NCJ Number
72841
Journal
OESTERREICHISCHE RICHTERZEITUNG Volume: 55 Issue: 3 Dated: (March 1977) Pages: 45-51
Date Published
1977
Length
7 pages
Annotation
A labeling theory, developed at the end of the 19th century by the Austrian professor of law, Dr. Julius Vargha, is described in this Austrian paper.
Abstract
The theory is described in order to demonstrate that Austria, like the United States and West Germany, has a tradition of new contributions to the field of criminology. After a review of American and West German positions regarding labeling theories, Vargha's work, The Abolition of Penal Servitude (1896-1897), is discussed. Vargha argued that the country's criminal justice system should be made more humane. Penalties which were intended to achieve revenge on the offender were founded on a false understanding of the nature of crime. Vargha argued that all persons had the same capacities for good and evil deeds. Crime could be defined only by the state since only the law determined what a criminal aberration was. Any attempt to differentiate between a criminal and a noncriminal that ignored court convictions was senseless since everyone committed criminal acts, most of which, for one reason or another, go undetected or unpunished. Since chance often determined which persons were to be convicted for such acts, a study of crime that considered only those persons who had been officially labeled as criminals would be useless. Vargha explained that some people have a greater tendency to yield to the temptation to commit crime than others have, and he divided these people into four groups: a general-neuropathic, a partial-neuropathic, a savage, and a parasitic group. His contemporaries considered his ideas to be revolutionary and heretical and chose to ignore him. Numerous footnotes with references are included.--in German.