Crime & Society In England 1750 1900

"A thoroughly learned, clear-eyed and engaging read.”

Dominic Sandbrook, The Sunday Times, on The Great British Bobby (2009)

“Crime is one aspect of the world that seems to get inexorably worse as you get older….But how do the teenagers outside your local corner shop really compare with those in times past? Go to Crime and Society in England: 1750-1900 by Clive Emsley; you might even take a copy to the corner shop and instigate an edifying debate.”

David Mattin, The Times

"This is an outstanding work […] written by one of the most respected and authoritative historians in the field."

Dr Louise Jackson, Edinburgh University

 

 

Acknowledged as one of thebest introductions to the history of crime in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,Crime and Society in England 1750-1900 examines thedevelopments in policing, the courts, and the penal system as England became increasingly industrialised and urbanised. The book challenges the old but still influential idea that crime can be attributed to the behaviour of a criminal class and that changes in the criminal justice system were principally the work of far-sighted, humanitarian reformers.

 

In this fourth edition of his now classic account, Professor Emsleydraws on new research that has shifted the focus from class to gender, from property crime to violent crime and towards media constructions of offenders, while still maintaining a balance with influential early work in the area.

 

Wide-ranging and accessible, the new edition examines:

·         the value of criminal statistics

·         the effect that contemporary ideas about class and gender had on perceptions of criminality

·         changes in the patterns of crime

·         developments in policing and the spread of summary punishment

·         the increasing formality of the courts

·         the growth of the prison as the principal form of punishment and debates about the decline in corporal and capital punishments

 

Thoroughly updated throughout, the fourth edition also includes, for the first time, illuminating contemporary illustrations.

 

Clive Emsley is Emeritus Professor of History at the Open University. His books include Hard Men: Violence in England since 1750 (2005); Crime Police and Penal Policy: European Experiences 1750-1940 (2007); The Great British Bobby (2009); and Crime and Society in Twentieth Century England (forthcoming).

 

 

 

 

 

 

'Crime is one aspect of the world that seems to get inexorably worse as you get older¿.But how do the teenagers outside your local corner shop really compare with those in times past? Go to Crime and Society in England: 1750-1900 (Longman) by Clive Emsley; you might even take a copy to the corner shop and instigate an edifying debate.'

David Mattin, The Times, 20 July 2004

Crime and Society in England, 1750-1900 draws on recent research to assess the changes in the understanding of crime, policing, the courts and penal sanctions in England as the country industrialised and urbanised during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  The third edition brings the subject up-to-date by reflecting recent shifts away from class towards gender analysis, and the growing interest in violence as opposed to property crime.

 

• Explores the value of criminal statistics, the significance of contemporary notions of class and gender in understanding and formulating the image of the criminal
• Describes developments in policing and the shifting ideas that led to a decline in corporate and capital punishments and an increasing focus on the prison
• Challenges the view that crime can be attributed to the behaviour of a criminal class, and the ideas that crime patterns can be explained simply in terms of the trade cycle
• Examines changes in crime and the criminal justice system against the larger changes in an industrialising society

@lt;P@gt;@lt;I@gt;Crime and Society in England, 1750-1900@lt;/I@gt; draws on recent research to assess the changes in the understanding of crime, policing, the courts and penal sanctions in England as the country industrialised and urbanised during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The third edition brings the subject up-to-date by reflecting recent shifts away from class towards gender analysis, and the growing interest in violence as opposed to property crime.@lt;/P@gt;@lt;P@gt; @lt;/P@gt;@lt;BR@gt;@lt;UL@gt;@lt;LI@gt;Explores the value of criminal statistics, the significance of contemporary notions of class and gender in understanding and formulating the image of the criminal @lt;/LI@gt;@lt;LI@gt;Describes developments in policing and the shifting ideas that led to a decline in corporate and capital punishments and an increasing focus on the prison @lt;/LI@gt;@lt;LI@gt;Challenges the view that crime can be attributed to the behaviour of a criminal class, and the ideas that crime patterns can be explained simply in terms of the trade cycle @lt;/LI@gt;@lt;LI@gt;Examines changes in crime and the criminal justice system against the larger changes in an industrialising society@lt;/LI@gt;@lt;/UL@gt;

The history of crime and criminal justice is one of the most popular areas of modern social and cultural history. This third edition of Crime and Society in England, 1750-1900 draws on recent research to assess the changes in the understanding of crime, policing, the courts and penal sanctions in England as the country industrialised and urbanised during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Written in a clear and accessible manner, the book examines:

• perceptions of criminality during the period
• the significance of contemporary notions of class and gender in understanding and formulating the image of the criminal
• developments in policing
• the spread of summary punishment
• the increasing formality of the courts
• the shifting ideas that led to a decline in corporal and capital punishments and an increasing focus on prison

As in previous editions, the book challenges the view that crime can be attributed to the behaviour of a criminal class and that changes in the criminal justice system resulted from the vision of far-sighted reformers. This new edition also brings the subject up to date by reflecting recent shifts away from class towards gender analysis, and the growing interest in violence as opposed to property crime.

Written by an acknowledged expert in the field, the third edition of Crime and Society in England, 1750-1900 is essential reading for students of English social history.

Clive Emsley is Professor of History and co-director of the International Centre for Comparative Criminological Research at the Open University.

Clive Emsley is Professor in the History Department at the Open University.  He was elected president of the International Association for the History of Crime and Criminal Justice in 1995 and again in 1998. He has maintained a research interest in the revolutionary and Napoleonic period but since the early 1980s his work has focused primarily on the history of crime and policing. He is Director of the European Centre for the Study of Policing.   

List of Illustrations

List of tables and figures       

Preface and acknowledgements to the fourth edition 

Abbreviations used in notes

1. Introduction: crime and the law

2. The statistical map       

3. Class perceptions

4. Gender perceptions     

5. Environmental perceptions       

6. Fiddles, perks and pilferage

7. The criminal class and professional criminals

8. Prosecutors and the courts       

9. Detection and prevention: the old police and the new

10. Punishment and reformation

11. Concluding remarks

Further reading: further research

Index