Deviance and repression in the Netherlands: historical evidence and contemporary problems

In dem Beitrag werden einige generelle Beobachtungen über Devianz und Repression in einem Land (Holland) dargestellt, in dem die bisherige Forschung eine wirkliche Synthese nicht zuläßt. Die Schlußfolgerungen am Ende werden deshalb als provisorisch betrachtet. Die Daten sind den Archivstudien des Autors und einiger anderer Wissenschaftler entnommen. Das Umfeld für die holländischen Studien wird durch die generellen Fragen, die in der Literatur über die Geschichte der Kriminalität und Repression in verschiedenen europäischen Ländern gestellt werden, gegeben. Begonnen wird mit einer kurzen Diskussion der Kriminalität. Das Hauptanliegen aber sind das Strafrecht und die Arten der Repression, insbesondere die Inhaftierung. Im letzten Teil werden einige Bemerkungen über den Beitrag historischer Studien zum Verständnis zeitgenössischer Probleme auf diesem Gebiet gemacht, die speziell auf das Drogenproblem bezogen werden. (KWübers.)'This paper presents a few general observations on deviance and repression in a country where the amount of research done so far does not permit a real synthesis. Its conclusions, therefore, must be regarded as tentative. The data have been derived from the author's archival studies and from work done by a few other scholars. General issues raised in the literature on the history of crime and repression in various European countries provide the context for the Dutch evidence. I am starting with a brief discussion of criminality, but my major concern will be with criminal justice and modes of repression, especially with imprisonment. In the last section I will make a few remarks on the contribution of historical study to the understanding of contemporary problems in the field, with special reference to the drug problem.' (author's abstract

Bloembergen Marieke, De geschiedenis van de politie in Nederlands-Indië. Uit zorg en angst

This history of the police in Colonial Indonesia is presented as the first in a series of two that follows on – but is separate from – the five-volume history of the Dutch police (2007) that resulted from a project led by Cyrille Fijnaut (see the discussion dossier in Bijdragen en Mededelingen betreffende de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden 123, 3, 2008. The other volume of the present series, as indicated in Fijnaut’s book, will be written by Elsbeth Locher). The book under review covers a perio..

Prisoners and beggars: quantitative data on imprisonment in Holland and Hamburg, 1597-1752

Der vorliegende Beitrag arbeitet die These heraus, daß Inhaftierung in sogenannte Gefangenen-Arbeitshäuser, - ursprünglich geplant, das Problem des Bettelns und der Landstreicherei zu lösen - im Laufe des 17. und 18.Jahrhunderts ein zunehmend bedeutende Rolle im Strafvollzugswesen selbst spielte. Die Zeitgenossen betrachteten die Gefangenengemeinschaft als eine Art Familie oder Haushalt. Anhand der Analyse von Aufnahmebüchern in diese Einrichtungen kann der Autor zeigen, daß der ürsprüngliche Zweck der Unterdrückung der Bettelei und Landstreicherei nur eine marginale Rolle spielte. Die Insassen in Holland rekrutierten sich aus der gesamten kriminellen Population, während in Hamburg die meisten Insassen Prostituierte waren. (pmb)'This article discusses quantitative evidence on the inmates of prison-workhouses. It elaborates on the author's earlier work which showed that imprisonment, originally planned to solve problems of begging and vagrancy, played an increasingly important role in the penal system during the 17th and 18th centuries and that contemporaries viewed the ideal prison community as a kind of family or household. The quantitative evidence from entry books is used to answer three questions following from these observations. They refer to the imprisonment of beggars during the early years, the identity of imprisoned convicts and the economic contribution of inmates. The article arrives at the following conclusions: prison-workhouses played just a marginal role in the repression of begging and vagrancy. Convicts selected for imprisonment in Holland resembled the general criminal population, while in Hamburg most of the inmates were prostitutes. An analysis of prison terms reveals that inmates were not valued primarily for their labor power.' (author's abstract

Musin Aude, Xavier Rousseaux, Frédéric Vesentini (eds), Violence, conciliation et répression. Recherches sur l’histoire du crime de l’Antiquité au XXIe siècle

This collection is announced as the first volume in a series on «history, justice and societies» of the University of Louvain Press. Of the three editors, apart from the very brief introduction, it is only Rousseaux who is present with a contribution of his own. Although the volume’s title is given exclusively in French, some of the contributions are in Flemish or Dutch. As the title indicates, they cover a wide area within the field of crime and justice history with respect to both chronolog..

