Crime in England: Long-term Trends and the Problem of Modernization (From Civilization of Crime: Violence in Town and Country Since the Middle Ages, P 17-34, 1996, Eric A. Johnson and Eric H. Monkkonen, eds. - See NCJ-169788)

• NCJ Number: 169789
• Author(s): J A Sharpe
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 18 pages
• Sale Source: University of Illinois Press
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This analysis of crime patterns in England over history challenges the conventional wisdom that crime is more common today than in the stable rural settings of earlier periods and concludes that homicide rates displayed a long-term decline from the 14th to the 20th centuries.

Abstract

The conventional wisdom also holds that crime modernized over the period of the industrial revolution in the 19th century and that this process involved changes in both the content of crime and the levels of organization behind it. However, much English crime appears modern from a fairly early date. The homicide statistics from various sources and locations suggests a slight decline from the 13th century to 1600 and sharp decline over the middle of the 17th century. The pattern is less clear for property offenses. They clearly were the most frequently indicted felonies in the 14th century, and the great decline in homicide in the 17th century was accompanied by a reduction rather than an increase in property offense prosecutions. The analysis includes that both past and current crime must be considered in the context of other factors. These include the level of economic development, the complexity of the social structure, the family, religion, perceptions of community, the nature of law enforcement, and law enforcement personnel. Reference notes