Crime and Justice 1750-1950

• NCJ Number: 213576
• Author(s): Barry S. Godfrey; Paul Lawrence
• Date Published: 2005
• Length: 218 pages
• Sale Source: Willan Publishing
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Historical Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United Kingdom

Annotation

This book provides insight on the history of criminal justice from 1750 to 1950, the origin of today’s criminal justice system. Key issues are covered central to an understanding of the historical background of criminal justice. A number of the historiographical debates which have arisen in interpreting this time period of criminal justice history are explored.

Abstract

Historical studies of criminality from the end of the First World War to the post-Second World War though far and few between, are growing in number and will interact with sociological theory, as well as use sociological data. With the interaction of history and sociological enquiry, crime history will continue to evolve and likely adopt a more sociological language and methodology and sociologists and criminologists will likely take an interest in historical materials. The years 1750-1950 were a crucial period in the shaping of the modern world with urbanization and industrialization giving rise to a host of new social conditions and problems and massive changes in the nature of both crime and criminal justice. Key developments included the end of capital punishment and the transportation of convicts overseas, the rise of mass incarceration, the beginning of public, uniformed policing, mass-media panics about violent crime, and the introduction of the adversarial trial process. Written with researchers of crime, criminology and social policy in mind, this book provides a broad historical overview of crime, policing and punishment within the context of historical processes, such as urbanization and industrialization. It attempts to show how historical knowledge is constructed and suggest ways in which researchers can investigate primary source materials for themselves. The book is divided into two sections. It first describes changes to the criminal justice system during this period. It explores the development of the main institutions and charts procedural and legal changes, through the changing prosecution and court formats, and onto the punishment of offenders. The second section describes how conceptions of crime and criminals altered between 1750 and 1950. Glossary, timetable, and references