Criminal Justice History

The Crime Wave: Recent Writing on Crime and Criminal Justice in Eighteenth-Century England

by Joanna Innes

"Sicilia no consiente medianía en el que gobierna". La dura prova di Osuna come viceré di un'isola

by Bruno Pomara Saverino

published in "Cultura della guerra e arti della pace. Il III Duca di Osuna in Sicilia e a Napoli (1611-1620)", dir. by Encarnación Sánchez García, Tullio Pironti Editore, 2012, pp. 169-177

‘Zealous Advocates: The Historical Foundations of the Adversarial Criminal Defence Lawyer’

by Thomas Smith

Published in Law, Crime and History (2012) Volume 2, Issue 1

The place of the criminal defence lawyer in the modern criminal justice system is a given; every suspect and defendant... more The place of the criminal defence lawyer in the modern criminal justice system is a given; every suspect and defendant expects full representation as a right. However, the defence lawyer appeared surprisingly late in the long and venerable history of the English and Welsh legal system. Notwithstanding the defence lawyer‟s role as advocate for the accused, this unique professional role involves a variety of duties and obligations. This article will focus on the historical development of these core principles of criminal defence as well as the expansion of the role in the general context of adversarialism.

"El incesto padre-hija en Chile rural durante el siglo XIX: entre la violencia sexual y la seducción"

by Carolina González Undurraga

en Scarlett O'Phelan y Margarita Zegarra (coords.), Mujeres, familia y sociedad en la Historia de América Latina, siglos XVIII-XXI, Instituto Riva-Agüero (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú) y Centro de Documentación sobre la Mujer (CENDOC-Mujer), Lima, 2006, pp.193-220.

“La sexualidad como representación y las representaciones de la sexualidad. La construcción del sodomita en Chile, 1880-1910”

by Carolina González Undurraga

en Alejandra Araya, Azún Candina y Celia Cussen (editoras), Del Nuevo al Viejo Mundo: mentalidades y representaciones desde América, Fondo de Publicaciones Americanistas y Facultad de Filosofía y Humanidades de la Universidad de Chile, Santiago, 2007, pp.184-199.

'A Typology of Travellers: Migration, Justice, and Vagrancy in Warwickshire, 1670–1730'

by David Hitchcock

Rural History, Volume 23, Number 1, (2012). pp 21-39. a Cambridge University Press Journal.

This paper examines the relief of travellers in Warwickshire, England. By using an unusually rich set of Constables’... more This paper examines the relief of travellers in Warwickshire, England. By using an unusually rich set of Constables’ Accounts for the parish of Grandborough, it interrogates the relationship between charity, local justice, and both official and
popular perceptions of migration. It argues that the large number of migrants who passed through rural parishes were categorised by the local constable according to cultural and discretionary criteria. This ‘typology’ of travellers determined the nature and extent of the relief they might receive and the actions that might be taken against them. Socially threateningmigrants, such as poor pregnant women, the sick, and vagrants, also found themselves affected by this same ‘proscriptive calculation’,
often to their detriment.

Standing Mute

by Tony Ward

This article discusses the treatment of deaf-mute defendants in criminal cases from the Middle Ages to the present,... more This article discusses the treatment of deaf-mute defendants in criminal cases from the Middle Ages to the present, focusing on a series of cases between 1830 and 1914. A finding that a defendant was “mute by the visitation of God” originally meant that she or he could be tried despite the absence of a plea, but in the nineteenth century such defendants were equated with the insane and declared “unfit to plead” and so unfit to be tried. It seems that at the same period where the rise of the lawyer-dominated adversarial trial made silence by defendants (apart from the one or two words of their pleas) the norm, courts deemed it impossible to try a silent defendant. The defendant’s participation
in the trial through speech and understanding became central to its ideological meaning even as it became dispensable in practice.

La vagancia en Jalisco en vísperas de la adopción del primer Código Penal (1871-1886)

by Miguel Isais

En Salvador Cárdenas y Elisa Speckman (coodrs.), Crimen y justicia en la historia de México. Nuevas miradas, México, Suprema Corte de la Justicia de la Nación, 2011, pp. 51-95.

