The Second Code

Abstract

Most researchers regard a crime or a delinquent act as being some specific thing done by some specific person, called the offender. But exactly what it is that he does that distinguishes him from the non-offender is difficult to observe or define precisely. So this paper starts from the simpler position that certain people are reported to the police, charged, tried, sen tenced, and punished and others are not; and the law under which we actually live is simply those sets of circumstances of which accusation, trial, etc., are likely consequences. This is the law that society makes by its actions and not just by its paper enactments. We call this empirical law the "second code"; knowledge of it is more basic to criminology than are legal categories or sociological or psychological theories of behavior defined by some researcher or some law-maker as deviant or anti-social or criminal.

The process of accusation, trial, etc., is seen as beginning with a complaint (either to or by the police). This interaction between an observer and the police is triggered off by another interaction between one or more offenders, victims and observers, and this larger interaction is our main focus of study. (Some of the roles in this interaction may be combined in one person, and not all the roles are defined until after the event.) The require ments of such a study are discussed; in particular, it should be approached from as simple a viewpoint as possible, aiming first at a natural history of these interactions rather than a theoretical model. Any such theoretical model is at present likely to be inappropriate since the facts which it should explain are not themselves yet known in any detail.