HR353-6-FY-CO:
Crime and Punishment: England in Comparative Perspective 1650-1900
PLEASE NOTE: This module is inactive. Visit the Module Directory to view modules and variants offered during the current academic year.
2023/24
Philosophical, Historical and Interdisciplinary Studies (School of)
Colchester Campus
Full Year
Undergraduate: Level 6
Inactive
Thursday 05 October 2023
Friday 28 June 2024
30
01 March 2021
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
(none)
The history of English criminal justice forms the core of this option; on some topics the scope is extended to include France and Germany. We begin with the evolution of common-law and Roman-canon methods of prosecuting, asking why the English adopted trial by jury, and why Continental courts institutionalised judicial torture. We then survey a range of criminal courts in England - coroner`s courts, quarter sessions and assizes - looking at how they worked and how people used them.
We ask what differences social status and gender made, and do a case study of infanticide. Changing practices in policing, prosecuting, trying, pardoning and punishing are then investigated. We read Foucault`s influential interpretation of the history of punishment, and consider the processes which led to the reform of the criminal law and the end of public execution. Throughout we are concerned with questions of historical causation, and with the political and ideological contexts of criminal justice. The history of feelings is also a recurrent theme.
1) To provide a critical overview of the history of the English criminal justice system up to the late nineteenth century.
2) To employ relevant theoretical perspectives, e.g., Foucault, psychoanalysis, the concept of cultural hegemony.
3) To account for the distinctiveness of the English legal system in comparison with continental European legal systems and the Scottish legal system.
4) To explain the meanings, origins, purposes and development of legal concepts.
5) To provide an account of how social, political, religious, scientific and philosophical factors have shaped the evolution of criminal justice systems.
1) A historical understanding of how and why legal systems differ.
2) Historical and philosophical perspectives on punishments, including the death penalty.
3) An awareness of how theory and comparative history can enhance historical knowledge and understanding.
4) Knowledge of legal terminology, concepts and thinking.
5) Knowledge of key developments in English criminal justice history during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
General reading list:
Michel Foucault, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison.
Douglas Hay, ‘Property, Authority and the Criminal Law’, in D Hay, P Linebaugh and J Rule (eds), Albion’s Fatal Tree: Crime and Society in Eighteenth-Century England.
V A C Gatrell, The Hanging Tree: Execution and the English People.
This module does not appear to have a published bibliography for this year.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Exam |
Main exam: Remote, Open Book, 180 minutes during Summer (Main Period)
|
| Exam |
Reassessment Main exam: Remote, Open Book, 180 minutes during September (Reassessment Period)
|
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Dr Catherine Crawford, email: crawc@essex.ac.uk.
Dr Catherine Crawford
Belinda Waterman, Department of History, 01206 872313
Yes
Yes
No
Dr Mark Williams
Cardiff University
Senior Lecturer in Early Modern History
Available via Moodle
Of 44 hours, 44 (100%) hours available to students:
0 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).
Disclaimer: The University makes every effort to ensure that this information on its Module Directory is accurate and up-to-date. Exceptionally it can
be necessary to make changes, for example to programmes, modules, facilities or fees. Examples of such reasons might include a change of law or regulatory requirements,
industrial action, lack of demand, departure of key personnel, change in government policy, or withdrawal/reduction of funding. Changes to modules may for example consist
of variations to the content and method of delivery or assessment of modules and other services, to discontinue modules and other services and to merge or combine modules.
The University will endeavour to keep such changes to a minimum, and will also keep students informed appropriately by updating our programme specifications and module directory.
The full Procedures, Rules and Regulations of the University governing how it operates are set out in the Charter, Statutes and Ordinances and in the University Regulations, Policy and Procedures.