Nigel Walker (criminologist)

Professor Nigel Walker, CBE (6 August 1917 – 13 September 2014) was Wolfson Professor of Criminology at King's College, Cambridge.[1][2]

Biography

Walker was born in Tianjin China (formerly Tientsin), on 6 August 1917, as a result of his father's posting there as British vice-consul.[3] He attended Edinburgh Academy being awarded Dux in 1935.[3]

After school, he read classics at Christ Church, Oxford, and became a civil servant.[3]

During World War II, he served with the Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders and Lovat Scouts, being shot on active service in Italy.[3]

In 1979, he was appointed CBE.[2]

Academic career

During his time the Scottish Office he was awarded a PhD (1954) by the University of Edinburgh for his thesis on The Logical Status of the Freudian Unconscious[4] and a book A Short History of Psychotherapy.[3] He then took up one-year research fellowship for civil servants in Nuffield College, Oxford, from which research he published Morale in the Civil Service (1961).[2] He published a first volume of a history of the insanity defence, Crime and Insanity in England (1968), for which he was awarded DLitt by Oxford University, and honorary fellowship of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.[1] His student textbook Crime and Punishment in Britain (1965) was also influential.[1]

Writing in 1965, Walker suggested the replacement of a single age of criminal responsibility by different minimum ages for varying forms of treatment.[5]

Between 1973 and 1984 he was Wolfson Professor of Criminology, and a Fellow of King's College, Cambridge.[1] His work challenged many accepted beliefs in the study of criminology, and he had an interest in the rehabilitation of offenders, writing Sentencing in a Rational Society (1969). He retired in 1984, but continued to teach and write, notably Why Punish? (1991) and Dangerous People (1996).[1] He wrote "in private I am as vindictive as any reader of The Daily Telegraph when some particularly evil offender is brought to justice, I simply question whether it is useful or morally justifiable to think in terms of desert rather than deterrence, correction or prevention when sentencing him."[6]

During his teaching career, he spent time at Yale where his students included Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton, then as yet unmarried.[1]

References
  1. "Professor Nigel Walker - obituary". The Telegraph. 4 November 2014. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
  2. Bottoms, Anthony; Grounds, Adrian (15 October 2014). "Nigel Walker obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
  3. "Obituary: Professor Nigel Walker, 97". Edinburgh Evening News. 12 November 2014. Retrieved 20 November 2014.
  4. D., Walker, Nigel (1954). "Logical status of the Freudian unconscious: a thesis on the logical relationship between the Freudian unconscious, considered as a scientific model, and the technique of psychoanalysis". hdl:1842/19382. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. Walker, N., 'Age of Criminal Responsibility', The Times, 11 June 1965, p. 15.
  6. Walker, Professor Nigel (1991). Why Punish?.
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