Tarde, Gabriel De (1843–1904)

Gabriel de Tarde was a judge, head of statistics in the ministry of justice, professor at the College of France, and member of the French Institute. He was one of the central figures in French criminology toward the end of the nineteenth century. Scholars know him better today for his sociological theories and for his opposition to Émile Durkheim (1858–1917). Tarde was one of the first to criticize Cesare Lombroso's (1835–1909) theory of the “born criminal,” and he developed an original theory on the perpetration of crime and penal responsibility.

It was probably from his experience as a practicing judge that Tarde drew the first elements of his criticism of Lombroso's theory of the criminal type. From the 1880s onward, Tarde published in opposition to the idea of the born criminal and refuted Lombroso's atavistic theory. La criminalité compare (1886, Comparative Criminality), followed by La philosophie pénale (Penal Philosophy) in 1890, made him a significant contributor to the criminal anthropology debate. Tarde believed that crime was the product of life in society. He thought that crime spreads through imitation and antisocial behavior, not through some upsurge of characteristics from prehistory. Criminals do not carry the stigma of primitive man, but rather express their own specific traits (slang, tattoos, and moral insensitivity).

As for Durkheim, Tarde based his disagreement on the definition of crime and the analysis of society. Durkheim held that crime in itself is a normal activity found in all societies. It is pathological only when it reaches levels that threaten society. Tarde, on the other hand, believed that crime is always an abnormal phenomenon that demonstrates a delinquent's maladjustment to society's commonly accepted rules. For Durkheim, society is an organic whole while for Tarde, society is the result of individual interactions that are themselves the result of invention and imitation.

Tarde tried to find the middle ground between the classical, free-choice theory of responsibility and the determinism of the positivist school. He produced a theory of responsibility based on the concepts of personal identity and social similarity. If the state will hold the accused responsible for their actions, the judged individuals must have a certain awareness of their personal identity. Their actions should provoke in them a sense of guilt linked to their membership in the society passing judgment. The major difficulty lies in finding the right balance that allows these two criteria to be reconciled. No state ever actually put the theory into practice, but it has its place in a wider European movement looking to individualize sanctions.

Tarde published widely in the field of criminology. He wrote commentaries on criminal statistics, he participated in the birth of crowd psychology, he put forward criteria for ensuring correct sentencing, and he developed an original theory of crime and punishment. [Page 1456]Tarde was one of Alexandre Lacassagne's (1843–1924) main collaborators on the Les archives d' anthropologie criminelle (Criminal Anthropology Archives), and he participated in numerous conventions on anthropology, sociology, and penitentiary science. Although celebrated in his lifetime, Tarde's reputation did not endure. One reason for this exists in his writings. In effect, his books were compilations of articles, making it hard to distinguish a clear doctrine. Scholars recognized Tarde as an erudite practitioner, but he was isolated and did not gain a wide following.

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