Police and the Prevention of Crime : Commerce, Temptation and the Corruption of the Body Politic, from Fielding to Colquhoun

Examining the conception and legitimization of systems for the prevention of crime in eighteenth-century Britain, particularly in the work of Henry Fielding and Patrick Colquhoun, I argue that the conceptualization of the causes and effects of crime as stemming from social processes rather than indi...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Dodsworth, Francis (Author)
Format: Electronic/Print Article
Language:English
Published: 2007
In: The British journal of criminology
Year: 2007, Volume: 47, Issue: 3, Pages: 439-454
Online Access: Volltext (doi)
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Availability in Tübingen:Present in Tübingen.
IFK: In: Z 7
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Keywords:
Geschichte
Großbritannien
Ideologie
Kriminalprävention
Polizeiarbeit
Soziale Ordnung
Sozialer Wandel
Description
Summary:Examining the conception and legitimization of systems for the prevention of crime in eighteenth-century Britain, particularly in the work of Henry Fielding and Patrick Colquhoun, I argue that the conceptualization of the causes and effects of crime as stemming from social processes rather than individual character is central to the history of the social. Examination of the work of eighteenth-century theorists of police demonstrates a particular understanding of links between economic, social and political change. Fielding and Colquhoun argued that crime was a public problem because, through imitation, vice spread like disease throughout the body politic, corrupting the state and leaving it weak and liable to dissolution. To prevent crime was to prevent corruption spreading by removing temptations into vice
ISSN:0007-0955
DOI:10.1093/bjc/azl054