BOOK: Anne-Marie KILDAY, Crime in Scotland 1660-1960 – The Violent North [History of Crime in the UK and Ireland] (London: Routledge, 2018). ISBN 9781843929451, £115.00

(Source: Routledge)

Routledge is publishing a book on the history of crime in Scotland between the mid-17^th and mid-20^th century next month. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Scotland has often been regarded throughout history as "the violent north", but how true is this statement? Does Scotland deserve to be defined thus, and upon what foundations is this definition based? This book examines the history of crime in Scotland, questioning the labelling of Scotland as home to a violent culture and examining changes in violent behaviour over time, the role of religion on violence, how gender impacted on violence and how the level of Scottish violence fares when compared to incidents of violence throughout the rest of the UK.

This book offers a ground-breaking contribution to the historiography of Scottish crime. Not only does the piece illuminate for the first time, the nature and incidence of Scottish criminality over the course of some three hundred years, but it also employs a more integrated analysis of gender than has hitherto been evident. This book sheds light on whether the stereotypical label given to Scotland as 'the violent north' is appropriate or in any way accurate, and it further contributes to our understanding of not only Scottish society, but of the history of crime and punishment in the British Isles and beyond.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anne-Marie Kilday is Professor of Criminal History and Pro Vice-Chancellor and Dean at Oxford Brookes University, UK

TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Violent North - Fact or Fiction: Introduction and Context

1. The Violent North? Fatal Violence, 1660-1960

2. The Violent North? Sexual Violence, 1660-1960

3. The Violent North? Violent Assault: Public and Private, 1660-1960

4. The Violent North? Communal Violence, 1660-1960

5. The Violent North? Violence for Gain, 1660-1960

6. The Violent North or The Enterprising Scot, 1660-1960?

The Violent North: Conclusion

Bibliography

Index

More information here

BOOK: David NASH and Anne-Marie KILDAY, Murder and Mayhem - Crime in Twentieth-Century Britain (London: Routledge, 2018). ISBN 9781137290434, €22.99

(Source: Macmillan International)

Routledge has just published a book on crime in 20^th century Britain

ABOUT THE BOOK

This introductory book offers a coherent history of twentieth century crime and the law in Britain, with chapters on topics ranging from homicide to racial hate crime, from incest to anarchism, from gangs to the death penalty. Pulling together a wide range of literature, David Nash and Anne-Marie Kilday reveal the evolution of attitudes towards criminality and the law over the course of the twentieth century. Highlighting important periods of change and development that have shaped the overall history of crime in Britain, the authors provide in-depth analysis and explanation of each theme.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

ANNE-MARIE KILDAY is Principal Lecturer in History at Oxford Brookes University, UK. She researches and publishes on the history of violent crime and the history of female criminality since the early modern period.

DAVID NASH is Professor of History at Oxford Brookes University, UK. He has published extensively in the areas of the history of blasphemy, blasphemous libel and religious crime for over fifteen years. He is also author of Cultures of Shame: Exploring Crime and Morality in Britain 1650-1900 with Anne-Marie Kilday, with whom he co-edited Histories of Crime: Britain 1600-2000.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction: Britain in the Twentieth Century, David Nash and Anne-Marie Kilday

Britain's Most 'Wanted': Homicide and Serial Murder since 1900, Anne-Marie Kilday

Serious Property Offending in the Twentieth Century, Lucy Williams and Barry Godfrey

Racial Hate Crime in Britain, David Nash.- Offences Against Children: Incest and Child Sexual Abuse, Kim Stevenson

Anarchism, Assassination and Terrorism in Modern Britain, Johannes Dillinger

‘Hope I Die Before I Get Too Old’: Social Rebellion and Social Diseases, Clifford Williamson

Organised Crime, Criminality and the ‘Gangster', Heather Shore

Punishment: The Death Penalty and Incarceration, Helen Johnston

Law Enforcement: Policies and Perspectives, Neil Davie

More information here

CONFERENCE: British Crime Historians (BCH) Symposium (31st August-1st September 2018, Edge Hill University)

(Source: Edge Hill University)

The biennial British Crime Historians Symposium is being held next month at Edge Hill University.

British Crime Historians (BCH) Symposium

31st August – 1st September 2018
Edge Hill University

In 2018 it will be a decade since the first British Crime Historians Symposium was held. This biennial conference meets every two years as a forum for discussion, debate and the presentation of research for all aspects of the history of crime, law, justice, punishment and social regulation. It has become one of the most significant regular events in these research fields.

Previous events (organised by the British Crime Historians Network) have been held at Leeds, Sheffield, Milton Keynes (OU), Liverpool and Edinburgh. This year the event is supported by ICE and will take place at Edge Hill University’s Ormskirk Campus.

Confirmed Keynote Speakers are:

Professor Eamonn Carrabine (University of Essex)
‘Reading Pictures: Art History and the Sociology of Punishment’

Professor Ian Burney (University of Manchester)
‘Spatters and Lies: Forensic Cultures in the Sheppard Murder Trials, 1954-1966’

For further information please contact Professor Alyson Brown browna@edgehill.ac.uk or Dr Alana Barton bartona@edgehill.ac.uk

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The 2-day conference will take place at Edge Hill University, in Ormskirk, north of Liverpool, UK. It is a residential conference, i.e. accommodation is available on campus.

Dates: 31st August – 1st September 2018

Venue:  Edge Hill University (Directions)

Registration: please click here to register

More information, as well as the full programme, can be found on the conference page.

