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Chapter One
OFFENDING BEHAVIOUR PROGRAMMES:
HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT
Clive R. Hollin and Emma J. Palmer
University of Leicester
INTRODUCTION
The history of crime tells us that the long-standing approach to crime reduction,
across many cultures and civilisations, lay in the dispensation of punishment. The
favoured punishments for crime took many forms, involving harsh penalties such
as amputation, deportation, torture, and even death. It is arguable how effective
such punitive strategies proved to be; certainly crime has never been eliminated
from any society, but it might well be argued that those criminals who are executed
commit very few crimes! It is only comparatively recently that changes in
thinking within Western cultures came about that shifted legal systems away from
immediate harsh sanctions to the notion that the punishment should fit the crime.
The beginnings of classical theory, strongly influenced by Cesare Beccaria (b. 1738)
and Jeremy Bentham (b. 1748), introduced to law the notion of utility. Following
the princi ... read full excerpt from Offending Behaviour Programmes: Development, Application and Controversies ebook
