HI 347T

Crime & Policing Early Mod Eng

Early modern English people energetically discussed crime: what were its caused? How might crime be discouraged? The result was a series of long-term transformations in criminal law from 1600-1832 with the rise of the prison, adversarial criminal trial, and a shift in the role of the jury. This course surveys the definition and forms of crime inherited from the medieval period, the emergence of new forms of crime, especially financial crimes, innovations in policing, and investigates how contemporaries discussed the punishment of misconduct. The course takes a socio-legal perspective, examining the changing structure of English society, including urbanization, consumption patterns, and colonization, as well as shifts in the law of evidence, procedure and substantive rights.