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The Use and Usefulness of Criminology, 1751-2005: Enlightened Justice and Its Failures

Author

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  • Lawrence W. Sherman

    (Jerry Lee Center of Criminology, University of Pennsylvania, Department of Criminology)

Abstract

After a useful beginning in the eighteenth-century Enlightenment as both an experimental and analytic social science, criminology sank into two centuries of torpor. Its resurrection in the late twentieth century crime wave successfully returned criminology to the forefront of discovering useful, if not always used, facts about prevailing crime patterns and responses to crime. Criminology’s failures of “use†in creating justice more enlightened by knowledge of its effects is linked to the still limited usefulness of criminology, which lacks a comprehensive body of evidence to guide sanctioning decisions. Yet that knowledge is rapidly growing, with experimental (as distinct from analytic) criminology now more prominent than at any time since Henry Fielding founded criminology while inventing the police. The future of criminology may thus soon resemble medicine more than economics.

Suggested Citation

  • Lawrence W. Sherman, 2005. "The Use and Usefulness of Criminology, 1751-2005: Enlightened Justice and Its Failures," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 600(1), pages 115-135, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:600:y:2005:i:1:p:115-135
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716205278103
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Barbara R. Bergmann, 2005. "The Current State of Economics: Needs Lots of Work," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 600(1), pages 52-67, July.
    2. David P. Farrington, 2003. "British Randomized Experiments on Crime and Justice," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 589(1), pages 150-167, September.
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    Cited by:

    1. Dooley, Brendan D. & Rocque, Michael, 2023. "Criminology's future is in its past," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    2. Arandjelović, Ognjen, 2023. "Crime & Punishment: A Rethink," OSF Preprints jsxcf, Center for Open Science.

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