Crime, Law and Popular Culture in Europe, 1500-1900

This book explores the relationship between crime, law and popular culture in Europe from the sixteenth century onwards. How was crime understood and dealt with by ordinary people and to what degree did they resort to or reject the official law and criminal justice system as a means of dealing with different forms of criminal activity? Overall, the volume will serve to illuminate how experiences of and attitudes to crime and the law may have corresponded or differed in different locations and contexts as well as contributing to a wider understanding of popular culture and consciousness in early modern and modern Europe.

This book explores the relationship between crime, law and popular culture in different areas of Europe between 1500 and 1900. It illuminates how experiences of, and attitudes to, crime and the law corresponded or differed in varying locations and contexts in early modern and modern Europe. In doing so, it also aids the reconstruction and interpretation of the legal cultures of different jurisdictions through the particular perspective offered by the operation of the courts and the criminal law.

A key theme throughout the book is the nature of the relationship between ordinary people and the official legal systems of Europe in the period between 1500 and 1900. How was crime understood and dealt with by ordinary people and to what degree did they resort to or reject the official law and criminal justice system as a means of dealing with different forms of criminal activity? And how, in turn, did the courts and the authorities more generally respond to and interpret the cases which were brought before them?

The issues addressed in this book include the participation of ordinary people as prosecutors, witnesses and jurors in the courts, the dynamics of court sittings, the sentencing practices adopted by the courts, the exercise of the prerogative of mercy and, on a broader scale, how attitudes and ways of understanding crime and the law may have changed or evolved over time in different European countries. There is also a particular, although not exclusive, emphasis on the incidence and prosecution of violent crime.

It will be essential reading for anybody with an interest in the rapidly developing field of criminal justice history.

Exploring The Relationship Between Crime, Law And Popular Culture In Europe From The 16th Century Onwards, This Title Looks At How Crime Was Understood And Dealt With By Ordinary People, As Well As Looking At To What Degree Official Law And The Criminal Justice System Was Rejected As A Means Of Dealing With Criminal Activity. Popular Violence And Its Prosecution In Seventeenth And Eighteenth Century France -- The Containment Of Violence In Central European Cities, 1500-1800 -- Royal Justice, Popular Culture And Violence: Homicide In Sixteenth And Seventeenth Century Castile -- Prosecution And Public Participation - The Case Of Early Modern Sweden -- Towards A Legal Anthropology Of The Early Modern Isle Of Man -- 'for Fear Of The Vengeance': The Prosecution Of Homicide In Pre-famine And Famine Ireland -- Violent Crime And The Public Weal In England, 1700-1900 -- Atonement And Domestic Homicide In Late Victorian Scotland -- 'a Second Ireland'? Crime And Popular Culture In Nineteenth Century Wales. Edited By Richard Mcmahon. This Collection Of Essays Has Its Origins In A Conference Entitled 'crime, Law And Popular Culture In Europe Since 1500' Which Was Hosted By The Moore Institute For Research In The Humanities And Social Studies At The National University Of Ireland, Galway--p. Vii. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.