Crime and Punishment in England c.1688-1840 part 1

Learning Outcomes

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Describe the changing patterns of criminal activity in the period 1688 to 1840.
• Make connections between Enlightenment theories and the development of the criminal justice system.
• Analyse a wide range of primary source material (including images), with regard to the specific context, and comment succinctly on their significance in a gobbets exam.
• Identify and engage with the most important historiographical texts on the subject.

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Learn to develop critical time management skills by handling several tasks competently at the same time.
• Collect data and information, evaluate it, and integrate it in an essay.
• Perform research with electronic media on a wide range of subjects.

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• The nature and incidence of crime in the period and the extent to which historical research confirms the perceptions of contemporaries.
• The changing structure of the criminal justice system between 1688 and 1840.
• The different forms of evidence available to historians for uncovering the histories of crime and punishment.

a. Module Overview

This course will span the period c.1688-c.1840, beginning with the reforms of the criminal code introduced following the Glorious Revolution, known as the ‘Bloody Code’, and concluding in the mid-nineteenth century with the introduction of the police force under Peel and the first acts removing capital punishment from felonies. You will be asked to consider both the nature and incidence of crime and whether historians’ research confirms contemporary perceptions of the lawlessness of society. You will be asked to address whether a poor man’s [and woman’s] system of justice operated in the eighteenth century or whether the criminal law solely acted as the ‘ideology’ of the ruling classes.

b. Module Syllabus

You will be introduced to a wide range of sources for examining the history of crime and punishment, both qualitative and quantitative. A variety of legal material will be drawn upon; indictment and deposition records from Quarter Sessions, Assize Circuits, the Kings Bench and the very rich Old Bailey Sessions Papers and Newgate Calendar. Alongside this the writings of contemporaries such as Defoe, Fielding, Smollett will be considered. Criminal biographies, judges’notebooks, newspapers, canting dictionaries and satirical images also provide interesting and informative sources.

Teaching methods include

• Two weekly two-hour seminars
• Individual consultation on dissertations
• Group work

Learning activities include

• Preparatory reading for seminar discussions
• Preparing and delivering presentations
• Further reading and independent research for the essay and dissertation

Seminars will introduce you to the changing notions of crime and punishment through the long eighteenth century and provide you with the necessary research skills, such as: how to find and analyse secondary literature and also to research, evaluate and use primary source material. The seminar environment will help to develop your interpersonal skills through the use of individual and group presentations. These will develop your knowledge and understanding of particular subject areas and enhance your oral communication skills.

The preparation for presentations will help you to find an essay topic, narrow it down to a specific question and start to research sources and secondary materials relevant for it, to critically evaluate the contributions made by published secondary works and to develop a coherent written argument at length.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.