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The criminal statistics of nineteenth-century cities: a new approach

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2009

R. S. Sindall
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Extract

In the last decade an area of urban history receiving increasing attention has been that of crime and, in particular, nineteenth-century crime. For those social scientists whose main interest is the study of lower-class life the study of crime has become increasingly fashionable. However, the study of crime is the study of the whole of society and the relationship of the various classes within that society. That law-makers create law-breakers is axiomatic and the study of crime is, therefore, not just the study of criminals but also of the institutions which defined them as criminals. For too long it has been implied that studying criminals is the study of a subset of lower-class life. This is a reflection of the fact that research is largely a middle-class occupation and so researchers bring to their work their own middle-class perception of society. The result is the automatic acceptance that crime consists purely of larceny, burglary, assault, rape and murder while overlooking the middle-class crimes of fraud, embezzlement, tax evasion, offences against the Companies Acts, Consumer Protection Acts and Factory Acts.

Type
Research Article
Information
Urban History Yearbook , Volume 13 , May 1986 , pp. 28 - 36
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1986

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