Description
Reliance Publishing House Encyclopaedia Of Criminology (HB) by S P Singh
The crime and criminals are as old as the human civilization and with the surge in crime the laws were formed and enacted by various rulers of the land. Any act punishable by law is a crime, and its scientific study criminology. The references about medical testimony and punishment can be found in Vedas and Manusmriti. The Vedas prohibited abortion; Manu forbade the execution of pregnant women and enjoined the statesments of insane, of the drunk and the children. The code of Hammurabi, ruler of Babylon (2000 BC) was the first feather in the cap of the history of legal medicine. The code regulated medical practice and laid down punishment for physicians who failed in their duties, similar codes have also been conformed to have existed in ancient China, India, Persia, Rome, Egypt etc. The ‘Constituto Criminals Carolina (1532) by Charles - V, the Roman emperor can be regarded as the dawn of legal medicine. Definition and explanations of criminal acts are subject to variations from place to place. The constitution of law or process of law making reflect social behaviour. Particular criminal laws have identifiable antecedents; reasons exist for the emergence of laws at some particular time or in some specific place. The lawyers, police personal, researchers and students of law will find this encyclopedia most useful.