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The Evolution of Criminal Law and Police during the Pre-modern Era

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  • Douglas W. Allen
  • Yoram Barzel

Abstract

Increased standardization was a by-product of technical innovations during the Industrial Revolution. An unfortunate side effect of standardization was enhanced opportunities for theft and embezzlement. Two significant modern institutions radically evolved during the eighteenth to mid-nineteenth centuries to control these growing problems: criminal law and public police. These institutions strongly interacted with the pace of the Industrial Revolution. Our argument explains this evolution and is tested through an analysis of several historical facts: the role of early police, the fall of the watch system, the creation of improvement commissions, the removal of possession immunity, the rise and fall of factory colonies, and the fall and rise of court cases during the eighteenth century. The Author 2009. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Yale University. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org, Oxford University Press.

Suggested Citation

  • Douglas W. Allen & Yoram Barzel, 2011. "The Evolution of Criminal Law and Police during the Pre-modern Era," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 27(3), pages 540-567.
    • Handle: RePEc:oup:jleorg:v:27:y::i:3:p:540-567
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/jleo/ewp030
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    Cited by:

    1. Koyama, Mark, 2012. "The Law and Economics of Private Prosecutions in Industrial Revolution England," MPRA Paper 40500, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    2. Panova, Anna A. (Панова, Анна), 2018. "Transaction Cost Theory: Origin and Development [Теория Трансакционнных Издержек: Логика Возникновения И Развития]," Ekonomicheskaya Politika / Economic Policy, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, vol. 4, pages 90-107, August.
    3. Vincent Geloso & Louis Rouanet, 2023. "Ethnogenesis and statelessness," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 55(3), pages 377-407, June.
    4. Mark Koyama, 2012. "Prosecution Associations in Industrial Revolution England: Private Providers of Public Goods?," The Journal of Legal Studies, University of Chicago Press, vol. 41(1), pages 95-130.
    5. Zdybel, Karol B., 2024. "Norms among heterogeneous agents: a rational-choice model," ILE Working Paper Series 78, University of Hamburg, Institute of Law and Economics.
    6. Mark Koyama, 2014. "The law & economics of private prosecutions in industrial revolution England," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 159(1), pages 277-298, April.

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