The Concept of the Political Criminal

Abstract

The political crime is perhaps the oldest of all crime-types. It is virtually impossible to find a history of any society which does not record political criminals. They have always existed, they exist now, and they will exist in the future, in spite of the historical experience that the ideal behind the political crime is often destroyed the moment it becomes reality. Although political crime is the oldest and most recurring criminal phenomenon of history, it has been largely ignored by criminologists. It has been considered merely a criminological satellite, a strange body of law violations revolving around the concept of ordinary crimes. This neglect of political crimes by criminologists and other social scientists is all the more surprising because the available data are quite extensive and there are no peculiar difficulties in attempting to analyze them. If we view only contemporary twentieth-century history, the most profound changes we find are political. The rise and fall of empires, charismatic leaders, races, classes and social systems have been the dominant features of these changes, and almost without exception these changes involved political crimes. It may be that the overly behavioral approach of contemporary criminology has been more interested in the expressions and results of conduct than in the conduct itself. Furthermore, any analysis of political criminals might be facilitated by a finding that most of them seem to exhibit common elements. Political criminals may generally be termed methodological kleptomaniacs who steal style from one another. Acknowledged by writers in the past as the passionate offenders, the political criminals of our time are simply technologically modern criminals wearing the cloak of old age. As the problem of political crime becomes more topical, it is difficult to feel anything except disquietude at experiencing so many revolutions, upheavals, and violet social movements. Yet this dis-