Introduction

This is the first of two seminars which are an overture to the whole module. In them, we will engage with a variety of approaches to crime and punishment in early modern Europe. We will also uncover and begin to discuss issues which we will return to across the year. In this seminar, we will look at overviews of the subject.

Seminar Question

What are the key issues which the historian of crime and punishment needs to address?

Required Reading

In preparing an answer to the seminar question, you should each choose and read three of the following items:

Bosworth, Mary, 'The Past as a Foreign Country? Some Methodological Implications of Doing Historical CriminologyLink opens in a new window', The British Journal of Criminology 41/3 (2001), 431-442.

Classen, Albrecht, and Connie Scarborough, 'Crime, Transgression, and Deviancy: Behaviors that Define Us All' in Abrecht Classen and Connie Scarborough, eds, Crime and Punishment in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age: Mental-Historical Investigations of Basic Human Problems and Social ResponsesLink opens in a new window (Berlin, 2012), pp. 1-28.

Godfrey, Barry, 'The Crime Historian's Modus Operandi', in Paul Knepper and Anja Johansen, eds, The Oxford Handbook of the History of Crime and Criminal (Oxford, 2016), pp. 38-56.

Heijden, Manon van der, and Marion Pluskota, 'Introduction to Crime and Gender in HistoryLink opens in a new window' Journal of Social History 51/4 (2018), 661–671.

Knepper, Paul, and Anja Johansen, 'Introduction' in Paul Knepper and Anja Johansen, eds, The Oxford Handbook of the History of Crime and CriminalLink opens in a new window (Oxford, 2016), pp. 1-14.

Lawrence, Paul, 'The Historiography of Crime and Criminal Justice' in Paul Knepper and Anja Johansen, eds, The Oxford Handbook of the History of Crime and CriminalLink opens in a new window (Oxford, 2016), pp. 18-37.

Schwerhoff, Gerd, Benjamin Seebröker, Alexander Kästner, and Wiebke Voigt, 'Hard Numbers? The Long-term Decline in Violence Reassessed. Empirical Objections and Fresh PerspectivesLink opens in a new window', Continuity and Change 36 (2021), 1-32.

Further Reading

Broomhall, Susan, 'Introduction: Violence and Emotions in Early Modern Europe', in Susan Broomhall and Sarah Finn, eds, Violence and Emotions in Early Modern EuropeLink opens in a new window (London, 2015), pp. 1-18.

Eisner, Manuel, 'Long-Term Historical Trends in Violent CrimeLink opens in a new window', Crime and Justice 30 (2003), 83-142.

Knepper, Paul, Writing the History of CrimeLink opens in a new window (London, 2016)

Muir, Edward, and Guido Ruggiero, eds., History from CrimeLink opens in a new window, trans. Corrada Biazzo Curry, Margaret A. Gallucci, and Mary M. Gallucci (Baltimore, 1994) [For microhistorical approaches]

Schwerhoff, Gerd, 'Criminalized Violence and the Process of Civilization: A ReappraisalLink opens in a new window', Crime, History & Societies 6/2 (2002), 103-126.