Open University Set Books

Crime and Society in England, 1750-1900 (Themes In British Social History)

ReviewProduct DescriptionSynopsisFrom the Back CoverAbout the Author

'Crime is one aspect of the world that seems to get inexorably worse as you get older?.But how do the teenagers outside your local corner shop really compare with those in times past? Go to Crime and Society in England: 1750-1900 (Longman) by Clive Emsley; you might even take a copy to the corner shop and instigate an edifying debate.'

Crime and Society in England, 1750-1900 draws on recent research to assess the changes in the understanding of crime, policing, the courts and penal sanctions in England as the country industrialised and urbanised during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.  The third edition brings the subject up-to-date by reflecting recent shifts away from class towards gender analysis, and the growing interest in violence as opposed to property crime.

This text is suitable for undergraduate courses in modern English history and criminology courses in  law departments.

The history of crime and criminal justice is one of the most popular areas of modern social and cultural history. This third edition of Crime and Society in England, 1750-1900 draws on recent research to assess the changes in the understanding of crime, policing, the courts and penal sanctions in England as the country industrialised and urbanised during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Written in a clear and accessible manner, the book examines:

• perceptions of criminality during the period
• the significance of contemporary notions of class and gender in understanding and formulating the image of the criminal
• developments in policing
• the spread of summary punishment
• the increasing formality of the courts
• the shifting ideas that led to a decline in corporal and capital punishments and an increasing focus on prison

As in previous editions, the book challenges the view that crime can be attributed to the behaviour of a criminal class and that changes in the criminal justice system resulted from the vision of far-sighted reformers. This new edition also brings the subject up to date by reflecting recent shifts away from class towards gender analysis, and the growing interest in violence as opposed to property crime.

Written by an acknowledged expert in the field, the third edition of Crime and Society in England, 1750-1900 is essential reading for students of English social history.

Clive Emsley is Professor of History and co-director of the International Centre for Comparative Criminological Research at the Open University.

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Discipline and Punish (Penguin Social Sciences)

Product Description
In this brilliant work, the most influential philosopher since Sartre suggests that such vaunted reforms as the abolition of torture and the emergence of the modern penitentiary have merely shifted the focus of punishment from the prisoner's body to his soul.

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The English Police: A Political and Social History (Political & Social History)

ReviewProduct DescriptionSynopsisFrom the Back Cover
 'Set to become the new student text xxx; Here is a historian whose knowledge of English policing history over the whole of the period is second to none.'  British Journal of CriminologyA comprehensive history of policing from the eighteenth century onwards, which draws on largely unused police archives. Clive Emsley addresses all the major issues of debate; he explores the impact of legislation and policy at both national and local levels, and considers the claim that the English police were non-political and free from political control. In the final section, he looks at the changing experience of police life. Established as a standard introduction to the subject on its first appearance, the Second Edition has been substantially revised and is now published under the Longman imprint for the first time.




A comprehensive history of policing from the eighteenth century onwards, which draws on largely unused police archives. Clive Emsley addresses all the major issues of debate; he explores the impact of legislation and policy at both national and local levels, and considers the claim that the English police were non-political and free from political control. In the final section, he looks at the changing experience of police life. Established as a standard introduction to the subject on its first appearance, the Second Edition has been substantially revised and is now published under the Longman imprint for the first time."This broad and comprehensive coverage of the history of the English police that includes its prehistory and takes us up to the present is set to become the new standard text. ... Within the historiography, Emsley places himself halfway between the traditionalists' account of progress enacted by far-seeing reformers and the radicals who regarded police legislation and powers as enactments in the interests of the ruling class. His book, he declares, is an attempt by a 'woolly liberal' to write a history of the police critical of the traditional Whig view but equally sceptical of the idea that the police can best be regarded as an instrument of class power. In this aim he succeeds admirably... Here is a historian whose knowledge of English policing history over the whole of the period is second to none."
So wrote Barbara Weinberger in the British Journal of Criminology of this distinguished book - the first comprehensive history of the origins and development of the police in England since the subject first began to be explored seriously by historians in the 1970s. Much of it is based on the rich and still largely unexplored archives which remain in police hands.
The bulk of the book charts the development of the modern police force chronologically, and considers policing from above. It explores the impact of legislation and political action on policing at both national and local levels, and investigates the claim that the English police were non-political and never subject to political control. In his final section, however, Clive Emsley examines policing from below, looking at the changing experience of police work and police life since the early nineteenth century. He discusses what kind of people joined police forces over the years, what their tasks were, and how successfully they achieved them. The book concludes with a discussion of what - if anything - distinguishes the English bobby from his European and North American counterparts.
This welcome Second Edition offers The English Police in paperback, and under the Longman imprint, for the first time. The text has been fully revised to take account of recent scholarship; the story has been updated to the end of 1995; and there is valuable statistical material in a new appendix.
"readable, well-informed and up-to-date... it supplements, and in many areas will replace, T.A.Critchley's History of Police in England and Wales as the standard text."
Stanley H. Palmer, Albion
"This is a scrupulously fair and well-reasoned account, enlivened and strengthened by Emsley's research on may local forces, his interviews with retired policemen, and his knowledge of the national and international context of police history. It will be welcomed and enjoyed by students, teachers and woolly liberals everywhere."
Stephen Inwood, London Journal
____________________________________________________________________________
CLIVE EMSLEY is Professor of History at the Open University and President of the International Association for the History of Crime and Criminal Justice.

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Punishment and Modern Society: A Study in Social Theory (Clarendon Paperbacks)

Rod Morgan, British Journal of CriminologyReviewAndrew Rutherford, Legal StudiesHarvard Law ReviewAndrew Rutherford, Legal StudiesHarvard Law ReviewAndrew Rutherford, Legal StudiesProduct DescriptionSynopsis
`This is a superbly intelligent study, without doubt the best yet written on a topic, penality, which the author has done so much to develop...'This is a superbly intelligent study, without doubt the best yet written on a topic, penality, which the author has done so much to develop ... As a state of the art account it is unlikely to be bettered for many a year. (Rod Morgan, British Journal of Criminology )

an insightful critique of existing approaches to the theory of punishment (Harvard Law Review )

a landmark study (Andrew Rutherford, Legal Studies )`a landmark study'"an insightful critique of existing approaches to the theory of punishment""a landmark study""an insightful critique of existing approaches to the theory of punishment""a landmark study"* Winner of the 1991 Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Sociological Association * Winner of the Outstanding Scholarship Award of the Crime and Delinquency Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, USA The first comprehensive account of the role of punishment in modern society, this book buils upon the work of Durkheim, Foucault, and others, and provides a fascinating interpretation of this complex social institution, showing how penal institutions interact with strategies of power, socio-economic structures, and cultural sensibilities.* Winner of the 1991 Distinguished Scholar Award from the American Sociological Association * Winner of the Outstanding Scholarship Award of the Crime and Delinquency Division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems, USA The first comprehensive account of the role of punishment in modern society, this book buils upon the work of Durkheim, Foucault, and others, and provides a fascinating interpretation of this complex social institution, showing how penal institutions interact with strategies of power, socio-economic structures, and cultural sensibilities.

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