Crime and Society in Twentieth Century England

This volume is a sequel to Emsley''s Crime and Society in England, 1750-1900, taking a thematic approach the book starts by addressing the nature and interpretation of crime across the century, and ends by looking at shifting responses to crime,  particularly with reference to the police and penal policy. The role of the media in the understanding of crime and criminals is one that attracts considerable attention; the discussion and analysis here is aided by the use of visual images in the text.

This book is the first to draw significantly on the Police Archive at the Open University with its extensive holdings ranging from the papers of the Association of Chief Police Officers to the memoirs of individual police officers.  

 Crime and Society in Twentieth-Century England traces the broad pattern of criminal offending over a hundred year period that experienced unprecedented levels of upheaval and change. This period included two world wars, the end of the British Empire, significant shifts in both gender relations and ethnic mix and a decline in the power of the economy.

 In this new textbook, Professor Clive Emsley provides an up-to-date assessment of changes in attitudes to crime as well as of the developments in policing, in the courts and in penal sanctions over the course of the century. He explores the impact of growing gender equality and ethnic diversity on crime and criminal justice, and looks at the way in which crime became increasingly central to political agendas in the last third of the century.

Written in a clear and accessible manner, the book examines:

    Perceptions of crime and criminality across the century
    Varieties of offending from murder to benefit fraud
    The role of the media in constructing and reinforcing the understanding of crime and the criminal
    The decline and demise of corporal and capital punishment
    The shift from largely progressive to more punitive penal practice

 The first serious attempt to explore the history of crime and criminal justice in twentieth-century England, this book will be an invaluable introduction to the student and interested general reader alike.