NCJ Number
161825
Date Published
1996
Length
40 pages
Annotation
This review of research on the history of crime and criminal justice in New France/Quebec (Canada) focuses on New France/Quebec from the mid-17th century to the end of the 18th century; penal institutions; studies of crime, prosecution, violence, and social order in the 19th and 20th centuries; policing; and women and the criminal law.
Abstract
The review of research on the history of New France/Quebec, 1650-1800, addresses two successive transplantations of European systems, one in the early to mid-17th century and the other in the 1760's, following the British conquest. The historiography has tended to divide itself along these lines, with more detailed coverage of the earlier period. Much is known about all aspects of the criminal process in New France, and a considerable amount has also been written on the social history of crime and punishment in that period, albeit by relatively few individuals. Accounts of Canadian prison history must begin with Kingston Penitentiary, the largest and most ambitious structure of its kind in the world when it was opened in 1835 and the most studied institution since that time. Studies of Kingston have recently been joined by accounts of 19th-century penitentiary building and regimes in Halifax and Saint John and of the process by which the Montreal prison evolved slowly into a penitentiary-like institution from the mid-1830's onward. Significant work has been done on the nature and prevalence of crime and violence, as well as the social meaning to be attached to each of them. This work can be divided into three subtopics: patterns of prosecution of crime, the extent and nature of violence, and attitudes toward deviance and the role of criminal law in the general process of social control. Long dominated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the historiography of Canadian policing has in recent years focused on the rise, evolution, and functions of the "new police" in the 19th century. The discussion of research on the history of policing in Canada shows that such research has become substantial, diverse, and sophisticated. The recent explosion of interest in women's history in general has stimulated considerable research literature on the history of women and crime. Most of this addresses "female-specific" areas of the criminal law: prostitution, rape, abortion, and infanticide. There is little research that examines women as offenders or victims in the criminal process. The concluding section outlines an agenda for future research. 140 notes