Policing and Punishment in London 1660-1750: Urban Crime and the Limits of TerrorThis study examines the considerable changes that took place in the criminal justice system in the City of London in the century after the Restoration, well before the inauguration of the so-called 'age of reform'. The policing institutions of the City were transformed in response to the problems created by the rapid expansion of the metropolis during the early modern period, and as a consequence of the emergence of a polite urban culture. At the same time, the City authorities were instrumental in the establishment of new forms of punishment - particularly transportation to the American colonies and confinement at hard labour - that for the first time made secondary sanctions available to the English courts for convicted felons and diminished the reliance on the terror created by capital punishment. The book investigates why in the century after 1660 the elements of an alternative means of dealing with crime in urban society were emerging in policing, in the practices and procedures of prosecution, and in the establishment of new forms of punishment. |
Contents
Introduction The Crime Problem | 1 |
The City Magistrates and the Process of Prosecution | 77 |
Constables and Other Officers | 114 |
Policing the Night Streets | 169 |
Detection and Prosecution Thief takers 1690 1720 | 226 |
The Old Bailey in the Late Seventeenth Century | 259 |
The Revolution Crime and Punishment in London 1690 1713 | 313 |
Other editions - View all
Policing and Punishment in London, 1660-1750: Urban Crime and the Limits of ... J. M. Beattie No preview available - 2001 |
Common terms and phrases
accused active administration arrest assizes authority beadles benefit of clergy bill Bridewell burglary capital punishment changes Charge Book City of London City's clergy clergyable CLRO committed committee Common Council condemned constables convicted Cornhill Court of Aldermen criminal law CSPD decades defendants deputy duty early effect eighteenth century encouraged England evidence example executed Farringdon felony gaol delivery grand jury Guildhall hanged Henry Fielding increase indictments John judges jurors justice labour Langbein large numbers late seventeenth century lighting London Sess lord mayor magistrates metropolis Middlesex Misc Newgate OBSP Old Bailey pardon parish parliament peace penal period petition petty larceny policing pounds prisoners problems proclamation property crime property offences prosecution prosecutors recorder reign rewards robbery sentenced servants shoplifting social statute streets theft thief-takers thieves Thomson tion transportation trial Tyburn verdicts victims ward wardmote watchmen Westminster whipping William women