In 1888 London was the capital of the most powerful empire the world had ever known, and the largest city in Europe. In the west a new city was growing, populated by the middle classes, the epitome of 'Victorian values'. Across the city the situation was very different. The East End of London had long been considered a nether world, a dark and dangerous region outside the symbolic 'walls' of the original City.Using the Whitechapel murders of Jack the Ripper as a focal point, this b...

Crime, Policing and Punishment in England, 1660-1914 offers an overview of the changing nature of crime and its punishment from the Restoration to World War 1. It charts how prosecution and punishment have changed from the early modern to the modern period and reflects on how the changing nature of English society has affected these processes. By combining extensive primary material alongside a thorough analysis of historiography this text offers an invaluable resource to students...

Nether World is a fascinating exploration of the everyday lives of Victorian Londoners through the city’s police courts, where people of all classes came to complain about those who had hurt, abused or stolen from them. To these courts were brought the capital’s drunks, pickpockets, wife-beaters and fraudsters, and they were judged by magistrates who wielded wide-ranging, summary powers. Drew D. Gray provides a rich, sometimes moving, often humorous glimpse into everyday life in V...

This volume uses four case studies, all with strong London connections, to analyze homicide law and the pardoning process in eighteenth-century England. Each reveals evidence of how attempts were made to negotiate a path through the justice system to avoid conviction, and so avoid a sentence of hanging. This approach allows a deep examination of the workings of the justice system using social and cultural history methodologies. The cases explore wider areas of social and cultural history i...