Authority and Delinquency in the Modern State : A Criminological Approach to the Problem of Power

In Authority and Delinquency in the Modern State, originally published in 1950, Alex Comfort discusses the relationship between crime and power, and traces the mechanisms which may lead to delinquent behaviour by those in office. In the early twentieth century, the literature of abnormal behaviour contained many hints of identity between the psychogenesis of crime and the psychogenesis of political power, and with the recognition of “war crimes”, and the possible criminality of governments, these hints had been brought into the open. His conclusions presented a serious challenge to the traditional conception of Democracy and of the State at the time. He discusses the forces in democratic society which tend to select potential delinquents as candidates for Parliament and for office, or which may operate to produce delinquency in those who obtain power.

Dr Comfort, a Lecturer in Physiology at the London Hospital at the time of publication, obtained his psychological training in child welfare work, but was better known as a novelist and poet. This book was a contribution to the theoretical background of political anarchism which hoped to provoke serious and lively discussion among students of politics and of social psychology at the time.