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Digitisation skews the original record

Historians can't rely on keyword searches- we need to navigate bias, acknowledge context, and cross-check different record sets to ascertain authenticity.

Digi Pan algorithm does have errors- it takes historians to find the correct information by analysing records and cross-checking them from others.

OBO and Digi Pan are focused on London and OB is highest court which tries the most serious cases. This means there are significant gaps in crimes determined as petty or non-serious and those that took place outside of London. These records are also colour-blind because race was not a recorded crime until the 20th Century.

Crime is defined by the lawmakers not the lawbreakers.

Definitions of crime directed to working-class people and is dynamic- they're subject to change. Crime does not develop in a meta-narrative of progress, but back and forth in what is defined as a crime and how it's punished.

Definitions of crime are narrow. Often focused on theft, property, serious violence, and public order. Corporate crime and fraud are rarely prosecuted. Domestic and sexual violence and environmental crimes are not treated as seriously either.

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The Elizabeth Brownrigg Trial

-          Largely, the most common crime in the period surrounding the Brownrigg case was theft.

-          The Brownrigg case is unusual on multiple accounts. One, murder as a crime was ‘rare’ and two, the depth and detail taken for the trial is extensive on account of the intrigue into the trial.

-          Servants often play a huge role in Brownrigg type trials (household). They tend to have ‘gossip’ to go off to create evidence. In the Brownrigg case they serve to corroborate a story and the character of Elizabeth.

-          Separate spheres serve to help explain why Elizabeth is prosecuted and the men are acquitted. Elizabeth is doubly punished. She transgresses what is deemed to be womanhood.

-          Part of these separate spheres come from the shifting class structure during the industrial revolution. Not only is there a shifting class dynamic but also class binary. Men have access to public spaces where women are confined to the home as the revolution creates jobs, but predominantly male roles.

-          Elizabeth also transgresses the idea of femininity and motherhood. She supposed to be ‘morally pure’, motherly, a mistress, etc. She is supposed to deal with servants ethically

-          James (the father) defends himself as the passive onlooker and have been lied to.

-          Elizabeth is framed as tall and physically imposing- manish. The prosecution aims to portray her as masculine and therefore capable of imposing physical violence.

-          Double deviancy thesis: a woman is not only a criminal but has defies womanhood and is therefore a ‘double deviant’. Women receive real cautions in the courtroom, not necessarily punishments but verbal telling’s off.

-          Violence in context (workplace, schools, military) is perceived as okay. Violence in the home, as a correctional function is normalised which goes to say how bad the violence committed by the brownrigg’s was.

-          The Hanway Act- parish expected to pay premiums to encourage the new middle classes to treat parish children in a proper manner. It shows an acknowledgement of the violence towards children.

-          The Parish overseers do not step in. William Grundy does tell Mary Mitchel not to go back to her master’s but relatively speaking did nothing to prevent this.

The Old Bailey Proceedings

-          The Old Bailey Proceedings are of commercial interest. They were more expensive than a newspaper and so there may be interest to spin a story a certain way or publish more sensationalist cases.

-          The shorthand writers had a lot of power in what was written and what went undocumented.

-          The public interest has flipped from word of mouth to written interest.

-          May lack a lot of context. One example of an eight our trial being condensed into two thousand words which made up approx. one hour of the trial.

-          There is a tendency in avoiding sexual offences. Not seen as a serious offence and very very difficult to take it to the courts (more of a criminal justice thing rather than proceeding issue).

-          Defence attorneys spoke on behalf of their defendants.

-          Defence statements are condensed often. The publishers wanted it to seem as if the criminal justice system was genuinely doing something and serving its purpose.

-          The criminal justice system wanted to seem like it was serving its purpose to by prosecuting. Downplaying acquittals justifies its purpose in society.

-          This is seen to an extent today. Of all judicial actors in the press today, the defendant will always be heard and seen the least.

-          Until the later 20th century, crime reporting is done by the lawyers themselves.

-          Things get excluded from the old bailey. Victims weren’t tagged until two years ago. Streets weren’t tagged. The jury isn’t tagged. Be careful of completely using a keyword search.

Arts of Public Performance: Barristers and Actors in Georgian England (extra reading)

-          The chapter argues that performances seen by lawyers today is rooted in the performances of barristers in the eighteenth century,

-          One striking theme to emerge from comedian, Charles Mathews’s memoirs is how often lawyers and actors alike appear to have used the occasion of assizes to study one another’s craft.

-          Actors like Mathews received compliments from barristers and ‘accused’ him of imitation.

