Acknowledgements
I have been fortunate to have had a great deal of help as I wrote this book, and
it is a pleasure to be able to express my thanks to a large number of institutions
and individuals. I am grateful to the Social Sciences and Humanities Research
Council of Canada, the Connaught Fellowship Committee of the University of
Toronto, and the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation for the financial sup-
port that made my research possible. I have also benefited from financial sup-
port from the Centre of Criminology, University of Toronto, but I owe much
more than that to my colleagues in this model of what an academic community
should be. Their interest in my work and their encouragement have meant a
great deal to me, and it is a pleasure to thank them, the director, Rosemary Gart-
ner, the administrative staff, and the librarians for their support and friendship
over many years.
I have also been fortunate to have had the help of superb research assistants
and it is a pleasure to thank Alan Darnell, Simon Devereaux, Allyson May, An-
drea McKenzie, and Greg Smith for their excellent work on my behalf. I am
also grateful to Simon Devereaux for help with the notes, to Greg Smith for data
analysis, and to Katherine Beattie for the tables. I owe a particular debt to Tim
Wales. I have not only benefited from his expertise and skill as a researcher but
also from our collaboration on the subject of thief-takers. In the end, we decided
to write separate pieces, but much of the research for Chapter 5 of this book was
the fruit of that collaboration. I am also grateful to him for his helpful comments
on drafts of that chapter and indeed on other chapters of the book.
I have benefited from the advice of many other friends and colleagues who
have read some or all of the manuscript at various stages and offered sugges-
tions. They may not think that I have responded as fully to their advice as they
might have wished, but they helped me to improve the manuscript in many ways
and saved me from errors and misjudgements. It is a pleasure to express my
gratitude for their generous help to Donna Andrew, Simon Devereaux, Paul
Griffiths, Douglas Hay, Henry Horwitz, Joanna Innes, Peter King, Norma Lan-
dau, John Langbein, Randy McGowen, Andrea McKenzie, Allyson May,
David Philips, Elaine Reynolds, Nicholas Rogers, Bob Storch, and Jessica
Warner. The errors that remain are of course my responsibility. I am also grate-
ful to Jerry Bannister, David Clemis, Roger Ekirch, David Hayton, Jeanette
Neeson, Jim Phillips, and Leonard Schwarz for advice on particular points or
for sending me copies of documents or references.prelims.y5 11/6/01 12:24 PM Page xi