Print Culture, Crime and Justice in 18th-Century London

In the first half of the 18th century there was an explosion in the volume and variety of crime literature published in London. This was a ''golden age of writing about crime'', when the older genres of criminal biographies, social policy pamphlets and ''last-dying speeches'' were joined by a raft of new publications, including newspapers, periodicals, graphic prints, the Old Bailey Proceedings and the Ordinary''s Account of malefactors executed at Tyburn. By the early 18th century propertied Londoners read a wider array of printed texts and images about criminal offenders - highwaymen, housebreakers, murderers, pickpockets and the like - than ever before or since. provides the first detailed study of crime reporting across this range of publications to explore the influence of print upon contemporary perceptions of crime and upon the making of the law and its administration in the metropolis. This historical perspective helps us to rethink the relationship between media, the public sphere and criminal justice policy in the present.>

List of contents

1. Introduction: 'Little News from England, but of Robberies'
2. 'All this is not Imagination, but Matter of Fact': Contemporary Readings of Crime Literature
3. Highway Robbery 'Grows No Joke': Print Culture and Prosecution
4. The Efficacy of Empirical and Providential Detection: Print Culture and Policing
5. 'More Terror in it than Mere Hanging': Print Culture and Punishment
6. Conclusion: Constituting, as well as Reflecting, Social Realities
Appendices
Bibliography
Index

About the author

Richard M. Ward is Research Associate in History at the University of Sheffield, UK.

Product details

• Authors: Richard M Ward, Richard M. Ward, Ward Richard M.
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 28.08.2014
• EAN: 9781472506856
• ISBN: 978-1-4725-0685-6
• No. of pages: 336
• Series: History of Crime, Deviance and; History of Crime, Deviance and; History of Crime, Deviance and Punishment
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Modern era up to 1918; Social sciences, law, business > Law > Criminal law, criminal procedural law, criminology; London, Greater London, Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900, European History, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Criminology, HISTORY / Social History, Social & cultural history, HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / Georgian Era (1714-1837), HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain / Victorian Era (1837-1901), 19th century, c 1800 to c 1899, 18th century, c 1700 to c 1799, British & Irish history, Social and cultural history, Crime and criminology, Crime & criminology, C 1700 To C 1800