Toward a shift in the foundational milestones of criminology as a science

Abstract

This review analyzes the work Crime and civilization: the birth of criminology in the early nineteenth century (2024) by Finnish researcher Janne Kivivuori, an intellectual contribution that reinterprets the origins of scientific criminology. Kivivuori's central argument is that the discipline was not born from a "fear of crime," but rather from Enlightenment optimism and the revolutionary advent of a new data system: the French Compte général de l'administration de la justice criminelle of 1827. The review traces Kivivuori's meticulous reconstruction of this process, from scattered pre-statistical knowledge to the creation and immediate international impact of the Compte général. It highlights how the first generation of data criminologists (Lucas, Quetelet, Guerry) used this tool to formulate proto-theories of opportunity and social control; in parallel, figures such as Rossi and Candolle inaugurated sophisticated methodological critiques. The review aims to emphasize the profound originality and contemporary relevance of the work, demonstrating the current impact of the debate on the historical foundations of criminology proposed by Kivivuori.