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Crime, Courtrooms and the Public Sphere in Britain, 1700-1850
by David LemmingsModern criminal courts are characteristically the domain of lawyers, with trials conducted in an environment of formality and solemnity, where facts are found and legal rules are impartially applied to administer justice. Recent historical scholarship has shown that in England lawyers only began to appear in ordinary criminal trials during the eighteenth century, however, and earlier trials often took place in an atmosphere of noise and disorder, where the behaviour of the crowd - significant body language, meaningful looks, and audible comment - could influence decisively the decisions of jurors and judges. This collection of essays considers this transition from early scenes of popular participation to the much more orderly and professional legal proceedings typical of the nineteenth century, and links this with another important shift, the mushroom growth of popular news and comment about trials and punishments which occurred from the later seventeenth century. It hypothesizes that the popular participation which had been a feature of courtroom proceedings before the mid-eighteenth century was not stifled by ’lawyerization’, but rather partly relocated to the ’public sphere’ of the press, partly because of some changes connected with the work of the lawyers. Ranging from the early 1700s to the mid-nineteenth century, and taking account of criminal justice proceedings in Scotland, as well as England, the essays consider whether pamphlets, newspapers, ballads and crime fiction provided material for critical perceptions of criminal justice proceedings, or alternatively helped to convey the official ’majesty’ intended to legitimize the law. In so doing the volume opens up fascinating vistas upon the cultural history of Britain’s legal system over the ’long eighteenth century'.
Crime Culture: Figuring Criminality in Fiction and Film
by Bran Nicol Eugene McNulty Patricia PulhamBy broadening the focus beyond classic English detective fiction, the American 'hard-boiled' crime novel and the gangster movie, Crime Culture breathes new life into staple themes of crime fiction and cinema.Leading international scholars from the fields of literary and cultural studies analyze a range of literature and film, from neglected examples of film noir and 'true crime', crime fiction by female African American writers, to reality TV, recent films such as Elephant, Collateral and The Departed, and contemporary fiction by J. G. Ballard, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Margaret Atwood. They offer groundbreaking interpretations of new elements such as the mythology of the hitman, technology and the image, and the cultural impact of 'senseless' murders and reveal why crime is a powerful way of making sense of the broader concerns shaping modern culture and society.
Crime, Desire and Law's Unconscious: Law, Literature and Culture
by David GurnhamSexual desire, and the possible dangers associated with its more extreme manifestations, provokes strong, albeit often contradictory reactions. Such reactions are a well-known stimulant of creative, juridical and scholarly activity, and the texts of law, literature and academic criticism respond to it in ways that suggest both of revulsion and fascination. But how are we to understand such responses, and what can they tell us about the relationship between law and its‘others’? Exploring these questions in the context of HIV transmission, on-street sexual exploitation and erotic asphyxiation, this book draws on psychoanalytic theory in order to understand the motivations behind legal, literary and cultural constructions of sexual offences, their perpetrators and victims. Its analysis of these constructions in a diverse range of sources - including appeal judgments in England & Wales and North America, criminal trials and their reporting, visual and linguistic cultures and both modern and ‘classical’ literature – will be of great interest to legal theorists and socio-legal scholars, as well as those with relevant concerns in the fields of literature and cultural studies.
Crime, Desire and Law's Unconscious: Law, Literature and Culture
by David GurnhamSexual desire, and the possible dangers associated with its more extreme manifestations, provokes strong, albeit often contradictory reactions. Such reactions are a well-known stimulant of creative, juridical and scholarly activity, and the texts of law, literature and academic criticism respond to it in ways that suggest both of revulsion and fascination. But how are we to understand such responses, and what can they tell us about the relationship between law and its‘others’? Exploring these questions in the context of HIV transmission, on-street sexual exploitation and erotic asphyxiation, this book draws on psychoanalytic theory in order to understand the motivations behind legal, literary and cultural constructions of sexual offences, their perpetrators and victims. Its analysis of these constructions in a diverse range of sources - including appeal judgments in England & Wales and North America, criminal trials and their reporting, visual and linguistic cultures and both modern and ‘classical’ literature – will be of great interest to legal theorists and socio-legal scholars, as well as those with relevant concerns in the fields of literature and cultural studies.
