Between the mid-nineteenth century and the present, the British police gained and to a large extent maintained a reputation as the 'best in the world', largely due to their ability to maintain order through consent rather than coercion. Much recent research, however, has pointed out that the label 'golden age' is an over-simplification of British policing in this period. This volume reprints a series of the most up-to-date and relevant articles which deal with: the ways that police organisation was structured and reformed; the nature of the policing task in this period; who carried this task out (with particular attention to the arrival of policewomen)

and some of the crises and ongoing areas of concern (such as the policing of prostitution) which they faced.