ADVENTURES IN CRIMINOLOGY Sir Leon Radzinowicz is one of the leading figures in the development of criminology in the twentieth century, working as an academic criminologist, an adviser to governments and as the founding Director of the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge. This account intertwines Sir Leon’s personal narrative as a criminologist with the development of criminology itself. Drawing on his long career spanning seventy years, from the 1920s to the present day, he writes about fundamental changes which have affected our understanding of crime and criminals, of criminal justice and penal systems, and of the tensions and dilemmas these pose for democratic societies. He offers a unique perspective on the intellectual and institutional history of criminology within a wide comparative perspective. CONTENTS List of plates x Foreword by The Rt. Hon. The Lord Woolf, Master of the Rolls xi Acknowledgements xiv 1 At the creation 1 The maestro 1 The status quo 4 New horizons 9 The design of a Code of Social Defence 14 The demise of criminological positivism 19 2 From an active volcano to a well-ordered scenery 26 Return to Geneva 26 Swiss old and new ways 30 Carl Stooss 32 Searching for a via-media 33 Going beyond traditional punishment 36 Social defence slides into social aggression 38 The pioneer left behind his œuvre 41 Some preconditions for penal progress 43 3 Towards a medical model of criminal justice 48 Pressures for change in Belgium 48 Criminal anthropology at work 54 Dr Louis Vervaeck Anthropological penitentiary services Psychiatric annexes Devising a penal network 62 Psychiatrists at the penal helm 66 v CONTENTS 4 A penological cul-de-sac 71 An uninspiring academic cast 71 A reactionary Ministry of Justice 72 Moving towards authoritarianism 73 Involvement and frustration 74 A put-up job to discredit me 77 My departure 77 Jumping ahead in time: tempting me to return to Poland (1945) and a disappointing visit (1978) 78 5 Trying to break down traditional barriers 80 My mission to England 80 Paradoxical and unique institutions 81 New directions in sentencing policy 86 Grappling with persistent offenders 91 The young-adult recidivist The habitual and professional criminal The mentally defective A landmark in penal legislation 104 6 The socio-liberal approach to criminal policy 111 Idealism versus realism 111 An environment conducive to continued penal reform 114 The threat of reversal 119 Retribution—deterrence—reformation: could a balance be struck? 122 Two Home Secretaries: two contrasting profiles 125 Epilogue 130 7 Reaching the harbour 132 My debt to the Howard League for Penal Reform 132 My first English friend 133 The Cambridge legacy in criminal science 135 Sir James Fitzjames Stephen: a rigid Victorian Courtney Stanhope Kenny: a more subtle Edwardian The first step 141 Six thrusts to indicate the relevance of criminology to criminal law 143 Time for some personal work 153 vi CONTENTS 8 Putting criminology on the national map 164 Mr Butler takes charge of the Home Office 164 He resolves to become a reforming Home Secretary 168 Criminological research built into the Home Office 172 The grounding of independent criminological research and teaching 175 The initial step The first hurdle The second hurdle The course still bumpy 9 Making it work: infusing reality into an idea 192 Some false assumptions 192 The Cambridge Institute of Criminology 200 Inter-disciplinary foundation The postgraduate course Doctorates in criminology Undergraduate teaching Building bridges with the practical world: the Advanced Course in Criminology Another bridge: the Cropwood Fellowships Yet another bridge: Cropwood Round-Table Conferences Visiting Fellows to the Institute Programme of research Miscellaneous but connected activities National Conferences of Research and Teaching in Criminology Cambridge Studies in Criminology Building an international library of criminology Concluding remarks Welcomed recognitions 237 Essential acknowledgements 239 Lord Butler: a few scattered reminiscences 242 10 The awkward question of capital punishment 245 The six inconclusive but revealing stages 245 A deep-rooted schism disclosed A glimmer of hope A painful rebuff A resurgence of abolitionist pressures Followed by a humiliating rejection The government in the dock vii CONTENTS The Royal Commission on Capital Punishment 1949–53: a new departure or a move ‘to delay’ and ‘to postpone’? 252 The Chairman and the Secretary Some of its members The search for solutions 260 Reaching the end of the road 263 Yet a further period of equivocation 268 My further unexpected involvement in the subject 274 A very high potential for ferocity 278 11 An issue which refuses to go away 280 A bolt of lightning 280 Inspirations for change: humanity, religion, politics 282 Totalitarian distortions 286 The deadly weight of the United States 288 Forces of resistance 291 12 A prison system in crisis 294 A great escape 294 The perplexing concept of security 297 Lord Mountbatten takes command 299 Challenging Mountbatten’s solution 303 Moving towards a British Alcatraz? 