Knowledge of the Unknown: On the “Dark Figure of Crime” in 19th-Century Germany

"Dark figure” means estimating and calculating the number of unreported or undiscovered crimes and is therefore a statistic of hidden yet ostensibly real occurrences. The terms names something that mostly evades general knowledge and counting, and often instills angst. “Dark figures” are figures of suspicion and produce a suggestive surplus, especially in relation to crime statistics. Planning to evade crime in the first place had an immediate impact, and this kind of social engineering focussing on long-term perspectives became a crucial technology during the 19th century. The central question is how the “knowledge of the unknown” became a research area of its own, opening up new fields of intervention. To enhance their ability to survey and protect the social body, complex informational networks were established in order to gain knowledge not readily accessible to medical institutions or to the state. The paper investigates counting cards nthat were used in Germany from the early 1870s onwards to gain deeper information about unknown and threatening fields like covert prostitution, potentially dangerous mental illnesses, and crime reality. The epistemological impact of these paper tools will be related to long-term prevention as the cultural technology of the modern age.