Global Criminology and National Tradition. The Impact of Reform Movements on Criminal Systems at the Beginning of the 20th Century.

Entanglements in Legal History: Conceptual Approaches Thomas Duve (ed.) ISBN: 978-3-944773-00-1

Posted: 13 Dec 2013

See all articles by Michele Pifferi

Michele Pifferi

University of Ferrara - Faculty of Law

Date Written: December 11, 2013

Abstract

This article focuses on the international movement towards individualization of punishment between the 1870s and the 1930s as a model to study how legal theories developed in a global scientific dialogue have been differently shaped according to national traditions. Even if interpreted in different ways, the common idea shared by prison reformers, exponents of the new criminological science and a large part of public opinion in Europe, United States and Latin America necessitated a radical change from repression to prevention. The main focus shifted from crime as an abstract entity to criminals as natural, social human beings immersed in a complex network of environmental, social, economic conditions which affected their behavior. Nonetheless, the ‘criminological wave’ between the 1880s and the 1930s was not a uniform international parenthesis, but reflected in its variety the differences between American and European legal cultures and their notion of the principle of legality.

Keywords: individualization of punishment, indeterminate sentence, global history and global criminology, penological tradition, measures of security

Suggested Citation

Pifferi, Michele, Global Criminology and National Tradition. The Impact of Reform Movements on Criminal Systems at the Beginning of the 20th Century. (December 11, 2013). Entanglements in Legal History: Conceptual Approaches Thomas Duve (ed.) ISBN: 978-3-944773-00-1 , Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2366402

Michele Pifferi (Contact Author)

University of Ferrara - Faculty of Law ( email )

C.so Ercole I° d'Este 37
Ferrara, I-44121
Italy

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