Crime and Civilization The Birth of Criminology in the Early Nineteenth Century

In 1827, the first modern national crime statistics were published: the Compte général de l'administration de la justice criminelle en France. Before the onset of data criminology, the perception of crime relied on sources from classical antiquity, rational philosophical thought, travellers' observations, and unsystematic observations by criminal justice practitioners. With the new concept of national crime statistics, it became possible to test theories and hypotheses about crime using a shared data instrument, leading to an unprecedented avalanche of crime research by continental scholars.

Crime and Civilization: The Birth of Criminology in the Early Nineteenth Century explores the rise of data-based criminology as an intellectual field in continental Europe in the early nineteenth century. Janne Kivivuori creates a new interpretation of the era of 'first criminology,' one approached from the perspective of data and instruments, thus complementing the traditional story based on theories and explanatory shifts from 'classicism' to 'positivism' and beyond. Drawing on original French, German, and English publications, the book contextualizes the rise of criminology in wider cultural history, spanning from Enlightenment philosophers to the general rise of science in society.

Accessible and thought-provoking, Crime and Civilization is about how data-driven criminal studies began, and how the first criminologists could know about the patterns and trends of crime. A must-read for criminologists worldwide, this book will fast become a valuable addition to the literature on the history of criminology and of early social science more generally.

Janne Kivivuori, Professor of Criminology, University of Helsinki

Janne Kivivuori is Professor of Criminology at the University of Helsinki, and Adjunct Professor of the History of Criminology at the University of Oulu. His research has focused on homicide, youth crime, crime measurement instruments, and historical criminology. His historical work ranges from history of criminology to history of violence, with books such as Discovery of Hidden Crime (2011) and Nordic Homicide in Deep Time (2022). He has contributed extensively to the creation and development of Finnish and international crime indicators, serving currently in the steering committees of the International Self-Report Delinquency Study (ISRD) and the European Homicide Monitor (EHM).

1. Introduction2. Thinking about crime before criminology3. Civilization debate4. Breakthrough to data 1825â75. First criminology6. Anchoring criminal justice to facts7. French civilization and German Kultur8. Insight from critique: the Genevans9. From piecemeal reform to incremental research10. The origins of criminology