Historical Patterns of Violence and Crime
Many prominent historian believed that the ratio of violence was greater in past societies compare to contemporary modern societies. Julius ruffs was one among these historian who shared similar outlook. In 2003, he wrote about routine violence within past societies in one of his most influential work “Violence in Early Modern Europe 1500-1800”. This violence took many shapes and forms within European societies including, political, military and interpersonal. Some of these violence were sanctioned by formal state laws such as, judicial torture however many were not. According to ruffs, violence was at its peak within Europe in sixteenth century but it declined in coming two centuries; when European elites decided to adopt nonviolent ways to resolve conflicts or disputes.
The studies of evolution from violent societies to civilized societies were influenced by the work of English-German sociologist Norbert Elias “The Civilizing Process”. Elias assumed that, Europeans began to practice different type of self-control over their bodies and social conduct since Middle Ages. Europe emerged as a civilized society due to greater self-discipline and introduction of new sanctions for disorderliness. Knafla believed that the process of civilizing is still going on, which is eliminating traditional form of violence from societies via formal social institutions regulated via rational rules and procedures.
Many research suggest that rate of crime and violence declined in late twenty century in most parts of the world. However, the rate of homicide doubled in British in 1980s which raises a questions for criminologists about the social forces due to which social violence returned. Events such as these create new challenges for the historian of crime to conduct comprehensive studies on later period in which rate of violence increased.
Moreover, few comparative studies are conducted on non-violent crimes because the pattern of non-violent crimes change with the passage of time. Additionally it is difficult for criminologists to compare the ways in which the non–violent crimes have been categorized by different states as well as, how categorization of such crimes change over time. Many national studies suggest that, non-violent crimes such as, theft and property offenses were common in past as it’s in contemporary societies. According to Emsley, proportion of nonviolent crimes is 50% among all recorded crimes in England during the period of 1750-1900 these crimes include, gambling, drunkenness and illegal selling.
Patterns of British Prosecution
The pattern of British prosecution was similar to the other European nation ions as well as wider English speaking nations of the world. According to the statistical data the rate of crime increased drastically in early eighteenth century however declined in early twentieth century then again it rose significantly after Second World War specifically in 1970.
Historians of crime have analyzed British patterns of prosecution and crime from different outlook. The first drastic increase in crime rate was observed from 1780 to 1840, which was linked with social change. After Napoleonic wars European societies went through the process of modernization which resulted in industrialization, urbanization, migration and economic depression within European countries. Due to the social change young people within Europe started committing more crimes. Moreover, historians believe that Change in justice system such as, creation of new criminal offenses, reorganization of courts and new police force setup lead to increase in prosecutions. Additionally, collection of statistical data in 1805 made deviance national as well as easily measurable social phenomenon.
After a long period increase in crime rate flattened out from 1850 to 1910. May be this decline was due to the completion of modernization process within European countries. Modernization raised the living standards of people, lowered food price, stabilized the political system, decreased the rate of interpersonal violence, adjusted people in new urbanized environment and created strong centralized regulatory system, factors such as these might be the reason behind temporary decline in crime rate.
However, historians insinuate that the rise in crime rate had been observed in twentieth century because fragile public order broke down due to the occurrence of two World Wars which provided the opportunity for committing new kind of crimes. According to statistical evidence crime rose from 0.5 million to 1.6 million from 1950 to 1970 and 1.6 million to 5.5 million from 1970 to 1991. After Second World War production of goods increased within society which generated desire of procuring and owning more goods this development resulted in property crimes. In addition rapid increase was observed in crime such as car theft which was very rare in 1950.
Written by; Khushdil Khan Kasi
