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Briefly, some of the laws that were introduced after the reform in 1789 and 1790 include the following:

Increase the protection on accused offenders that are yet to be proven guilty

Criminals were immediately assigned judges in their town or village, this helped speeden up the process

Must be put on trial in front of a judge within 24 hours of being an accused criminal

Trials were public (Grenouille’s trial was public in the book)

Criminals are allowed to have a lawyer assist them through the whole process that they must go through before officially receiving their sentence

Torture methods such as stooling chairs were banished from France

Offences that occur in multiple regions should have the same sentence if the crime is the same

The families of the criminals should not be impacted by decision and should not face consequences for the criminal’s actions

Property of the criminal or their family could not be seized or taken by the government

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Huge pressure on judges, but this didn’t translate to Perfume due to how easily the sentences were made as Grenouille instantly pleaded guilty

Lots of courts and different legislations, this created immense confusion within the courts system and resulted in a variety of different sentences based on the vicinity’s laws and rulings

People were angered by this and began to revolt, Montesquieu led this revolt and this allowed some torture laws to be removed in 1780, but people were still not impressed

More Pressure on the courts and judiciary system as the revolution neared, this public pressure resulted in more laws being lifted in 1788

Government and judiciary system was reorganized in 1789

It’s interesting to compare the huge chaos we saw in reality during the 1700s in France regarding the judiciary system to what we saw in the book, which was a quick and easy trial. This is likely due to the quick confession, magnitude of the crime, and huge public pressure on the criminal

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Fantastic Article Released from the Government of Canada about France during the Old Regime

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Fantastic Article Released from the Government of Canada about France during the Old Regime

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This article fantastically explains how the justice system was set up in France during the 1700s and goes into excellent detail about how the people revolted and changed history forever. This was a huge source for our research

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The French Revolution and the organization of justice - Introduction - The International Cooperation Group

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The French Revolution and the organization of justice - an introduction to the interventions made by Bergasse, Duport and Thouret on the reform of the justice system

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France used to operate under the rule of 'guilty until proven innocent'. Do you think this worked? Was it fair?

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To summarize:
- France's judicial system was based off of civil law, split off into private and public law
- The legal system was corrupt, and often had cases related to infanticide and rape presented to it.
- Law was not fixed but rather had a fluidity to it.
- Physical evidence was weighed much higher than eyewitness testimony
- Confessions on their own were not enough to indict a person unless made without coercion.

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1. Too many people in France = Lack of food = People are hungry for more bread
2. Class system exploiting the Third Estate (peasants) does not help promote equality or sustainability
3. Law is "bendable" by the First and Second Estate through bribery
4. The Third Estate can only suffer through unfair taxation and loose legal system

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To summarize:
You either got the death sentence or you didn't, in which case you were probably publicly punished or sent to labor.
Trials and executions were mostly public and often made into an affair for entertainment. There were different elaborate forms of executions that varied depending on the crime.
Many death sentences were actually pardoned due to certain circumstances or switched to labor or military service.
Women were generally not criminals except for crimes relating to children, and they usually got lesser sentences.

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The prosecutor lead the questioning of the accused.

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The guillotine existed back under a different name then but wasn't as popular due to its efficiency in killing

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How have gender roles changed over time when related to judiciary sentences/punishment? How was this discrimination shifted in France particularly?

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As mentioned, torture was a frequent practice in France during this time period, however, as I mentioned early, the significant political reform against torture resulted in its abandonment. However, due to Grenouille's quick confession, he faced far less torture then what may be expected based on the practice's popularity

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Death Penalty was repealed in France on October 9th, 1981

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"Perfume" and how it relates to Crime in the 1700s

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"Perfume" and how it relates to Crime in the 1700s

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An Insight into Grenouille's mother

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To summarize:

The law enforcement back then was a bunch of men looking out for people past curfew called the watchmen

Men was motivated to commit murders based on their "passion" while woman were more meticulous

Torture is a totally legitment way to extract information

Two different divisions of crimes, those that got you death sentences and those that didn't

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Benefit of the Clergy pardoned criminals found guilty of certain crimes (excluding murder, highway robbery, rape and crimes against the church) so that they were given lesser punishments instead of the death penalty, those who received this were branded so that they cannot receive it again

Royal Pardon granted the criminal of any offence a free or conditional pardon (lesser punishment, branding etc.) as issued by the king

Pregnancy Respite granted pregnant women a delay on their trial if the baby is due soon, usually the "mom" is pardoned out of sympathy for the newborn

Military and Naval Duty were forced upon the criminals instead of death or other punishments to strengthen military during times of war

Sureties were sometimes provided by the prosecuted to act as a guarantee of the criminals future behavior, usually someone respected and of high social standings acts as a surety

Approximately 50-60% of death sentences were pardoned

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Why do you think torture was accepted/used?

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Given what you know so far, do you think the justice system is fair?

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1. Go to https://www.typeform.com/
2. Press Log in.
Email: andycui09@gmail.com
Password: english2020
3. Click on "Jean Valjean and his bread".
4. Click the "View" button on the top right. (Please don't mess around with any of the questions)
5. Enjoy! (There are multiple endings, so play multiple times if you dare!)

P.S. Sorry for the inconvenient procedure, I didn't want to buy a pro membership :)

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Despite all its inequalities. why do you think the Ancien Regime lasted for so long?

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Welcome to the 17th Century Crimes Padlet! Where you can learn about various forms of crimes, tortures, executions and judicial systems of the 17th century. To get the full experience out of this padlet, please go through this padlet in the order its in and if you need it there is a table of contents below. Be sure to read carefully, as there are going to be a open ended question after each section (pleases answer through a comment) and a Choose your own adventure quiz at the end of the padlet. (You will either survive nor not based on how well you pay attention!)

Beside each section, there are articles and links expanding on the subject that you may explore later if you wish, but they are not mandatory. There is also a summary above each section question if you run out of time.

With that in mind, please enjoy this padlet!

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1. The Old Regime
2. Structure of the Judicial System
3. Punishment and consequence for crimes
4. Quiz

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The First Estate
The upper clergy originated from the Second Estate, titled “clerical nobility”. The lower clergy constituted 90% of the First Estate, consisting of parish priests, monks and nuns. Together, they made up about 0.5% of the French population, approximately 130 000.

The Second Estate
Composed of approximately 1.5% of the population, the nobility was divided into 5 categories. “Nobles-of-the-sword” regarded themselves as the pure and true nobility of France. “Nobles-of-the-robe” often held positions related to the royal government or in the legal system. “Nobles-of-the-bell” occupied the municipal office. “Anoblis” were ones who climbed up the pyramid, or bought their way into the Second Estate. “Hoberaux” were ones who descended from the pyramid, kicked out of the Second Estate, losing all accumulated wealth.

The Third Estate
Approximately 98% of the population belonged to the unprivileged citizens. The Third Estate consisted of the Bourgeoisie (artisan, financier, lawyer), urban workers and peasants.

