Abstract:ABSTRACT. This article examines encounters of women with the criminal justice system in Wales during the century before the Courts of Great Sessions were abolished in 1830. Drawing on evidence from cases of sexual assault and homicide, it argues that women who killed were rarely convicted or punished harshly. A gendered discretion of sorts also acted against rape victims, as trials never resulted in conviction. Using violence as a lens, the paper reveals a distinctively Welsh approach to criminal justice, and … Show more
“…Indeed, only one man was executed for this crime in Wales between 1730 and 1830, and he was convicted in Monmouthshire, and thus by an English court. This state of affairs has led Katherine Watson (2013) to argue that females were seen as less significant than males in the Welsh courts as both offenders and victims of violent crimes. While there is evidence, such as was cited above, that this would appear to be the case, it is not clear how far this attitude differed from those towards females as victims and alleged perpetrators of violent crime in England during this period.…”
Section: The Reticence To Convictmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…As Katherine Watson has observed, Wales is…one of the most under‐researched constituent nations of the United Kingdom. Indeed, in comparison with the extensive historiography of violence and criminal justice in England, there has been little research on the relationship of the Welsh people to the criminal justice system and less still examining gender, crime and violence in the Principality (Watson, 2013, p. 246).…”
While the last four‐and‐a‐half decades has seen a growing body of historical scholarship on the administration of justice in England during the long eighteenth century, the administration of justice in Wales is a relatively neglected topic. This article reviews the relatively small historiography on the administration of justice in Georgian Wales, highlighting the ways in which patterns of indictments, convictions and executions were both similar and, crucially, different to those found in England during the period. After introducing the superior courts in the Principality during this period—the Wales Courts of Great Sessions ‐ the article discusses the patterns of indictments, convictions and executions in the Great Sessions. The article then concludes by suggesting avenues of further research in the area.
“…Indeed, only one man was executed for this crime in Wales between 1730 and 1830, and he was convicted in Monmouthshire, and thus by an English court. This state of affairs has led Katherine Watson (2013) to argue that females were seen as less significant than males in the Welsh courts as both offenders and victims of violent crimes. While there is evidence, such as was cited above, that this would appear to be the case, it is not clear how far this attitude differed from those towards females as victims and alleged perpetrators of violent crime in England during this period.…”
Section: The Reticence To Convictmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…As Katherine Watson has observed, Wales is…one of the most under‐researched constituent nations of the United Kingdom. Indeed, in comparison with the extensive historiography of violence and criminal justice in England, there has been little research on the relationship of the Welsh people to the criminal justice system and less still examining gender, crime and violence in the Principality (Watson, 2013, p. 246).…”
While the last four‐and‐a‐half decades has seen a growing body of historical scholarship on the administration of justice in England during the long eighteenth century, the administration of justice in Wales is a relatively neglected topic. This article reviews the relatively small historiography on the administration of justice in Georgian Wales, highlighting the ways in which patterns of indictments, convictions and executions were both similar and, crucially, different to those found in England during the period. After introducing the superior courts in the Principality during this period—the Wales Courts of Great Sessions ‐ the article discusses the patterns of indictments, convictions and executions in the Great Sessions. The article then concludes by suggesting avenues of further research in the area.
“…The historiography of rape in early modern England and Wales demonstrates the longevity of a patriarchal order: female victims of rape crime were vulnerable in the masculine institution of the law court and had low credibility as witnesses when making accusations about male perpetrators. Women who took their case to court were unsuccessful in gaining a rape conviction in London 1730-1830, for example, where female victims "stood a better chance of convicting their attackers if husbands and fathers prosecuted for them" (Watson 2013), and "Welsh women seem to have been consistently regarded as less significant than men, both as the victims and perpetrators of violence: the voices of rape victims were unheard…Criminal justice in Wales reinforced gendered notions of the lesser status in society of women…" Watson (2013: 265) Historical sociology of Victorian sexual behaviour identified differences between social classes in patterns of sexual behaviour outside of marriage in nineteenth-century Scotland;…”
Cultural reproduction is rarely, if ever, theorised through clandestine practices of sexual offending by teachers in the gendered hierarchies of state schools. Drawing upon Freedom of Information requests and other official qualitative data provided by a UK teaching council this paper endeavours to explain the form of a gendered cultural reproduction by reference to the diversity of ways in which identities are constructed and 'contracted' for female student victims. The paper begins by looking at this taboo subject matter in the context of a historical patriarchal order and cultures of heterosexuality in schools, followed by a feminist perspective through which empirical theorization is documented. Michel Foucault's work on the micro-physics of power and normativity informs the emphasis of the contemporary feminist prism. It is argued that that offending occurs under the auspices of the professional teacher-student hierarchy and produces distinctive and damaging power effects.
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