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The current debate about corrections' privatization neglects the extensive overlap of business, political, and private interests that shapes public corrections policy. Based on current developments in the United States it is possible to identify a corrections-commercial complex. As Deep Throat reportedly said to Washington Post writer Bob Woodward in an underground parking garage after he and Carl Bernstein uncovered the Committee for the Re-election of the President's secret fund in 1972: “Follow the money.”

For many criminologists, theory matters more than evidence in historical studies. But can historical criminology really proceed on this basis? In this article, we argue for the importance of primary research, that is, analysis of documents that originate in the period of interest. Using examples from archived documents in a study of women imprisoned in Malta during the 19th century, we address four issues related to history and theory: gaining perspective from unfamiliar places, finding the beginning of historical processes, making discoveries from details, and recovering the significance of forgotten practices. In this, we wish to join a conversation about historical evidence and genealogical accounts in prison history. We will also contribute to the significant, but relatively limited, literature on prisons for women in the 19th century.

During the past two decades, crime rates have declined in Europe and North America. A number of explanations have been offered for why this has come about, but there has been much less discussion about what governments should do now. This article considers the policy implications of an international crime decline with a focus on the relationship between crime reduction and social welfare. The discussion here includes the possibility of a convergence across social welfare improvements, the danger of misreading the USA as a trend‐setter, the potential of the Scandinavian way in situational crime prevention, the chance of persistence in high‐crime politics and the dilemma of realizing social policy objectives from crime reduction initiatives.

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