Police in the Age of Improvement

David Barrie

• Publisher: Willan
• Year: 2008
• Print ISBN: 9780415627771
• eBook ISBN: 9781317436621
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Criminology
• Index: Social Sciences

The study of police history in Scotland has largely been neglected. Little is known about the Scottish police's origins, development and character despite growing interest in the machinery of law enforcement in other parts of the United Kingdom. This book seeks to remedy this deficiency.

Based on extensive archival research, its central aim is to provide an in-depth analysis of the economic, social, intellectual and political factors that shaped police reform, development and policy in Scottish burghs during the 'Age of Improvement'. The key issues addressed include: the workings of traditional forms of law enforcement and why these were increasingly deemed to be unsuitable by the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries; why, and in what ways, the pattern, nature and origins of police development in urban Scotland differed from elsewhere in Britain; in what ways the Scottish police model compared and contrasted with other British models; the impact of police reform on urban governance and the struggle between social groups for control of the local state; the concerns and priorities behind police policy.

In addressing these questions, Police in the Age of Improvement moves beyond many of the 'problem-response' interpretations which have preoccupied many police historians, and locates reform within the wider contexts of urban improvement, municipal administration and Scottish Enlightenment thought. It will be essential reading for anyone interested in the history of policing, urban management and social change in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• List of figures and tables
• Abbreviations
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Introduction
• 2 Policing before the police: law enforcement in the late eighteenth century
• 3 Politics, pressures and policing initiatives: Glasgow in the Age of Enlightenment, 1779–1800
• 4 Urban challenges and new expectations: police origins and the pattern of adoption, 1800–32
• 5 Conflict and consensus: framing the model of urban management, 1800–32
• 6 Pioneers in police? The police model and its historical significance, 1800–33
• 7 National legislation and the state of burgh policing at mid century, 1833–62
• 8 Policing the Scottish city, 1800–48
• 9 Towards incorporation: changing attitudes towards urban administration and challenges to elected police commissions, 1833–64
• 10 Conclusion
• Appendix I: Social status classifications of police commissioners’ occupational profiles
• Appendix II: Selection of amended police constitutions, 1800–33
• Bibliography
• Index