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Interesting discussion of contributions and legacy of Jeremy Bentham

By Douglas A. Berman

I just noticed on SSRN this posting of an interesting looking book chapter discussing the contributions and legacy of Jeremy Bentham. Here is the abstract: Jeremy Bentham is associated in criminology with his invention of the 'Panopticon.' In many ways this appeared as the quintessential disciplinary institution, training subjects to be 'docile' and obedient. Yet Bentham's classical criminology also stressed that actors are rational choice optimisers, and are to be seen as inventive and enterprising rather than servile and mindless. In part, the overemphasis on the Panopticon leads modern criminologists ignore this side of his thinking and to see Bentham as narrowly punitive and disciplinary. But in his later years he turned toward 'pecuniary sanctions', fines and damages, that he regarded as the optimal liberal sanction...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on September 26, 2009 (boomark / email).