How far, asks R.D. Storch, did the reforms in the system of law enforcement, and the detection, trial and punishment of criminals introduced in the nineteenth century make for better order and a real reduction in crime?
Jan Bonderson describes a bizarre series of assaults on London ladies in 1790, and explores the effects of this and other heinous crime epidemics on the capital.
William D. Rubinstein reviews the achievements of the Ripperologists and considers the arguments surrounding the so-called Ripper Diaries.
Robert D. Storch argues that the state of policing before Peel was not always as bad as the reformers liked to claim.
Richard O. Collin tells the story of Italy’s parallel police forces, and how they have contended with Mussolini, the Red Brigades – and the Mafia.
Beginning our new series on the history and development of policing, Clive Emsley sets the scene with a broad discussion of the origins and issues of early policing in Continental Europe.
Women as perpetrators of crime, rather than its victims, were figures of especial fascination and loathing in the Victorian popular press. Judith Knelman delves deeper.
In the aftermath of 1798 the British had to deal with thousands of political prisoners. Michael Durey traces the mixture of decisiveness, pragmatism and clemency with which they were treated.
Clive Emsley argues that nineteenth-century perceptions owed more to media-generated panic than to criminal realities.
Marika Sherwood trawls contemporary reports of the anti-Catholic protests that rocked London in June 1780 to reveal the black men and women who took part, exploring their motives and punishments for doing so.
