Bentham and the Philosophical Nature of Preventive Policing

• Author: D. Kim Rossmo,Lucia Summers
• Published date: 01 September 2021
• Date: 01 September 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/1057567718813424
• Subject Matter: Bentham and Police

Bentham and Police

Bentham and the Philosophical

Nature of Preventive Policing

D. Kim Rossmo

1

and Lucia Summers

1

Keywords

crime/delinquency theory, law enforcement/security, crime prevention

The Thames River Police was established in 1798 by merchant and statistician Patrick

Colquhoun, based on a proposal by master mariner John Harriot. The first regular police force in

England, the River Police sought to deter theft and other crime in the Pool of London by a continued

patrol presence. Its primary function was preventive, differing in purpose from that of the Bow

Street Runners which operated reactively to reports of crime. This important distinction was influ-

enced by the utilitarian philosophy of Jeremy Bentham who differentiated preventive police from

justice. As Quinn (2021, p. 231) observes:

Bentham’s lifetime witnessed a revolution in this definition of police, and the development of a modern

understanding of police as, first, a professionalized, expert, and non-political institution, and second, an

institution whose responsibilities were limited more narrowly to the prevention and investigation of

crimes.

Cesare Beccaria argued in 17 64 that “it is be tter to preve nt crimes th an to punish th em.”

This principle later became a central element of Sir Robert Peel’s Metropolitan Police Act

1829. There are at least two different approaches to preventing crime, however. The Thames

River Police patrolled the Port of London and made crime situationally risky for thieves. On

the other hand, Sir John Fielding, who helped organize the Bow Street Runners, believed,

“It is much better to prevent even one man from being a rogue than apprehending and

bringing forty to justice.” There is a subtle but important difference between preventing a

crime from occurring in a given situation and inhibiting someone from becoming a criminal

(Weisburd, 1997).

Bentham understood the role of poverty in criminality and questioned how effective threats of

punishment would be for the indigent; “once the relevant choice became that between committing

crime and starvation, no penalty, however draconian, could deter crime” (Quinn, 2021, p. 238).

Thus, Bentham encouraged the use of situational crime prevention measures that would limit the

necessary conditions for criminal activity, some of which, like street lighting, are still in use today.

Rather than blindingly advocating for such measures, however, he suggested these should be

1

School of Criminal Justice, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA

Corresponding Author:

D. Kim Rossmo, School of Criminal Justice, Texas State University, San Marcos, TX 78666, USA.

Email: kr13@txstate.edu

International CriminalJustice Review

2021, Vol. 31(3) 263-265

ª2018 Georgia State University

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DOI: 10.1177/1057567718813424

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