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Political Background

France possessed a large territory with a population of 19 million, which was 3 times greater than that of its rival nation England. France was regarded as more stable; territories of Italy and Germany were split according to different political powers. In addition, with the decline of the Spanish Empire, France was given a chance to claim a spot on the international throne. Overall, France was seen as a European leader in maintaining military power, accumulating wealth and spreading rich culture.

Economic Development

As an agrarian society, France possessed rich, fertile land for farming. However, the rapid incline in population meant high demand and competition for food. Geographically speaking, France lacked rivers and canals that could facilitate the transportation of goods. With these factors, this simply meant that promoting sustainability was close to impossible. Peasants were pressured in trying to fend for their own families, yet support the landlords. This stripping of wealth was allowed through feudal privileges of the landlords; the peasants continued to suffer from famine and unfair taxation.

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How Laws are Obeyed throughout the Three Estates

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How Laws are Obeyed throughout the Three Estates

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Supplementary Lecture on the Three Estates providing a detailed overview on the legal system based on class

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1.3 The First & Second Estates: Clergy and Nobility - Week 1 - France in the 1780s | Coursera

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Video created by The University of Melbourne for the course “The French Revolution”. We begin this course with an introduction to the French Revolution. We will examine the social and institutional structures of the Old Regime. We will look at…

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The salaried workers in the city - These workers always found themselves threatened by poverty, Making up a large portion of the overall population, this mass of underfed and overcrowded citizens lived in miserable suburbs and districts.

The poor peasants -  Three-fourths of the peasants hardly possessed one-tenth of the arable land and their economic situation oscillated between misery and poverty. Together with the beggars, they constituted the lowest level of rural society and were the biggest group.

The beggars -  All these beggars depended on and lived from the rest of the society. They were always suspected of coming from infected areas and of spreading diseases and epidemics. Society marginalized them and by a simple instinct for survival, they sometimes turned into numerous bands turning towards crime and robbery to obtain food and shelter. Grenouille was not yet at this stage of begging for survival.
http://vincentians.com/en/the-poor-in-the-17th-century-in-france-ii/

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Trials usually started with testimonials from witnesses, along with questions from the prosecution.
- The accused is not present
- Grenouille is only brought out of his cell to hear the verdict, but not when the physical and eyewitness evidence is being presented. (Pg. 229)
Eyewitness accounts counted as circumstantial evidence.
- Not as important or indicting as physical evidence
- The journeyman's eyewitness testimony was not enough evidence to indict Grenouille of killing 25 maidens.
- Grenouille is formally accused of the murder when found with 25 garments, 25 crops of hair and the wooden club used to kill the maidens, providing substantial physical evidence of his crime. (Pg. 225-226)
Confessions were not enough to indict a person unless freely made without coercion.
- Grenouille freely confesses to all murders charged against him, allowing for the proceedings to move at a rapid pace. (Pg. 228)

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Key Taxation Laws in the Functioning of Society

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Key Taxation Laws in the Functioning of Society

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La dîme / Tithe

A tithe is defined as 1/10 of one’s annual income that is contributed voluntarily to the Church. It is to this day an essential doctrine of Christianity. In context to 18th century France, the tithe, or “la dîme”, was of voluntary giving until deemed mandatory in 1585. The Church was responsible for collecting this land tax for both the Second and Third Estate. The dîme was not necessarily in the form of money but divided into three categories:

1. “Les grosses dîmes”: Grains, hay, wine

2. “Les vertes dîmes”: Vegetables, poultry

3. “Les dîmes de charnage”: Veal, lamb, pork

Although the tithe was originally intended to emphasize contributing to the local Church community, its intentions were morphed to fund other large monasteries. Although this land tax was mandatory for the French, this was, in fact, worked around and exempted for the First Estate. Such a collection of money and resources were greatly effective. However, this caused great resentment, especially for the poor and oppressed Third Estate.

La Taille / Property Tax
La taille was a property tax imposed on the Third Estate based on the amount of land each household possessed. For the royal government, this was a major source of income. “Le dixième” was an income and property tax introduced during 1710-1717, collected for military expenditures.

La Corvée / Statue Labour
"La corvée" is unpaid labour that is required by the law. Leading up to the French Revolution, a corvée required unfree labour of the Third Estate, mostly for improving road conditions. Contrasting to the tithe, one did not have to own land or money in order for the corvée to be implemented. Later in the 19th century, la corvée took the form of “la prestation”, which required all men to sacrifice three days worth of labour in exchange for the right to vote.

La Gabelle / Salt Tax
"La gabelle" was a national crown taxation on salt.

Les Vingtièmes / Income Tax
Under Louis XV in 1749, “le vingtième” was introduced in addition to “le dixième”. The main objective was to relieve debt by taxing all French citizens regardless of their class. Based on 1/20 of revenue, this included anything regarding proceeds from land, commerce and industry. In 1754, already 11.7 million livres were collected and further used to finance the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763).

Other taxes included “le maltôte” (tax on consumer goods), “les aides” (national tariffs), “la douane” (local tarrifs) and “l’octroi” (levy on products entering city).

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The legal system was entirely corrupt - Bribes were common and widespread
Most cases involved one or more of:
- disputes between heirs
- seduction
- rape
- infanticide
- abandonment of children
Grenouille's childhood case could be considered one of infanticide and abandonment of children, crimes that were quite prevalent at the time due to lack of food available to the masses. Many citizens just did not make enough money to support a child, thus the newborn was often abandoned or even killed.
Grenouille's later case could (the murder and scent extraction of 25 maidens) be considered one of rape, but not in the sense of sexual desire but rather olfactory desire.
https://prezi.com/drseil4vpg9g/crime-and-the-legal-system-of-18th-century-paris/

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The Role of Judges in Old Modern French Judiciary Systems

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The Role of Judges in Old Modern French Judiciary Systems

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In 18th century France, there was significant pressure from the monarchs and the government as a whole on judge’s to perform their duties in the way that they are told, otherwise, as with any absolute power, huge consequences would happen. In Grenouille’s case, there was more public pressure then governmental pressure, as he was living in a small rural village at the time of the trial, however, due to the huge impact that the murder had on the village and its people, the significant public pressure was certainly overbearing for the judge, however, the sentence was quite simple to make and had almost no room for argument.

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The First Estate
This class was responsible for collecting Church tax (tithe) as well as income and feudal taxes. Unfortunately, these were used for the clergy's benefit; they accumulated wealth, with a revenue of approximately 150 million livres annually. In addition, they were exempted from all taxes. It is evident that there were some pressure for the First Estate to contribute to the well-being of the state. Nonetheless, nothing prevented the use of bribery and unfair bending of the law. Such an example was with a “don gratuit”, a gift for the king made every five years instead of paying taxes.

The Second Estate
This class was responsible for collecting feudal taxes from the Third Estate. In fact, all income and feudal taxes were collected directly from the Third Estate. They were also exempted from paying taxes of the state or the vingtièmes (universal income tax). However, the law was easily maneuvered around through the use of bribery.

The Third Estate
The burden of unfair taxation fell on this class. They did not have any privileges that allowed them to bend the law or waive the taxes.

