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From International Socialism (1st series), No.28, Spring 1967, p.32.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
The Roots of Evil
Christopher Hibbert
Penguin, 9s 6d
Hibbert is another of the liberal commentators whose heart is in the right place. It is difficult to demand a great deal more of ‘commentators’ in the current climate of ‘influential’ opinion. European and American liberalism have produced a commendable corpus of criminological work now, historical and sociological in emphasis. The task still remains for the Marxist criminologist to bring out some total view of the criminal process and its function in advanced ‘liberal’ capitalist society. The field remains a barren one for the Marxist – he is left only with Wilhelm Bonger’s Influence of Economic Conditions on Crime (1905) – a crude ‘Capitalism is Criminogenic’ thesis, which does not stand the rigour of modern research methodology, or theoretical postulates. The advance of ‘pragmatism’ in British criminology, encouraged and controlled by the fact-finding Home Office researchers and their friends in the universities, can only be met by the advance of some more helpful overall theoretical work. The Marxist interpretation of crime will otherwise be Bonger’s by default.
It may well be that the factual background for such a task will be easily available in the long historical sweeps like that of Hibbert’s. Large amounts of they essential information are there; but the cosy positivism of the writer’s approach detracts from those merits. Mannheim’s Comparative Criminology will more readily stand the test of time.
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