The first serious investigation of criminal offending by members of the British armed forces both during and immediately after the two world wars of the twentieth century.

This book offers a global history of civilian, military and gendarmerie-style policing around the First World War. Whilst many aspects of the Great War have been revisited in light of the centenary, and in spite of the recent growth of modern policing history, the role and fate of police forces in the conflict has been largely forgotten. Yet the war affected all European and extra-European police forces. Despite their diversity, all were confronted with transnational factors and forms of disorder, and suffered generally from mass-conscription. During the conflict, societies and states were faced with a crisis situation of unprecedented magnitude with mass mechanised killing on the battle field, and starvation, occupation, destruction, and in some cases even revolution, on the home front. Based on a wide geographical and chronological scope – from the late nineteenth century to the interwar years – this collection of essays explores the policing of European belligerent countries, alongside their empires, and neutral countries. The book’s approach crosses traditional boundaries between neutral and belligerent nations, centres and peripheries, and frontline and rear areas. It focuses on the involvement and wartime transformations of these law-enforcement forces, thus highlighting underlying changes in police organisation, identity and practices across this period.

This introductory book offers a coherent history of twentieth century crime and the law in Britain, with chapters on topics ranging from homicide to racial hate crime, from incest to anarchism, from gangs to the death penalty. Pulling together a wide range of literature, David Nash and Anne-Marie Kilday reveal the evolution of attitudes towards criminality and the law over the course of the twentieth century. Highlighting important periods of change and development that have shaped the overall history of crime in Britain, the authors provide in-depth analysis and explanation of each theme. This is an ideal companion for undergraduate students taking courses on Crime in Britain, as well as a fascinating resource for scholars.

In 1928, the bodies of two young boys were found in the Indiana Harbor shipping canal of East Chicago, their identities unknown. With no missing children of their age and appearance reported in the city, the police had begun to lose hope until a breakthrough led them to the murderer: their father, George Chisholm, a Canadian World War I veteran. How could a parent commit such a crime? The case drew headlines around the country and worldwide. The death penalty loomed for Chisholm, and his attorneys planned a campaign to save him from the electric chair on the grounds of mental illness. During World War I, while serving in the Victoria Rifles of Canada for three years, Chisholm endured the horrors of trench warfare and the Battle of Vimy Ridge. After being gassed and shell-shocked on the battlefield, Chisholm returned to Canada a changed man and his mental health deteriorated. Although the war had produced epidemic levels of shell shock, it had often been viewed as “cowardice” or “nervousness,” rather than debilitating psychological trauma. And yet, its effects persisted long afterward, manifested in shocking cases like Chisholm’s. Set near Chicago during the roaring twenties—the era of Capone and Lindbergh, bootlegging, gangsters, and rapid social change—Fiendish Crime explores not only George Chisholm’s case, but also the legacy of tragedy that continues long after war.

The belief that crime declines at the beginning of major wars, as young men are drawn into the armed forces, and increases with the restoration of peace, as brutalised veterans are released on to a labour market reorganising for peace, has a long pedigree in Britain. But it has rarely been examined critically and scarcely at all for the period of the two world wars of the twentieth century. This is the first serious investigation of criminal offending by members of the British armed forces both during and immediately after these wars. Its particular focus is the two world wars but, recognising the concerns and the problems voiced in recent years about veterans of the Falklands, the Gulf wars, and the campaign in Afghanistan, Clive Emsley concludes his narrative in the present.

This final volume of the Opies' acclaimed trilogy deals with children's games that use equipment - such as marbles, skipping, fivestones, and ball-bouncing. They describe rules of play, the history of the game, and accompanying rhymes and chants.