Christopher Browning at Nature:
In Stanley Kubrick’s film adaptation of the 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange, gang leader Alex DeLarge is portrayed as an ultraviolent miscreant. Once imprisoned, he is subjected to aversion therapy, which serves only to reinforce the deeply rooted nature of his criminal disposition.
DeLarge is one of cinema’s most memorable villains, and his behaviour aligns with a common explanation for why some people become chronic criminal offenders: ‘bad character’.
In Marked by Time, criminologist Robert Sampson sets out the degree to which academic theory, policing and court practice depend on this idea. He also lays out evidence that it is a fundamentally wrong-headed assumption: it neglects the role of changing historical circumstances in influencing a person’s chances of first being arrested, which subsequently affects whether they become a repeat offender.
Disquieting but effective, Sampson’s book makes a compelling case for rooting out character-based assumptions — and for factoring in historical context — at all stages of the criminal-justice system.
More here.
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