Crime, Gender and Consumer Culture in Nineteenth-Century England (The History of Retailing and Consumption)
by Tammy C. WhitlockWhilst the actual origins of English consumer culture are a source of much debate, it is clear that the nineteenth century witnessed a revolution in retailing and consumption. Mass production of goods, improved transport facilities and more sophisticated sales techniques brought consumerism to the masses on a scale previously unimaginable. Yet with this new consumerism came new problems and challenges. Focusing on retailing in nineteenth-century Britain, this book traces the expansion of commodity culture and a mass consumer orientated market, and explores the wider social and cultural implications this had for society. Using trial records, advertisements, newspaper reports, literature, and popular ballads, it analyses the rise, criticism, and entrenchment of consumerism by looking at retail changes around the period 1800-1880 and society's responses to them. By viewing this in the context of what had gone before Professor Whitlock emphasizes the key role women played in this evolution, and argues that the dazzling new world of consumption had beginnings that predate the later English, French and American department store cultures. It also challenges the view that women were helpless consumers manipulated by merchants' use of colour, light and display into excessive purchases, or even driven by their desires into acts of theft. With its interdisciplinary approach drawing on social and economic history, gender studies, cultural studies and the history of crime, this study asks fascinating questions regarding the nature of consumer culture and how society reacts to the challenges this creates.
Crime, Gender and Consumer Culture in Nineteenth-Century England (The History of Retailing and Consumption)
by Tammy C. WhitlockWhilst the actual origins of English consumer culture are a source of much debate, it is clear that the nineteenth century witnessed a revolution in retailing and consumption. Mass production of goods, improved transport facilities and more sophisticated sales techniques brought consumerism to the masses on a scale previously unimaginable. Yet with this new consumerism came new problems and challenges. Focusing on retailing in nineteenth-century Britain, this book traces the expansion of commodity culture and a mass consumer orientated market, and explores the wider social and cultural implications this had for society. Using trial records, advertisements, newspaper reports, literature, and popular ballads, it analyses the rise, criticism, and entrenchment of consumerism by looking at retail changes around the period 1800-1880 and society's responses to them. By viewing this in the context of what had gone before Professor Whitlock emphasizes the key role women played in this evolution, and argues that the dazzling new world of consumption had beginnings that predate the later English, French and American department store cultures. It also challenges the view that women were helpless consumers manipulated by merchants' use of colour, light and display into excessive purchases, or even driven by their desires into acts of theft. With its interdisciplinary approach drawing on social and economic history, gender studies, cultural studies and the history of crime, this study asks fascinating questions regarding the nature of consumer culture and how society reacts to the challenges this creates.
Crime in Early Modern England 1550-1750
by James A SharpeStill the only general survey of the topic available, this widely-used exploration of the incidence, causes and control of crime in Early Modern England throws a vivid light on the times. It uses court archives to capture vividly the everyday lives of people who would otherwise have left little mark on the historical record. This new edition - fully updated throughout - incorporates new thinking on many issues including gender and crime; changes in punishment; and literary perspectives on crime.
Crime in Early Modern England 1550-1750
by James A SharpeStill the only general survey of the topic available, this widely-used exploration of the incidence, causes and control of crime in Early Modern England throws a vivid light on the times. It uses court archives to capture vividly the everyday lives of people who would otherwise have left little mark on the historical record. This new edition - fully updated throughout - incorporates new thinking on many issues including gender and crime; changes in punishment; and literary perspectives on crime.
