David Churchill: Crime Control and Everyday Life in the Victorian City: The Police and The Public
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/jols.12194 |
| Author | David J. Cox |
| Date | 01 December 2019 |
| Published date | 01 December 2019 |
Winner of the SLSA's 2019 Socio-Legal Theory and History Prize
CRIME CONTROL AND EVERYDAY LIFE IN THE VICTORIAN CITY:
THE POLICE AND THE PUBLIC by DAVID CHURCHILL
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018, 290 pp., £63.00)
In his latest book, David Churchill aims to challenge the current prevalence
among crime historians of the `state monopolization' theory; that is, that
during the course of the Victorian era both responses to and responsibilities
for crime control moved from individuals to state agents, predominantly the
`New Police' (first created by Sir Robert Peel in 1829). By offering a
meticulously researched and detailed reassessment of the evidence relating
to three Victorian cities, he argues that much of the recent research published
by crime historians has, as a result of general acceptance of the `state
monopolization' theory, concentrated instead on `the role of extra-state
agencies in fields of offending over which the police never sought
substantive control', most notably, sexual offences and crimes committed
within the domestic and private sphere (p. 5). His expressed view is that this
concentration has come at the expense of an analysis of crime control in
what he calls `the traditional terrain of criminal justice history' ± that is,
property offences.
The stated purpose of his book is therefore to concentrate on the
governance of property crime and more specifically on `crime control' rather
than social control ± what he terms the `criminal encounter', namely, the
point of contact between victim and offender, rather than measures put in
place to prevent such interactions occurring in the first place. The book does
this by offering a synchronic review of three particular cities ± Leeds,
Liverpool, and Manchester ± throughout the Victorian period. He makes a
good case for the choice of each city, though arguably the inclusion of a
more southern or central city might have been equally valid; whilst the book
avoids a London-centric approach, and uses a wide range of original sources,
the three cities are all located within a fairly small geographical area of
England. A comparative assessment of perhaps Birmingham or Bristol might
have been even more illuminating.
As a leading exponent in the field of historical criminology, the author
states that the book is intended to `help re-forge dialogue between history
and criminology' (p. 7), and he largely succeeds in this aim; the book utilizes
criminological theories and practices and applies them to a historical study.
It is thoroughly researched and referenced and includes a wide variety of
contemporary case studies that help illuminate many of his arguments.
The book is split into three distinct sections; Part One discusses the
emergence and scope of the `New Police', with a discussion of its ante-
cedents, whilst Part Two concentrates on crime prevention measures and
activities which often either supplemented or bypassed state-sponsored or
orga nize d inte rven tion , and Pa rt Th ree in vest igat es pol ice± publ ic
673
ß2019 The Author. Journal of Law and Society ß2019 Cardiff University Law School
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