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11 April 1805
Evidence
The aggregate number of offences committed and prosecuted being given, his
interest requires, that the number of offences committed by the rich,
or prosecuted by the rich, or both, be as great as possible: and
in converse, that the number of offences committed by the indigent poor, or
prosecuted by the indigent or both, be as small as possible.
Whatever be the cause, and there are various ones From various causes the majority of offences, in number and
value, (i.e. degree of mischievousness) together that is the majority of crimes will be the offences such
in which the poorer classes have more concern are more concerned than the richer,
concerned in the character of prosecutors, and in a still larger proportion
in the character of actors: delinquents: for, 1. The poorer classes
are the most populous. 2. Offences produced of indigence are by far more
numerous than all other offences of all other descriptions put together;
and offences produced by indigence are most apt to be naturally the offences of
the poorer classes.
Between power, profit, reputation and power, and consequently
between the interests respectively created generated by those objects of universal general
desire, the connection is intimate and almost inseparable: and so
that where a mans interest in quality of the character of a a man might have
outweighed his interest in point of profit in the character of a lawyer,
being superadded to may shall turn the scale on the other side.
In different countries under different systems, this conflict of
interests will be found productive may be observed to have been productive of different effects. In some, in the
character of a lawyer the interest of a man's reputation has been better served by
the punishment of crimes prosecuted, and thence decreasing diminishing the number of crimes committed
than by giving impunity to crimes: in others, it has been better served
by giving impunity to crimes, and thence by increasing the number
of crimes than by diminishing it.
Identifier: | JB/058/327/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 58.
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1805-04-11 |
4a continued |
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058 |
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327 |
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001 |
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jeremy bentham |
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