Crime in Japan: A Psychological Perspective (Palgrave Advances in Criminology and Criminal Justice in Asia)
by Laura Bui David P. FarringtonThis book reviews research on psychology and crime in Japan, and compares the findings with similar research conducted in Western industrialised countries. It examines explanations for crime and antisocial behaviour in Japan using research and theories from a psychological perspective. Topics covered include cultural explanations, developmental and life-course criminology, family violence and family risk factors, youth crime and early prevention, school factors and bullying, mental disorders, biosocial factors, psychopathy and sexual offending. In some parts, it challenges and refines the prevailing belief that Japan is a society characterised by low crime and little antisocial behaviour. This original project is the most up-to-date work on crime in Japan, and advances the important field of psychological criminology.
Crime in Medieval Europe: 1200-1550 (The Medieval World)
by Trevor DeanWhat is the difference between a stabbing in a tavern in London and one in a hostelry in the South of France? What happens when a spinster living in Paris finds knight in her bedroom wanting to marry her? Why was there a crime wave following the Black Death? From Aberdeen to Cracow and from Stockholm to Sardinia, Trevor Dean ranges widely throughout medieval Europe in this exiting and innovative history of lawlessness and criminal justice. Drawing on the real-life stories of ordinary men and women who often found themselves at the sharp end of the law, he shows how it was often one rule for the rich and another for the poor in a tangled web of judicial corruption.
Crime in Medieval Europe: 1200-1550 (The Medieval World)
by Trevor DeanWhat is the difference between a stabbing in a tavern in London and one in a hostelry in the South of France? What happens when a spinster living in Paris finds knight in her bedroom wanting to marry her? Why was there a crime wave following the Black Death? From Aberdeen to Cracow and from Stockholm to Sardinia, Trevor Dean ranges widely throughout medieval Europe in this exiting and innovative history of lawlessness and criminal justice. Drawing on the real-life stories of ordinary men and women who often found themselves at the sharp end of the law, he shows how it was often one rule for the rich and another for the poor in a tangled web of judicial corruption.
A Crime in the Family
by Sacha BatthyányA memoir of brutality, heroism and personal discovery from Europe's dark heart, revealing one of the most extraordinary untold stories of the Second World WarIn the spring of 1945, at Rechnitz on the Austrian-Hungarian border, not far from the front lines of the advancing Red Army, Countess Margit Batthyany gave a party in her mansion. The war was almost over, and the German aristocrats and SS officers dancing and drinking knew it was lost. Late that night, they walked down to the village, where 180 enslaved Jewish labourers waited, made them strip naked, and shot them all, before returning to the bright lights of the party. It remained a secret for decades, until Sacha Batthyany, who remembered his great-aunt Margit only vaguely from his childhood as a stern, distant woman, began to ask questions about it.A Crime in the Family is Sacha Batthyany's memoir of confronting these questions, and of the answers he found. It is one of the last untold stories of Europe's nightmare century, spanning not just the massacre at Rechnitz, the inhumanity of Auschwitz, the chaos of wartime Budapest and the brutalities of Soviet occupation and Stalin's gulags, but also the silent crimes of complicity and cover-up, and the damaged generations they leave behind. Told partly through the surviving journals of others from the author's family and the vanished world of Rechnitz, A Crime in the Family is a moving and revelatory memoir in the vein of The Hare with the Amber Eyes and The House by the Lake. It uncovers barbarity and tragedy but also a measure of peace and reconciliation. Ultimately, Batthyany discovers that although his inheritance might be that of monsters, he does not bear it alone.
Crime, Jews and News: Vienna 1890-1914 (Austrian and Habsburg Studies #8)
by Daniel Mark VyletaCrimes committed by Jews, especially ritual murders, have long been favorite targets in the antisemitic press. This book investigates popular and scientific conceptualizations of criminals current in Austria and Germany at the turn of the last century and compares these to those in the contemporary antisemitic discourse. It challenges received historiographic assumptions about the centrality of criminal bodies and psyches in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century criminology and argues that contemporary antisemitic narratives constructed Jewish criminality not as a biologico-racial defect, but rather as a coolly manipulative force that aimed at the deliberate destruction of the basis of society itself. Through the lens of criminality this book provides new insight into the spread and nature of antisemitism in Austria-Hungary around 1900. The book also provides a re-evaluation of the phenomenon of modern Ritual Murder Trials by placing them into the context of wider narratives of Jewish crime.
