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Willem Adriaan Bonger
1876–1940
A pioneering Dutch criminologist and sociologist, he argued that crime is shaped by social and economic conditions rather than simple individual failings. His work helped lay the groundwork for a more modern, socially aware study of crime.
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Criminality and economic conditions
by Willem Adriaan Bonger
About the author
Born in Amsterdam in 1876, Willem Adriaan Bonger became one of the Netherlands' best-known criminologists and sociologists. He is especially remembered for linking crime to poverty, inequality, and other social conditions at a time when many writers focused more narrowly on individual morality or biology.
His best-known book, Criminality and Economic Conditions, explored how economic life can influence criminal behavior. Bonger taught at the University of Amsterdam and was part of a generation of scholars trying to understand crime through society, class, and environment as well as through the individual.
He died in 1940. Although his writing belongs to an earlier era, his central question still feels current: how much do the conditions people live under shape the choices they make?