Crime and Law in England, 1750-1840

Peter King is Professor of History at the Open University, Milton Keynes. His previous publications include Crime, Justice and Discretion, Law and Social Relations in England 1740-1820 (2000).

• Introduction; 1. Shaping and remaking justice from the margins: the courts, the law and patterns of lawbreaking 1750–1840; Part I. Juveniles: 2. The rise of juvenile delinquency in England 1780–1840: changing patterns of perception and prosecution; 3. The punishment of juvenile offenders in the English Courts 1780–1830: changing attitudes and policies; 4. The making of the reformatory: the development of informal reformatory sentences for juvenile offenders 1780–1830; Part II. Gender: 5. Female offenders, work and lifecycle change in late eighteenth-century London; 6. Gender, crime and justice in late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century England; 7. Gender and recorded crime. The impact of female offenders in England and Wales 1750–1850; Part III. Non-Lethal Violence: 8. Punishing assault: the transformation of attitudes in the English courts; 9. Changing attitudes to violence in the Cornish courts 1730–1830; Part IV. The Attack on Customary Rights: 10. Customary right and women's earnings: the importance of gleaning to the rural labouring poor 1750–1850; 11. Legal change, customary right and social conflict in late eighteenth-century England: the origins of the great gleaning case of 1788; 12. Gleaners, farmers and the failure of legal sanctions in England 1750–1850.

"There is not much with which to quibble in this beautifully researched book. King's references show a mastery of historical writings relevant to his work as well as an understanding of the literature in several related fields such as criminology... his study is undeniably important." - H-Law, Elisabeth Cawthon, University of Texas at Arlington