-          Mirrors Thomas Grant’s account of Edward Marshall Hall who was the “great defender” of the Camden Town Murder (Trials That Define Modern Britain). However, that is from 1905.

-          The Old Bailey became more open and then more popular. The performance of the barrister was then encouraged to become more of a performance as it could lead them to more civil cases.

-          he physical reconfiguration of courtrooms from the late eighteenth century onwards may have positively encouraged members of the public to regard criminal trial as a mode of theatrical representation, as well as the increasing tendency of barristers to play to their audiences: judge, jury and general public alike

-          the illustrations of the old bailey show it to be packed 5.3 is particularly overwhelming in the lack of space.

-          One lawyer described as a ‘perfect prostitute’. Francis Place found the spectacle distasteful and described barristers lacking integrity. The difference between actor and lawyers is at least actors were playing a character with integrity.

-          “A visitor to the now substantially larger courtroom ten years later complained that he did not ‘much like the Disposition of [it]. The Prisoner is too far off from the Jury as well as the Judges.’ Presumably he meant that the defendant seemed too far removed from judge and jurors for them to scrutinise his or her features as each piece of testimony was produced. It was presumably in an effort to compensate for this difficulty that, in February 1783, a mirror was placed directly above the defendant’s dock, contrived so as to reflect the light shining through the main windows of the courtroom directly upon the face of the accused”

-          the essential character of a defendant might be inferred, if not directly read, from their reactions to the evidence. Such a conviction spoke not only to the influence on the legal profession of treatises such as Hawkins’s, but also to a larger popular belief in the principles of physiognomy: the conviction that a person’s true or essential character might be read in his or her facial features.

-          PHYSIOGNOMY

-          how could a defence lawyer, who honed his courtroom performance through close observation of the actor’s technique, ever be entirely trusted not to ‘lie’ to a jury about his client’s innocence?

-          Charles Phillips defended a man who admitted his guilt to his defence council. There were ethical implications of defending a man known to be guilty.

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Moral Panic

A media orchestrated panic which increases awareness of something existing which threatens society, thus increasing reports of it. The process of a moral panic is as such:

Initial event: This provokes the media to write about it to raise public panic

The media exaggerates the scale of the problem by referring to many crimes when fewer took place in reality, often creating negative stereotypes for people to be associated with the crimes, or ‘folk devils’.

By making the public more aware of the event, the media increase the amount of such a crime reported as the public becomes more familiar with it.

The extent of violent crime becomes vastly overestimated by the public, media and the authorities, which results in increasing control and punishment by involving the police, sometimes involving legislation as well.

Eventually, panic begins to settle and the authorities no longer need to deal with the problem as the media writes less of the story.

Garotting became a notable example of moral panic, with people beginning to report garotting alongside street crime following one case of it with MP Hugh Pilkington being garotted leaving the Commons. This resulted in a rise in street crime due to a large spike in reports happening in 1862, with the Garotters Act becoming established in 1863, which re-established corporal punishment. Significant as it revoked the progressive movement of punishment. Highlights both that power exists from above as well as empowering the division between the moral and powerful parts of society.

Police began to become more lenient on the definition of garotting to expand to different kinds of street crime, as to allow for the increase in panic and perpetuate the idea that it was a realistic threat to moral society. Police, the press, and the justice system rely on a symbiotic relationship for them all to function, as the media needs arrests to report on, and the police use the press to justify their position to arrest criminals. People are more encouraged to report crime during periods of moral panic, so numbers of unreported crime decreases.

Gendered Crime

Men who engaged with street crime were unable to access hegemonic masculinity (cultural dynamic where the middle class white man sustains a leading position).

Men went onto the docks with fewer jobs for women in Liverpool with lower job security. Opportunities arose when sailors returned to Liverpool which provided a period of economic independence for women. Reliance on casual labour means people were unable to know if they had work until turning up to the workplace. Tension sparked by job competition, with migrants being paid far less than the protestant counterparts. Domesticated men result in cases of domestic violence being more common due to being done in the sanctity of the home.

Women took the role of handmaiden in crime, working alongside a male robber to physically overcome the victim while they played up the act of being vulnerable or sexually available, often picking on drunk or elderly men.

Men on the street engaged with crime to maintain their status as being ‘manly’ and having the reputation of being a ‘hard man.’ Reluctance to use weapons when assaulting and stealing as it was a better demonstration of strength to not rely on a knife. Risk was a large part of committing crime, with men often taking more risks than women.

Men majoritarily stole from other men, whereas women stole from both men and women, likely due to paternal instincts seeing women as being unthreatening.

