Reconstructing the criminal : culture, law, and policy in England, 1830-1914
Type
Book
Authors
ISBN 10
0521478820
ISBN 13
9780521478823
LCCN
HV 6022 .W54
DDC
364.941
Category
United Kingdom
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Publication Year
1994
Publisher
Pages
ix, 381 pages
Subject
United Kingdom Criminology
Tags
Abstract
This ambitious and imaginative work interprets criminal justice history by relating it to intellectual and cultural history. Starting from the assumption that policies and statutes originate in a society's values and norms, the author skillfully and persuasively demonstrates how changes in criminal law and penal practice were related to the changing values of early, mid, and late Victorian and Edwardian society. Wiener traces changes in the criminal justice system by examining the treatment of offenders. During the Victorian period the system became more punitive and then reformed to be more welfarist. This work offers insight into the contemporary Anglo-American penal system. In addition, Wiener's wide-ranging discussion of issues, most notably of free will versus determinism, sheds light on a broad range of Victorian history, beyond crime and punishment.
Description
Contents:
Introduction: criminal policy as cultural history -- the origins of Victorianism: impulse and moralization -- Victorian criminal policy I: reforming the law -- Victorian criminal policy II: reformed punishment -- A changing human image -- late Victorian social policy - a changing context -- The de-moralizing of criminality -- Prosecution and sentencing: the erosion of moral discourse -- Disillusion with the prison -- The outcome: social debility and positive punishment.
Introduction: criminal policy as cultural history -- the origins of Victorianism: impulse and moralization -- Victorian criminal policy I: reforming the law -- Victorian criminal policy II: reformed punishment -- A changing human image -- late Victorian social policy - a changing context -- The de-moralizing of criminality -- Prosecution and sentencing: the erosion of moral discourse -- Disillusion with the prison -- The outcome: social debility and positive punishment.
Biblio Notes
Includes biographical references and index.
Item has been generously donated by Louis A. Knafla.
Item has been generously donated by Louis A. Knafla.
Number of Copies
1
