World Histories of Crime, Culture and Violence – serie

Authorities often fear societal change as it implies finding a new balance to live together within society. Whether it is defined by economic, political, social or cultural factors, the transformation of life in society is considered by authorities as a 'risk' that needs to be framed and controlled. The state's response to this situation of transformation can be analysed through the prism of the police. Informally or not, police systems adapt their regulatory frameworks, their structures and their practices in order to respond risks, new threats and new rules. This process, which is mostly of a contemporary nature, is also deeply historic. Analysing it on the long run is therefore particularly relevant. From the late nineteenth-century until the second half of the twentieth-century, Policing New Risks in Modern European History provides a panorama of political and police reactions to the 'risks' of societal change in a Western European perspective, focusing on Belgium, France, and The Netherlands, but also colonial perspectives.

This book illuminates the neglected history of the Dublin Metropolitan Police – a history that has been long overshadowed by existing historiography, which has traditionally been preoccupied with the more radical aspects of Irish history.

This book illuminates the neglected history of the Dublin Metropolitan Police – a history that has been long overshadowed by existing historiography, which has traditionally been preoccupied with the more radical aspects of Irish history.

This book combines the approaches of history and criminology to study parricide and non-fatal violence against parents from across traditional period and geographical boundaries, encompassing research on Asia as well as Europe and North America.

This book combines the approaches of history and criminology to study parricide and non-fatal violence against parents from across traditional period and geographical boundaries, encompassing research on Asia as well as Europe and North America.

The second part analyses the rise of the ownership and production of legal literature – especially legal books meant for laymen – as means for acquiring a degree of legal literacy from the eighteenth to the early twentieth century.

This book is a comparative quantitative analysis of the administration of justice across four English and three Welsh counties between 1760 and 1830.

This book explores the judicial treatment of suicides in early modern Sweden, with a focus on the criminal investigation and selective treatment of suicides in the lower courts in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries.

This book offers a global history of civilian, military and gendarmerie-style policing around the First World War. Whilst many aspects of the Great War have been revisited in light of the centenary, and in spite of the recent growth of modern policing history, the role and fate of police forces in the conflict has been largely forgotten.

This book offers a global history of civilian, military and gendarmerie-style policing around the First World War. Whilst many aspects of the Great War have been revisited in light of the centenary, and in spite of the recent growth of modern policing history, the role and fate of police forces in the conflict has been largely forgotten.

This book explores sexual violence and crime in Australia in the 1970s and 1980s, a period of intense social and legal change. Rich in social and legal history, this study takes readers into the world of victims of sexual crime, and into the wider community that had to deal with sexual violence.

This book explores sexual violence and crime in Australia in the 1970s and 1980s, a period of intense social and legal change. Rich in social and legal history, this study takes readers into the world of victims of sexual crime, and into the wider community that had to deal with sexual violence.

This book analyses the process of ‘reshaping’ liberated societies in post-1945 Europe. Post-war societies tried to solve three main questions immediately after the dark times of occupation: Who could be considered a patriot and a valuable member of the respective national community? How could the respective society strengthen national cohesion?

This book analyses the process of ‘reshaping’ liberated societies in post-1945 Europe. Post-war societies tried to solve three main questions immediately after the dark times of occupation: Who could be considered a patriot and a valuable member of the respective national community? How could the respective society strengthen national cohesion?

This book focuses on the history of the provision of legal aid and legal assistance to the poor in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in eight different countries.

This book focuses on the history of the provision of legal aid and legal assistance to the poor in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in eight different countries.

