How was law made in England in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries? Through detailed studies of what the courts actually did, Peter King argues that parliament and the Westminster courts played a less important role in the process of law making than is usually assumed. Justice was often remade from the margins by magistrates, judges and others at the local level. His book also focuses on four specific themes - gender, youth, violent crime and the attack on customary rights. In doing so it highlights a variety of important changes - the relatively lenient treatment meted out to women by the late eighteenth century, the early development of the juvenile reformatory in England before 1825, i.e. before similar changes on the continent or in America, and the growing intolerance of the courts towards everyday violence. This study is invaluable reading to anyone interested in British political and legal history.

Hirschel and Wakefield provide their readers with an informed and interesting view of two criminal justice systems. The discussion revolves around the history and development of the criminal justice systems of England and the United States. The authors draw comparisions between the two with a view toward policy implications for the administration of criminal justice. The discussion includes areas of law enforcement, judicial systems, correctional systems, and ends with an evaluation of the English criminal justice system and lessons for both the United States and England.

An account of changing conceptions and treatments of criminality in Victorian and Edwardian Britain.

Charting the influence of public opinion which gradually led to criminal law reform.

Published in 1883, this three-volume account of English criminal law's development since 1200 remains a classic work of legal historical scholarship.