ThisHandbookoffers a systematic and comprehensive guide to the historical study of crime and criminal justice. It brings together essays written by researchers who work on crime and criminal justice in the past, with an emphasis on how the interaction between history and social sciences has shaped the field. It describes the methods of historical research, noting the potential, limitations, and pitfalls of these methods. Topics range from the modeling of crime trends to problems in interpretation of crime statistics, the geography of crime, organized crime and the cultural concept of the urban underworld, prostitution, retail theft, crime museums, and the role of women in Soviet criminology. There are also sections on police, courts, and prisons as major components of criminal justice. In addition, the volume explores how approaches to crime have been influenced by cultural assumptions about crime and violence in relation to gender. This introduction discusses the purpose, structure, and conceptual issues related to how theHandbookwas assembled.