Other notes

Fears of the build up of crime and moral depravity of certain areas. Places changing where people work and live, like Birmingham, Stoke, Liverpool, Manchester. All affected by Irish migration. Criminal classes are a symptom of the developments.

Digital tools help to prove the existence of moral panic by highlighting the frequency of reports, allowing for the ability to demonstrate Cohen’s moral panic model. Problems: archives have poor OCR, with limited keyword search. No investments into accurate scans, with issues seen like having different spellings for garott. Better to calculate the number of papers published between each newspaper. Important to know what the data behind it is.

By using flogging as a punishment it revokes the less progressive punishments like transportation and imprisonment, hurting progression in the justice system.

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Old Bailey doesn't have much on domestic violence cases; these tended not to go to crown courts (Old Bailey being the highest in the country); stayed in the magistrate courts

Magistrate courts could condemn someone to a £20 fine or up to 6 months in prison; more serious crimes/verdicts happened in the Assize (crown) courts

Censorship laws: newspapers tended to exclude "sex" or anything related to it; used other terms - The Proceedings excluded this language

Needs to be remembered that men experienced domestic and sexual assault; examples of this tend to be hidden etc

Aggravated Assault Act 1853

Progressive movement towards protecting all females and boys under 14

Violence between men and women tended to occur through intimate partner violence (meant it occurred in the home though there are cases of men violently attacking random women on the street)

Domestic violence seen as a working class problem; perceived respectability of the middle/upper class meant they were able to restrain from violence

The home as the space women spent the majority of their time; the act created a safer space for them; making others aware of what was occurring in the home

Exclusion of adult men from protection under this act despite men also experiencing assaults

Bottom-up experience

Working class women were reluctant to prosecute their husbands; the Aggravated Assaults Act meant domestic assault cases had to be taken to court

Feminist activism (Taylor Mills etc): pushed the press in order to change the laws to make it easier for women to prosecute their husbands/get a divorce to further protect themselves after husband's prison time/fine

Working class activism: pushing for equal rights

Domestic and sexual violence laws changed as a result of activism not through the changing of the legal systems

Activism was a slow process

Police tended not to get involved in domestic assault cases; home seen as a sanctuary where institutions etc could not intervene in

Old Bailey domestic and sexual assault research

Landladies experienced assault by their lodgers; moving the context of domestic violence occurring just within the home

Victim blaming; women who resisted assaults tended to be believed by the courts compared to women who froze (in fear) were seen to be submitting and therefore not believed

British newspaper archive domestic assault research

Drunkenness used as an excuse to explain the man's behaviour towards women; alcohol sparks tension, particularly financially; women used this to excuse the man's actions

Disobedience of the wife; the woman's behaviour being the "cause" for the man's violent reaction

Humiliation of the man by the woman; reacting violently in order to restore his manhood

Violence as entertainment in newspapers; heavily included

Industrial economy increased domestic violence cases; financial tension, space etc exacerbated tension

Women brought into the working world; changing gender dynamics; women no longer financially dependant on men

Moving the space where violence occurred; started in the kitchen (which became a communal space where neighbours/family/friends etc congregated) but had moved into the drawing room because this space was hidden from people external to the family

Witnesses of domestic abuse tended to be neighbours and family members; police would not become involved in domestic abuse cases unless the violence was immense/the female victim was not known to the male abuser

Women who secured domestic violence verdicts had to be seen to have the expected ideals of a woman (e.g being obedient, submissive etc)

British newspaper archive sexual assault research

Women tended not to report sexual assault cases; fear of retribution; fears of being believed; others knowing would ruin the reputation of the woman

Victim blaming more prevalent in these cases; lack of change - still occurs in many cases today

If a woman resisted the assault, this looked unfavourable on them by the court

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Contagious disease act - compulsory examination on suspicion of venereal diseases among prostitutes

- Denying the spread of venereal disease in the wider society

Primary analysis

- Necessary evil – not recognising that for working class it might be a necessity

o To do with how male sexuality is viewed – seen as a necessary outlet for men but women should not be engaging in sexual activities outside of marriage

o Healthy outlet for men – helps them get out their violence and obtain self-control – relates back to previous weeks

o Healthy for men to ejaculate on a daily basis

- Heteronormative

- Written by men for men – allowed Police to act on suspicion rather than knowledge, had geographical idea of its where abouts e.g. Train Stations, docks, barrack towns – away from gaze of family and employer

o Macro level – economy dominated by soldiers and sailors

o Around nightlife – drugs, bars, chophouses (restaurants), gambolling and theatre

o Street-based sex work – not a crime, can get picked up for breaching the peace but not the sex itself is a crime

o Sex is managed by the police, localised practices

 Liverpool sex work is not really managed by the police

 Brothels were in Birmingham, place where the police agreed to stay away from

 Different locales tackle prostitution in different ways

o Not Pimps, familial – sisters, mothers and daughters would initiate prostitution together, less risk of harm

o Sisterhood vs economic survival

- Never regarded as a legitimate occupation – should have benefits

- Acts written by upper-class – morally pure group, not participating in sex work outside of marriage, even though they were

