NCJ Number
100268
Date Published
1985
Length
27 pages
Annotation
An analysis of police data on crime and collective violence for India's Madras Province between 1858 and 1947 indicates the nature, scale, and incidence of popular unrest as well as professional criminality. Colonial police activities were more concerned with protecting state interests than the lives and property of the citizenry.
Abstract
The primary factor associated with the incidence of crime, collective violence, and protest was the subsistence issue as reflected in grain prices, food shortages, and the speculation and hoarding of grain traders. Crime statistics also reflect reactions to changing landlord-tenant relations, to the inroads of the modern economy, and to the oppression of the moneylenders and minor political officials. The colonial government was primarily interested in stemming mass revolt. The police focused their attention on specific crimes and communities identified as ''criminal' and ''dangerous.' When the government chose to target professional criminality, it had some effect, but crimes low on the list of colonial crime control priorities thrived. The colonial police were thus more partisan and selective in crime control than the police in most modern autonomous societies.