Crime and Punishment in England c.1688-1840 part 2

Learning Outcomes

Knowledge and Understanding

Having successfully completed this module, you will be able to demonstrate knowledge and understanding of:

• Changing attitudes towards punishment, in particular the move away from capital punishment to imprisonment.
• The different forms of evidence available to historians for uncovering the histories of crime and punishment.
• The changing structure of the criminal justice system between 1688 and 1840.
• The nature and incidence of crime in the period and the extent to which historical research confirms the perceptions of contemporaries.

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Analyse a wide range of primary source material (including images), with regard to the specific context.
• Describe the changing patterns of criminal activity in the period 1688 to 1840.
• Identify and engage with the most important historiographical texts on the subject.
• Reflect upon the impact of the development of the police force - and changing penal policy in particular - with regard to the treatment of crime today.
• Make connections between Enlightenment theories and the development of the criminal justice system.

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Learn to develop critical time management skills by handling several tasks competently at the same time.
• Perform research with electronic media on a wide range of subjects.
• Collect data and information, evaluate it, and integrate it in an essay.

The long eighteenth century was the period of the 'Bloody Code' when over 200 separate crimes carried the death penalty in England! We consider the reasons behind the harshness of these laws, their implementation and eventual reform as we study this tumultuous period in the history of crime and criminal law in England. We examine contemporary writers fearful of the rise of violent and gang based crime, not unlike today. We look at the experiences of individual criminals, their stories, their treatment by the courts, their punishments and how these changed as prisons and transportation replaced executions in the early nineteenth century. We move beyond England to look at the lives of the criminals transported to America and Australia. Using an exciting range of sources from newspapers and trial reports to paintings and literature we focus on the social history of crimes and criminals against a backdrop of revolutions, the Enlightenment and the growth of Empire.

Teaching methods include

• Two double sessions per week in seminar format with source interpretation and student presentations
• Close analysis and interpretation of primary sources in different genres.
• Essay workshops and tutorials

Learning activities include

• preparing introductory and background reading for each seminar
• preparing oral presentations on specific aspects of the course
• analysis, in groups and individually, of primary source materials

Seminars will introduce you to the changing notions of crime and punishment through the long eighteenth century and provide you with the necessary research skills, such as: how to find and analyse secondary literature and also how to research, evaluate and use primary source material. The seminar environment will help to develop your interpersonal skills through the use of individual and group presentations. These will develop your knowledge and understanding of particular subject areas and enhance your oral communication skills. The preparation for presentations will help you to find an essay topic, narrow it down to a specific question and start to research sources and secondary materials relevant for it, to critically evaluate the contributions made by published secondary works and to develop a coherent written argument at length.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat

An internal repeat is where you take all of your modules again, including any you passed. An external repeat is where you only re-take the modules you failed.