- Victims of a punitive state and male misogyny

- But assert power over physical space

Common prostitute

- From broken homes, lack of familiar support

- Hard for women to get money, prostitution is better than other jobs moneywise

- Multiple ideals of prostitute

o Innocent, Country girl who had to go into prostitution for economic

o Nancy from Oliver, more confident

o Urban prostitute who carried the venereal diseases

Butlers response

- Involved in the national women’s association

- Feminist

- Called out the injustices of the CDA’s

- Put out petitions to repeal them – 1886

- Lots of people to sign them and presented them to parliament - white liberal feminist approach, work with men in power in order to enact social change

- Work with powerful men to make changes

- Public talks and meetings, sex workers were allowed to attend

- Working men and women are very prone to make social change -

- Mid 70s reflections – direct to the point, emotive tone, blaming men (particularly, lawyer, doctors, men in power)

Essay points:

Geographic idea of prostitution

Male Misogynist

Class and gender

Medical responsibility of the women

Pre-welfare state – punitive response

Acts – shifted the legacy of female sexual health focus

Sex work – agency, chose but are factors that bring them to it

Outline what is missing – male sex workers outside Jack the Ripper

Not a crime

Use sources like the CDA, Josephine Butler, Parliamentary debates, Newspapers and Old bailey

Conference Presentations

- 8–10-minute talk

- Pairs

- Chat about the key areas, themes, where are the key primary sources

- Make the essays as best as possible

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The Body and Punishment in 18th Century England (extra reading) –

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The Body and Punishment in 18th Century England (extra reading) –

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·       Drama of execution – performance of punishment?

·       Exhibition of physical suffering to deter crime

·       Good way for a state that lacked control to display power

·       Above interpretation similar to that of an 18th-century criminal law reform who argued execution was an insensitivity to human suffering

·       Michel Foucault – examining shift from scaffold to prison he describes radical displacement

·       Systemic suspicion – makes taken for granted world strange

·       Spectacle of execution replaced by quiet, thorough prisons

·       Execution involved use of the body in a ritual that taught lesson of obedience

·       Modern system argues to only touch the body to reach soul of offender but Foucault disagrees

·       Bad economy of power – new strategies of manipulating the individual

·       Think in new ways about transition from society that celebrated public infliction of pain to withdrawn from horror of spectacle of suffering

·       Reexamine humanitarian reform

·       Puts aside issue of intentions around motives of reformations

·       Analogy of human body to explain how society worked

·       Analogy helped shape beliefs around the execution

·       Punishment of offender’s body to do with mechanics of pain

·       Body politic arose from a theological narrative to compensate for the imperfections in the human body after the Fall

·       Assize sermon – delivered at assizes by prominent Anglican cleric

·       Mentions of body politic in assize sermons increases from around 1750 – rising crime levels after peace of 1748

·       Hierarchy within body reinforced by reference to hierarchy of body in cosmic order

·       Social body existed to provide a remedy to sin

·       Social body might compensate for human weaknesses, but it was too mortal and therefore subject to ills of body

·       A healthy constitution was one where every part knew its place and duty, especially the respect owed to superiors and the reverence due the community

·       Disease that threatened society was disorder and anarchy

·       Each individual or each organ had its own need and peculiar function, but no part had a separate life apart from the existence of the whole

·       By the early eighteenth century, the danger to the community seemed to arise less from a conflict between monarch and parliament than from the changed character of the country and the altered habits of the people

·       Vices of the poor threatened society

·       Little dispute of the origins of crime – problem lay in its control and containment

·       The sense of social connection upon which the metaphor of the body politic rested was described in a variety of ways

·       Ceremonies and rituals of social life helped weave fabric of communities

·       Society constructed from principle of learning by example – crime was a bad example

·       Magistrates had to see crime in social context but were often lazy and partially sighted

·       Gallows became symbol of cleansing society

·       Assizes – regular and exemplary justice

·       Lawyers against capital punishment – part of Wilkite movement

·       William Eden – limit to society’s right to inflict pain

·       Individual defined less by duties associated with his station than personal decisions and ambitions

·       This concern with the social consequences of punishment reveals the extent to which the reformers were inspired not just by a concern to create new safeguards to protect the individual but also by a desire to refashion society

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The Plague of the Blue Locusts, Storch (extra reading)

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The Plague of the Blue Locusts, Storch (extra reading)

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Storch deals with the question of the degree to which the moral assent for the police was received in working class communities in Northern England, and he concludes that this was withheld into the twentieth century.

