Nineteenth Century Crime Prevention And Punishment

"Crime is an important and persistent theme in the social history of the nineteenth century, always in the public eye and a source of controversy, yet even today lacking an objective literature. Dr Tobias approaches his subject through a wide selection of contemporary documents. After a general introduction, the first section shows that the people of the nineteenth century were as familiar as we are with the social causes of crime. The second gives descriptions of the criminals, their methods of work and the places in which they lived, some from criminals themselves; the third section presents some statistics of nineteenth-century crime with contemporary discussion of the problems of enumeration in this field. The fourth describes the changing policing systems of the era; the fifth portrays the debate about the penal theory and the actual penal practices of the century. Dr Tobias has succeeded in blending the less well-known with the familiar in selecting his extracts. Each document is accompanied by linking paragraphs and full bibliographical notes"--dust jacket

In the years between 1750 and 1868, English criminal justice underwent significant changes. The two most crucial developments were the gradual establishment of an organised, regular police, and the emergence of new secondary punishments, following the restriction in the scope of the death penalty. In place of an ill-paid parish constabulary, functioning largely through a system of rewards and common informers, professional police institutions were given the task of executing a speedy and systematic enforcement of the criminal law. In lieu of the severe and capriciously-administered capital laws, a penalty structure based on a proportionality between the gravity of crimes and the severity of punishments was erected as arguably a more effective deterrent of crime. This book, first published in 1981, examines the impact of these two important developments and casts new light on the way in which law enforcement evolved during the nineteenth century. This title will be of interest to students of history and criminology.

This four volume collection looks at the essential issues concerning crime and punishment in the long nineteenth-century. Through the presentation of primary source documents, it explores the development of a modern pattern of crime and a modern system of penal policy and practice, illustrating the shift from eighteenth century patterns of crime (including the clash between rural custom and law) and punishment (unsystematic, selective, public, and body-centred) to nineteenth century patterns of crime (urban, increasing, and a metaphor for social instability and moral decay, before a remarkable late-century crime decline) and punishment (reform-minded, soul-centred, penetrative, uniform and private in application). The first two volumes focus on crime itself and illustrate the role of the criminal courts, the rise and fall of crime, the causes of crime as understood by contemporary investigators, the police ways of ‘knowing the criminal,’ the role of ‘moral panics,’ and the definition of the ‘criminal classes’ and ‘habitual offenders’. The final two volumes explore means of punishment and look at the shift from public and bodily punishments to transportation, the rise of the penitentiary, the convict prison system, and the late-century decline in the prison population and loss of faith in the prison.

Bringing together new research, this book advances current theoretical understandings of punishment and control in society. It provides a critical analysis of institutions, punishment and the law, and explores the delivery of punishment and experience of incarceration in Western societies from the early-nineteenth century.

Patricia O'Brien traces the creation and development of a modern prison system in nineteenth-century France. The study has three principal areas of concern: prisons and their populations; the organizing principles of the system, including occupational and educational programs for rehabilitation; and the extension of punishment outside the prison walls. Originally published in 1982. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Crime in England, 1815-1880 provides a unique insight into views on crime and criminality and the operation of the criminal justice system in England from the early to the late nineteenth century. This book examines the perceived problem and causes of crime, views about offenders and the consequences of these views for the treatment of offenders in the criminal justice system. The book explores the perceived causes of criminality, as well as concerns about particular groups of offenders, such as the 'criminal classes' and the 'habitual offender', the female offender and the juvenile criminal. It also considers the development of policing, the systems of capital punishment and the transportation of offenders overseas, as well as the evolution of both local and convict prison systems. The discussion primarily investigates those who were drawn into the criminal justice system and the attitudes towards and mechanisms to address crime and offenders. The book draws together original research by the author to locate these broader developments and provides detailed case studies illuminating the lives of those who experienced the criminal justice system and how these changes were experienced in provincial England. With an emphasis on the penal system and case studies on offenders' lives and on provincial criminal justice, this book will be useful to academics and students interested in criminal justice, history and penology, as well as being of interest to the general reader.