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The Old Regime had significant issues within the its judicial system due to the sheer number of courts and opposing laws, due to this confusion, sentences often differed by province, region and village, also, as there was far less organization within the government, corruption was a huge problem in the justice system. As there was lots of mistakes, procedures often took excessive amounts of time, as a result, people became angered by the justice system and revolted against the government to solve this. As a result, Montesquieu began to argue against this system and led many protests to the system at the time.

Victims, such as Grenouille would have to face excessive torture to attempt to make them confess, however, due to the revolt, this law was uplifted in 1780. After the success of this, people continues their challenge of the judiciary system, until 1788, when many different laws including different torture methods, were ultimately removed. As the whirlwind of the revolution came, this spiral also impacted the judiciary system, this time, the government was unable to withstand the public pressure, and was ultimately forced to re-organize their government in 1789.

Now I’m sure you’re wondering why this relates to Grenouille, and the story ‘Perfume’, let me explain why. Grenouille’s trial was quite interesting, as we could see in the book, there was significant backlash to his actions, and unfortunately we weren’t able to see a huge connection to the torture points that I mentioned earlier, as Grenouille consistently plead guilty to all of his crimes. Furthermore, the final point of the book where Grenouille should’ve been executed showed very uncharacteristic organization for that time in terms of the justice. Due to Grenouille’s willingness to work with the officers, as he constantly admitted to his actions, the trial went by extremely fast and the fairest possible sentence was given, this being execution.  I personally found this section very interesting so I wanted to include it, and it shows an even darker side to the Old Regime’s justice that is slightly suppressed within the novel, this suppression shows a contrast between reality and the novel, possibly a choice by Suskind

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[It was a] "judicial society" where "the experiences of the law courts were central to the way in which political action was conceptualized."

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There were really only two general division of crime back then. Felonies, crimes punishable by capital offence, and trespass, crimes not punishable by capital offence. Furthermore, and perhaps more interestingly, there are more recorded possible felonies than trespasses so it was more likely for a criminal to be dealt a death sentence rather than any other punishment.

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Interestingly, when male murders are asked about why and motivation behind their actions they mostly say they have been overcome with "passion" in the moment. For example, they are overcome with a certain emotion that drove them to commit the murder on the spot similar to how Grenouille is driven by his "passion" to commit the murders. However, Grenouille is more similar to female murders in the fact that his murders are more meticulous and planned in the same way female murders usually poisons their victims.

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The last public execution was held in France which is also coincidentally where Perfume takes place in

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In the middle ages, torture was not only to add on to the punishment of death sentence for severely  heavy crimes and for entertainment value, it was also a totally legitment way of obtaining information such as confessions. Many suspects of a crime would be subjected to torture as a way to extract a confession out of them regardless of if they committed the crime or not. This happens two times in Perfume In which Druot and Grenouille were both tortured so that they would confess.

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To summarize:

The most organized form of law enforcement to have existed back then was the watchmen

Group of men patrolling the streets at night looking for suspicious activities

Only really existed in large villages or cities

Mostly authorized by state authorities

Duties lasted usually from around 9 pm to sun rise

Tried to look out for people in general and inspect them for suspicious activity since no one should be up so late back then

Also looked out for natural disasters and fires

Generally tried to keep up a sense of morality after night

Fairly good reputation with the people in general for their overall idea of enforcing morality but is generally deemed ineffective

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Watchmen were organised groups of men, usually authorised by a state, government, city, or society, to deter criminal activity and provide law enforcement as well as traditionally perform the services of public safety, fire watch, crime prevention, crime detection, and recovery of stolen goods. Watchmen have existed since earliest recorded times in various guises throughout the world and were generally succeeded by the emergence of formally organised professional policing.

An early reference to a watch can be found in the Bible where the Prophet Ezekiel states that it was the duty of the watch to blow the horn and sound the alarm. (Ezekiel 33:1-6)

The Roman Empire made use of the Praetorian Guard and the Vigiles, literally the watch.

The streets in London were dark and had a shortage of and poor quality artificial light. It had been recognised for centuries that the coming of darkness to the unlit streets of a town brought a heightened threat of danger, and that the night provided cover to the disorderly and immoral, and to those bent on robbery or burglary or who in other ways threatened physical harm to people in the streets and in their houses.

The anxieties that darkness gave rise to had been met by the formation of a night watch in the 13th century, and by the rules about who could use the streets after dark. These rules had for long been underpinned in London and other towns by the curfew, the time (announced by the ringing of a bell) at which the gates closed and the streets were cleared. Only people with good reason to be abroad could then travel through the city. Anyone outside at night without reason or permission was suspicious and potentially criminal.

Allowances were usually made for people who had some social status on their side. Lord Fielding clearly expected to pass through London's streets untroubled at 1am one night in 1641, and he quickly became piqued when his coach was stopped by the watch, shouting huffily that it was a 'disgrace' to stop someone of such high standing as he, and telling the constable in charge of the watch that he would box him on the ears if he did not let his coach carry on back to his house. 'It is impossible' to 'distinguish a lord from another man by the outside of a coach', the constable said later in his defence, 'especially at unreasonable times'.

The Ordinance of 1233 required the appointment of watchmen. The Assize of Arms of 1252, which required the appointment of constables to summon men to arms, quell breaches of the peace, and to deliver offenders to the sheriff, is cited as one of the earliest creations of an English police force, as was the Statute of Winchester of 1285. In 1252 a royal writ established a watch and ward with royal officers appointed as shire reeves:

By order of the King of England the Winchester Act Mandating The Watch. Part Four and the King commandth that from henceforth all Watches be made as it hath been used in past times that was to wit from the day of Ascension unto the day of St. Michael in every city by six men at every gate in every borough by twelve men in every town by six or four according to the number of inhabitants of the town. They shall keep the Watch all night from sun setting unto sun rising. And if any stranger do pass them by them he shall be arrested until morning and if no suspicion be found he shall go quit.

Later in 1279 King Edward I formed a special guard of 20 sergeants at arms who carried decorated battle maces as a badge of office. By 1415 a watch was appointed to the Parliament of England and in 1485 King Henry VII established a household watch that became known as the Beefeaters.

As of the 1660s, it was already common practice to avoid night-time service in the watch by paying for a substitute. Substitution had become so common by the late 17th century that the night watch was virtually by then a fully paid force.

An act of Common Council, known as 'Robinson's Act' from the name of the sitting lord mayor, was promulgated in October 1663. It confirmed the duty of all householders in the City to take their turn at watching in order 'to keep the peace and apprehend night-walkers, malefactors and suspected persons'. For the most part the Common Council act of 1663 reiterated the rules and obligations that had long existed. The number of watchmen required for each ward, it declared, was to be the number 'established by custom' - in fact, by an act of 1621. Even though it had been true before the civil war that the watch had already become a body of paid men, supported by what were in effect the fines collected from those with an obligation to serve, the Common Council did not acknowledge this in the confirming act of 1663.

