Den brottsliga landsbygden och järnvägens ankomst. En studie i kriminalitet i ett samhälle i förändring, Daga härad under åren 1855–1865.

Criminality has always been a problem in all societies, both in urban and rural areas. And when Sweden hade come a bit with the industrialisation of the country, in the 1900th century, and the railroads began to spread across the country, a new type of working men (mostly men) emerged, the railway workers, with a terrible reputation for being aggressive and drunkards. The purpose with this paper is to investigate how the criminal life looked like in the small rural county of Daga härad between the years 1855-1865. I want to se what kind of crimes that where most common and what kind of citizens that where the most present in the protocols and registers. The sources I have used are the actual court notes and protocols that I found in the National archives in Uppsala. The results shows that alcohol related crimes where the most common crimes committed in Daga härad, but that it was widely spread across the citizenship. With both police officers, clergymen and farmers alongside each other as perpetrators. The results do show that there are actually a big class issue with the crimes committed in Daga härad, with working class culprits like farmers, farmers handy men, widows, maids and railway workers as the biggest group that commits the crimes in the county during the time period.historia