Classics of Criminology Edited by Joseph Jacoby Essay

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Classics of Criminology edited by Joseph Jacoby is a collection of documents and essays by expert criminologists. Rather than present the different theories and histories of crime and the formulation of law, Jacoby includes the original writings by the men and women who created them. For example, instead of a summarized account of Jeremy Bentham's "An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation," the entirety of that text is presented in the book. The thesis of the compilation is that "if students read only about and not in criminology, their experience is but secondhand, and their conclusions are determined by textbook authors" (Jacoby 2004). This is why Jacoby does not include his own positions on the essays in the book. He wishes for every reader to view the original documents and formulate their own opinions about what they have read and now understand. There were several interesting and education essays in the collection, each one providing the reader with the author's first-person experiences and his or her own theoretical approaches to crime and the solving of crimes.

One particularly interesting article featured in the book was Jeremy Bentham's "An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation." This piece illustrates how some of the initial laws are based upon moral conditions. Laws, even today, are made based upon what is considered morally right or morally wrong as exemplified by the fact that some of the very basic laws of any land are based upon the religious principles of the majority. Bentham wrote "The business of government is to promote the happiness of the society" and that "The general tendency of an act is more or less pernicious, according to the sum total of its consequences: that is, according to the difference between the sum of such as are good, and the sum of such as are evil" (1781). Good and evil, of course, are subjective terms that are determined by the moral majority that governs a given society. What one group says is good and what another believes can be two entirely different concepts. A government is solely concerned with what their individual society believes to be the moral right.

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"Thou shalt not kill" is one of the Ten Commandments, but murder is also illegal because society has determined that killing another human being is wrong. Doubtful that anyone would disagree with this statement, but there are subjects which are more contentious and bring up often violent debates. In the United States, it used to be illegal to have abortions, but after the determination of Roe v. Wade, the procedures are currently legal. People on both sides of this debate are vehement that they are in the right and that the law should agree with them. Those who are pro-choice, site the law as being on their side and give this as evidence that the ability to choose is a person's legal as well as moral right. Those on the pro-life side of the equation, believe that abortion is a form of murder and contend that the government has made an immoral choice in making abortion legal in the country.

Rather than hypothesize how laws are made, many of the authors in the text discussed why people turn to crime. In the article "Crime and Deviance over the Life Course: The Salience of Adult Social Bonds," author Robert Sampson (2004), discusses his theory about how juvenile delinquents function. He examined two boys and tested his hypothesis that antisocial behavior in childhood can be a signal that the subject will have problems in adulthood in various areas of their life, including with relation to potential criminal activity. Sampson and his associates then state that social bonds during a person's adulthood will indicate changes in their behavior, both positive and negative. What the researchers have determine through their experimentation is that interaction with people will be a major factor in whether or not a person pursues criminal behavior or if he or she remains law-abiding. As much as external forces can influence a person into committing crimes, Sampson also believes that external forces can influence a criminal into retirement from that lifestyle. Theirs is a….....

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