BOOK: Scott JACQUES, Philip SCHOFIELD (eds.), Jeremy Bentham on Police. The unknown story and what it means for criminology (London: UCL Press, 2021), ISBN: 9781787356177 OPEN ACCESS

(Image source: UCL Press)

ABOUT THE BOOK

Jeremy Bentham’s ideas on punishment are famous. Every criminology student learns about Bentham, and every criminologist contends with him, as advocate or opponent. This discourse concerns his ideas about punishment, namely with respect to legislation and the panopticon. Yet, scholars and students are generally ignorant of Bentham’s ideas on police. Hitherto, these ideas have been largely unknowable. Now, thanks to UCL’s Bentham Project, these ideas are public. Jeremy Bentham on Police celebrates this achievement by exploring the story of Bentham’s writings on police and considering their relevance to the past, present and future of criminology. After Scott Jacques introduces the book, the Director of the Bentham Project, Philip Schofield, describes and explains how it works. Then Michael Quinn, who brought together Bentham’s writings on police, delves into the personal and socio-historical background in which they were created. An extract follows, representing the most (criminologically-)relevant passages from Bentham’s police writings. Finally, a rich variety of scholars offer their thoughts on what those writings mean for criminology. These contributions come from Anthony A. Braga, Ronald Clarke, David J. Cox, Stephen Douglas, Stephen Engelmann, G. Geltner, Joel F. Harrington, Jonathan Jacobs, Paul Knepper, Gloria Laycock, Gary T. Marx, Daniel S. Nagin, Graeme R. Newman, Pat O’Malley, Eric L. Piza, Kim Rossmo, Lucia Summers and Dean Wilson.

ABOUT THE EDITORS

Scott Jacques is Director of Criminology Open, and Professor of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Georgia State University.

Philip Schofield is Director of the Bentham Project, Faculty of Laws, UCL, and General Editor of the new authoritative edition of The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Part I: Chapters

1. The Story of Jeremy Bentham on Police: Bridging the Bentham Project to Criminology (Scott Jacques)
2. Jeremy Bentham, the Bentham Project and The Collected Works of Jeremy Bentham (Philip Schofield)
3. Bentham on Preventive Police: The Calendar of Delinquency in Evaluation of Policy, and the Police Gazette in Manipulation of Opinion (Michael Quinn)

Part II: Extracts

4. Extracts from Jeremy Bentham’s Board-of-Police Bill (Jeremy Bentham, Selected and edited by Philip Schofield and Scott Jacques)

Part III: Comments

• The Influence of Bentham on the Development of Focused Deterrence (Anthony A. Braga and Stephen Douglas)
• Regulating Crime and the International Crime Drop (Ronald Clarke)
• ‘An Attention to Domestic Quiet’: A Comparative Commentary on the Originality or Otherwise of Bentham’s Views and Writings on Preventive Policing and the Police Gazette (David J. Cox)
• Bentham’s Virtue (Stephen Engelmann)
• On Policing Before Bentham: Differences in Degree and Differences in Kind (G. Geltner)
• Bentham’s England and the Longue Durée of Preventive Policing (Joel F. Harrington)
• Bentham on the Complex Role of Police (Jonathan Jacobs)
• Bentham and Historical Criminology (Paul Knepper)
• Bentham: The First Crime Scientist? Gloria Laycock)
• Bentham on Modern Social Control: Prescient, Clairvoyant, Prescient, and More (Gary T. Marx)
• Utilitarianism and Policing in the US (Daniel S. Nagin)
• Bentham in the Weeds (Graeme R. Newman)
• A Genealogy of Bentham’s Preventive Policing (Pat O’Malley)
• Bentham on Crime Analysis and Evidence-Based Policing (Eric L. Piza)
• Bentham and the Philosophical Nature of Preventive Policing (Kim Rossmo and Lucia Summers)
• Bentham in the Colonies (Dean Wilson)

More information can be found here. The entire publication can be read and downloaded at this link.