Crime, Justice and Public Order in Old Regime France: The Sénéchaussées of Libourne and Bazas, 1696-1789 (Routledge Library Editions: The History of Crime and Punishment)
by Julius R. RuffThis title, first published in 1984, is a case study of crime and criminal justice in rural, southwestern France in the last century of the Old Regime. Based on extensive research in criminal court records, often the only documentary evidence of the poor and illiterate, the study is a valuable addition both to our knowledge of Old Regime society and to our understanding of its judicial institutions. Rural, Old Regime France seethed with violence. Assault, homicide, and a violence of speech occurred frequently at all levels of society. The author’s finding that royal fiscal and judicial officials were recurring targets of this violence additionally contributes to our understanding of the revolutionary events ending the Old Regime. This system, providing in principle for judicial torture and corporal and capital punishments for relatively minor crimes, has long epitomized much that was wrong with pre-revolutionary France. But the law in principle is not the law in practice, and the author finds that both local and appeals courts seldom decreed such measures. This book will be of interest to students of history and criminology.
Crime, Justice and Public Order in Old Regime France: The Sénéchaussées of Libourne and Bazas, 1696-1789 (Routledge Library Editions: The History of Crime and Punishment #8)
by Julius R. RuffThis title, first published in 1984, is a case study of crime and criminal justice in rural, southwestern France in the last century of the Old Regime. Based on extensive research in criminal court records, often the only documentary evidence of the poor and illiterate, the study is a valuable addition both to our knowledge of Old Regime society and to our understanding of its judicial institutions. Rural, Old Regime France seethed with violence. Assault, homicide, and a violence of speech occurred frequently at all levels of society. The author’s finding that royal fiscal and judicial officials were recurring targets of this violence additionally contributes to our understanding of the revolutionary events ending the Old Regime. This system, providing in principle for judicial torture and corporal and capital punishments for relatively minor crimes, has long epitomized much that was wrong with pre-revolutionary France. But the law in principle is not the law in practice, and the author finds that both local and appeals courts seldom decreed such measures. This book will be of interest to students of history and criminology.
Crime, Justice and Society in Colonial Sri Lanka (Routledge Library Editions: Colonialism and Imperialism #21)
by John D. RogersCrime, Justice and Society in Colonial Sri Lanka (1987) examines Sri Lanka’s justice system under British rule, and concentrates on two of its aspects: the effectiveness of the administration of law and order, and the relationship between crime and social change. It argues that the colonial judicial system did penetrate rural areas, but did not operate in the way the British intended. Instead, Sri Lankans adapted the state institutions so that they functioned more effectively within indigenous culture.
Crime, Justice and Society in Colonial Sri Lanka (Routledge Library Editions: Colonialism and Imperialism #21)
by John D. RogersCrime, Justice and Society in Colonial Sri Lanka (1987) examines Sri Lanka’s justice system under British rule, and concentrates on two of its aspects: the effectiveness of the administration of law and order, and the relationship between crime and social change. It argues that the colonial judicial system did penetrate rural areas, but did not operate in the way the British intended. Instead, Sri Lankans adapted the state institutions so that they functioned more effectively within indigenous culture.
Crime, Law and Society: Selected Essays
by MalcolmM. FeeleyMalcolm Feeley‘s work is well-known to scholars around the world and has influenced two generations of criminologists and legal scholars. He has written extensively on crime and the legal process and has published numerous articles in law, history, social science and philosophy journals; two of his books, The Process is the Punishment and Court Reform on Trials, have won awards. This volume brings together many of his better-known articles and essays, as well as some of his lesser-known but nevertheless important contributions, all of which share the common theme of the value of the rule of law, albeit a more sophisticated concept than is commonly embraced. The selections also reveal the full range of his interests and the way in which his research interests have developed.
