Book Review: Crime Justice History
| Author | William P. McCarty |
| DOI | 10.1177/0734016806292920 |
| Published date | 01 September 2006 |
| Date | 01 September 2006 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Criminal Justice Review
Volume 31 Number 3
September 2006 251-280
© 2006 Georgia State University
Monkkonen, E. H. (2002). Crime Justice History.
Research Foundation, Inc.
Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University Press.
http://cjr.sagepub.com
hosted at
DOI: 10.1177/0734016806292920
http://online.sagepub.com
During his distinguished career, social historian Eric Monkkonen has written about the
police, crime, and local government, among other subjects. This particular book provides a
collection of Monkkonen’s prior published works in addition to including new articles that
deal with topics such as disorder, crime as entertainment, and cross-cultural comparisons
between Europe and the United States. The book works well at two distinct levels: first, as
a collection of diverse works that range from technical journal articles to op-ed pieces that
have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, and second, as a text that imparts to the reader the
fact that a thorough understanding of crime and justice in the status quo is incomplete with-
out a thorough understanding of the past.
The book is divided into four parts: big issues, violence, the police, and cities and crime.
The first part, dealing with the big issues in crime and justice, contains a fascinating piece that
focuses on crime as entertainment in America after World War II. Although popular culture is
ever changing and oftentimes considered without substance by criminal justice scholars,
Monkkonen argues that much can be learned by studying the worlds of Sergeant Joe Friday
and Dick Tracy. Many times, the worlds of these characters are a reflection of public senti-
ment or they may in fact influence public perceptions. For example, Dragnet and the exploits
of Sergeant Joe Friday conveyed a no-nonsense approach to policing in which officers were
tough but fair. As Monkkonen explained, this was the image the Los Angeles Police
Department wanted to both convey and practice during the 1950s and 1960s.
The second part of the...
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