Debauched, Desperate, Deranged: Women Who Killed, London 1674-1913
Contemporary studies have concluded that women are far less likely to kill than men and that when women do kill, they do so within the family. Debauched, Desperate, Deranged: Women Who Killed, London 1674-1913 examines the evolution of this pattern in the over 1400 trials in which women were prosecuted for homicide in London from the late seventeenth century until just before the First World War. Which deaths were considered homicides and in what circumstances women were culpable illustrates profound changes in the prevailing assumptions about women. The outcomes of trials and the portrayals of these women in the press illuminate changes in perceptions of women's status and their physical and mental limitations. Debauched, Desperate, Deranged breaks new ground in existing studies of gender and homicide, using a long time frame to discern which trends are brief anomalies and which represent significant change or continuity. Debauched, Desperate, Deranged is the first empirical, quantitatively as well as qualitatively based study of women and homicide from the seventeenth century to the twentieth. It presents new and significant conclusions on changing incidence of maternal homicides and the remarkable constancy of spousal homicides.
1137338313
Debauched, Desperate, Deranged: Women Who Killed, London 1674-1913
Contemporary studies have concluded that women are far less likely to kill than men and that when women do kill, they do so within the family. Debauched, Desperate, Deranged: Women Who Killed, London 1674-1913 examines the evolution of this pattern in the over 1400 trials in which women were prosecuted for homicide in London from the late seventeenth century until just before the First World War. Which deaths were considered homicides and in what circumstances women were culpable illustrates profound changes in the prevailing assumptions about women. The outcomes of trials and the portrayals of these women in the press illuminate changes in perceptions of women's status and their physical and mental limitations. Debauched, Desperate, Deranged breaks new ground in existing studies of gender and homicide, using a long time frame to discern which trends are brief anomalies and which represent significant change or continuity. Debauched, Desperate, Deranged is the first empirical, quantitatively as well as qualitatively based study of women and homicide from the seventeenth century to the twentieth. It presents new and significant conclusions on changing incidence of maternal homicides and the remarkable constancy of spousal homicides.
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Debauched, Desperate, Deranged: Women Who Killed, London 1674-1913

Debauched, Desperate, Deranged: Women Who Killed, London 1674-1913

by Carolyn A. Conley
Debauched, Desperate, Deranged: Women Who Killed, London 1674-1913

Debauched, Desperate, Deranged: Women Who Killed, London 1674-1913

by Carolyn A. Conley

eBook

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Overview

Contemporary studies have concluded that women are far less likely to kill than men and that when women do kill, they do so within the family. Debauched, Desperate, Deranged: Women Who Killed, London 1674-1913 examines the evolution of this pattern in the over 1400 trials in which women were prosecuted for homicide in London from the late seventeenth century until just before the First World War. Which deaths were considered homicides and in what circumstances women were culpable illustrates profound changes in the prevailing assumptions about women. The outcomes of trials and the portrayals of these women in the press illuminate changes in perceptions of women's status and their physical and mental limitations. Debauched, Desperate, Deranged breaks new ground in existing studies of gender and homicide, using a long time frame to discern which trends are brief anomalies and which represent significant change or continuity. Debauched, Desperate, Deranged is the first empirical, quantitatively as well as qualitatively based study of women and homicide from the seventeenth century to the twentieth. It presents new and significant conclusions on changing incidence of maternal homicides and the remarkable constancy of spousal homicides.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780192608079
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Publication date: 10/31/2020
Sold by: Barnes & Noble
Format: eBook
Pages: 240
File size: 2 MB

About the Author

Carolyn Conley spent her academic career at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she served as Director of Graduate Studies and Department Chair. Her research focuses on criminal violence in the British Isles, and she also taught Celtic history, the history of Britain and the developing world, and historiography.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figure xi

Introduction 1

The OBSP and Statistics 1

Change over Time 3

Criminal Procedures 4

Other Primary Sources 6

1 1674-1753: Strumpets and Wenches 8

Public Violence 8

Husbands 22

Adolescents 30

Young Children 36

Neonaticide 42

Insanity 52

Conclusion 55

2 1754-1833: Passion and the Frailty of Human Nature 57

Idle and Disorderly Women 61

Crimes of Passion 72

Other People's Children 81

Marriage and Homicide 93

Neonaticide 101

Homicidal Mothers 105

Conclusion 109

3 1834-1873: Becoming Women and Ogresses 110

Neonaticide 112

Unwed Mothers 115

Child Neglect 125

Child Abuse 133

Maternal Insanity 136

Other People's Children 145

Husbands and Lovers 149

Murderesses 156

Conclusion 162

4 1874-1913: Incapable of Forming a Sound Judgement 164

Other People's Children 165

Abortion 173

Neonaticide 175

Homicidal Mothers 177

Unwed Mothers 180

Child Neglect 190

Domestic Partners 194

Romantic Murders 197

Conclusion 200

Conclusion 203

Neonaticide 205

Children 206

Adults 210

Intimate Partners 211

Sex and Gender 213

Bibliography of Secondary Sources 215

Index 225

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