ABSTRACT
This chapter takes a step back and looks at histories of crime. It outlines key changes in the ways historians have researched crime and criminals. Many of the other chapters include historical material on, for example, criminological theories (chapters 4 and 5), policing (Chapter 17), prisons (Chapter 18) and particular crimes (e.g. Chapter 10 on property crime, Chapter 11 on sexual crime and Chapter 14 on drug-related crime).These show how ways of dealing with and thinking about criminals have changed over time.