The act of 1663 confirmed that watch on its old foundations, and left its effective management to the ward authorities. The important matter to be arranged in the wards was who was going to serve and on what basis. How the money was to be collected to support a force of paid constables, and by whom, were crucial issues. The 1663 act left it to the ward beadle or a constable and it seems to have been increasingly the case that rather than individuals paying directly for a substitute, when their turn came to serve, the eligible householders were asked to contribute to a watch fund that supported hired man.

From the mid-1690s the City authorities made several attempts to replace Robinson's Act and establish the watch on a new footing. Though they did not say it directly, the overwhelming requirement was to get quotas adjusted to reflect the reality that the watch consisted of hired men rather than citizens doing their civic duty-the assumption upon which the 1663 act, and all previous acts, had been based.

The implications and consequences of changes in the watch were worked out in practice and in legislation in two stages between the Restoration and the middle decades of the 18th century. The first involved the gradual recognition that a paid (and full-time) watch needed to be differently constituted from one made up of unpaid citizens, a point accepted in practice in legislation passed by the Common Council in 1705, though it was not articulated in as direct a way.

The fact that the 1705 act called for watchmen to be strong and able-bodied men seems further confirmation that the watch was now expected to be made up of hired hands rather than every male house holder serving in turn. The act of 1705 laid out the new quotas of watchmen and the disposition of watch-stands agreed to each ward. To discourage the corruption that had been blamed for earlier under-manning, it forbade constables to collect and disturbs the money paid in for hired watchmen: that was now supposed to be the responsibility of the deputy and common councilmen of the ward.

The second stage was the recognition that watchmen could not be sustained without a major shift in the way local services were financed. This led to the City's acquisition of taxing power by means of an act of parliament in 1737 which changed the obligation to serve in person into an obligation to pay to support a force of salaried men. Under the new act, the ward authorities also continued to hire their own watchmen and to make whatever local rules seemed appropriate-establishing, for example, the places in their wards where the watchmen would stand and the beats they would patrol. But the implementation of the new Watch Act did have the effect of imposing some uniformity on the watch over the whole City, making in the process some modest incursions into the local autonomy of the wards. One of the leading elements in the regime that emerged from the implementation of the new act was an agreement that every watchman would be paid the same amount and that the wages should be raised to thirteen pounds a year.

From 1485 to the 1820s, in the absence of a police force, it was the parish-based watchmen who were responsible for keeping order in London's streets.

Night watchmen patrolled the streets from 9 or 10 pm until sunrise, and were expected to examine all suspicious characters. These controls continued in the late 17th century. Guarding the streets to prevent crime, to watch out for fires, and - despite the absence of a formal curfew - to ensure that suspicious and unauthorised people did not prowl around under cover of darkness was still the duty of night watch and the constables who were supposed to command them.

The principal task of the watch in 1660 and for long after continued to be the control of the streets at night imposing a form of moral or social curfew that aimed to prevent those without legitimate reason to be abroad from wandering the streets at night. That task was becoming increasingly difficult in the 17th century because of the growth of the population and variety of ways in which the social and cultural life was being transformed. The shape of the urban day was being altered after the Restoration by the development of shops, taverns and coffee-houses, theatres, the opera and other places of entertainment. All these places remained open in the evening and extended their hours of business and pleasure into the night.

The watch was affected by this changing urban world since policing the night streets become more complicated when larger number of people were moving around. And what was frequently thought to be poor quality of the watchman-and in time, the lack of effective lighting-came commonly to be blamed when street crimes and night-time disorders seemed to be growing out of control.

Traditionally, householders served in the office of constable by appointment or rotation. During their year of office they performed their duties part-time alongside their normal employment. Similarly, householders were expected to serve by rotation on the nightly watch. From the late seventeenth century, however, many householders avoided these obligations by hiring deputies to serve in their place. As this practice increased, some men were able to make a living out of acting as deputy constables or as paid night watchmen. In the case of the watch, this procedure was formalized in many parts of London by the passage of "Watch Acts", which replaced householders' duty of service by a tax levied specifically for the purpose of hiring full-time watchmen. Some voluntary prosecution societies also hired men to patrol their areas.

While the societies for the reformation of manners showed there was a good deal of support for the effective policing of morality, they also suggested that the existing mechanisms of crime control were regarded by some as ineffective.

Constable Dogberry's men from Much Ado About Nothing by Shakespeare, who would 'rather sleep than talk', may be dismissed as merely a dramatic device or a caricature, but successful dramatists nevertheless work with characters who strike a chord with their audience. A hundred years later such complaints were still commonplace. Daniel Defoe wrote four pamphlets and a broadsheet on the issue of street crime in which, among other things, he roundly attacked the efficacy of the watch and called for measures to ensure it 'be compos'd of stout, able-body'd Men, and of those a sufficient Number'.

Watchmen on roads leading to London had a reputation for clumsiness in the late 1580s. It was a temptation on cold winter nights to slip away early from watching stations to catch some sleep. Constables in charge sometimes let watches go home early. 'The late placing and early dischargering ' of night-watches concerned Common Council in 1609 and again three decades later when someone sent out to spy on watches reported that they 'break up longe before they ought'. 'The greatest parte of constables' broke up watches 'earlie in the morninge ' at exactly the time 'when most danger' was 'feared' in the long night, leaving the dark streets to thieves.

Watchmen often counted off the hours until sunrise on chilly nights. Alehouses offered some warmth, even after curfew bells told people to drink up. A group of watchmen sneaked into a '' house one night in 1617 and stayed 'drinking and taking tobacco all night longe'. Like other officers, watchmen could become the focus for trouble themselves, adding to the hullabaloo at night instead of ordering others to keep the noise down and go to bed. And as by day, there were more than a few crooked officers policing the streets at night, quite happy to turn a blind eye to trouble for a bribe. Watchman Edward Gardener was taken before the recorder with 'a common nightwalker' - Mary Taylor - in 1641 after he 'tooke 2s to lett' her 'escape' when he was escorting her to Bridewell late at night. Another watchman from over the river in Southwark took advantage of the tricky situation people suddenly found themselves in if they stumbled into the watch, 'demanding money [from them] for passing the watch'.

A common complaint in the 1690s was that watchmen were inadequately armed. This was another aspect of the watch in the process of being transformed. The Common Council acts required watchmen to carry halberds, with some still doing so through the late seventeenth century. But it seems clear that few did, because the halberd was no longer suitable for the work they were being called upon to do. It was more often observed that watchmen failed to carry them, and it is surely the case that the halberd was no longer a useful weapon for a watch that was supposed to be mobile. By the second quarter of the 18th century, watchmen were equipped with a staff, along with their lantern.

Another step in the evolution of the watch involved building 'watch howses' as the country lurched towards revolution after 1640. A City committee was asked to look into the question 'what watchhouses are necessary' and where 'for the safety of this ' in 1642. Workmen began building watch houses in strategic spots soon after. They provided assembly-points for watchmen to gather to hear orders for the night ahead, somewhere to shelter from 'extremitye of wind and weather', and holding-places for suspects until morning when justices examined the night's catch. There were watch houses next to Temple Bar (1648), 'neere the Granaryes' by Bridewell (1648), 'neere Moregate' (1648), and next to St. Paul's south door (1649). They were not big; the one on St. Paul's side was 'a small house or shed'. This was a time of experimentation, and people (including those in authority) were learning how to make best use of these new structures in their midst.