Bloembergen Marieke, De geschiedenis van de politie in Nederlands-Indië. Uit zorg en angst

This history of the police in Colonial Indonesia is presented as the first in a series of two that follows on – but is separate from – the five-volume history of the Dutch police (2007) that resulted from a project led by Cyrille Fijnaut (see the discussion dossier in Bijdragen en Mededelingen betreffende de Geschiedenis der Nederlanden 123, 3, 2008. The other volume of the present series, as indicated in Fijnaut’s book, will be written by Elsbeth Locher). The book under review covers a perio..

Writing a Global History of Crime and Punishment: The Great Challenge

To write a truly global history of any subject is a formidable task. That is why the word “challenge” figures in my title. For my part, I have made a few tentative steps toward this ambitious goal with respect to the theme of violence. Writing the global history of all crime and punishment surely has to be a collective enterprise, stretching over more than one generation of scholars. Up to now, violence, in its various manifestations, has indeed been the preferred subject when it comes to a w..

Vincent Barras, Michel Porret, (Eds.), Homo Criminalis. Pratiques et doctrines médico-légales, 16e-20e siècles

In their brief introduction, the editors define legal medicine as «l’ensemble des connaissances médicales appliquées aux questions de droit pénal ou de droit civil» (6). As its main title indicates, this collection deals in particular with the interrelationships between the criminal law and medicine. They range from biological approaches in criminology to the anatomy theater, where, after all, the body to be dissected publicly was usually that of an executed convict. The editors organized a c..

Violence and the civilizing process : does it work ?

Among historians, especially those investigating violence, Norbert Elias ' theory of civilization has received divergent appreciations recently. In the Anglo-Saxon world, notably in North America, it has obtained increasing recognition over the last ten years or so. In particular, many authors agree that he offers the only theoretical framework which easily accomodates the empirical evidence on the long-term decline of homicide. Conversely, in Continental Europe during the 1990s, a number of historians, notably German historians of crime, have criticized Elias' work. In this discussion, too, the subject of violence looms large.This discussion article confronts the criticism levelled at the theory of civilization, in so far as it pertains to violence. It deals with four broad clusters of problems : (1) the reliability and validity of the evidence for the long-term trend of declining violence ; (2) the character of violence, in particular its function as an indicator for the level of behavioral control ; (3) the interdependence of long-term change in the field of aggression and human emotions on the one hand and the overall development of society on the other ; (4) the new wave of interpersonal violence in the Western world in the late twentieth century.It will be concluded that research on the long-term development of homicide over the last twenty years has yielded impressive new evidence for the theory of civilization, which some historians nevertheless tend to ignore or attempt to explain away. The only objection to the theory not based on a misinterpretation refers to the historical study of honor and ritual. None of the data generated by this research, however, are incompatible with the processes first observed by Elias. Contrary to what his critics assume, the theory of civilization invites creative elaboration, which should be the aim of future research.Parmi les historiens, en particulier ceux qui s'intéressent à la violence, la théorie de la civilisation des mœurs de Norbert Elias a récemment fait l'objet d'appréciations divergentes. Dans le monde anglo-saxon, et en particulier en Amérique du Nord, elle a connu une faveur croissante depuis une dizaine d'années. De nombreux auteurs admettent, en particulier, qu'elle constitue le seul cadre théorique qui soit compatible avec les preuves empiriques d'un déclin de l'homicide sur le long terme. Inversement, en Europe, plusieurs auteurs, notamment des historiens allemands de la criminalité, ont critiqué le travail d'Elias au cours des années 1990. Dans cette discussion également, la question de la violence occupe une part importante.Cet article discute les critiques adressées à la théorie de la civilisation des mœurs qui ont trait à la question de la violence. Il traite de quatre groupes de problèmes : (l)la fiabilité et la validité des données relatives à la tendance au déclin de la violence dans la longue durée ; (2) le caractère de la violence et en particulier sa fonction d'indicateur du niveau de contrôle du comportement ; (3) l'interdépendance entre, d'une part, le développement global de la société et, d'autre part, les changements dans le long terme dans le domaine de l'agressivité et des émotions ; (4) la nouvelle vague de violence interpersonnelle dans le monde occidental de la fin du XXe siècle.On concluera que les recherches de ces vingt dernières années sur l'évolution pluriséculaire de l'homicide ont apporté d'impressionnantes confirmations de la théorie de la civilisation des mœurs, que certains historiens tendent néanmoins à ignorer ou à contester. La seule objection qui ne soit pas basée sur une mésinterprétation de cette théorie réfère à l'approche historique de l'honneur et des rites. Toutefois, aucune donnée produite par ces recherches n'est incompatible avec le processus observé pour la première fois par Elias. Contrairement à la position de ses critiques, la théorie de la civilisation des mœurs invite à la créativité scientifique, objectif qui devrait guider les recherches futures