Crime, Law and Society: Selected Essays
by MalcolmM. FeeleyMalcolm Feeley‘s work is well-known to scholars around the world and has influenced two generations of criminologists and legal scholars. He has written extensively on crime and the legal process and has published numerous articles in law, history, social science and philosophy journals; two of his books, The Process is the Punishment and Court Reform on Trials, have won awards. This volume brings together many of his better-known articles and essays, as well as some of his lesser-known but nevertheless important contributions, all of which share the common theme of the value of the rule of law, albeit a more sophisticated concept than is commonly embraced. The selections also reveal the full range of his interests and the way in which his research interests have developed.
Crime, Law and Society in the Later Middle Ages (Manchester Medieval Sources)
by Rosemary Horrox Simon MacleanThis book provides an accessible collection of translated legal sources through which the exploits of criminals and developments in the English criminal justice system (c.1215–1485) can be studied. Drawing on the wealth of archival material and an array of contemporary literary texts, it guides readers towards an understanding of prevailing notions of law and justice and expectations of the law and legal institutions. Tensions are shown emerging between theoretical ideals of justice and the practical realities of administering the law during an era profoundly affected by periodic bouts of war, political in-fighting, social dislocation and economic disaster. Introductions and notes provide both the specific and wider legal, social and political contexts in addition to offering an overview of the existing secondary literature and historiographical trends. This collection affords a valuable insight into the character of medieval governance as well as revealing the complex nexus of interests, attitudes and relationships prevailing in society during the later Middle Ages.
Crime News in Modern Britain: Press Reporting and Responsibility, 1820-2010
by Judith Rowbotham Kim Stevenson Samantha PeggDrawing together examples from broadsheet and tabloid newspapers this account of English crime reportage takes readers from the late eighteenth century to the present day. In the post-Leveson world, it is a timely and engaging contextualisation of the history of printed crime news and investigative journalism.
The Crime of Aggression in International Criminal Law: Historical Development, Comparative Analysis and Present State
by Sergey SayapinSince after the Second World War, the crime of aggression is – along with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes – a “core crime” under international law. However, despite a formal recognition of aggression as a matter of international criminal law and the reinforcement of the international legal regulation of the use of force by States, numerous international armed conflicts occurred but no one was ever prosecuted for aggression since 1949. This book comprehensively analyses the historical development of the criminalisation of aggression, scrutinises in a detailed manner the relevant jurisprudence of the Nuremberg and Tokyo Tribunals as well as of the Nuremberg follow-up trials, and makes proposals for a more successful prosecution for aggression in the future. In identifying customary international law on the subject, the volume draws upon a wealth of applicable sources of national criminal law and puts forward a useful classification of States´ legislative approaches towards the criminalisation of aggression at the national level. It also offers a detailed analysis of the current international legal regulation of the use of force and of the Rome Statute´s substantive and procedural provisions pertaining to the exercise of the International Criminal Court´s jurisdiction with respect to the crime of aggression, after 1 January 2017.
Crime of Numbers: The Role of Statistics in the Armenian Question (1878-1918)
by Fuat DundarStatistics have played an important role in the recognition of the Armenian question on the international landscape as well as its "definitive solution" resulting in the Armenian genocide. The importance of statistics first surfaced at the Congress of Berlin in 1878, where differences in the approach toward numbers between the Armenian and the Ottoman Empire, and the role of statistics within the Ottoman state apparatus, became an issue. At that international gathering, the Armenian question was considered part of the "Eastern Question" paradigm of Western diplomacy. It would soon become a code word for the question of "civilization" itself.Those administering the multi-ethnic Ottoman Empire perceived the Armenian issue not only through ethnic and religious perspectives, but also through statistics. As Dundar shows, statistics became the vehicle through which the Ottoman state apparatus was forced to include non-Muslim populations of the Empire in the state apparatuses and local councils. This occurred long before the Armenian question surfaced. The aim of Ottoman reforms was to ensure that all communities participated in the affairs of the state and that such participation was proportionate to their numbers. Through its role in these reforms, statistics emerged as a constant matter of debate in the Armenian question.As a result of the Armenian genocide, the statistical record has become quite sensitive. Today, accounting for the numbers of Armenians murdered in 1915 usually means calculating the number of Armenians who were massacred or died of other causes such as disease, hunger, exhaustion, and the like during deportations or immediately after. This is a work of brilliant archival history and imaginatively uses social statistics.
