A genealogy of Bentham’s Preventive Police

Abstract

If Bentham’s writings on indirect legislation are viewed as ‘a sort of manual of preventive police’, we could broadly break down his array of preventive initiatives into three forms. The first is situational crime prevention, broadly conceived as proactive measures such as the installation of street lighting and the provision of information to the public so they can avoid being victims of crime. The second encompasses what is now referred to as ‘intelligence-led’ policing and ‘predictive policing’, where police gather and process information to be used in proactive interventions. Third and arguably the most important to Bentham was the deterrent effect of successful reactive policing (i.e. the detection and capture of offenders). Each of these, in turn, Bentham wanted to be subjected to a kind of monetized cost–benefit analysis in order to determine their relative utility, ideally with respect to specific kinds of offence. All three forms of crime prevention were to be informed and assessed by the crime data provided regularly in the Calendar of Delinquency. But what legacy was left behind from these writings? How did preventive policing develop over the following two centuries? Show more