The watchmen patrolled the streets at night, calling out the hour, keeping a lookout for fires, checking that doors were locked and ensuring that drunks and other vagrants were delivered to the watch constable. However, their low wages and the uncongenial nature of the job attracted a fairly low standard of person, and they acquired a possibly-exaggerated reputation for being old, ineffectual, feeble, drunk or asleep on the job.

London had a system of night policing in place before 1660, although it was improved over the next century through better lighting, administrations, finances, and better and more regular salaries. But the essential elements of the night-watch were performing completely by the middle of the seventeenth century.

During the 1820s, mounting crime levels and increasing political and industrial disorder prompted calls for reform, led by Sir Robert Peel, which culminated in the demise of the watchmen and their replacement by a uniformed metropolitan police force.

John Gray, the owner of Greyfriars Bobby was a nightwatchman in the 1850s.

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it.

The first form of societal protection in the United States was based on practices developed in England. The City of Boston was the first settlement in the thirteen colonies to establish a night watch in 1631 (replaced in 1838); Plymouth, Massachusetts in 1633 (replaced in 1861); New York (then New Amsterdam) (replaced in 1845) and Jamestown followed in 1658.

With the unification of laws and centralization of state power ( e.g. the Municipal Police Act of 1844 in New York City, United States), such formations became increasingly incorporated into state-run police forces (see metropolitan police and municipal police).

In the Philippines, Barangay watchmen called "Tanod" is common. Their role is to serve as frontline law enforcement officers in Barangays, especially those far from city or town centres. They are mainly supervised by the Barangay Captain and may be armed with bolo knife.

^ This can be verified by England's Old Bailey court records.

Beattie, J. M. (2001). Policing and Punishment in London 1660-1750. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-820867-7

Ekirch A. R. (2001). At Day's Close: A History of Nighttime, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.

Clarkson, Charles Tempest; Richardson, J. Hall (1889). Police!. OCLC 60726408

"Constables and the Night Watch". .oldbaileyonline,retrieved 22 November 2015, http://www.oldbaileyonline.org/static/Policing.jsp

Critchley, Thomas Alan (1978). A History of Police in England and Wales.

Griffiths, Paul (2010). Lost Londons Change, Crime, and Control in the Capital City, 1550-1660. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521174114.

Delbrück, Hans (1990). Renfroe, Walter J. Jr, ed. Medieval Warfare. History of the Art of War 3. ISBN 0-8032-6585-9.

Philip McCouat, "Watchmen, goldfinders and the plague bearers of the night", Journal of Art in Society, retrieved 22 October 2015, http://www.artinsociety.com/watchmen-goldfinders-and-the-plague-bearers-of-the-night.html

Pollock, Frederick; Maitland, Frederic William (1898). The History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I. 1 (2 ed.). ISBN 978-1-58477-718-2.

Rawlings, Philip (2002). Policing A Short History. USA: Willan Publishing. ISBN 1903240263.

Rich, Robert M. (1977). Essays on the Theory and Practice of Criminal Justice. ISBN 978-0-8191-0235-5.

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Watchmen were organised groups of men, usually authorised by a state, government, city, or society, to deter criminal activity and provide law enforcement as well as traditionally perform the services of public safety, fire watch, crime prevention, crime detection, and recovery of stolen goods.

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To summarize:

Carnival like mood about executions

Including the food vendors and pamphlets

Stands were intentionally setup and seats were charged based upon proximity to stage and severity of crime

Criminals were paraded to the execution stage in a carriage

Stops at the local church and bar

Actual execution was purposely stretched out

Speech from the criminal (usually slander and profanity) sparking riot in the audience

Executioner also takes time and partakes in the theatrics

Parts of the criminals was thrown into and sought out by the crowds as souvenirs

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The Ridiculous Spectacle of Public Hangings in Old England — Hunt A Killer

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By C.W.S. As people interested in true crime, we often get flack for our interest in such a gruesome topic. But imagine living in England in the 1600s, where criminals were hanged publicly in front of enormous crowds of tens of thousands in the largest social gatherings of the time. Parents would

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Crime and Punishment in 18th Century France

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Crime and Punishment in 18th Century France

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In 1583 a Commission headed by Guernsey’s Governor, Sir Thomas Leighton, working at the behest of Queen Elizabeth I, published the results of a lengthy

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Torture in 18th Century France: An Irishman’s View - geriwalton.com

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Before the guillotine was proposed, an Irish gentleman visited Paris in 1787. While in Paris, he wrote about his view of torture in 18th century France.

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Trials and executions were often made into spectacles for the general public. They were either 'warnings' to the people, or entertainment acts for the people to enjoy. This is the type of execution that Grenouille had.

Executions of nobles who committed crimes were usually private and simple affairs. Their heads would be cut as quickly as possible to give a death befitting their positions.

Commoners were usually hanged to let the individual strangle to death slowly. This allowed for humiliation of the victim, and the body was displayed on a gibbet or given to the medical college for dissection.

Witches or heretics were either burned at the stake, drowned, or given some unusual form of execution to fit their crime. These could involve cruel procedures such as ripping out organs or breaking limbs.

Those who committed heinous crimes were broken on the wheel, or had their limbs otherwise beaten and broken.

Regicide committers were first tortured and then drawn and quartered during an extended ceremony designed to emphasis the heinous nature of the crime.

During and after the French Revolution, most criminals died by the guillotine. This no longer provided the entertainment and impact aspect but was fast and efficient.

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In general, women were accused of fewer, different crimes from men and were less likely to be sentenced to death. Serious crime was essentially considered a masculine problem. Female deviance used to be a major crime but then slowly became an aspect of sexual immorality and was addressed through other agencies instead. Most females were accused of minor theft, kidnapping, keeping a brothel, and other offences surrounding childbirth. Interestingly, prostitution was not a tried offence. Grenouille's mother was hanged for infanticide, but this would actually have been a rare punishment. The law 'feme covert' implied that women could not be held responsible for crimes committed in the presence of their husbands (assumed to be following husband's orders).

In terms of pardons, women could not receive the benefit of the clergy before 1691.  Only men could be sentenced to military duty, and few women were fit for labour. Treason and petty treason committers were burned at the stake, but pregnant women often had sentences remitted entirely.  In the 18th century, the public whipping of women was slowly in decline and eventually died out.  The cause of this was the growing concerns surrounding punishing women- unfit for hard labour, concerns surrounding children, and unwillingness to do public punishments. After colonization, women were often shipped away as a new alternative to the death sentence.

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Men's and women's experiences of crime, justice and punishment

Virtually every aspect of English life between 1674 and 1913 was influenced by gender, and this includes behaviour documented in the Old Bailey Proceedings. Long-held views about the particular strengths, weaknesses, and appropriate responsibilities of each sex shaped everyday lives, patterns of crime, and responses to crime. This page provides an introduction to gender roles in this period; a discussion of how they affected crime, justice, and punishment; and advice on how to analyse the Proceedings for information about gender.

