Evaluating Court Statistics as a Data Source for Studying Nineteenth-Century Crime

Slone, Neal

doi:10.1080/01615440.1993.10594219

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 12 publications

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“…For example, the nineteenth-century concept of a criminal class has received considerable attention as evidenced in writings on its social significance and its impact on legislation, criminal justice policies, and penal reforms (e.g., Adler 1994;Davis 1980;Garton 1996;Oliver 1998;Pisciotta 1994;Stevenson 1986;Tombs 1980;Weinberger 1990). In addition, a significant strand of current research redirects attention to the criminals themselves using various original source materials, especially prison records, to answer important new questions about patterns of crime, the characteristics of criminals, and the nature and severity of punishment outcomes from the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth centuries (e.g., Boritch 1992;Friedman and Percival 1981;Gatrell 1980;Graff 1977aGraff , 1977bGoldsmith 1997;Katz et al 1982;McKanna 1985;Nicholas 1988;Schneider 1980;Slone 1993;Weaver 1988Weaver , 1995.…”

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The Criminal Class Revisited

Boritch¹

2005

Social Science History

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Much of the renewed interest in the history of crime and punishment over the past two decades has centered on various aspects of the nineteenth-century notion of a criminal class. Although recidivism was widely regarded as the defining feature of the criminal class, little of this research has focused on systematic investigations of either differences between recidivists and the rest of the prison population or the nature and extent of recidivism-related differences in sentence outcomes. This article examines these two issues using data on offenders committed to Middlesex County Jail, Ontario, from 1871 to 1920. The results show that while recidivists differed from first-time committals to prison in terms of a number of sociodemographic and case-related characteristics, they bore little resemblance to contemporary stereotypes about the criminal class. In addition, the findings reveal both similarities and noteworthy differences with respect to the factors associated with harsher sentencing outcomes for recidivists and nonrecidivists.

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