Storch also handles the questions of how working men perceived the coming of the police and the impact upon working class communities that the new police had upon Northern English towns.

He argues that much of the hostility from the working class was because they viewed the police as round the clock political surveillance and interferes in neighbourhood and political life.

Furthermore, once these policemen are deployed, their clothes, demeanour, cruelty and perceived idleness angered the working class.

An important point to note that sums up the reading is from Engles where he states that “whatever power the new policeman’s truncheon might be invested with it was sure to be wonderfully soothing to bourgeoisie but for the working man quite otherwise.”

He deals with several case studies in the North, Leeds, Manchester, Colne, Lancaster and the Potteries, to which he separates them into two categories.

The first category, which Manchester and Leeds fall into, is that rioting against the police was a culmination of grievances that found a vessel in military misunderstandings. The riots in Manchester and Leeds happen because of an arrest of a few soldiers in the respective city, but even once settled, the working class continued to riot.

The second category, which all the others fall in, deals with places that have newly planted police forces, and the broad objective of the community is to drive out the police by force.

Lancaster and Colne were the two most interesting case studies.

In Lancaster, the police were unpopular with both the working classes and the middle classes. The middle-class taxpayer refused to fund the new police as a form of passive resistance. The working class, both from the area and out of the area, often tried to goad them into fights, so that they could channel their anger into a direct confrontation with the police.

In Colne, the police gave into every attempt from the working class to aggravate them but they did so with extreme amounts of cruelty. This meant the people of Colne organised riots that were effective. In this case study, you can see the distaste for the police by the locals but not the army as when the army arrive, the people go back to their daily lives.

Storch uses the case study of West Riding to show to the reader the interruptions the police had on working class traditions and even the rallying of the community to protect each other from the police.

In West Riding, the police prevented traditions such as foot racing and gambling on the public highway. Furthermore, they overpoliced in areas where people would go to drink on a Sunday and stopped this practice from happening.

When a policeman allegedly assaulted a woman in West Riding, and got away with it, the community in West Riding beat him and dragged the policeman around naked for all the town to see. When the individuals were fined, the community paid it, showing that even when the police attempt to harm the people, they rally around one another for protection.

All in all, Storch is arguing here that the lower classes often confronted the police, and the moral assent that the police force were looking for was withheld into the 20th century without a doubt.

However, a firm critique of Storch’s article is that he is very much a product of his time, and his writing is firmly focuses on Class and specifically white men within these classes, so he lacks an intersectional element to his article.

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Classifying the Criminal Discussion Questions

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Classifying the Criminal Discussion Questions

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Outline and describe the criminal class.

A class of offenders allegedly drawn to crime because of moral degeneracy rather than being driven to it by their material circumstances, who are blamed for the fall of social order. The criminal class was depicted as an "antisociety" with its own culture, language (cant), and solidarity.

The criminal class was framed as a dangerous threat to respectable society, leading to campaigns for greater policing and moral reform. Literature, media, and official reports exaggerated the unity and size of this group, contributing to moral panic and justifying harsh punitive measures.

Over time, the notion of the criminal class evolved, incorporating ideas of biological determinism and hereditary criminality during the Edwardian period, which added a pseudo-scientific layer to earlier moral judgments.

There is no criminal class. The causes of crime such as poverty and socioeconomic conditions are not dependent on moral failings of a sub-section of society or biological factors; disproving the criminal class. The working class is not a homogenous entity. The "scientific" justification for the criminal class was pseudoscience that relied on anecdotal evidence and stereotyping.

Discuss how the Digital Panopticon project (referenced by Shoemaker and Ward) offers new ways to analyse 19th-century records. How might this digital approach challenge or confirm historical interpretations?

The records created have acquired further importance in the digital age, as they make it possible to reconstruct convict lives, as the AHRC-funded Digital Panopticon project has done with the lives of 90,000 Old Bailey convicts who were either transported to Australia or imprisoned in England between 1780 and 1865.

Micro-histories. Quantitative Analysis.

How did the collection of personal data about criminals evolve between 1780 and 1860, and what were the primary motivations behind this change?

