Résumés
Recent scholarship has indicated that judges and magistrates became increasingly stringent in their treatment of male violence during the Victorian and Edwardian period. Yet it has been argued that female acts of violence were regarded as trivial and thus more readily overlooked. This article presents an alternative perspective on the judicial treatment of violent women by examining female assault prosecutions held at Exeter and Cheltenham magistrates’ courts in the years 1880-1910. By analysing patterns in the verdicts and sentences issued to defendants, it argues that magistrates adopted harsher policies towards violent women as the period progressed. The study further examines a number of circumstantial, demographic and procedural factors which may have impacted shifts in magisterial decision-making processes.
Des recherches récentes indiquent qu’au cours de la période victorienne et édouardienne les juges et les magistrats sont devenus de plus en plus sévères dans leur traitement des violences masculines. Jusqu’alors, il était mis en avant que les actes de violence commis par des femmes étaient eux considérés comme insignifiants et faisaient l’objet d’une moindre attention. Cet article présente une autre perspective sur le traitement judiciaire des violences féminines en examinant les poursuites engagées par les tribunaux correctionnels d’Exeter et de Cheltenham au cours des années 1880-1910. En analysant les ressorts des verdicts et des peines prononcés à l’encontre des accusées, l’article soutient que les magistrats ont adopté des politiques plus sévères à l’égard des femmes violentes au fur et à mesure de la période. Des facteurs circonstanciels, démographiques et procéduraux pouvant avoir eu un impact sur les changements dans la prise de décision des magistrats sont également examinés.
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Extrait du texte
Ce document sera publié en ligne en texte intégral en mars 2024.
Plan
Patterns in the distribution of verdicts
Patterns in sentencing practices
The severity of assaults
Sociodemographic factors
Courtroom procedures
Financial penalties and socio-economic conditions
Conclusions
Aperçu du texte
It is now widely accepted by scholars that there was a gradual decline in recorded rates of both lethal and non-lethal violent crime in nineteenth- and early-twentieth-century England. Some researchers, including Godfrey and Taylor, have attributed this trend to developments in policing and prosecution practices. Others have adopted the “civilising process” theory put forward by Elias. Tracing changes in public manners within Europe from the Middle Ages to the eighteenth century, Elias argued that two components — the spread of elite attitudes which promoted self-restraint and the growth of state monopolies over criminal justice systems — culminated in a reduction of interpersonal aggression. Applying his theory to changes which occurred centuries later, scholars have argued that similar factors influenced both a harshening in attitudes towards violence and a widespread campaign to eradicate violent behaviour during the nineteenth century.
Studies which examine changes in response to...
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Pour citer cet article
Référence papier
Grace Di Méo, « Violent Women: Changes in Magisterial Attitudes to Female Acts of Assault in Cheltenham and Exeter (England), 1880-1909 », Crime, Histoire & Sociétés / Crime, History & Societies, vol. 25, n°2 | -1, 81-107.
Référence électronique
Grace Di Méo, « Violent Women: Changes in Magisterial Attitudes to Female Acts of Assault in Cheltenham and Exeter (England), 1880-1909 », Crime, Histoire & Sociétés / Crime, History & Societies [En ligne], vol. 25, n°2 | 2021, mis en ligne le 21 mars 2024, consulté le 23 mai 2022. URL : http://journals.openedition.org/chs/3068 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/chs.3068
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