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An extended study of gender and crime in early modern England. It considers the ways in which criminal behaviour and perceptions of criminality were informed by ideas about gender and order, and explores their practical consequences for the men and women who were brought before the criminal courts. Dr Walker's innovative approach demonstrates that, contrary to received opinion, the law was often structured so as to make the treatment of women and men before the courts incommensurable. For the first time, early modern criminality is explored in terms of masculinity as well as femininity. Illuminating the interactions between gender and other categories such as class and civil war have implications not merely for the historiography of crime but for the social history of early modern England as a whole. This study therefore goes beyond conventional studies, and challenges hitherto accepted views of social interaction in the period.
This volume, first published in 1977, brings together eleven studies of crime and the administration of the criminal law in England during the early modern period. They represent a variety of approaches – legal, historical and sociological – to the study of historical crime. The initial essay in this study, which is written from a legal standpoint, is the first coordinated account of the structure of criminal law administration in this formative period. It is followed by investigations into the nature and incidence of crime, court appearance and punishment, separate studies of witchcraft, infanticide and poaching, and an account of conditions in eighteenth-century Newgate. This book will be of particular interest to students of criminology and history.
Reading Witchcraft explores the stories told by and about 'witches' and their 'victims', and questions what can be recovered from their trial records, pamphlets and personal accounts. It is an invaluable study of witchcraft stories.
This book explores the development and application of the law of treason in England across more than a thousand years, placing this legal history within a broader historical context. Describing many high-profile prosecutions and trials, the book focuses on the statutes, ordinances and customs that have at various times governed, limited and shaped this worst of crimes. It explores the reasons why treason coalesced around specific offences agreed by both the monarch and the wider political nation, why it became an essential instrument of enforcement in high politics, and why, over the past three hundred years, it has gradually fallen into disuse while remaining on the statute book. This book ...
Addressing major historical issues relating to crime, gender and medicine, New-Born Child Murder looks at the women who were accused of murdering their new-born children in the 18th century.
Covering the period from the accession of James I to the death of Queen Anne, this companion provides a magisterial overview of the ‘long' seventeenth century in British history. Comprises original contributions by leading scholars of the period Gives a magisterial overview of the ‘long' seventeenth century Provides a critical reference to historical debates about Stuart Britain Offers new insights into the major political, religious and economic changes that occurred during this period Includes bibliographical guidance for students and scholars
A social history of how murder was committed, investigated, and punished in Stuart England examines a range of specific cases while discussing the seventeenth-century public's fascination with violence as reflected in its overflowing courtrooms and numerous crime-inspired works of art.
A fresh and fascinating history of crime and violence in England through the office of the coroner In his fascinating debut, Matthew Lockwood explores the history of crime, homicide, and suicide in England over four centuries through the office of the coroner. While the office was established to investigate violent or suspicious deaths, Lockwood asserts that the demands of competing parties gradually shaped its systems and transformed England into a modern state earlier than is commonly acknowledged. Weaving together strands of social, legal, economic, and political history, this book will interest scholars across a range of fields.
This work explores the social foundation of evidence law in a specific historical social and cultural context - the debate concerning the proof of the crime of witchcraft in early modern England. In this period the question of how to prove the crime of witchcraft was the centre of a public debate and even those who strongly believed in the reality of witchcraft had considerable concerns regarding its proof. In a typical witchcraft crime there were no eyewitnesses, and since torture was not a standard measure in English criminal trials, confessions could not be easily obtained. The scarcity of evidence left the fact-finders with a pressing dilemma. On the one hand, using the standard evidenti...
Through a critical, transdisciplinary approach, Journalism and Crime offers a chronological interrogation of crime journalism from its first origins in 16th century print, to a transatlantic phenomenon in the 19th century and through to the complex networked digital spheres of the current day. This is the first book to historicise the development of journalism and crime together in relation to the people on both sides of the exchange. Taking a 470-year historical sweep, it tracks the cultural, political and social significance of crime journalism and its place as the longest sustained genre of media. It emphasises how crime journalism both reflects and drives shifts in media ownership, the priorities of profit, use of new technologies and legal and political governance. Written in an accessible style, this is essential reading for courses that consider the development and nature of journalism as well as supplementary reading for broader courses within journalism, communication, media studies, criminology, sociology and history.