Paul Lawrence

History, criminology and the ‘use’ of the past:

This article considers why, despite an apparent congruence of subject matter and methodologies, the disciplines of sociological criminology and criminal justice history are not more closely aligned. It contends that intellectual traffic between the two fields is not usually limited by institutional barriers, nor is it a legacy of the disciplinary antipathy which existed between history and sociology in Britain during the mid-twentieth century. Rather, it is due to the different ‘purposes’ with which sociological criminologists and criminal justice historians imbue their work and to the differing disciplinary perceptions of the relationship between the past, present and future which result from this. These different ‘purposes’ are traced via a consideration of the paths of development of the two disciplines from the 1940s. The article concludes by proposing an arena for future collaboration between criminal justice historians and sociological criminologists.

‘Degrees of Foreignness’ and the Construction of Identity in French border regions during the inter-war period

This paper presents a comparative study of the development of national and regional identities in three different border regions of France: the Basses-Alpes, the Moselle and French Flanders. It demonstrates that in spite of political, economic and social differences between the regions, the presence of the border and interaction with foreigners in specifically border regions similarly influenced identity formation in interwar France. In each case hierarchies or degrees of foreignness were developed, and a specific form of national identity came to be dominant which was determined more by a differentiation from ‘others’ than through an identification with shared, centre-generated national images.

Historical Criminology and the Explanatory Power of the Past

To what extent can the past ‘explain’ the present? This deceptively simple question lies at the heart of historical criminology (research which incorporates historical primary sources while addressing present-day debates and practices in the criminal justice field). This article seeks first to categorize the ways in which criminologists have used historical data thus far, arguing that they are most commonly deployed to ‘problematize’ the contemporary rather than to ‘explain’ it. The article then interrogates the reticence of criminologists to attribute explicative power in relation to the present to historical data. Finally, it proposes the adoption of long time-frame historical research methods, outlining three advantages which would accrue from this: the identification and analysis of historical continuities; a more nuanced, shared understanding of micro/macro change over time in relation to criminal justice; and a method for identifying and analysing instances of historical recurrence, particularly in perceptions and discourses around crime and justice.

Laudatio for Professor Clive Emsley

It is a singular honour to be able to propose this laudatio to mark the retirement from the Open University of Professor Clive Emsley, one of the foremost exponents of criminal justice history. Via both his intellectual leadership and the generous and inclusive nature of his approach to scholarship, Clive has played a unique role in developing the field of criminal justice history research worldwide, and in encouraging and nurturing a new generation of researchers. Educated at York University...

Naturalization, ethnicity and national identity in France between the wars

This article aims to study French conceptions of their own and other national identities via the prism of naturalization ‐ the concession of citizenship. New, easy‐access nationality legislation introduced in the interwar period seems to provide evidence of the development of an inclusive, non‐ethnic concept of citizenship. However, a closer analysis shows that the insecurity of French national identity between the wars coloured the whole naturalization process. While a fear of population decline and military weakness forced officials towards the incorporation of immigrants, concerns over the contamination of the French nation by ‘undesirables’ led many others to advocate exclusion.