ABSTRACT
The range of topics that fall within crime history together constitute ‘a vast subject’, as Friedman noted in the preface to his own comprehensive study, Crime and Punishment in American History (Friedman, 1993). This chapter aims to survey the field of critical crime history, examining its strengths and weaknesses, and providing a guide to the main texts. It will review the key areas of crime, policing, and punishment that have been examined, and suggest where we can add strength to this diverse and important subfield of critical criminology. The chapter begins by exploring the growth of critical crime history primarily in the three countries where it has taken hold as a significant subject in its own right.
