HISTORY 261
CRIME AND PUNISHMENT IN EUROPE AND AMERICA SINCE 1500
FALL 2004
3210
MW—2:00-3:15 pm
Instructor: M. B. Emmerichs
Office: (Next to the Dean’s Administrative Assistant)
Phone: 459-4422
Home: 414-355-2779
e-mail: memmeric@uwc.edu
or
mb_emmerichs@hotmail.com
Office Hours: MW—10:00-10:50 am and 3:20-4:00 pm
This 3-credit sophomore level course is a transnational survey of the history of crime and
punishment in Europe and North America from 1500 to the present. The emphasis will be on the
social context of the legislative creation of new crimes, the origin of prisons and police forces,
changes in the types of crimes committed as urbanization and industrialization advance, the
evolution of the criminal justice systems in Europe and America, and the comparison and
interpretation of differential crime rates in Europe and America.
The books for the course, available at UW Sheboygan Bookstore, are as follows: Cesare
Beccaria, On Crime and Punishment; Johnson and Wolfe, History of Criminal Justice; Godfrey
et al., Comparative Histories of Crime; Miller, Cops and Bobbies. Two articles by Emmerichs
are on reserve in the library. You may photocopy these articles for your own use
The grade for the course will be decided as follows:
Term Paper
25%
Mid-term exam
25% Oct 27
Final Exam
25% Dec 20, 1:00-3:00 pm
Class Participation and quizzes 25%
The Term Paper will be a 10 page paper on a topic of your choice, due November 17. The topic
must be approved by me. We will discuss the requirements for the term paper in class on
October 4. It is your responsibility to be there and get this information.
EACH WEEK you are required to bring to class a short (no more than two pages), well-written,
typed response to two chapters you have completed in the readings. Each chapter may be from a
different book. These responses will be due each Wednesday.
If because of a disability you have special needs for taking notes or tests, please let me know
as soon as possible.
SCHEDULE OF LECTURES AND READINGS
Sep 8-22
QUIZZES, Sep 13, Sep 20
Lecture and Discussion topics: Introduction, What is Crime?; Crime and
punishment in the ancient world;
witch-hunting, torture, and legal procedure in the Early Modern Period
(1500-1750), Crime and Sin
Reading: Johnson and Wolfe, Prefaces, Introduction,
Chapters 2,3,4.
Sep 27-Oct 20
DISCUSSION OF REQUIREMENTS FOR TERM PAPER, Oct 4.
NO CLASS OCTOBER 20
Paper Topic, Preliminary Outline and Sources due Oct 18.
Lecture and Discussion topics: History of Prisons and Punishment,
Transportation of Convicts, Capital Punishment, Reform of British
Criminal Law, Creation of Police forces, Moral Panics,
Reading: Beccaria (entire text); Johnson and Wolfe, Chapters 5,6;
Godfrey, 1,2,3,4
Oct 25-Nov 10
MIDTERM, Oct 27
Lecture and Discussion Topics: Crime in Industrializing and Urbanizing
Societies, Infanticide,
Women and Homicide, Police and Policing, Public Order
Reading: Johnson and Wolfe, Chapters 7,8,9,10; Emmerichs,
“Trials of Women for Homicide,” and “Getting Away with Murder?
Homicide and the Coroners in Nineteenth-Century
London,” (on reserve); Miller, Cops and Bobbies
Nov 15-Dec 1
TERM PAPER DUE—NOVEMBER 17
Lecture and Discussion Topics: Crime and Punishment in America and
Comparisons with the European Experience
Reading: Johnson and Wolfe, Chapters 11,12,13, Godfrey, 5,6,7,8
Dec 6-Dec 15
QUIZZES, Dec 6, Dec 13
Questions for Final Examination to be handed out, Dec 6.
Lecture and Discussion Topics: Crime and Punishment in the twentieth
century; Crime Statistics
Reading: Godfrey, 9,10,11; Johnson and Wolfe,14,15
FINAL EXAMINATION DECEMBER 20, 1:00-3:00pm
ARTICLES ON RESERVE IN LIBRARY
Emmerichs, Mary Beth, “Trials of Women for Homicide in Nineteenth-Century England,”
Women and Criminal Justice, Vol. 5, No. 1, 1993, pp.99-109.
------------“Getting Away with Murder? Homicide and the Coroners in 19th-Century London,”
Social Science History, Volume 25, No. 1, Spring 2001, pp. 93-100