Gozo : a look into the police occurrences of the second world war

Abstract

For this dissertation, I have examined over 3,400 police occurrences. Despite this large number, there are still many occurrences from 1940-­‐1943 that I have not looked at, meaning that this study can be expanded much more. Through my experience using the Police Occurrences as a primary source, I can confidently say that they are one of the most detailed manuscripts about this time. In these occurrences, the police did not only write reports of crime, but also most incidents on the island. In the war years, for example, they wrote about every bombing or attack in Gozo, and wrote in detail about all subsequent damages or deaths. Even disregarding the occurrences that had to do directly with the war, there are still a perplexing number of reports on small circumstances in everyday life. For this reason, the Police Occurrences would be particularly useful in any detailed study of Maltese society, particularly in the case of microhistory. In chapters two and three, I will report the crime rate per 100 inhabitants for both theft and violence. However, none of these percentages exceed 2%. Therefore, it would be suitable to discuss possible explanations for Gozo’s low crime rate before delving further into the topic.