On the Purposes of Legality and its Applicability to International Law

by William Worster

Book Review: Kenneth S. Gallant, The Principle of Legality in International and Comparative Criminal Law (Cambridge:... more Book Review: Kenneth S. Gallant, The Principle of Legality in International and Comparative Criminal Law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009), 632 pp. £64.00 (Hardback) ISBN 978-0-52-188648-2

"La formation du concept de perversion au XIXe siècle en France"

by Claude-Olivier Doron

This article has been published in L'information psychiatrique, vol. 88, n°1, janv. 2012, pp. 39-49

"The formation of the concept of mental perversion in the 19th century in France." In this article, we... more "The formation of the concept of mental perversion in the 19th century in France." In this article, we assess the emergence
of the psychiatric concept of “perversion” in the 19th century. We focus on two points. First, despite its common usage,
the psychiatric concept of perversion should not be based on the theologico-moral notion of “perverse” but from a medical
notion of “perversion”, which refers to the alteration of humours and then the qualitative alterations of instincts.We analyse
how the clinical knowledge of the various qualitative deviations of instincts has developed within psychiatric knowledge.
Second, we show that, in contrast, the concept of “perversion” has offered the psychiatrists a way of getting inside the
medicolegal field and to deal with the juridico-moral concept of “perversity”, a concept that became decisive in penal
practices after 1820.We evaluate this opposition between “perversity” and “perversion” and show how the “constitutional
pervert” eventually emerged in the 1860s.

PHDabstract-résumésdethèse

by Claude-Olivier Doron

This document includes english and french abstracts of my PhD Thesis on 'Races and degeneration. The emergence on the... more This document includes english and french abstracts of my PhD Thesis on 'Races and degeneration. The emergence on the knowledge on the abnormals', a detailed description of the different chapters (in french) and of its main results (in french) and its table of contents.

"Excès" des prélats et gouvernement de l'Église au temps de la monarchie pontificale (vers 1150-vers 1350) : "dilapidation", "simonie", "incontinence", "dissolution"

by Julien Théry

Paru dans "Annuaire de l'EHESS. Compte rendus des cours et des conférences 2010-2011", Paris : EHESS, 2012

Présentation rapide des accusations avancées dans les procédures criminelles de la papauté contre les membres de la... more Présentation rapide des accusations avancées dans les procédures criminelles de la papauté contre les membres de la haute hiérarchie ecclésiastique. Ces affaires devinrent fréquentes à partir du pontificat d'Innocent III (1198-1216), au cours duquel fut achevée pour l'essentiel la mise au point d'un "mode inquisitoire" dont la genèse s'était accélérée au temps d'Alexandre III (1159-1181). Pour désigner les fautes reprochées aux chefs d'églises, les papes utilisaient trois mots à peu près interchangeables : "excessus", "crimen", "enormitas". Le premier était le plus usité. L'analyse d'environ 400 procédures recensées pour la période 1198-1314 montre que la "dilapidation" était le reproche le plus courant, la simonie et l'incontinence étant aussi des "excès" très fréquemment invoqués. Des dynamiques d'accumulation des griefs sont identifiées, parmi lesquelles l'association structurelle entre gouvernement de soi et gouvernement des autres. En l'absence d'un régime administratif des relations entre la papauté et les membres de la hiérarchie, les procédures criminelles visaient à faire peser toute la "plénitude de puissance" du vicaire du Christ sur ceux que la Curie tenait désormais pour les agents de son gouvernement centralisé.

