Crime, Law and Popular Culture in Europe, 1500-1900 - Softcover

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1843921189 ISBN 13: 9781843921189

Publisher: Routledge, 2008

Synopsis

This book explores the relationship between crime, law and popular culture in Europe from the sixteenth century onwards. How was crime understood and dealt with by ordinary people and to what degree did they resort to or reject the official law and criminal justice system as a means of dealing with different forms of criminal activity?

Overall, the volume will serve to illuminate how experiences of and attitudes to crime and the law may have corresponded or differed in different locations and contexts as well as contributing to a wider understanding of popular culture and consciousness in early modern and modern Europe.

About this title

Review:

Most...essays in this volume are valuable contributions to the historiography of crime, in particular violent crime, and its relationship to the law.
-Pieter Spierenburg, Erasmus Universiteit, in Crime, History & Societies vol 14 no 1

Synopsis:

This book explores the relationship between crime, law and popular culture in Europe from the sixteenth century onwards. How was crime understood and dealt with by ordinary people and to what degree did they resort to or reject the official law and criminal justice system as a means of dealing with different forms of criminal activity? The issues addressed will include: participation by ordinary people as prosecutors, witnesses and jurors in the courts; the dynamics of court sittings; popular resistance to the operation or enforcement of the criminal law; and how attitudes and ways of understanding crime and the law may have changed or evolved over time. The chapters will also explore how different approaches and methodologies, whether drawn from within the existing historiography or from other disciplines such as criminology, law or anthropology, aid a greater understanding of the relationship between crime, law and popular culture.

Overall, the volume will serve to illuminate how experiences of and attitudes to crime and the law may have corresponded or differed in different locations and contexts as well as contributing to a wider understanding of popular culture and consciousness in early modern and modern Europe.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2008
• ISBN 10: 1843921189
• ISBN 13: 9781843921189
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288
• Editor: McMahon Richard