Contents of this Article

Gender Roles in the Eighteenth Century

'I am tir'd of reading', c. early 19th century, from a scrapbook of the Bowker family of Winchester. © Hampshire Record Office (w/k5/1)

In the twenty-first century western world, the idea that women and men naturally possess distinct characteristics is often treated sceptically, but this was an almost universally held view in the eighteenth century. Ideas about gender difference were derived from classical thought, Christian ideology, and contemporary science and medicine. Men and women were thought to inhabit bodies with different physical make-ups and to possess fundamentally different qualities and virtues. Men, as the stronger sex, were thought to be intelligent, courageous, and determined. Women, on the other hand, were more governed by their emotions, and their virtues were expected to be chastity, modesty, compassion, and piety. Men were thought to be more aggressive; women more passive. These differences were echoed in the faults to which each sex was thought to be prone. Men were prone to violence, obstinacy, and selfishness, while women's sins were viewed as the result of their tendency to be ruled by their bodies and their emotions, notably lust, excessive passion, shrewishness, and laziness.

'I am tir'd of working', c. early 19th century, from a scrapbook of the Bowker family of Winchester. © Hampshire Record Office (w/k5/1)

Expectations of male and female conduct derived from these perceived virtues and weaknesses. In marriage, men were expected to rule over their wives, and all property (except in some cases property acquired by the woman before marriage) belonged to the husband. Men were the primary wage earners, while women were expected to be primarily responsible for housework and childcare, though both sexes participated in all these activities. Women's paid employment was typically low status, low paid, and involved fewer skills and responsibilities than men's. The types of work available to women were confined to a few sectors of the economy where the work could be seen as an extension of women's domestic responsibilities, such as domestic service, the clothing trades, teaching, and nursing. In politics, women possessed virtually no formal rights, though they could exercise influence informally. Beyond employment, women's public roles were generally confined to the exercise of their moral and domestic virtues through participation in religion and charity.

Cherry seller (c.1780). © Corporation of London Libraries and Guildhall Art Library

However, one should not exaggerate the differences between the sexes, since there were a number of activities, both public and private, engaged in by both. Particularly among the poor, men and women were forced to do whatever was necessary in order to survive, both in unpaid work such as housework and childcare, and in employment for financial gain such as street selling (pictured) and some aspects of weaving.

An oyster seller, Marcellus Laroon, The Cries of London (c.1688). © Corporation of London Libraries and Guildhall Art Library

There were a few opportunities to step outside accepted gender roles. Both men and women occasionally dressed in the clothes of the opposite sex to participate in masquerades, and women occasionally dressed as men in order to gain access to opportunities (such as military service) otherwise denied to their sex. Within London's homosexual subculture, men sometimes cross-dressed as women and adopted effeminate characteristics.

The Nineteenth Century: Separate Spheres?

It is often argued that the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries witnessed a significant change in gender roles, which led to the emergence of "separate spheres" in the nineteenth century. The growing influence of evangelical ideology placed an increasing moral value on female domesticity, virtue, and religiosity. It is argued that increasingly public life and work was confined to men, while women were expected to stay at home. New ideas about the female body led to a decline in the belief that women were the more lustful sex; now women were idealised as mothers ("the angel in the house"), while those who failed to meet expectations were censured as prostitutes with uncontrollable sexual desires.

Augustus Pugin and Thomas Rowlandson, View of Great Synagogue, Dukes Place, with congregation (1809), from The Microcosm of London. © University of Sheffield

Recently historians have begun to question some aspects of this story, pointing out that these ideas of gender difference were for the most part very old, and that women were not excluded from work and public life in the nineteenth century. Women were excluded from some occupations and activities, but they entered new ones, for example authorship, teaching, and charity work. Working-class women still had to work to support themselves and their families, though the range of occupations available to them may have narrowed and some work, such as "sweated labour" in the textile trades, took place in the home. Towards the end of the century new jobs outside the home became available, and many women became clerks, typists, and shop assistants.

It is true that the concept of the respectable male "breadwinner", who had the responsibility for providing financially for his entire family, was increasingly influential in this period. Consequently, women were frequently expected to give up their jobs when they got married. With the development of empire and a new wave of prosecutions of homosexuals in the 1890s, men were increasingly expected to demonstrate the masculine traits of muscle, might, and sexual attraction to women, combined with chivalrous concern for the weaker sex.

While gender differences may thus have been accentuated, the spheres of male and female activity were by no means totally "separate", even at the end of the nineteenth century. As the Proceedings indicate, both men and women were present in many aspects of public and private life.

Feminism and the Suffragettes

'National Federation of Women Workers' (c.1913). © National Museum of Labour History.

From the mid-nineteenth century women's inferior social position was increasingly questioned by feminist writers and in campaigns to eliminate discriminatory practices. Women (and some men) demanded, with some success, increased employment and educational opportunities for women, reform of married women's property law, more equitable divorce laws, and repeal of the Contagious Diseases Acts, which subjected alleged prostitutes to examination for venereal disease.

From 1866, the suffrage movement campaigned to get women the vote, which had been given to property-owning men by the 1832 Reform Act, and was extended to working-class men in 1867 and 1884. During this campaign arguments for the female vote developed into critiques of the ideology of separate spheres and the understandings of masculinity, femininity, and sexuality on which it was based. Women, it was argued, should no longer be defined as "the sex", simply as receptacles for male sexual activity.

From 1905, frustrated at the lack of progress, the suffrage campaign turned militant. Under the leadership of Emmeline and Christabel Pankhurst, the Women's Social and Political Union staged demonstrations and engaged in acts of vandalism such as breaking windows by throwing stones. Some of those arrested were tried at the Old Bailey: see the trials of Emily Davison in 1912 and Emmeline Pankhurst in 1912 and 1913. Some of those imprisoned (including Pankhurst) went on hunger strikes. In May 1913, Davison jumped in front of the King's horse on Derby Day and was trampled to death. World War I intervened, but women over the age of 30 were finally given the vote in 1918.

Gender and Crime

William Hogarth, The Four Stages of Cruelty, plate 3, Cruelty in Perfection (1751). © Tim Hitchcock

In every study of serious crime ever conducted, men's and women's criminality has appeared different. Women are always accused of fewer, and different, crimes from men, and this was also true at the Old Bailey. Women account for only 21% of the defendants tried between 1674 and 1913, but this figure masks a significant chronological change. While women accounted for around 40% of the defendants from the 1690s to the 1740s (and, highly unusually, over half the defendants in the first decade of the eighteenth century), over the course of the period this proportion declined significantly, so that by the early nineteenth century only 22% of defendants were women and by the early twentieth century the proportion had declined to 9%. By this point serious crime had come to be perceived as essentially a masculine problem. Increasingly, female deviance was perceived as a consequence and aspect of sexual immorality rather than crime, and was addressed through other agencies of protection and control.

