ABSTRACT
Garland notes that there were plenty of secular explanations of the roots of crime to place alongside the spiritual in pre-modern society. What was lacking was a developed sense of differential explanation. Crime was widely recognised as a universal temptation to which we are all susceptible, but when it came to explaining why it is that some of us succumb and others resist, explanations tended to drift off into the metaphysical and spiritual. Furthermore, we should note that ‘traditional’ ways of explaining crime have not entirely disappeared with the triumph of modernity, though they may nowadays be accorded a different status in the hierarchy of credibility. We do nevertheless continue to acknowledge the force of moral, religious and ‘commonsensical’ ways of discussing crime.
