« Images of Poverty and Crime ». Police Memoirs in England and France at the end of the nineteenth Century
This article attempts, via a comparative analysis of the memoirs of French and English policemen written around the turn of the century, to investigate police perspectives of and attitudes towards the poorer classes. Initially, a comparison is made between police views of the putative causes of indi...
שמור ב:
| הוצא לאור ב: | URI:https://journals.openedition.org/chs, |
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| מחבר ראשי: | |
| פורמט: | Article ou chapitre numérique |
| שפה: | Anglais |
| יצא לאור: |
Crime, Histoire & Sociétés
2009
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| גישה מקוונת: | Accès Université d'Orléans et IFPM |
| סיכום: | This article attempts, via a comparative analysis of the memoirs of French and English policemen written around the turn of the century, to investigate police perspectives of and attitudes towards the poorer classes. Initially, a comparison is made between police views of the putative causes of indigent criminality and those advanced by mainstream social commentators. Then, police attitudes towards vagrants/mendicants are examined and contrasted with the assistance and tolerance granted to the so-called 'deserving poor’. It is concluded that while the social control junctions of the police in both countries were evident in their dealings with the poor, police perceptions were nonetheless multi-dimensional. Pragmatism, empathy and practical assistance were as much in evidence as repression and suspicion. |
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