307 Mountbatten’s report in abeyance 310 The zigzags of Mr Roy Jenkins 313 Rules of fairness to be observed when passing judgment on an inquiry 318 13 A fruitful approach to penal reform 322 Setting up an Advisory Council 322 An influential and dedicated group 324 A twenty-year involvement 327 No need for apology 331 14 The death of a Royal Commission 333 My early misgivings 333 Trying to avoid a catastrophe 337 On a collision course with the Home Office 341 Moving towards disintegration 344 The need to ‘revise’ Lord Windlesham’s account of how the end came about 346 The final lesson 351 viii CONTENTS 15 Seeking international solutions 353 The big issue out of the way 354 First steps towards penal co-operation 357 Governmental sponsorship of an international commission 359 Cracks and collapse 364 A plethora of voluntary initiatives 369 Penal standards and the League of Nations 376 Lending a hand at the United Nations 380 New congresses—old problems 387 Lending a hand at the Council of Europe 394 Summing-up 402 16 Some forays abroad and at home 405 Consultative work 405 Australia South Africa New York Washington Preaching the criminological gospel 416 Helping to transplant a foreign institution into English soil 421 A surprised co-midwife 424 17 A grim penal outlook 426 The authoritarian model 426 Tensions and dilemmas in democratic societies 429 18 A brief for criminology 440 This ‘barbarous neologism’ 440 The sterile search for the causes of crime 441 Limitations and prospects 448 Index of Names 470 ix PLATES 1 Enrico Ferri (1856–1929) 2 Paul Logoz (1888–1973) 3 Louis Vervaeck (1872–1943) 4 Paul-Émile Janson (1872–1944) 5 Comte Henri Carton de Wiart (1869–1951) 6 Henri Donnedieu de Vabres (1886–1968) 7 Cecil Turner (1886–1968) 8 H.A.Hollond (1884–1974) 9 Lord Butler (1902–82) 10 Herbert Wechsler (photographed in 1975) 11 Roger Hood (photographed in 1992) 12 Marc Ancel (1902–90) 13 Cambridge Institute of Criminology (photographed in 1968) 14 G.M.Trevelyan (1876–1962) 15 Sir Leon Radzinowicz (photographed in 1953) 16 Sir Leon Radzinowicz (photographed in 1965) x FOREWORD By The Rt. Hon. The Lord Woolf Master of the Rolls How marvellous that Sir Leon has been spared to write this great book. He approaches his ninety-second birthday and his century is in sight. His admirers and disciples all over the world will celebrate its publication and will want to congratulate him on yet another marvellous achievement. After all, it is a quarter of a century since he retired in 1972 and a more impressive seventy years since he graduated at the age of twenty-two, magna cum laude, from the Institute of Criminology in Rome. Professor Roger Hood, in the introduction to Sir Leon’s Festschrift—Crime, Criminology and Public Policy (1973)—accurately forecast it was impossible to imagine him in a state of leisurely retirement. There could not be a better time for the Adventures to be published. Criminology, thanks to Sir Leon’s influence, may be flourishing in Britain but the penal system of the country has lost its way. We have forsaken Sir Leon’s message and instead of tackling the fundamental causes of crime we are sending more and more people to prison for longer and longer periods, ignoring the expense and ignoring the effect of overcrowding on the ability of the Prison Service to promote training and education for the inmates which are its responsibility. In the early 1990s, the prison population was 40,000 and falling. The Prison Service was focusing on developing regimes, preparing prisoners for release and maintaining family links. The service was seeking to make the criticism, that prisons are an expensive way of making people worse, unjustified. Now the population is over 60,000 and rising and we are back to crisis management. Once again the cancer of overcrowding is eating at the heart of constructive initiatives promoted by the service. The lessons learnt as a result of the Strangeways epidemic of riots are being forgotten. Recent events underline the relevance of Sir Leon’s comment that ‘international experience shows that as public concern about crime and its control increases, pressures to roll back the liberal procedures for bringing offenders to justice become more acute’ (see p. 118). xi FOREWORD The present Labour government is having to pay for its failure to vigorously oppose the populist penal policies of the previous Conservative government. The sad spectacle of the previous government and the Opposition competing for the title of being the toughest on crime is now haunting the present government. As I write, a prison for child offenders is being established.1 The tabloids which bayed for the sentences which led to its creation are now expressing outrage at the cost of looking after the young criminals, said to be at least £125,000 per child per year.