Homicide in Eighteenth-Century Scotland: Numbers and Theories

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to address the lacuna in our knowledge of the extent of interpersonal violence in eighteenth-century Scotland, with particular reference to homicide, and in doing so use these findings to examine the theoretical and empirical issues that have dominated historical discourse regarding this phenomenon over the last few decades. Essentially, it seeks to challenge widely held explanations for the alleged long-term decline in homicide, arguing that incidences of murder in the eighteenth century were affected more by political tensions and socioeconomic dislocation than by cultural changes in taste and manners. It also criticises the methodological weaknesses evident in longitudinal studies of homicide and tries to resolve them in two ways: firstly, by adjusting the homicide rate to take account of the rises and falls in population in the period 1700-1799; and, secondly, by providing national data rather than relying on extrapolating national trends from local or regional studies. Finally, it is argued that the main assumptions of historians working in the field of homicide studies are in the light of evidence for Scotland in need of revision as data from there provide little support for a linear fall in the level of homicides, or a link with shifts in sentiment and/or taste as put forward by those influenced by the civilising theories of Norbert Elias.

Introduction

“…13 More recently, Knox's study of homicide in eighteenth-century Scotland provided a fresh perspective upon recorded and prosecuted levels of interpersonal violence in this period. 14 In addition, quantitative surveys of Scottish crime in the first half of the nineteenth century using the parliamentary returns, which were available more regularly after 1836, include those of Donnachie, whose work presented some discussion of the punishment of property offences, and King's work on homicide rates. 15 King and Ward's more recent study of the geography of capital punishment in the third quarter of the eighteenth century highlighted major regional variations in the use of hanging in Britain for property offences at the centre, namely in London and the Home Counties, and on the peripheries which included large parts of northern and western England as well as Wales and Scotland.…”