Suicide by Proxy became a major societal problem after 1650. Suicidal people committed capital crimes with the explicit goal of “earning” their executions, as a short-cut to their salvation. Desiring to die repentantly at the hands of divinely-instituted government, perpetrators hoped to escape eternal damnation that befell direct suicides. Kathy Stuart shows how this crime emerged as an unintended consequence of aggressive social disciplining campaigns by confessional states. Paradoxically, suicide by proxy exposed the limits of early modern state power, as governments struggled unsuccessfully to suppress the tactic. Some perpetrators committed arson or blasphemy, or confessed to long-past crimes, usually infanticide, or bestiality. Most frequently, however, they murdered young children, believing that their innocent victims would also enter paradise. The crime had cross-confessional appeal, as illustrated in case studies of Lutheran Hamburg and Catholic Vienna.Winner of The 2024 Natalie Zemon Davis Prize.“What to do about women (and sometimes, men) who gruesomely murdered children because of their own “weariness with life?” This was a dilemma faced by elites in German-speaking lands during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and engaged by Kathy Stuart in this strikingly original monograph. A pervasive, if not largely forgotten behavioral pattern featured women who wished to end their lives but feared the doctrine held by Catholics and Protestants alike, that their souls would then face certain damnation. Instead, they would murder a child: their own, someone else’s, even one chosen at random, and immediately turn themselves into the authorities. This form of “suicide by proxy,” as Stuart terms it, resulted in their execution to be sure, but gave them a chance to repent beforehand. To elucidate this troubling history, she mines an impressive array of primary sources from archives throughout Germany and Austria, as well as broadsheets and other forms of art. She draws penetrating insights from law, gender studies, religion, and medicine. To her sophisticated use of empirical research and interdisciplinary perspectives Stuart adds a sense of compassion for these desperate women and the parents of the children murdered during this time of religious and social upheaval.”

Suicide by Proxy became a major societal problem after 1650. Suicidal people committed capital crimes with the explicit goal of “earning” their executions, as a short-cut to their salvation. Desiring to die repentantly at the hands of divinely-instituted government, perpetrators hoped to escape eternal damnation that befell direct suicides. Kathy Stuart shows how this crime emerged as an unintended consequence of aggressive social disciplining campaigns by confessional states. Paradoxically, suicide by proxy exposed the limits of early modern state power, as governments struggled unsuccessfully to suppress the tactic. Some perpetrators committed arson or blasphemy, or confessed to long-past crimes, usually infanticide, or bestiality. Most frequently, however, they murdered young children, believing that their innocent victims would also enter paradise. The crime had cross-confessional appeal, as illustrated in case studies of Lutheran Hamburg and Catholic Vienna.Winner of The 2024 Natalie Zemon Davis Prize.“What to do about women (and sometimes, men) who gruesomely murdered children because of their own “weariness with life?” This was a dilemma faced by elites in German-speaking lands during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and engaged by Kathy Stuart in this strikingly original monograph. A pervasive, if not largely forgotten behavioral pattern featured women who wished to end their lives but feared the doctrine held by Catholics and Protestants alike, that their souls would then face certain damnation. Instead, they would murder a child: their own, someone else’s, even one chosen at random, and immediately turn themselves into the authorities. This form of “suicide by proxy,” as Stuart terms it, resulted in their execution to be sure, but gave them a chance to repent beforehand. To elucidate this troubling history, she mines an impressive array of primary sources from archives throughout Germany and Austria, as well as broadsheets and other forms of art. She draws penetrating insights from law, gender studies, religion, and medicine. To her sophisticated use of empirical research and interdisciplinary perspectives Stuart adds a sense of compassion for these desperate women and the parents of the children murdered during this time of religious and social upheaval.”

This Palgrave Pivot examines the history of the largely urban offence once known as vitriol throwing because the substance most commonly used was strong sulphuric acid, oil of vitriol.

This Palgrave Pivot examines the history of the largely urban offence once known as vitriol throwing because the substance most commonly used was strong sulphuric acid, oil of vitriol.

The Regimes of Violence framework reveals the interconnectedness of paramilitarism with other forms of violence during this period of unprecedented brutality. Today, paramilitary violence is a global phenomenon.

