Police in the Age of Improvement: Police Development and the Civic Tradition in Scotland, 1775-1865

• NCJ Number: 223770
• Author(s): David G. Barrie
• Date Published: 2008
• Length: 320 pages
• Sale Source: Willan Publishing
• Publication Format: Book (Hardbound)
• Publication Type: Historical Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

The purpose of this book is to offer an assessment of police development in Scotland from 1775 to 1865, with a central aim to provide an in-depth analysis of the economic, social, intellectual and political factors that shaped police reform and policy in Scottish burghs during the ‘Age of Improvement’.

Abstract

Police history in Scotland has been largely neglected with little scholarly investigation into the Scottish police’s origins and development. Given the distinctive nature of the concept of ‘police’ in 19th century urban Scotland, it is important to set out the parameters. The principal focus of this book is on urban administration and the ‘constabulary’ police rather than the ‘civil’ police. The key issues addressed include: (1) the workings of traditional forms of law enforcement and why these were increasingly deemed to be unsuitable by the late Georgian period; (2) why, and in what ways, the pattern, nature, and origins of police development in urban Scotland differed from elsewhere in Britain; (3) in what ways the Scottish police model compared and contrasted with other British models; (4) the impact of police reform on urban governance; and (5) the concerns and priorities behind police policy. This book moves beyond 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 is argued that in the larger towns, police reform was the outcome of growing concerns with the urban poor, and increasing critique of existing law enforcement provisions, and a strengthening desire for more effective protection for private property. Throughout Scotland as a whole, the momentum for change was embedded in Enlightenment ideals of improvement, civil society, and community. This book is essential to anyone interested in the history of policing, urban improvement, municipal governance, and social change in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Appendixes 1 and 2, references and index