Urbanization and Crime: Germany 1871–1914 - Hardcover

Johnson, Eric A.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 052147017X ISBN 13: 9780521470179

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1995

Synopsis

This book contributes to modern German history and to the sociological understanding of crime in urban societies. Its central argument is that cities do not cause crime. It focuses on crime during Germany's period of most rapid growth. From 1871-1914, German cities, despite massive growth, socialist agitation, non-ethnic immigration, and the censure of conservative elites, were not particularly crime-infested. Nevertheless, governmental authorities often overreacted against city populations, helping to set Germany on a dangerous authoritarian course.

About this title

From the Back Cover

This book represents the most rigorous, social-scientific study to date demonstrating that neither urban environments themselves nor the change in modern societies from predominantly rural to urban "causes" crime. Focusing on Germany between 1871 and 1914, the period of its industrial revolution and emergence as a world power, this volume explores crime patterns, criminal justice institutions and practices, and popular and elite attitudes toward crime, criminals, and criminal justice authorities. Criticizing as largely conservative and elitist in origin the notions that cities cause crime, the book demonstrates that the real roots of crime in German society are to be found in a mix of economic hardship, ethnic bias, and political repression - conditions that conscious political decisions, law, and legal officials either can help overcome or indeed can make even worse. In examining how the crime drama was played out in Imperial Germany, the book credits German law, judges, police, and populace for their technical expertise, high intellectual level, and orderly nature. It also indicts them for launching Germany on a dangerous path that would allow German judges and police in the mid-twentieth century to claim that they were acting only in the well-respected tradition of legal positivism.

Review

"...important and often fascinating..." Journal of Interdisciplinary History

"...a very impressive array of official criminal statistics." Gabriel Finder, American Journal of Sociology

"...Johnson's book is a gold mine of information...." Central European History

"In this rich volume, Eric A. Johnson undertakes a task that historians far too often overlook: the painstaking reexamination of received scholarly wisdom....Johnson's book is not only of value to german specialists, but it should help frame the discussion about the history of crime in industrialized society." Kenneth F. Ledford, The Historian

"...exceptional and very persuasive study of crime and criminal justice in Germany during the late nineteenth and erly twentieth centuries...." Kevin F. Ryan, International Criminal Justice Review

About this edition

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1995
• ISBN 10: 052147017X
• ISBN 13: 9780521470179
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 260