Designed to complement "Crime and Punishment: An Introductory History" UCL Press, 1996, this sourcebook contains documents specifically selected to illuminate major issues raised in the textbook. In the first part of the book, extracts of laws and royal, local and church records from Anglo- Saxon England to the 18th century reveal changing patterns of crime and punishment. The first sociology of English crime Harman's Caveat, 1566 as well as Henry Fielding's reform proposals of the mid-eighteenth century are included and the growing use of imprisonment is reflected in the later sections.; The second part covers the 19th century. Documents range from commentaries on the day-to-day crimes of theft, drunkenness And Assault To The Sensationalism Of Garroting And Murder. Documents charting the impressive growth of the police force are included. Criminal justice is approached through the minutiae of police charge books and newspaper column's, the personal reminiscences of magistrates, the sweeping arguments of law reformers and the pleading voices of Petitioners For Mercy. In A Chapter On Punishment, The Emotions Unleashed by public hanging and transportation can be compared with the relentless monotony of prison life.

This survey of crime in ENgland from the medieval period to the present day synthesizes case-study and local-level material and standardizes the debates and issues for the student reader.

One of the fastest-growing and most exciting areas of historical research in recent years has been the study of crime and the criminal. The intrinsic fascination of the subject is enhanced by the fact that between the mid eighteenth century and early twentieth century, the English criminal justice system was fundamentally transformed as a new disciplinary state emerged. Drawing on recent research, this book provides a comprehensive and up-to-date synthesis of these important changes.

McLynn provides the first comprehensive view of crime and its consequences in the eighteenth century: why was England notorious for violence? Why did the death penalty prove no deterrent? Was it a crude means of redistributing wealth?

Crime has been present in all cultures and societies, since the beginning of time. This work focuses on the punishments common in England around the time of Shakespeare and Milton, presenting descriptions of more than fifty criminal cases. Information comes from narratives printed for the popular news media at the time of the event. Details of everyday life in England and facts about the English legal environment of the era are brought to light. Also revealed through the narratives are issues present in society today--i. e., the status of women, poverty, and corruption. Individual cases are discussed under chapters devoted to specific types of crimes.

Acknowledged as one of the best introductions to the history of crime in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries,Crime and Society in England 1750-1900 examines thedevelopments in policing, the courts, and the penal system as England became increasingly industrialised and urbanised. The book challenges the old but still influential idea that crime can be attributed to the behaviour of a criminal class and that changes in the criminal justice system were principally the work of far-sighted, humanitarian reformers. In this fourth edition of his now classic account, Professor Emsley draws on new research that has shifted the focus from class to gender, from property crime to violent crime and towards media constructions of offenders, while still maintaining a balance with influential early work in the area. Wide-ranging and accessible, the new edition examines: the value of criminal statistics the effect that contemporary ideas about class and gender had on perceptions of criminality changes in the patterns of crime developments in policing and the spread of summary punishment the increasing formality of the courts the growth of the prison as the principal form of punishment and debates about the decline in corporal and capital punishments Thoroughly updated throughout, the fourth edition also includes, for the first time, illuminating contemporary illustrations.

McLynn provides the first comprehensive view of crime and its consequences in the eighteenth century: why was England notorious for violence? Why did the death penalty prove no deterrent? Was it a crude means of redistributing wealth?