Crime and power - Philip Rawlings

This book traces the emergence of law, order and the criminal justice system as an issue in British politics and society from the late eighteenth century to the present day. It provides an essential historical context to the study of contemporary crime and the criminal justice system, and thus provides an ideal accompaniment to other books in the Longman Criminology Series. At the same time it provides a highly readable account of the law and order issue for those approaching this from a historical as well as a criminological perspective.

The book begins with the emergence of 'law and order' as a national issue in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, analyses the increasing involvement of central government in the maintenance of law and order (for example, the formation of the Metropolitan Police in 1829). and concludes with an examination of the way in which crime and law and order, in the post 1945 period, became significant party political issues. Dr Rawlings concludes his fascinating account by pointing to the common themes that are evident over the period he looks at, for example the way in which crime and criminality have been made the focus of far wider social concerns and anxieties.

The book as a whole will provide its readers with a new way of looking at both historical and contemporary issues relating to crime, criminal justice and law and order.