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No Excuse for Crime

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  • Ernest Van den Haag

    (Social Philosophy at New York University and Lecturer in Psychology and Sociology at the New School for Social Research)

Abstract

Criminologists often regard offenders as vic tims of conditions beyond their control or as "political prisoners," punished for "the inevitable consequences" of their socioeconomic status (S. I. Shuman). However, offenders do not become "political prisoners" unless their offenses were addressed to the sociopolitical system. Nor do crimes "inevitably" arise from poverty anymore than corruption inevitably arises from power. Therefore, neither poverty nor power are legal excuses. Criminal law always is meant to perpetuate the existing order, although Richard Quinney objects because the burden of legal restraint falls most heavily on the disadvantaged who are most tempted to disrupt the legal order. Yet the criminal law is meant to restrain those tempted to violate it. Quinney's view that socialism will solve "the crime problem" appears bereft of evidence. The comparative crime rates of blacks and whites are analyzed and the punitive and social reform approaches compared. They are found to be not alternative but cumulative.

Suggested Citation

  • Ernest Van den Haag, 1976. "No Excuse for Crime," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 423(1), pages 133-141, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:423:y:1976:i:1:p:133-141
    DOI: 10.1177/000271627642300112
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