By 1860, vast amounts of personal information about criminals were collected and summarised statistically: in addition to their names, offences, verdicts and sentences, details were recorded about ages, places of birth, occupations, marital status, number of children and parentage; descriptions of their physical appearance (height, weight, eye and hair colour, ‘build’, marks and tattoos); whether they could read and write, their education and their religion; and previous convictions, character and behaviour in prison. In contrast, 100 years earlier virtually none of this information was routinely collected. Historians have argued that a new ‘taste for the collection of information’ about society developed in the 18th century but, until the very end of that century, this rarely extended to personal information about criminals.

In what ways did the development of criminal registers and statistics contribute to the institutionalisation of criminology as a discipline?

The development of criminal registers and statistics contributes to the institutionalisation of criminology as an intellectual discipline as the statistics were all sourced from institutions as a reactive documentation of crime and its causes rather than proactive. It formed the bases of the study of criminology.

To what extent did Victorian efforts to classify criminals succeed in reforming offenders, as opposed to perpetuating stereotypes?

The classification of criminals was not particularly successful in reforming offenders as it promoted a culture of anti-social behaviour. Whilst the collection of statistical data detailing the convicts may have been locally justified as a means to understand criminology and promote reform, the stereotyping of criminals served to further entrench criminals within the lifestyle.  The classification was created for control and surveillance as opposed to reforming prisoners. Youth culture shows the value in anti-social behaviour and the status that can be gained from the actions. Status cannot be achieved through wealth and stability, so instead it comes from violent actions.

How did 19th-century notions of the "criminal class" reflect broader anxieties about social order? Use examples from Beier’s analysis of Mayhew and the Victorian concept of the "dangerous classes."

The criminal class framed against the “respectable classes,” effectively serving to ease moral panic by creating a clear dichotomy between the criminal and respectable class, as well as emphasising the effectiveness of policing. Respectability rather than class allows for greater insight into Victorian society. Rough vs. respectable. Class, race, and gender are still structurally significant. The idea of masculinity was developing as the stable, respectable, figurehead of the family; this opposed the public drunkenness in working class men. “The home is the Englishman's castle.” Gender roles are a middle class ideal.

Broader working-class activism and unity; the idea of the mob causes anxieties in the upper classes. The idea of the criminal class works to “other” this perceived mob.

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Historiography

Humphries argument is that gang violence stemmed from class and immigration

Davies' argument focuses more on gender and class, he provides a more nuanced understanding of gang violence as performative, viewing the street as a public arena to perform masculinity. He also discusses how masculine codes of conduct were taught from one generation to the next.

Shore contextualises gang violence as part of a wider history of moral panic, industrialisation, urbanisation etc…

The article on the case of James Harper and Emily Pimm provides insight into intimate partner violence in a context outside of marriage.

Debates about whether “Hooligans” were part of organised crime or their activity was more a result of unorganised crime and sporadic activity.

Points of discussion

There was a contrast between contemporary discourse of gangs and the reality.

The media fueled the magnitude and nature of gang culture which stirred up fear.

Through descriptions of gang members as ‘rough, such individuals were placed outside of the bounds of Victorian respectability.

Those associated with gangs had different occupations based on geographical location and the work available there, working on the docks (Liverpool) vs factory work (Manchester, Birmingham).

The link between urban gangs and the industrial revolution.

Suburbanization of the middle classes

Fears of urbanisation, as the working-class were clustered together in housing, fears of their activity as a collective.

Street Life had a character of its own in this period

Youth in history are always a lens for society to map its cultural anxieties on as they will be the future generation. Fears that youth will become career criminals, Shore’s article argues that this was not the case.

The concept of a criminal underworld was an imagined reality, the fears of the middle class being mapped onto these individuals.

They were being punished for a huge range of offences

Territory linked the individuals in these gangs

Patterns of violence

- Not trying to kill people but defend their territory - giving them honour

- Scars on the arms - an honour wound for the individual who inflicted it

- Defend their “woman”/”sweetheart”

- Prestige and status

Generational - Behaviour linked and taught by the older generations. Specifically to do with violence against women

Style

Signify hardness

Uniform

Part of a collective

A lot of the gang members were second generation Irish.

40 elephants - female gang

- Annie diamond lead it

- Allied with a male gang but mainly operated on their own

- They would raid big department stores

- They would raid and loot urban towns once they became recognised in their local areas.They minimise risk.

Violence and Masculinity

The need to acquire status through being a ‘hard man’

Street corner - territorial - performative - masculinity

Expressing themselves through violence, meaningful violence rather than fatal violence

Violence is performed in front of neighbours, a means of expressing power and status

Violence was performed in front of women and over women as property, “sweethearts”

Competitive nature to these violent expressions of masculinity

Violence as a means to perform masculinity in front of other men

Hard man was an attractive because a way to gain status >> a way to show agency and express agency

Breadwinner or hardman were the two ways to display masculinity so if they did not have well paying jobs the hardman would have been very attractive.

