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Exporting British Policing is a comprehensive study of British military policing in liberated Europe during the Second World War. Preventing and detecting thefts, receiving and profiteering together with the maintenance of order in its broadest sense are, in the peacetime world, generally confided to the police. However, the Second World War witnessed the use of civilian police to create a detective division of the British Army’s Military Police (SIB), and the use of British civilian police, alongside American police, as Civil Affairs Officers to restore order and civil administration. Part One follows the men of the SIB from their pre-war careers to confrontations with mafiosi and their investigations into widespread organised crime and war crimes during which they were constantly hampered by being seen as a Cinderella service commanded by ‘temporary gentlemen’. Part Two focuses on the police officers who served in Civil Affairs who tended to come from higher ranks in the civilian police than those who served in SIB. During the war they occupied towns with the assault troops, and then sought to reorganise local administration; at the end of the war in the British Zones of Germany and Austria they sought to turn both new Schutzmänner and police veterans of the Third Reich into British Bobbies. Using memoirs and anecdotes, Emsley critically draws on the subjective experiences of these police personnel, assessing the successes of these wartime efforts for preventing and investigating crimes such as theft and profiteering and highlighting the importance of historical precedent, given current difficulties faced by international policing organizations in enforcing democratic police reform in post-conflict societies.

In the immediate aftermath of the First World War a variety of commentators in England expressed concern that men returning from the war had become so brutalized and inured to violence that their behaviour would continue to be violent at home. But, while the stage was set for a ‘moral panic’ with the brutalized veteran as the new folk devil, no such panic materialized. This essay makes a detailed study of two contrasting newspapers to assess how violent crime was assessed and interpreted after the war. It notes an increase in the use of the concept of the ‘unwritten law’ (the traditional ‘right’ claimed by many men to chastise a disrespectful wife or a man who despoiled or dishonoured a wife) in the courts and the press, probably as an element in re-establishing pre-war gender roles. It also describes how the idea of shell-shock was deployed as a defence in criminal cases, something that probably contributed to a popular recognition that men might suffer mental breakdowns as easily as women. In conclusion, it suggests some of the factors that may have inhibited the press in identifying the violent veteran as a new folk devil. En 1919, dans l'immédiat après-guerre, nombre de commentateurs de l'actualité en Angleterre ont exprimé leur crainte qu'après une guerre où ils avaient à la fois subi et été incités à tant de violences, les hommes démobilisés continueraient à se comporter aussi violemment à leur retour chez eux. Cependant, alors que le décor d'une “panique morale” avait été dressé avec l'ancien soldat dans le rôle du diable, rien de ce genre ne s'est passé. Nous étudions ici en détail deux journaux de ton différent pour établir comment le crime avec violence a été reçu et interprété après la guerre. Nous relevons un usage croissant, dans la presse et devant les tribunaux, du concept de “loi non-écrite” (le “droit” traditionnel qu'invoquent nombre d'hommes pour châtier une épouse leur manquant de respect ou un homme qui leur a pris leur femme), et c'est là probablement une façon parmi d'autres de chercher à rétablir le jeu de rôles masculin/féminin d'avant-guerre. Nous décrivons aussi comment la notion de choc traumatique dÛ aux bombardements a été invoquée par les avocats de certains criminels – ce qui a probablement contribué à divulguer l'idée que l'homme est tout autant exposé à la crise nerveuse que la femme. En conclusion, nous suggérons quelles ont pu être certaines des raisons qui ont dissuadé la presse de présenter le démobilisé violent comme un diable nouveau. Unmittelbar nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg brachten zahlreiche Kommentatoren in England ihre Sorge darüber zum Ausdruck, dass Männer, die aus dem Kriege zurückkehrten, so brutalisiert seien und sich so sehr an Gewalt gewöhnt hätten, dass sie sich auch zu Hause weiterhin brutal verhalten würden. Doch während mit dem Bild des brutalisierten Veteranen als neuem Schreckgespenst alles für eine “moralische Panik” vorbereitet war, kam eine solche Panik nicht zustande. Dieser Aufsatz unternimmt eine detaillierte Auswertung zweier kontrastierender Zeitungen, um abzuschätzen, wie nach dem Krieg Gewaltverbrechen eingeschätzt und interpretiert wurden. Es zeigt sich, dass sowohl die Gerichte wie die Presse zunehmenden Gebrauch vom Begriff des “ungeschriebenen Gesetze” machten (das von vielen Männern beanspruchte traditionelle “Recht”, eine respektlose Ehefrau oder einen Mann, der die Ehefrau beraubt oder entehrt hatte, zu züchtigen), was wahrscheinlich dazu beitrug, die geschlechtsspezifischen Rollen der Vorkriegszeit wiederzubeleben. Der Artikel beschreibt ferner, wie das Argument der Kriegsneurose in Strafprozessen zur Verteidigung vorgebracht wurde, worin wohl auch einer der Gründe dafür liegt, dass man allgemein anerkannte, Männer könnten ebenso leicht von Nervenzusammenbrüchen heimgesucht werden wie Frauen. Zum Schluss werden einige der Faktoren genannt, die vermutlich die Presse davon abgehalten haben, den gewalttätigen Veteranen als neues Schreckgespenst hinzustellen.

This book aims to both reflect and take forward current thinking on comparative and cross-national and cross-cultural aspects of the history of crime. Its content is wide-ranging: some chapters discuss the value of comparative approaches in aiding understanding of comparative history, and providing research directions for the future; others address substantive issues and topics that will be of interest to those with interests in both history and criminology. Overall the book aims to broaden the focus of the historical context of crime and policing to take fuller account of cross-national and cross-cultural factors.

This article discusses the models and styles of policing deployed by European powers in their overseas empires. The main focus is on the police forces created in the British Empire and the assumption that the model for these institutions was the Royal Irish Constabulary. The article argues that, in reality, police systems in the empire were much more of a pragmatic pick and mix depending on the size and spread of the European population in a colony, the finance available and the size and form of the region to be policed. It builds on an earlier typology of European police and suggests that this extended typology provides a starting point for exploring the complexities of colonial police institutions and that it has relevance beyond the British Imperial context.

Arthur Marwick, the foundation Professor of History at the Open University and co-editor of Journal of Contemporary History from 1995 to 1998, died Sep 27, 2006 after a severe stroke.