England, Wales, Criminal Law, Criminal Justice, European, Europe, International Relations, Administration, UK crime and punishment, Crime and punishment, Louis A. Knafla 

This comprehensive work explores the broad question of how the English courts dealt with crime between 1660 and 1800, the period during which the foundations of modern forms of judicial administration were being laid. The author draws on a wide variety of evidence, including pamphlet accounts of trials at the assizes, but he focuses on the judicial records of Surrey and Sussex, especially on a quantitative study of cases brought to the assizes and quarter sessions for crimes against property and serious violence. because Surrey included a large urban population, urban-rural comparisons are frequently at the center of the discussion.  

Contents:
1. Introduction -- Themes and arguments -- Sources and evidence -- The county of Surrey
2. Prosecution -- Costs of prosecution -- Prosecution associations -- Rewards -- Thief-takers -- Magistrates -- The watch -- Conclusion
3. Violent Offenses -- Homicide -- Excusable homicide and manslaughter -- manslaughter and murder: the question of provocation -- Verdicts in homicide cases -- evidence of murder in the Surrey assize proceedings -- Homicide over time -- Infanticide -- Rape -- Changing levels of violence, changing attitudes toward violence?
4. Property Offenses and Offenders -- benefit of clergy and offenses against property -- Robbery -- Burglary -- Horse-theft -- Sheep-stealing -- Theft from Bleaching Grounds -- Theft from houses -- Theft from ships -- Shoplifting -- Picking pockets -- Grand and petty larceny -- Prosecutors
5. Patterns of Prosecution and the Character of Property Crime -- Food prices and property crime -- War and property crime -- Crime and economic conditions -- Women offenders -- Ages and occupations of offenders -- Criminal gangs -- Conclusion
6. Coming to Trial -- Pretrial process -- Awaiting trial: the availability of bail -- Court of trial: quarterly sessions or assizes? -- The county jail: security -- The county jail: health and "improvement" -- The timing an place of court sessions
7. The Criminal Trial -- Opening ceremonies -- The grand jury -- The charge of the grand jury -- Arraignment and plea -- Trial procedure -- The introduction of lawyers -- Defense council -- Rules of evidence -- The pace of trial -- Assize trial juries -- Quarter sessions trial juries -- Jury deliberation
8. Verdicts and pardons: Discretionary Powers in the Administration of the Law -- Grand jury verdicts -- The trial jury and the judge -- Trial jury verdicts -- Jury discretion: partial verdicts -- Reprieves and the pardon process -- Verdicts and pardons: the matter of gender -- Verdicts and pardons: the importance of character
9. Punishment, 1660-1750: The Impact of Transportation -- Capital punishment -- Lesser sanctions -- Fines -- Whipping -- The pillory -- Changing penal options -- the origins of transportation -- Other penal experiments, 1660-1717 -- The extension of whipping -- Harsher views inside and outside of Parliament -- Branding on the cheek -- Imprisonment at Hard Labor -- The Transportation Act, 1718 -- Noncapital punishment, 1718-1750 -- Capital punishment, 1720-1750
10. Punishment, 1750-1800: The Emergence of Imprisonment -- House of Commons committee on the criminal laws, 1751 -- The Murder Act, 1752 -- Capital punishment, 1749-1775 -- Noncapital punishment, 1750-1775: transportation and whipping -- Arguments for imprisonment at Hard Labor -- The idea of proportion in punishment -- The end of transportation to America -- The Hulks, and imprisonment at Hard labor -- The importance of Hanway and Howard -- the Penitentiary Act, 1779 -- Noncapital punishment during the American war -- Capital punishment, 1776-1800 -- The re-establishment of transportation -- Imprisonment at the end of the eighteenth-century -- Sentencing decisions -- The transformation of punishment -- Conclusion.  

Includes biographical references (pages [645]-651) and index.

Item has been generously donated by Louis A. Knafla.