The 19th century is described as the time of sensational crimes, (developing) police detection, and “the ascent of the detective” (Shpayer-Makov); it is also the period when crime and its investigation were offered as entertainment on a mass scale in penny dreadfuls, shilling shockers, sensation fiction, and daily papers. However, it is the 18th century that witnessed the beginnings of the attempts at organising official crime prevention (with Henry Fielding, a writer and a London magistrate, as the man behind it), and Victorian detective and sensational fiction have its roots in 18th-century gothic tales and The Newgate Calendar.
We invite scholars working in various disciplines and fields of study to discuss the ways in which they perceive historic and fictional crime and detection across media and centuries.
