agencies and Non-Governmental Organizations Interested in the Prevention
of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders, gathered in Geneva under the auspices of the
UN, recommended:
1° that universities teach criminology and criminological subjects, according to local
traditions, possibilities, and skills;
2° that this teaching be compulsory for those wishing to become judiciary or
paralegal professionals;
3° that this teaching have recourse, more widely, to clinical exercises.
Thus, criminology teaching is thought to be necessary not only by criminologists
themselves, but by all those involved in preventing crime and treating offenders. In fact,
in most countries, there is a surge of opinion demanding a transformation of justice and
penal administration. Police, magistrates, and prison staff everywhere feel the need for a
change in their methods. However, in all countries, when they want to act on their good
intentions, they find their efforts blocked by a severe or even total lack of norms and
precedents. This situation has driven the most determined among them to undertake a
difficult task, basing their efforts on practical experience alone, and faced every day with
the proof that good will alone can change little. They therefore want scientific training in
criminology to be put in place, to help them steer their efforts in the right direction.
They see this training as particularly indispensable since penal and penitentiary
reform has created, alongside the traditional auxiliary staff within the penal service (such
as medical examiners and psychiatric experts), a new breed of auxiliary staff including
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