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Crime, Police, and Penal Policy

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

Author: Clive Emsley
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780199202850
Published In: July 2007
Format: Hardback , 300 pages
Jurisdiction: U.K. ? Disclaimer:
Countri(es) stated herein are used as reference only

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The only comparative historical survey of crime and punishment from the Enlightenment to the inter-war period.
An introduction to the theoretical perspectives behind the history of crime, police and penal policy.
Draws on a wealth of research from the last 30 years.

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.

1: Introduction
The Old Regime and the Enlightenment
2: Laws and Punishments
3: The Understanding and Nature of Crime
4: Coping with Crime
The Revolutionary Era
5: The New French System
6: Crime and Police in Revolution and War
The Discovery of the Criminal Classes
7: Measuring a Problem
8: Danger in the City: Danger in the Countryside
9: Protection, Punishment and Reformation
The Appliance of Science
10: 'Scientific Criminology
11: New Professionals: Old Problems
The Faces of Penal Welfare
12: Penal Policies and the Impact of War
13: Controlling and Punishing after the Great War
14: National Paths: Common Patterns

Clive Emsley, Professor of History and Co-Director of the International Centre for Comparative Criminological Research at the Open University

"The book is conceptually sophisticated...It is also consistently interesting. In sum, the book is a welcome addition to the literature" - Thomas Gallanis, Continuity and Change

"Excellent and deserve[s] a wide readership...testament to Emsley's attention to detail, breadth of knowledge, and ability to make history accessible and interesting." - Drew Gray, Family and Community History