Throughout the period, female defendants in the Proceedings account for a significant proportion of the accused in only a small number of offences, particularly certain kinds of theft (pickpocketing, shoplifting, theft from lodging houses, theft from masters, and receiving stolen goods) and coining, kidnapping, keeping a brothel, and offences surrounding childbirth. On the other hand, relatively few women were accused of deception, other sexual offences, breaking the peace, and robbery.

The explanation of these patterns is complicated. Certain offences were legally or practically sex-specific: only men could be guilty of rape (though women could be accessories) and except in very rare circumstances of sodomy, while women were most likely to be accused of infanticide, concealing a birth, and unlawful abortion. Although prostitution itself was not tried at the Old Bailey, keeping a brothel was, and women account for about a third of those prosecuted.

Beyond this, there are two sets of explanations for the gendered pattern of prosecutions at the Old Bailey: different attitudes towards male and female criminality; and different patterns of crime actually committed, owing to contrasts in the lives led by women and men.

According to their prescribed gender role, men were expected to be violent and aggressive, and consequently male deviance was perceived to be more threatening, was more likely to be interpreted as crime, and was more likely to be prosecuted. Because women were generally perceived to be more passive, they were not thought to be prone to criminality, and therefore the crimes they did commit were seen as unusual, rather than as part of a general pattern. At this time only a small fraction of crimes were actually prosecuted, and the less threatening crimes were least likely to be formally prosecuted. Although women who stepped far outside expected gender roles (through the use violence towards children, for example) were prosecuted severely, most crimes committed by women were likely to be dealt with by less formal judicial procedures, such as informal arbitration and summary prosecution, or at the Quarter Sessions courts, and such cases do not appear in the Old Bailey records.

A second explanation for the appearance of fewer women at the Old Bailey, and their being charged with different types of crime, is that women may have actually committed fewer and different crimes than men because of the nature of their lives. Women, for example, were less likely to carry weapons or tools, or to spend time in alehouses, so they were less likely to become involved in spontaneous fights, and when they did they rarely had a lethal weapon to hand. Since they spent more time in the home they may have had fewer opportunities to commit crime, particularly temptations to steal. On the other hand, women were never confined to their own homes and most had plenty of opportunities to commit theft.

William Hogarth, A Harlot's Progress, plate 3 (1732). © Tim Hitchcock.

It is certainly likely that male and female patterns of theft differed, owing to the different types of work and leisure engaged in by each sex. Thus prostitutes stole from their clients and were accused of pickpocketing; female servants stole from their masters; and female customers, possibly motivated by desires to keep up with the latest fashions, stole from shops. In addition, women's participation in trading networks gave them skills suitable for buying and selling stolen goods. On the other hand, men were far more likely to be involved in thefts from places of work such as ships, warehouses, docks, and places of manufacture; and, in rural areas, thefts of livestock.

Overall, women did account for a significant proportion of theft prosecutions, particularly early in the period, and this can be related to the significant economic hardships women encountered in London, particularly young recent migrants. New immigrants to the metropolis were often cut off from networks of support such as family and friends, and women's wages were typically significantly lower than men's, and their jobs less secure.

Historians disagree about the cause and significance of the major decline in the proportion of female defendants tried at the Old Bailey between the early eighteenth and early twentieth centuries. Malcolm Feeley and Deborah Little argue that this decline reflects real changes in women's lives, particularly the separation of home and work and women's exclusion from the public sphere, leading to a decline in actual female criminality. The extent of these historical changes in women's lives has been questioned, however. In contrast, Peter King argues that the decline in both the number and proportion of women tried at the Old Bailey was not linear, reflected significant fluctuations in the number of men prosecuted in times of war and peace, and was not mirrored in the records of other English courts. Perhaps most importantly, he notes that the late nineteenth-century decline in the number of women prosecuted reflected jurisdictional changes, as a large number of minor theft cases (which frequently involved women) were transferred to the lower courts. Ultimately, it is dangerous to draw wider conclusions about gender directly from evidence of the number of offenders prosecuted in a single court.

Gender in the Courtroom

1842 trial scene, from Walter Besant, London in the Nineteenth Century (1909). © University of Sheffield

Appearing as a defendant at the Old Bailey must have been a significantly more intimidating experience for women than it was for men. All court personnel, from the judges and jury to lawyers and court officials were men; the only other women present would have been witnesses or spectators in the gallery (the latter were empanelled whenever a jury of matrons was needed in order to determine the validity of a convicted woman's plea that she was pregnant). There is some evidence that juries treated evidence presented by female witnesses more sceptically than that delivered by men (and female testimony was more likely to be omitted from the Proceedings). At the same time, other evidence suggests that juries may have been more reluctant to convict women since, as explained in gender and crime, female crime was generally perceived as less threatening than that committed by men. The legal principle of the feme covert, by which women could not be held responsible for crimes committed in the presence of their husbands (since they were presumed to be following their husbands' commands) was not often applied, but it may have led juries to exonerate some married women, particularly when their husbands were convicted for the same crime.

Only about a seventh of the victims or prosecutors of crime at the Old Bailey were women. The most important reason for this is the fact that theft was the most common offence prosecuted, and most marital property was deemed to be in the possession of the husband. Thus, even if a woman's clothes were stolen, if she was married her husband would have been labelled as the victim of the crime. It is also possible, however, that women on their own were reluctant to prosecute cases in the male-dominated environment of the Old Bailey courtroom. Women account for a higher proportion of the victims who used less formal legal procedures such as summary jurisdiction and informal arbitration to prosecute crimes.

Gender and Punishment

The pattern of punishments for convicted women was significantly different from that for men, though when punishments for the same offence are compared the differences are not so great. There are some legal reasons for these differences, many of which reflect ideas about gender at the time:

Male convicts at work, from Criminal London: a Pictorial History from Medieval times to 1939 (2002). © Mark Herber

Before 1691, women convicted of the theft of goods worth more than 10 shillings could not receive benefit of clergy. Unlike men, such women had to be sentenced to death (in practice, they were often acquitted, convicted on reduced charges and sentenced to a lesser punishment, or pardoned).

Women convicted of treason or petty treason were sentenced to death by being burned at the stake (until 1790); men convicted of the same offences were to be drawn and quartered. There appears to have been a reluctance to open up women's bodies in public.

Women sentenced to death who successfully pleaded that they were pregnant had their punishments respited, and often remitted entirely. From 1848, reprieves granted to pregnant women were always permanent.

Following the suspension of transportation to America in 1776, a statute authorised judges to sentence male offenders otherwise liable to transportation to hard labour improving the navigation of the Thames (they were incarcerated on the hulks), while women, and those men unfit for working on the river, were to be imprisoned and put to hard labour.

The public whipping of women was abolished in 1817 (having been in decline since the 1770s), while the public whipping of men continued into the 1830s (and was not abolished until 1862).

Only men could be sentenced to military or naval duty, or receive this punishment as the result of a conditional pardon.

