This work offers a thorough reevaluation of female criminality during a time marked by significant legal transformations. It explores the scale and implications of women's involvement in crime, shedding light on societal perceptions and the impact of legislative shifts on female offenders. Through detailed analysis, the book challenges existing narratives and provides a nuanced understanding of the complexities surrounding women and crime in this pivotal era.
The history of crime in Scotland is explored, challenging the perception of a violent culture. It analyzes shifts in violent behavior over time, the influence of religion on acts of violence, and the impact of gender on these dynamics. Additionally, it compares the levels of violence in Scotland with those in the rest of the UK, providing a nuanced understanding of the factors that shape violent behavior in the region.
Introduction.- Moral Crimes and the Law in Britain Since 1700; D.Nash.-
Cruelty and Adultery: Offences Against the Institution of Marriage; J.Bailey.-
Desperate Measures or Cruel Intentions: Infanticide in Britain since 1600;
A.M.Kilday.- 'Most Intimate Violations': Contextualising the Crime of Rape;
K.Stevenson.- Murder and Fatality: The Changing Face of Homicide; S.D'Cruze.-
Criminality, Deviance and The Underworld Since 1750; H.Shore.- Fraud and White
Collar Crime: 1850 to the Present; S.Wilson.- Policing the Populace: the road
to Professionalisation; C.Williams.- Execution as Punishment in England,
1750-2000; J.Rowbotham.- Annotated Further Reading.
This book argues that traditional images and practices associated with shame did not recede with the coming of modern Britain. Following the authors’ acclaimed and successful nineteenth century book, Cultures of Shame, this new monograph moves forward to look at shame in the modern era. As such, it investigates how social and cultural expectations in both war and peace, changing attitudes to sexual identities and sexual behaviour, new innovations in media and changing representations of reputation, all became sites for shame’s reconstruction, making it thoroughly modern and in tune with twentieth century Britain’s expectations. Using a suite of detailed micro-histories, the book examines a wide expanse of twentieth century sites of shame including conceptions of cowardice/conscientious objection during the First World War, fraud and clerical scandal in the interwar years, the shame associated with both abortion and sexual behaviour redefined in different ways as ‘deviant’, shoplifting in the 1980s and lastly, how homosexuality shifted from ‘Coming Out’ to embracing ‘Pride’, finally rediscovering the positivity of shame with the birth of the ‘Queer’.
