Prevenir o crime : o corpo da Polícia Civil de Lisboa

Abstract

In the implementation of the the law enforcement and punishment of its offenders, the power creates real mechanisms that allow to make these actions effective. In this sense, in the 19th Century, the importance of the creation of modern police bodies is stressed in all the western world. It is an international movement which Portugal accompanies. The first Civil Police forces were created, in 1867, in Lisbon and Oporto. An high discretionary and coercive power is delegated to their members, being the prevention of the criminality described as its main function. Who are the men who were policing the biggest city of the Kingdom, where criminality was causing the biggest fears? This is question the Author tries to answer in this article, drawing the social profile of the policemen of the Civil Police of Lisbon.

Keywords

• police
• social control
• lisbon
• professions