Thorsten Sellin

From the Preface In the story of punishment, the institutions described in this monograph hold a significant place, yet their role in shaping the history of prisons has not hitherto been explored by any American or English historian of institutions. In vain do we look for even a mention of them in works like George Ives' A History of Penal Methods or in the older pioneer writings of E. C. and F. H. Wines. With one or two exceptions, even the many textbooks of criminology published in the United States in the last two decades ignore them. This is understandable when we consider that except for brief and cursory references in rather inaccessible Continental works of the eighteenth century, the "rediscovery" of the Amsterdam houses of correction did not occur until 1898, when Robert von Hippel published his splendid article about them in the Zeitschrift für die gesamte Strafrechtswissenschaft. Hippel established once for all the contribution of the Dutch municipalities of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries to the rise of correctional imprisonment. It is largely to Hippel's study, which came to the author's notice nearly twenty years ago, that he owes an abiding interest in the history of punishment. Many scholars abroad were equally inspired by it, and a number of monographic studies of local German penal institutions by Hippel's own students at Göttingen resulted from it. Hallema's excellent researches into the history of the Dutch houses of correction might never have been made without the stimulus of Hippel's investigations. Were it not for the wealth of new data uncovered in the last forty years and the absence of any adequate description of the Amsterdam houses of correction in the English language, this monograph might appear to be a mere threshing of old straw. The reasons just offered are believed sufficient justification, however, for writing their story anew. It has been a pleasant PREFACE task even though the author has been unable to do full justice to it. Perhaps everyone who attempts to seize a portion of the pulsating life of a past era feels the same disappointment. Nevertheless, this monograph is presented in the hope that it will prove of interest to penologists at least and will demonstrate that the history of punishment is well worth exploration. T. S. Philadelphia, April 1944

"Delinquency in a Birth Cohort is a turning point in criminological research in the United States," writes Norval Morris in his foreword. "What has been completely lacking until this book is an analysis of delinquency in a substantial cohort of youths, the cohort being defined other than by their contact with any part of the criminal justice system." This study of a birth cohort was not originally meant to be etiological or predictive. Yet the data bearing on this cohort of nearly ten thousand boys born in 1945 and living in Philadelphia gave rise to a model for prediction of delinquency, and thus to the possibility for more efficient planning of programs for intervention. It is expert research yielding significant applications and, though largely statistical, the analysis is accessible to readers without mathematical training. "No serious scholar of the methods of preventing and treating juvenile delinquency can properly ignore this book."—LeRoy L. Lamborn, Law Library Journal "The magnitude of [this] study is awesome. . . . It should be a useful guide for anyone interested in the intricacies of cohort analysis."—Gary F. Jensen, American Journal of Sociology "A book the student of juvenile delinquency will find invaluable."—Criminologist

This volume is a statistical and sociological analysis of one of the leading causes of death in the United States. Combining original research and a review of all major previous studies on criminal homicide in America, this study attempts to discover and to analyze patterns in criminal homicide from among almost six hundred cases that occurred in the city of Philadelphia between January 1, 1948, and December 31, 1952. The primary source of data utilized by Marvin E. Wolfgang was the files of the Homicide Squad of the Philadelphia Police Department. Answers were sought to a series of questions regarding 588 victims and 621 offenders involved in criminal homicide with respect to the following: race, sex, and age differences; methods and weapons used to inflict death; seasonal and other temporal patterns; spatial patterns; the relationship between the use of alcohol and homicide; the degree of violence in homicide; motives; the interpersonal relationship between victim and offender; homicide occurring during the commission of another felony; victim-precipitated homicide; homicide-suicide; unsolved homicide; the tempo of legal procedure; court disposition; and insanity as a factor in homicide. The broad range of material examined in this volume makes it one of the most comprehensive studies undertaken in recent years. Although dealing basically with records of homicide accumulated in Philadelphia, Patterns in Criminal Homicide has implications that hold true for every large urban community. It is a work of utmost importance to the student of sociology because of its general sociological perspective; to all students of criminology; to the police, especially the homicide division of any police department; to law students, lawyers, and judges; and to those agencies in the community concerned with the control and prevention of violent crime.