Reconstructing the Criminal
Culture, Law, and Policy in England, 1830–1914

An account of changing conceptions and treatments of criminality in Victorian and Edwardian Britain.

Martin Joel Wiener (Author)

9780521478823, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 26 August 1994

404 pages, 4 b/w illus.
22.6 x 15.2 x 2 cm, 0.535 kg

'Martin J. Wiener's book provides an intellectual framework for understanding the varieties and complexities of the topic by considering attitudes and actions in their cultural settings. Borrowing methods from literature and using a wide range of sources, Wiener gives coherence to the practices of nineteenth-century penology and a foundation to those of the twentieth century.' E. M. Palmegiano, The American Historical Review

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 skilfully 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 was then reformed in line with welfarist thinking. 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.

Introduction: criminal policy as cultural change
1. The origins of Victorianism: impulse and motivation
2. Victorian criminal policy I: reforming the law
3. Victorian criminal policy II: reformed punishment
4. A changing human image
5. Late Victorian social policy - a changing context
6. The demoralizing of criminality
7. Prosecution and sentencing: the erosion of moral discourse
8. Disillusion with the prison
9. The outcome: social debility and positive punishment
Index

Subject Areas: Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], British & Irish history [HBJD1]