‘An example to all of Christendom’ – Crime and social control in the Danish Island Parish of Drejø c. 1700-1900

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Highlights

  • Uses a Danish island parish to understand how island space frames moral norms.

  • Analyses the typology of crime and rates of children born out of wedlock.

  • Documents how islanders experienced geographically intensified social control.

  • Identifies how islanders outs unwanted inhabitants.

  • Adds to our understanding of island space and the life in small communities.

Abstract

Using the case of the island Parish of Drejø, Denmark, this article examines historical crime on small islands and adds to our understanding of islands as criminological spaces. Building on an analysis of the typology of the crimes committed on the five small islands of Skarø, Drejø, Hjortø, Hjelmshoved and Birkholm primarily in the nineteenth century and a quantitative analysis of the number of children born out of wedlock in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries on the same islands, it is argued that the geography of the islands in question intensified social control and affected their criminological profile. The article concludes that placing social control in the center of island life links research on island crime and ideas of island utopias.

Section snippets

Utopia in the archipelago

During 1823, in his rectory in the village of Stenstrup, the parish priest Peder Tommerup wrote up his observations on the island Parish of Drejø, Denmark.1

Crime as geography

In the history of crime, criminality is largely regarded as culture.9 Criminality is perceived as fluid and changing with religious and moral developments. In criminological research, however, the role of place in crime causation has received renewed attention.10

‘Father, thou art a crook’ - law and justice on the islands29

Before we can look at the islands' crime profile, the islands need to be placed in a context. The Parish of Drejø consisted of five islands from the 16th century to the 1960s, when most of the parish was incorporated into the municipality of Svendborg. The five islands, Drejø, Hjortø, Hjelmshoved, Skarø and Birkholm, were home to 372 people in 1769, when we have the first census, and around 700 when the island population topped around the beginning of the twentieth century.30

The typology of island crime

The offenses of the islanders were usually small and of a nature that indicates that, as mentioned in the introduction, Tommerup was right in his assumption that severe criminal cases were rare. Only one case of violence has been found, the rest is primarily financial crime ie. unpaid bills. A good example is the judgement record for Sunds-Gudme Herredsfoged 1871–1892 in which island cases appear five times. The four cases cover incidents with unpaid bills as well as one servant case. It seems

Rumours and hidden conflict

As the aforementioned cases indicate, contrary to what Tommerup and Fabricius thought, crime did take place on the islands. The Village Law suggests that the islanders, like everyone else, had their conflicts. In addition, the records indicate that they could not always reach an agreement. However, there is very little violence in the material. This is not necessarily because the islanders were not violent, but there is traditionally a large shadow figure for unreported incidents when it comes

Out of wedlock

The two priests mentioned in the introduction argued that the islands had a high level of morality due to the absence of illegitimate children. In that regard they are children of their time. Both priests clearly regarded the birth of illegitimate children as immoral based on the belief of marriage being a cornerstone of society. Illegal children were simply seen as an attack on social order and punishable until 1812. An out-of-wedlock child was considered a breach of the desired norm during

The night is our own

Considering human sexuality, the occurrence of illegitimate children in the parish of Drejø is not surprising. In order to assess the frequency of the illegitimate children on the islands, we must compare with other parts of Denmark. The numbers from the Parish of Drejø as seen in Table 3 emphasize the regional variety.50

Islands in relation

In the Parish of Drejø the interplay with surrounding islands was complex. As seen above, the possibility of ousting those who did not follow the norms and thus maintain a more utopian community remained an important element in island crime management. This underlines how connectedness to other localities was part of how islandness was practiced. At the same time, islanders struggled to keep non-island authorities at bay, minding their own business. In line with recent research in island

Conclusion

Were Tommerup and Fabricius right when they, at 60-year intervals, pointed out that the islands were cleansed of moral offenses and illegitimate children? Were the islands a Utopia? The material suggests that the priests knew their parishioners quite well. The most directly trackable measure is the number of illegitimate children who, for centuries, were consistently below the national average and only a fraction of the nearby parishes on Funen. The criminal offenses are likewise strikingly few

Acknowledgements

The article has been supported by funds from the Danish Agency for Heritage.

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