Urban and Rural Criminal Justice and Criminality in the Netherlands Since the Middle Ages: Some Observations (From Civilization of Crime: Violence in Town and Country Since the Middle Ages, P 153-164, 1996, Eric A. Johnson and Eric H. Monkkonen, eds. - See NCJ-169788)

• NCJ Number: 169795
• Author(s): H Diederiks
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 12 pages
• Sale Source: University of Illinois Press
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Criminal cases in the Netherlands in premodern society, particularly the 18th and 19th centuries, were analyzed to determine the nature and extent of urban and rural crime and criminal justice in that country since the late Middle Ages.

Abstract

The analysis notes that the northern Netherlands has had a high degree of urbanization since the late Middle Ages, especially in the Western part. Results revealed the criminal courts and justices were relatively common in rural and urban areas. The rural courts seemed to be less effective than the urban courts, although the social distance between rural court members and their clients was much less. The analysis also revealed the overarching role of males in violence and that their involvement in violence was greater in rural areas than in urban areas. Findings also demonstrated that the rural countrywide experienced more male and violent criminality than did the cities. Part of the rural crime was imported by soldiers and vagrants, but most offenses were perpetrated by people born or living in the jurisdiction. Findings supported other studies' conclusions that violence has not been a particularly urban phenomenon throughout most of the last several centuries. Tables and reference notes