ABSTRACT
The reader of Penal Philosophy should be prepared to discover in any of its nine chapters a diversity of objects that are attacked with different modes of reasoning and which are supported by contradictory discursive techniques. Nevertheless, in the rather unkempt maze of Penal Philosophy one can discern that the several strands of Gabriel Tarde's criminology are designed as so many complementary approaches to a common object, namely, the procurement of an acceptable "neo-classical" basis for criminal responsibility and for punishment. Tarde's offensive against Lombrosianism occurred on several fronts. In his immediate confrontation with Lombrosianism, Tarde offered no conceptual or theoretical alternatives to the concept of born criminality. But Tarde also realized that empirical criticisms of the concept of born criminality tended to leave a pressing vacuum in penal policy. For Tarde crime is a social phenomenon like any other, and is operated on by the process of imitation like any other.