CFP: British Crime Historians Symposium (Edinburgh, October 7-8 2016)

WHAT the British Crime Historians Symposium, 5, Call for papers

 

WHEN  October 7-8 2016

WHERE University of Edinburgh

The British Crime Historians Symposium meets every two years as a forum for discussion, debate and the presentation of research for all aspects of the history of crime, law, justice, policing, punishment and social regulation. Previous events (organised by the British Crime Historians Network) have taken place in Leeds, Sheffield, Milton Keynes (Open Uiversity) and Liverpool.

Our initial starting point, as in former years, is the British Isles and its former colonies. However we particularly encourage approaches that open up and develop comparative and transnational frameworks across period and place.

This year’s conference particularly welcomes proposals that engage with the following:

 • Interdisciplinary perspectives

 • Comparative, international and transnational histories

 • The relationship between past and present

 Confirmed Keynotes Speakers are: Professor David Garland (New York University) and Dr Julia Laite (Birkbeck, University of London).

We welcome proposals for individual papers as well as panels, which should be emailed as an attached Word document to BCH5@ed.ac.uk by 31 March 2016. 

Each speaker whose proposal for a paper is accepted will be asked to speak for 20 minutes (to allow further time for questions and discussion). A panel should consist of three papers which together address an over-arching theme or topic. We welcome proposals from scholars at all stages of their career including postgraduate students, and we encourage panel organisers to reflect this in any panel proposals.

 For each individual paper proposed please include: title of paper; name, institutional affiliation (if any) and email address of speaker; abstract of 250 words. Proposals for panels should also include: name, institutional affiliation (if any) and email address of the panel organiser; title of panel; summary of aims of panel (150 words); name of panel chair if known (if not included in the proposal a chair will be allocated by the conference committee); and full details of all papers and speakers (as for individual papers above). 

The Conference Committee is: Chloe Kennedy (School of Law, University of Edinburgh); Louise Jackson, David Silkenat and Rian Sutton (School of History Classics & Archaeology, University of Edinburgh). Any queries should be addressed to: BCH5@ed.ac.uk

CONFERENCE: "British crime historians Symposium V" (Edinburgh, September 2016)

WHAT: The British Crime Historians Symposium, V

WHERE: University of Edinburgh

WHEN: late September 2016

The British Crime Historians Symposium takes place every two years to highlight leading research in the history of law, crime and criminal justice.

Established in 2008, it acts as a central focal point and meeting place for all those researchers in the UK (as well as visitors) who work on criminal justice history.

In September 2014 the fourth symposium was hosted at the University of Liverpool. Previous conference have been held in Leeds, Sheffield and at the Open University.

We are pleased to announce that the next conference - British Crime Historians Symposium 5 - will  take place at the University of Edinburgh in late September 2016. 

A call for papers will be circulated in the spring.  Any early enquiries should be addressed to the 2016 symposium convenor Dr Louise Jackson (Louise.Jackson@ed.ac.uk).

ARTICLE: "Adultery, Criminality, and the Myth of English Sovereignty", by Erin L. Sheley

Erin L. Sheley, George Washington University Law School, on 

Adultery, Criminality, and the Myth of English Sovereignty, forthcoming in Law, Culture and the Humanities 11 (2015). 

 Abstract:

This article argues that in Britain over the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the understanding of adultery as a tort was complicated by an accompanying discourse of what I will call “quasi-criminality.” Specifically — while formally trivialized — adultery remained linked to a threat to British kingship. The tension between the weight of relevant monarchical history and the absence of contemporary criminal enforcement created a new cultural narrative about adultery which attempted, itself, to serve a penal function. Examining the development of this discourse alongside the relevant law illuminates the complex social process through which public and private wrongs become distinguished — or conflated.

BOOK: "Crime, Courtrooms and the Public Sphere in Britain, 1700-1850", edited by David Lemmings

Crime, Courtrooms and the Public Sphere in Britain, 1700-1850, edited by David Lemmings,  University of Adelaide, Australia

All information here

Modern 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'.

David Lemmings was born in London and educated at the Universities of Sussex, London and Oxford before coming to Australia as a Research Fellow of the University of Adelaide in 1987. He then moved to the University of Newcastle in 1990 where he became Head of the Department of History in 1998 and Associate Professor in History in 2000. In 2008, Professor Lemmings moved to the University of Adelaide where he is Professor of History and leader of the Change Program in the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for the History of Emotions

NOTICE: British Crime Historians Symposium 4, registration NOW OPEN (26-27 September 2014)

 

What: British Crime Historians Symposium 2014 -Registration open

Where: University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom

When: 26/27 September 2014

 Registration here

The bi-annual British Crime Historians Symposium highlights leading research in the history of law, crime and criminal justice.

This year’s conference welcomes scholars to submit panels or proposals related to any aspect of the criminal justice system in the British Isles and former colonies.

In particular, they are interested in the following areas:

• New directions in the study of criminal justice history

• Innovations in methods and dissemination

• Public histories of crime and their impact

• Interdisciplinary perspectives

• Crime and policing across the British Empire

CFP: "British Crime Historian's Symposium" (Liverpool, 26-27 September 2014)

What: British Crime Historian's Symposium 2014 - Call for Papers

Where: University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom

When: 26/27 September 2014

Deadline for  individual and panel abstracts: 30th June 2014