Synopses & Reviews
Writing the History of Crime investigates the development of historical writing on the subject of crime and its wider place in modern social historiography. It examines long-standing and emerging traditions in history writing, with separate chapters on legal and scientific approaches, as well as on social, cultural, gender and empire history. Each chapter then explores these historical approaches in relation to crime, paying particular attention to the relationship between theory and the interpretation of evidence.
Rather than a timeline for the historical development of ideas about crime or a catalogue of the range of topics that comprise the subject matter, Writing the History of Crime reveals the ideas behind crime as a subject of historical investigation; it looks at how these ideas generate questions that may be asked about the past and the way in which these questions are answered. This is a crucial text for anyone interested in the history of crime, the historiography of social history or the art of history writing more broadly.
About the Author
Paul Knepper is Professor of Criminology at the University of Sheffield, UK.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Legal History: Crime or Criminal Justice?
2. Statistics, Trends and Techniques
3. Mind and Body, Civilisation and Evolution
4. The British Marxist Historians
5. The City: Underclass, Underworld and Urban Disorder
6. Foucault and the Cultural Turn
7. Women's History, Feminist Perspectives
8. Colonialism, Globalisation and Internationalism
Conclusion
Postscript: The Criminology of Time
Bibliography
Index