Historical Roots of International Concern and Action In The Field Of Crime

Abstract

Although the Biblical story of creation opens with transgression by our first parents, one of whose two sons slew the other (the first instance of genocide?), the world had to wait several millennia before international attention was centered on the understanding of criminal phenomena. This year marks the 150th anniversary of the first international gathering to ponder the extent, causes and the most propitious methods of dealing with crime. Since 1835 there have been more than 100 international gatherings attended by thousands of participants who presented papers, listened to reports and argued over the same basic problems that bedevil us today. There is hardly an innovative program in criminology which has not drawn from the experience and the contributions of many nations and many cultures: probation, juvenile courts, fingerprinting, the rise of the penitentiary and the reformatory, parole, correctional staff training, the role of psychology and psychiatry, sentencing, prevention of crime, community al...