Crime of Numbers: The Role of Statistics in the Armenian Question (1878-1918)
by Fuat DundarStatistics have played an important role in the recognition of the Armenian question on the international landscape as well as its "definitive solution" resulting in the Armenian genocide. The importance of statistics first surfaced at the Congress of Berlin in 1878, where differences in the approach toward numbers between the Armenian and the Ottoman Empire, and the role of statistics within the Ottoman state apparatus, became an issue. At that international gathering, the Armenian question was considered part of the "Eastern Question" paradigm of Western diplomacy. It would soon become a code word for the question of "civilization" itself.Those administering the multi-ethnic Ottoman Empire perceived the Armenian issue not only through ethnic and religious perspectives, but also through statistics. As Dundar shows, statistics became the vehicle through which the Ottoman state apparatus was forced to include non-Muslim populations of the Empire in the state apparatuses and local councils. This occurred long before the Armenian question surfaced. The aim of Ottoman reforms was to ensure that all communities participated in the affairs of the state and that such participation was proportionate to their numbers. Through its role in these reforms, statistics emerged as a constant matter of debate in the Armenian question.As a result of the Armenian genocide, the statistical record has become quite sensitive. Today, accounting for the numbers of Armenians murdered in 1915 usually means calculating the number of Armenians who were massacred or died of other causes such as disease, hunger, exhaustion, and the like during deportations or immediately after. This is a work of brilliant archival history and imaginatively uses social statistics.
The Crime of Poison in the Middle Ages
by Franck CollardThis book will lead readers into a medieval culture of ambition, greed, and jealousy that motivated men and women to take the lives of individuals who trusted them. Collard examines the perception of the crime of poisoning in the West in medieval times, from about 500 to 1500 AD, exploring the ways the alleged crime was perceived in contemporary minds. His primary sources are chronicles that cover the entire medieval period and legal texts that are limited to the late medieval centuries. In order to portray the culture of murder by poisoning in the West, it was necessary to take into account Byzantine and Islamic documents as well as ancient texts such as the Scriptures and the writings of Roman historians, both of which were widely known in the Middle Ages.This book will lead readers into a medieval culture of ambition, greed, and jealousy that motivated men and women to take the lives of individuals who trusted them. In these pages, French medievalist Franck Collard examines the perception of the crime of poisoning in the West from about 500 to 1500. His primary sources of information are chronicles that cover the entire medieval period and legal texts that are limited to the late medieval centuries. In order to portray the culture of murder by poisoning in the West, he takes into account Byzantine and Islamic documents, as well as ancient texts such as the Scriptures and the writings of Roman historians, both of which were widely known in the Middle Ages.The resulting volume is concerned with the criminal actions that involve poison and not poison as such. Poisonous substances as such are described only when necessary for an understanding of a crime. What is important here is an examination of the ways the alleged crime was perceived in contemporary minds. Poisoning avoids the use of violence. It was committed without a drawn weapon or bloodshed in a world in which wounds, swords, knives, and clubs represented aggression and in which the flow of blood determined the gravity of the crime. Necessarily involving preparation and secrecy, it was often perpetrated treacherously during a meal, a particularly heinous act in a universe that was united by the companionship of a meal and the sociability of drinking. The special horror associated with poisoning resulted from the treachery of those close to the victim-and a sudden death that prevented a final confession of sins.