Multiple masculinities going on at once - the concept of hegemonic masculinity

The domesticated working-class man - breadwinner and provider, sober and restrains from violence - not many working-class men have access to this so adopt the hardman persona

Patriarchy impacts on men too and gang crime is an example of that.

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Discussion

Why Victorians got tattoos:

Often an expression of identity, faith, fashion, culture, national identity and personal attachments

Most common type of tattoo was initials or dots

Tattoos tend to be polarising even now because they are extremely subjective

How tattoos served as a form of both personal and collective identity:

Workplace unity - soldiers often went in support groups to get tattoos and they often unified a squadron

Personal expression of devotion to family or a sweetheart

Tattoos could express national identity - English rose, Scottish thistle, Irish shamrock

Jewellery tattoos were common in the working class, especially wedding rings as they often could not afford actual gold or silver

Religious tattoos (crosses and crucifixes) - often associated with Irish national identity tattoos

Religious tattoos also some of the more respectable tattoos - common to get a tattoo after a pilgrimage

Role of class and criminality:

Tattoos initially associated with the working class and criminals, but went through a surge of popularity in the upper classes

Emergence of tattoo artists and electric needles - professional tattoos seen as more respectable and worthy for the upper class

Relationship between tattooing and criminality:

Tattoos were perceived to be affiliated with criminality or certain gangs

Mayhew - tattoos were marker of savagery and criminality

Forty Thieves = 40 juvenile delinquents that caused a moral panic - myth that they all had dots and stars on their hand to show that they had been in a prison cell

Idea that five dot tattoo showed gang allegiance - debunked because that particular tattoo persisted throughout the period

Tichbourne Trial - imposter who posed to be Roger Tichbourne found to be a fake because he had no tattoos while Roger had tattoos that he obtained from school - time that tattoos were used for identification

Collocations:

Linked tattoos with their potential meaning

Anchor - more to it than a simple maritime meaning - represented love, hope, religion, and astronomy

Buffalo Bill tattoos – people would often get a Buffalo Bill tattoo to commemorate their visit – often found with a lover’s initials

-Lucy Sauerzapf

# data[].attributes.body
Workshop Notes

Identity & Homosexuality

Jeffrey Weeks discusses how identity politics imposed labels on homosexual men more than women.

Victorian homosocial culture allowed women close relationships, but men’s same-sex intimacy was stigmatized, linking them to danger and predation.

Press & Scandal

W.T. Stead, a major press figure, used scandal to sell stories, influencing public perception of sexuality.

Feminist activists leveraged press coverage to push for legal reforms, e.g., raising the age of consent.

The press’s focus on fear and moral panic helped criminalize homosexuality.

Cleveland Street Scandal

A male prostitution ring involving elite men was exposed, leading to a cover-up.

Young telegraph boys, who had unique access to elite spaces, were cast as either victims or complicit.

Mirrors how female sex workers crossed class lines, yet narratives remained male-centered.

Legal Framework

The Labouchere Amendment (1885) criminalized all homosexual acts under “gross indecency,” with vague definitions granting police wide discretion.

This led to severe consequences, lifelong stigma, and “lavender marriages” for protection.

The amendment remained in effect until 1967.

Fanny & Stella Case

Their acquittal likely influenced the Labouchere Amendment.

Their cross-dressing was weaponized in court, highlighting how gender nonconformity was criminalized.

Homophobia & Masculinity

Michael Kimmel argues homophobia is rooted in the rejection of femininity, reinforcing traditional masculinity by subordinating gay men.

Primary Sources & Policing

Oscar Wilde and Fanny & Stella trials focused heavily on clothing and mannerisms.

The Cleveland Street case blurred private and public spheres, questioning police overreach.

Queer history is often recorded through criminal records rather than lived experiences.

Spaces & Surveillance

Gay men found each other in brothels, houses, urinals, and Soho.

Police targeted and entrapped men in public spaces.

Medicalisation & Pathologisation

Homosexuality was framed as a medical disorder, reinforcing moral and legal persecution.

Parallels exist today in the medical discrimination against trans individuals.

The justice system should support rather than criminalize marginalized groups.

Concise Reading Notes

1. Ivan Crozier – "Striking at Sodom and Gomorrah" (2005)

Explores how forensic medicine and venereology contributed to the criminalization of homosexuality in Victorian England.

Doctors aligned with legal authorities to gain professional credibility, using medical examinations to "prove" sodomy.

