Disease and Crime

Robert Peckham is Co-Director of the Centre for the Humanities and Medicine at the University of Hong Kong, where he teaches in the Department of History.

"Part of the Routledge Studies in Cultural History series, Disease and Crime is a well-integrated collection of essays that span the (post-) colonial histories of medicine, law and politics in East Asia and Europe. Comprising eight compact chapters and an admirably well-synthesized introduction, this volume takes an interdisciplinary, cross-cultural and comparative approach. Unlike many edited volumes, Disease and Crime is superbly organized and can be read cover to cover. Vibrant theoretical discussions are grounded in context-driven case studies examining the social, cultural and political forces that shape categories of disease and crime. Refreshingly not Eurocentric, the historical studies cover England, France, Germany and Italy as well as Hong Kong, Japan and Mainland China... The mobilization of medical knowledge for legal purposes is a persistent issue in diverse cultural contexts. As long as science, disease and crime continue to be conflated to aggregate, subjugate and regulate populations, critical enquiry will be necessary. Disease and Crime offers a sound representation of scholarship in this area. This highly readable volume will interest scholars in anthropology, history, sociology, medical humanities and area studies. As an excellent example of solid, high quality, robust scholarship, Disease and Crime will satisfy early career researchers and experienced academics alike." -- Paul H. Mason, Social History"[The book] is a unique and ambitious collection that fills many gaps and bridges many divides. It is global in scope, and manages to match the individual chapters’ themes of global connection by studying areas with a broad global and temporal scope, yet making coherent connections between all of them. The individual chapters are well written, the volume well-constructed, and it is deserving of a place in the library of any reader interested in the interplay of disease and crime in historical and contemporary thought."-- Erin J. Lux, Social History of Medicine

• Introduction: Pathologizing Crime, Criminalizing Disease Part I 1. Hong Kong’s Floating World: Disease and Crime at the Edge of Empire 2. Sexual Deviancies, Disease, and Crime in Cesare Lombroso and the “Italian School” of Criminal Anthropology 3. Pathological Properties: Scenes of Crime, Sites of Infection 4. Morality Plays: Presentations of Criminality and Disease in Nazi Ghettos and Concentration Camps Part II 5. The “Bad” and the “Sick”: Medicalizing Deviance in China 6. Contagious Wilderness: Avian Flu and Suburban Riots in the French Media 7. The Criminalization of Industrial Disease: Epidemiology in a Japanese Asbestos Lawsuit 8. Crime Between History and Natural History