Land of White Gloves?

Richard Ireland has been researching the history of crime and punishment for many years and has published widely in the area. Richard is a founding committee member of the Welsh Legal History Society and a member of the Board of the Centre for Welsh Legal Affairs. He has also contributed to a number of radio and television broadcasts.

‘This fascinating history of criminal justice in Wales tells the story of the complex and constantly evolving relationship between authority and community over the past thousand years. Concise and accessible, and with a specific focus on the Welsh experience, it also expertly captures the multifaceted nature of the subject and sheds light on social responses to crime which have universal significance. It is an excellent introduction to the subject which will inspire others to explore the rich seams of Welsh criminal justice history.’ - R. Gwynedd Parry, Professor of Law and Legal History, Swansea University, UK‘Richard Ireland is a brilliant advocate for the study of Welsh history, but he also opens up ideas that are not tied to one country or period. This book is a wonderful example of the richness that a fine historian can bring to the subject and, while it is to be hoped that he succeeds in his wish to inspire readers to "do" history, few possess his skill.’ - Philip Rawlings, The Roy Goode Professor of Commercial Law, Queen Mary University of London, UK‘A scholarly and readable account of the particular experiences and perspectives of the people of Wales in dealing with criminal behaviour over a thousand years of their history. A major contribution to Welsh legal and social history.' - Thomas Glyn Watkin, former Professor of Law, University of Wales, Bangor and Cardiff, UK'The monograph’s main strength, apart from providing an excellent survey of crime and justice in the province, is in exploring the ways in which the administration of English justice in Wales was both coloured by and intersected with these older, communal ideas. It deserves to be read by historians of crime both within Wales and more widely...' - John Walliss, Liverpool Hope University, Law, Crime and History'The author, who has lectured at Aberystwyth University since the late 1970s, is one of our foremost authorities on the legal history of Wales...The detailed endnote references (essential to persue these themes further)and the full bibliography underlie the author's formidable scholarship and massive contribution. In five short chapters he surveys with admirable clarity the evolution of Wales from early medieval times, the age of Hywel Dda, to the present.'— J. Graham Jones, The Journal of Glamorgan History

• Introduction 1. The Middle Ages: Victims, Lords and Kings 2. Assimilation and Difference 3. The Eighteenth Century: Courts, Curses and Confinement 4. The Nineteenth Century: The Uniform – and the White Gloves 5. The Twentieth Century: Radicalism, Drugs and Sheep Concluding Remarks.