Reflexions about the History of French Criminology

International audienceFor a long time, in fact, it seemed as if French criminology had no history of its own. Indeed, with practitioners in the field constantly being called on to justify their discipline’s very epistemological existence, there was little time or inclination to investigate the origins of the subject. It is striking in this respect that Michael Foucault’s Discipline and Punish, first published in French in 1975, devotes no more than a few lines explicitly to the subject of criminology. Foucault’s work would inspire a whole generation of researchers interested in the history of the prison, but its impact on criminology in his home country was negligible. This may have something to do with the fact that emphasised the inferior status of French criminology