Crime, Police, and Penal Policy European Experiences 1750-1940

by Emsley, Clive

• ISBN13: 9780199202850
• ISBN10: 0199202850
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2007-08-30
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

How did ideas about crime and criminals change in Europe from around 1750 to 1940? How did European states respond to these changes with the development of police and penal institutions? Clive Emsley attempts to address these questions using recent research on the history of crime and criminal justice in Europe. Exploring the subject chronologically, he addresses the forms of offending, the changing interpretations and understandings of that offending at both elite and popular levels, and how the emerging nation states of the period responded to criminal activity by the development of police forces and the refinement of forms of punishment. The book focuses on the comparative nature in which different states studied each other and their institutions, and the ways in which different reformers exchanged ideas and investigated policing and penal experiments in other countries. It also explores the theoretical issues underpinning recent research, emphasising that the changes in ideas on crime and criminals were neither linear nor circular, and demonstrating clearly that many ideas hailed as new by contemporary politicians and in current debate on crime and its 'solutions', have a very long and illustrious history.

Author Biography

Clive Emsley was educated at the University of York and at Peterhouse, Cambridge. He was visiting professor at the University of Paris VIII (St. Denis) and the University of Calgary, Alberta, and has held visiting research fellowships in Australia and New Zealand. He is currently Professor of History and Co-Director of the International Centre for Comparative Criminological Research at the Open University, and is also President of the International Association for the History of Crime and Criminal Justice.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
The Old Regime and the Enlightenment
Laws and Punishments	p. 17
The Understanding and Nature of Crime	p. 41
Coping with Crime	p. 57
The Revolutionary Era
The New French System	p. 77
Crime and Police in Revolution and War	p. 96
The Discovery of the Criminal Classes
Measuring a Problem	p. 117
Danger in the City: Danger in the Countryside	p. 135
Protection, Punishment, and Reformation	p. 160
The Application of Science
'Scientific' Criminology	p. 181
New Professionals: Old Problems	p. 200
The Faces of Penal Welfare
Penal Policies and the Impact of War	p. 227
Policing and Punishing after the War	p. 246
National Paths: Common Patterns	p. 267
Bibliographical Note	p. 275
Index	p. 279
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