Justice inquisitoire et construction de la souveraineté : le modèle ecclésial (XIIe-XIVe siècles). Normes, pratiques, diffusion

by Julien Théry

Paru dans "Annuaire de l'EHESS. Compte rendus des cours et conférences 2004-2005, Paris : EHESS, 2006, p. 593-594

Présentation dans ses grandes lignes d'une recherche orientée selon trois hypothèses : les pratiques d'enquête de... more Présentation dans ses grandes lignes d'une recherche orientée selon trois hypothèses : les pratiques d'enquête de vérité ont été au fondement d'un régime de relations de pouvoir original caractérisable comme une première forme de gouvernementalité souveraine ; le modèle ecclésial et sa procédure " romano-canonique " ont eu un rôle central pour la mise en place de ce nouveau régime ; l'enquête de vérité était constitutive de deux registres inhérents à cette gouvernementalité souveraine, celui de la "fama" et celui des "enormia". L'étude porte sur une longue série de procès menés par la papauté des XIIe-XIVe s., contre des prélats accusés d'" excès " ou " crimes " souvent dits " énormes ". Ces enquêtes ont constitué un domaine d'expérimentation, un laboratoire de l'inquisitoire canonique. La réflexion concerne ici principalement sur le rôle de la "fama", qui permettait la capillarité et la centralisation des relations de pouvoir organisées par l'enquête, tout en instaurant une problématique de vérité au cœur de ces relations. La "fama"donnait aux faits concernés un statut de vérité incertaine, à vérifier par l'enquête que seules pouvaient mener les autorités compétentes, c'est-à-dire les institutions souveraines

Review of W.E. Vaughan, Murder Trials in Ireland 1836-1914

by Niamh Howlin

Norfolk Island's 'suicide lotteries': myth and reality

by Tim Causer

Given as a paper at the Professional Historians Association (NSW) 25th Anniversary Conference, held at Norfolk Island from 18-25 July 2010.

Published in 'Islands of History', Sydney, 2011, pp. 61-68.

An enduring aspect of Norfolk Island’s mythology is that prisoners, in order to escape the penal settlement, often... more An enduring aspect of Norfolk Island’s mythology is that prisoners, in order to escape the penal settlement, often engaged in suicide lotteries, i.e. drawing straws to select a killer and a victim, such as the killing of Blind Mooney in Marcus Clarke’s His Natural Life. The only evidence put forward for this claim was the story told by Acting Commandant Foster Fyans (January-February 1834), and which was given such prominence in Robert Hughes’s blockbuster, The Fatal Shore. This tale certainly sticks in the memory and has been repeated by almost everyone who has written about Norfolk Island after Hughes, as though this was the definitive account.


If this ‘suicide lottery’ story is tested against the evidence, it is abundantly clear that it simply did not happen and, indeed, could not have happened. Despite being such a part of the Norfolk Island legend, this paper will demonstrate that ‘suicide lotteries’ did not happen and were rather an embellishment upon the truth added by middle class observers wishing to further condemn the prisoners of Norfolk Island. However, a handful of prisoners did appear to commit capital offences with suicidal intent, and the evidence for these will be explored.



To read, please visit http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1331355/, or click on the 'view on discovery.ucl.ac.uk' button below.

Codificazione e giustizia penale nelle Sicilie dal 1808 al 1820, Napoli Jovene 2001

by francesco mastroberti

Tra scienza e arbitrio. Il problema giudiziario e penale nelle Sicilie dal 1821 al 1848, Bari Cacucci 2005

by francesco mastroberti

El prejuicio indígena como fuente de razonamiento en torno a la degeneración y la inseguridad. Jalisco hacia la segunda mitad del siglo XIX

by Miguel Isais

Revista del Seminario de Historia Mexicana / Vol. IX / núm. 1, 2009, pp. 49-70

Tra violenze e giustizie. La società del mediterraneo occidentale e cattolico in antico regime

by Bruno Pomara Saverino

published in "il Palindromo. Storie al rovescio e di frontiera", n. 3, 2011, pages 83-110

This article try to explain why and how banditism, violence, forgiveness and peace are complementary concepts in the... more This article try to explain why and how banditism, violence, forgiveness and peace are complementary concepts in the Mediterreanean ancient regime.

Linguaggio religioso e disciplinamento nobiliare: il «modo di ridurre a pace le inimicitie private» nella trattatistica di età barocca

by Paolo Broggio

in: I linguaggi del potere nell’età barocca, a cura di F. CANTÙ, vol. I (“Politica e religione”), Roma, Viella, 2009, pp. 275-317