This book presents alternative histories of the colonial prison in Bengal, 1860-1945, focusing on the experiences of the colonised subject as produced in literary writings including fiction, dramas, and life writings. The colonial prison, as defined by penal acts, jail codes, jail manuals, committee reports, administrative data, and statistics, was a modern punitive institution that evolved from the religio-local and the Company’s capricious system into an effective humanitarian machine for ‘the rule of law.’ However, it was the site of torture, humiliation, and repression, which was subsequently challenged, defied, and resisted. The book establishes a comprehensive linkage between the macro historical and the micro historical perspective of the colonial prison exploring its changing image in Bengali society, its extended contribution to the formation of individual and collective identity, intricate tempo-spatial regulations within jails, and various techniques of corporeal and mental torture. The book also highlights resistance tactics of the prisoners, both ordinary and political, and finally it addresses the gendered dynamics and the gender-specific modalities of resistance and subversion.

This edited collection examines the violence experienced by non-combatants during the civil wars which took place in Europe in the first half of the twentieth century. The determinants of violence in civil wars are highly complex and variable. By focusing on both the victims and perpetrators of violence in eight European countries, including Russia, Ireland, France and Spain, the book explores what happened when differing groups within a polity clashed, and in which ways internal conflicts manifested themselves and permeated societies. Divided into two parts, the chapters firstly identify and analyse how rearguard violence was produced and exercised during the European civil wars, and secondly, they examine the violence perpetrated by, and against, women. Shedding light on the violence that was inflicted upon European civilians in the early- to mid-twentieth century, this book presents insights for historians of Europe, political scientists, and international relations scholars alike.

This book brings together contributions from female authors on feminicide and violence against women. Steilneset Memorial in Finnmark, Norway was built by Norwegian Scenic Routes to commemorate the victims of the Finnmark witchcraft trials in the seventeenth century. The memorial was opened in 2011, and is based on three components: art, architecture, and history. The artist is Louise Bourgeois, who created an art installation. The architect is Peter Zumthor, who designed the memorial’s two buildings. The historian is Liv Helene Willumsen, who wrote one commemoratory text for each of the victims. The majority were women: of the 91 persons who were executed, 77 were women and only 14 were men. This book therefore uses Steilneset Memorial as a starting point to explore contemporary feminicide and violence against women, as the misogyny which was fundamental to the persecution of alleged witches in the 1600s is still seen today throughout the world.

This book examines which social mechanisms of hegemony and discrimination in relation to the gender-based violence in Eastern Europe are specific and which are universal. The historical angle of the book is particularly important, as it reveals a much broader scope of the circumstances and discourses, defining and shaping gender-based violence in Eastern Europe, than is sometimes still imagined in Western academic interpretations. The historical research of gender-based violence in Eastern Europe also reveals how deeply Western imperialism and understandings of ethnicity could impact the destinies of Eastern European women in times of crisis and military conflicts.

This book investigates the forms that the aggression and violence of peasant elites could take in early modern Fennoscandia, and their role within society.

Japan’s contradictory roles in the Second World War as brutal oppressor of conquered regions in Asia and as liberator of Asia from both Western colonialism and stultifying tradition set the stage for a tangled legal and political debate: just where did colonized and oppressed peoples owe their loyalties in time of war?

This book reflects on the new histories emerging from the exhumation of mass graves that contain the corpses of the Republicans killed in extrajudicial executions during and after the conflict, nearly eighty years after the end of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). In the search for, location and unearthing of these unmarked burials, the corpse, the document and the oral testimony have become key traces through which to demand the recognition of past Francoist crimes, which were never atoned, from a lukewarm Spanish state and judiciary. These have become objects of evidence against the politics of silence entertained by national institutions since the transition to democracy. Working alongside archaeologists, historians, memory activists and families, this book explores how new versions of the history of the killings are constructed at the cross-roads between science, history and family experience. It does so considering the workings of truth-seeking in the absence of criminal justiceand the effects of the process on Spanish collective memory and identity.

Despite the fact that new perspectives, such as restorative justice, have emerged, the debates have largely focused on issues that bring us back to the inception of juvenile justice: namely whether youth justice ought to be more akin to punitive adult criminal justice, or more sensitive to the welfare of youths.