Cops and Robbers: Banditry and Crime Control in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Contemporary Age
November 17th, 2025
The volume “Guardie e ladri. Banditismo e controllo della criminalità in Europa dal Medioevo all’età contemporanea” [Cops and Robbers: Banditry and Crime Control in Europe from the Middle Ages to the Contemporary Age], edited by Livio Antonielli, Stefano Levati, Claudio Povolo, and Luca Rossetto and published open access in the series Stato, Esercito e Controllo del Territorio of CEPOC – Centro studi per la storia delle polizie e del controllo del territorio, brings together the proceedings of the conference organized by the Center and held from 26 to 28 October 2017, along with the wide-ranging discussion among the many scholars who took part.
The book offers a broad and nuanced reflection on the many forms of criminality that have shaped European history—from street banditry to smuggling, from urban delinquency to fraud, from robbery to counterfeiting—considering them in relation to the social and institutional practices of control developed over the centuries. The extensive chronological span, ranging from the Middle Ages to the present, makes it possible to identify continuities, transformations, and adaptations both in criminal activities and in the organizational, administrative, and territorial instruments used to combat them.
The PDF version of the volume (in Italian) is freely available here.