The Role of Medico-legal Expertise in the Emergence of Criminology in Britain (1870-1918)

The beginning of the systematic scientific study of the Criminal in Britain coincided with the emergence of a corps of professional medical officers in the country’s convict prisons. Although the first appointments were made in the 1840s, it was not until the passage of the Act for the Better Government of Convict Prisons in 1850 and the creation of a central Directorate of Convict Prisons that a fully-fledged prison medical service came into existence. However, the mere presence of medical p...