cjrc-sponsored research

  • Project:
  • Historical Violence Database: A Collaboration Database on the History of Violent Crime and Violent Death

  • Investigators:
  • Barbara Hanawalt (History)
  • Randolph Roth (History)

  • Abstract:
  • The Historical Violence Database (HVD), sponsored by the Criminal Justice Research Center, is a collaborative archive for data on the history of violent crime and violent death from medieval times to the present. The current project adds three datasets to the HVD that speak directly to the debates over the causes of long-term changes in violence, including: Ted Gurr's "U-Curve" hypothesis; Norbert Elias's "civilization" thesis; and Gary LaFree's theory of the role of institutional legitimacy. The data are from: Barbara Hanawalt's study of crime, criminal justice, and violent death in medieval England; the late Eric Monkkonen's study of crime and poverty in Franklin County, Ohio, in the mid-nineteenth century; and Herman Diederiks's study of criminal indictments and trials in Leiden, 1533-1811.

  • Products:
  • The three new data sets are being assembled. However, visit the Historical Violence Database for current holdings.