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1 - A systemic perspective on crime

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 September 2009

By
Mario Bunge
Edited by
Per-Olof H. Wikström  and
Robert J. Sampson
Mario Bunge
Affiliation:
Professor Department of Philosophy McGill University, Montreal
Per-Olof H. Wikström
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
Robert J. Sampson
Affiliation:
Harvard University, Massachusetts
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Summary

Crime is the most harmful and yet the least understood of any kind of deviant behavior. A possible reason for this is that it comes in very many shapes, from plagiarism to fraud, from deception to betrayal, from shoplifting to corporate swindle and from homicide to mass murder. Another reason for our limited understanding of crime is the traditional view that it is a sin to be punished rather than prevented. This retributive attitude, rooted in the primitive desire for revenge, blocks both the search for crime mechanisms and the design of effective prevention and rehabilitation programs. Furthermore, it makes crime an exclusive subject for psychology, the law, morals, or religion, and thus it isolates criminology from the social sciences and technologies instead of placing it squarely in their midst.

The social sciences, in particular anthropology, social psychology, sociology, and history, teach us several important lessons about crime. One of them is that there are many types of crime besides theft and homicide. For instance, there are environmental crimes such as pollution, political crimes such as the suppression of dissent, and cultural crimes such as ideological censorship. Another lesson is that whoever is really interested in reducing the delinquency rate, instead of waging vociferous but ineffective “wars on crime,” should try and uncover the causes of crime with a view to redesigning social policies instead of focusing on punishment, particularly since the traditional jail has proved to be a school of crime.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Explanation of Crime
Context, Mechanisms and Development
 , pp. 8 - 30
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2006

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