The history of criminal justice in modern Germany has become a vibrant
field of research, as demonstrated in this volume. Following an
introductory survey, the twelve chapters examine major topics in the
history of crime and criminal justice from Imperial Germany, through the
Weimar and Nazi eras, to the early postwar years. These topics include
case studies of criminal trials, the development of juvenile justice,
and the efforts to reform the penal code, criminal procedure, and the
prison system. The collection also reveals that the history of criminal
justice has much to contribute to other areas of historical inquiry: it
explores the changing relationship of criminal justice to psychiatry and
social welfare, analyzes representations of crime and criminal justice
in the media and literature, and uses the lens of criminal justice to
illuminate German social history, gender history, and the history of
sexuality.