Hooligans, Harlots, and Hangmen

This detailed study of the criminal justice system in Victorian Britain highlights the dilemmas facing those responsible for administering justice and protecting society from "the criminal."
Encompassing the crimes of the never-identified Jack the Ripper, as well as many other equally intriguing criminals, Hooligans, Harlots, and Hangmen: Crime and Punishment in Victorian Britain is a detailed study of the criminal justice system as it evolved from the accession of Queen Victoria in 1837 to the outbreak of the "Great War" in 1914.
The first section of the book considers crimes and criminals, while the second looks at the ways in which the Victorians sought to explain this deviant behavior. The third section focuses on the creation of criminals through the work of the constabulary and the courts. The final section considers the changing ways in which criminals were punished as the scaffold gave way to the prison as the dominant means of punishment. A brief introduction and conclusion set Victorian crime into its broader sociopolitical context and relates the issues society grappled with then to those of the present day.

DAVID TAYLOR is a Principal Lecturer and Head of History at the University of Huddersfield, UK.
David Taylor is an emeritus professor of history at the University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK.

Illustrations
Series Foreword
Preface
Introduction: Crime and Its Context
PART I: CRIME AND CRIMINALS
Chapter 1 Crime in Victorian Britain: Miracle or Mirage?
Chapter 2 Crimes of Violence
Chapter 3 Garroters, Bank Robbers, and Poachers
Chapter 4 Sex and Drugs
PART II: EXPLAINING THE CRIMINAL
Chapter 5 The Malevolent Male
Chapter 6 Harlots and Hooligans
PART III: COURTS AND COPPERS
Chapter 7 Creating Criminals: Victorian Courts
Chapter 8 The Creation of a Policed Society
PART IV: PUNISHMENT
Chapter 9 The Death Penalty: Dismantling the Bloody Code in Early Victorian Britain
Chapter 10 The Death Penalty: The Abolition of Public Executions and the Failure of Total Abolition
Chapter 11 Prison and the Problem of Secondary Punishment: Grinding Men Good
Chapter 12 Prison and the Problem of Secondary Punishment: Grinding Men Down
Chapter 13 Prison and the Problem of Secondary Punishment: The Treatment of Female and Juvenile Offenders
Chapter 14 Afterword
Notes
Bibliography
Index