During the era following the Enlightenment, the police became the main institution to oversee the maintenance of public order in many European cities. Their activities also shaped the idea of public order and public morality. The police were important in the context of political change and perceived “threat of revolution” but also in other areas, including the control of movement and residence. From the end of the eighteenth century, criminal codes were changing, and in the Habsburg monarchy, these changes included the definition of a new category of less grave “police delicts.” This study compares police norms and practice in the period of 1790–1830. Using several concrete examples, the author investigates whether the approach of the police and the authorities to moral offenses changed in connection with social and political developments (reaction to revolutions, restoration, changes in the influence of the Church). The aim of the study is to analyze whether the Habsburg police, in an era of more liberal legislation, played a similar restrictive role in the area of moral offenses as they did in controlling political activities.

在启蒙运动之后的时代，警察成为欧洲许多城市监督公共秩序维护的主要机构。他们的活动也塑造了公共秩序和公共道德的理念。警察在政治变革和感知“革命威胁”的背景下发挥着重要作用，但在其他领域也很重要，包括控制行动和居住。从十八世纪末开始，刑法典不断发生变化，在哈布斯堡王朝，这些变化包括对不太严重的“警察违法行为”的新类别的定义。本研究比较了 1790 年至 1830 年期间的警察规范和实践。使用几个具体的例子，作者调查了警察和当局对道德犯罪的态度是否随着社会和政治发展（对革命的反应、复辟、教会影响力的变化）而改变。本研究的目的是分析哈布斯堡王朝的警察在立法更加自由的时代是否在道德犯罪领域发挥了与控制政治活动类似的限制作用。