BURGLARY INSURANCE AND THE CULTURE OF FEAR IN BRITAIN, c. 1889–1939

Abstract

This article explores the representations of burglary and burglars created by the burglary insurance sector in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Britain. Two lines of argument are developed: first, that the marketing strategy of the burglary insurance sector exacerbated existing fears about the nature and prevalence of burglary in a calculated bid to attract custom; and secondly, that the depictions of crime and criminal used in marketing this form of insurance were subsequently revised in the contracts issued to customers as part of the industry's commercial transactions, thereby securing against supposed ‘negligence’ by homeowners as well as malicious attempts to defraud insurers. As the self-styled commercial ‘protection’ against burglary, burglary insurance became an ordinary household investment. Its prosperity therefore enables us to identify certain ideas about crime and criminal then current. Crucially, this research highlights the intersection of media, state, and market discourse about crime in weaving a specific version of burglary into the very fabric of everyday life, uniting three domains that historians of crime have traditionally treated separately.

Thatcher’s troops? Neighbourhood Watch schemes and the search for ‘ordinary’ Thatcherism in 1980s Britain

“…Going back further, an increasingly prudential attitude to property security existed prior to the late-twentieth century 'risk' society; home security devices and insurance schemes were markedly popular during the inter-war years. 38 Even so, there were shifts in both the scale and the agents responsible for crime prevention during the 1980s. Crime Prevention Panels were, for example, specifically designed to work with community leaders from local organizations.…”

Murder at the 'Love Hut': at home with Elvira Barney

“…Indeed, many other historians of crime and culture have taken advantage of the same collec tions used here (Bell, 2015;Bland, 2013;Frost, 2004;Grey, 2012;Houlbrook, 2012;Laite, 2012;Mort, 2010;Wood, 2012). However, few historians have used crime sources specifically to study homes (ex ceptions include Moss, 2011), and few studies of home benefit from sources that offer as much textu al description from multiple angles and directly comparable visual materials as case files for domestic murders (Blunt and John, 2014). This chapter will use the case of Elvira Barney (defendant) to argue that, despite the dichotomies of in side/outside and public/private usually used to refer to the home (Blunt and Dowling, 2004), homes in the past can more accurately be seen as microcosms of wider social and cultural life in which bound aries are constantly being tested and negotiated.…”

Rethinking the state monopolisation thesis : the historiography of policing and criminal justice in nineteenth-century England

“…Locker (2005). 94 Thompson (1993); Conley (1991, pp.22-28); Hammerton (1992, pp.18-22); Woods (1985, pp.175-77); Davis (1989b, pp.71-72); Wood (2003); Wood (2004, chapters three and four) 95 On the latter, see the excellent recent study by Moss (2011). 96 See Churchill (2012a).…”