Medical knowledge on homosexuality was inconsistent, often reinforcing legal biases rather than providing objective insight.

Argues that law and medicine worked together to construct homosexuality as both a criminal act and a medical disorder.

2. Jeffrey Weeks – The Construction of Homosexuality (2014)

Examines the historical development of homosexuality as a fixed identity rather than just a behavior.

Victorian laws, Christian morality, and medical discourse contributed to rigid sexual categories.

The rise of sexology challenged legal narratives, framing homosexuality as congenital rather than a moral failing.

This shift laid the groundwork for future LGBTQ activism but also reinforced binary sexual identities.

3. Katie Hindmarch-Watson – "Sex, Services, and Surveillance: The Cleveland Street Scandal Revisited" (2016)

Reinterprets the Cleveland Street Scandal (1889) as a case of class, surveillance, and sexual regulation.

Highlights how telegraph boys’ involvement reflected fears about technology, information control, and youth morality.

Argues that the government’s suppression of evidence protected elite clients while punishing working-class participants.

Demonstrates how Victorian justice applied double standards, reinforcing class privilege in legal enforcement.

# data[].attributes.body
Workshop Notes

Identity & Homosexuality

• Jeffrey Weeks discusses how identity politics imposed labels on homosexual men more than women.

• Victorian homosocial culture allowed women close relationships, but men’s same-sex intimacy was stigmatized, linking them to danger and predation.

Press & Scandal

• W.T. Stead, a major press figure, used scandal to sell stories, influencing public perception of sexuality.

• Feminist activists leveraged press coverage to push for legal reforms, e.g., raising the age of consent.

• The press’s focus on fear and moral panic helped criminalize homosexuality.

Cleveland Street Scandal

• A male prostitution ring involving elite men was exposed, leading to a cover-up.

• Young telegraph boys, who had unique access to elite spaces, were cast as either victims or complicit.

• Mirrors how female sex workers crossed class lines, yet narratives remained male-centered.

Legal Framework

• The Labouchere Amendment (1885) criminalized all homosexual acts under “gross indecency,” with vague definitions granting police wide discretion.

• This led to severe consequences, lifelong stigma, and “lavender marriages” for protection.

• The amendment remained in effect until 1967.

Fanny & Stella Case

• Their acquittal likely influenced the Labouchere Amendment.

• Their cross-dressing was weaponized in court, highlighting how gender nonconformity was criminalized.

Homophobia & Masculinity

• Michael Kimmel argues homophobia is rooted in the rejection of femininity, reinforcing traditional masculinity by subordinating gay men.

Primary Sources & Policing

• Oscar Wilde and Fanny & Stella trials focused heavily on clothing and mannerisms.

• The Cleveland Street case blurred private and public spheres, questioning police overreach.

• Queer history is often recorded through criminal records rather than lived experiences.

Spaces & Surveillance

• Gay men found each other in brothels, houses, urinals, and Soho.

• Police targeted and entrapped men in public spaces.

Medicalisation & Pathologisation

• Homosexuality was framed as a medical disorder, reinforcing moral and legal persecution.

• Parallels exist today in the medical discrimination against trans individuals.

• The justice system should support rather than criminalize marginalized groups.

Reading Notes

1. Ivan Crozier – "Striking at Sodom and Gomorrah" (2005)

• Explores how forensic medicine and venereology contributed to the criminalization of homosexuality in Victorian England.

• Doctors aligned with legal authorities to gain professional credibility, using medical examinations to "prove" sodomy.

• Medical knowledge on homosexuality was inconsistent, often reinforcing legal biases rather than providing objective insight.

• Argues that law and medicine worked together to construct homosexuality as both a criminal act and a medical disorder.

2. Jeffrey Weeks – The Construction of Homosexuality (2014)

• Examines the historical development of homosexuality as a fixed identity rather than just a behavior.

• Victorian laws, Christian morality, and medical discourse contributed to rigid sexual categories.

• The rise of sexology challenged legal narratives, framing homosexuality as congenital rather than a moral failing.

• This shift laid the groundwork for future LGBTQ activism but also reinforced binary sexual identities.

3. Katie Hindmarch-Watson – "Sex, Services, and Surveillance: The Cleveland Street Scandal Revisited" (2016)

• Reinterprets the Cleveland Street Scandal (1889) as a case of class, surveillance, and sexual regulation.

• Highlights how telegraph boys’ involvement reflected fears about technology, information control, and youth morality.

• Argues that the government’s suppression of evidence protected elite clients while punishing working-class participants.

• Demonstrates how Victorian justice applied double standards, reinforcing class privilege in legal enforcement.

Niamh Daverage