The ideas behind these differences--women's unsuitability for hard outdoor labour and military service, concerns for their children, and the growing reluctance to punish women physically in public--also shaped punishment patterns more generally. Owing to the desire to populate the colonies with those capable of building up their economies, for example, many fewer women were selected for transportation than men, especially after 1787 when transportation to Australia began. In addition, women were much less likely than men to be sentenced to death, public whipping or the pillory (no women were sentenced to the pillory after 1762), sometimes even when convicted of the same offences.

Sentencing decisions were no doubt influenced by the ever present perception that female criminality was less threatening than male criminality, in part because it was committed less frequently. Since one of the main purposes of punishment in this period was thought to be deterring others from engaging in crime, punishing women served a less useful purpose than punishing men. But in certain circumstances female criminals appeared more threatening than men, and the court punished them accordingly. By the early nineteenth century, as serious crime came to be "masculinized", most crime committed by women was seen as essentially a sexual rather than a criminal form of deviance, and those few women who were identified as serious criminals were sometimes punished more harshly than men. In effect, such women suffered for transgressing their expected gender roles.

Researching Gender in the Proceedings

There are four principal ways of analysing gender in the Proceedings.

Using the statistics search page, it is possible to count types of crime, punishment, verdict, and number of cases per year or decade, breaking down the figures by either defendant gender or victim gender. This will allow you to see how general patterns of crime, verdicts and punishments varied according to the gender of those involved. Note that there may be some cases that fall into the "unclassified" category, because there was no evidence in the trial to indicate a gender or the victim was an institution or collectivity.

Searching by crime, you can find all the cases of gender-specific crimes like infanticide, rape, and sodomy.

Using the custom search page, you can find all cases meeting specific criteria which involve defendants and/or victims of a specified gender. For example, selecting defendant's occupation/status="servant" and defendant="male", you will find a large number of trials involving male servants, and much valuable contextual information about their lives.

Using the keyword search, you can search for words or short phrases which were used to describe men and women, or particularly male or female attributes, and look at the contexts in which such terms were used. Try "female", "masculine", "mother", "boy", "girl", "elderly man", etc. Not all terms will generate useful results, but many will. Words like "chaste", "compassion", "courage", "lazy", "meek", "modest", "obstinate", and "proud" will also produce interesting results, though such words were rarely used to describe only one sex - that itself is a significant finding.

Introductory Reading

Arnot, Margaret and Usborne, Cornelie, Gender and Crime in Modern Europe (London, 1999)

Beattie, J.M., "The Criminality of Women in Eighteenth-Century England", Journal of Social History 8 (1975), 80-116

Earle, Peter, A City Full of People: Men and Women of London, 1650-1750 (London, 1994)

Feeley, Malcolm and Little, Deborah, "The Vanishing Female: The Decline of Women in the Criminal Process, 1687-1912", Law and Society Review 25 (1991), 719-57

Kent, Susan Kingsley, Gender and Power in Britain, 1640-1990 (London, 1999)

Kermode, Jenny and Walker, Garthine, Women, Crime and the Courts in Early Modern England (London, 1994)

King, Peter, Crime and Law in England, 1750-1840 (Cambridge, 2006), chapter 6

McKay, Lynn, "Why they stole: Women in the Old Bailey, 1779-1789", Journal of Social History 32 (1999), pp. 623-39

Palk, Deirdre, Gender, Crime and Judicial Discretion, 1780-1830 (Woodbridge, Suffolk, 2006)

Shoemaker, Robert B., Gender in English Society 1650-1850: The Emergence of Separate Spheres? (Harlow, 1998)

Walker, Garthine, Crime, Gender and Social Order in Early Modern England (Cambridge, 2003)

For more secondary literature on this subject see the Bibliography.

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Virtually every aspect of English life between 1674 and 1913 was influenced by gender, and this includes behaviour documented in the Old Bailey Proceedings. Long-held views about the particular strengths, weaknesses, and appropriate responsibilities of each sex shaped everyday lives, patterns of crime, and responses to crime.

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List of Potential Punishments for Crimes

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List of Potential Punishments for Crimes

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death sentence for robbers and brigands- breaking on the wheel: "The breaking wheel or execution wheel, also known as the Catherine wheel or simply the Wheel, was a torture method used for public execution primarily in Europe from antiquity through Middle Ages into the early modern period by breaking a criminal's bones and/or bludgeoning them to death."

Lesser crimes, like non-violent theft or fraud- whipping, the stocks, branding, sentenced to a few years in the galley or occasional banishment
examples of crimes include cheating in gambling, stealing keys, laundry and handkerchief stealing, making counterfeit coins,

Greater crimes such as assault and rebellion against officers resulted in branding and galley service.

Homicide, rape, domestic violence and burglary resulted in capital punishment. This would mean having their head cut or bludgeoned in by an executioner. After the french revolution, they used the guillotine.

Occasionally the sentence was to  have their arms, legs, thighs and backs broken and placed in a public place ‘with their body posed on a wheel, face turned to heaven, to remain until it pleases God to dispose of them.’ -This is similar to the sentence Grenouille receives in the movie.

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France is a civil law system which means it places a greater emphasis on statutes as found within various codes, instead of case law. The idea of stare decisis does not come into play in civil law systems as each case is decided on an individual basis according to how it relates to the codified law and how the judge chooses to interpret that law-thus two cases on the same topic could have very different outcomes. While this is one major difference between civil and common law jurisdictions, it is worth taking a closer look at France's legal system.

France is a republic and is currently governed by the Constitution of the Fifth Republic, which was passed October 4, 1958. There have been recent reforms (in 2008) to the constitution that have altered the law-making process, giving parliament a stronger vote in passing laws.

Government Structure

France has a quasi-presidential system in which a president is elected every five years. The president then chooses a Prime Minister from the parliamentary majority. The French parliament is made up of the National Assembly (Assemblée nationale) and the Senate (). It is both chambers of parliament who pass statutes.

Legislation

France has a dual system in place regarding its laws. One branch of the system is known as droit public, or public law. This branch defines the principles of operation of the state and public bodies. The other branch, known as droit privé, or private law, applies to private individuals and private entities.

There is also a hierarchy to French laws. In order of importance from greatest to least, laws are known as:

lois organiques (institutional acts akin to the Constitution)

lois ordinaires (ordinary acts that have been voted on by Parliament regarding matters specifically left within the purview of Parliament by the Constitution)

ordonnances (measures taken by the government in matters that would be normal and relevant to keep the country operating)

There are also regulations ( règlements), which are issued by the executive power. Regulations be further broken down into décrets (those issued by the Prime Minister and President) and arrêtés (those issued by executive branch members who are not the President or Prime Minister). All lois, décrets, and important arrêtés are published in the official gazette ( Journal officiel de la République française) which will be discussed further below.

Court System

The courts in France are also divided into two parts: judicial courts (those dealing with criminal and civil laws) and administrative courts. Public law is applied in the administrative courts ( tribunaux administratifs). The highest of the judiciary courts is the Supreme Court of Appeals (Cour de cassation). There are 36 courts of appeals, 161 tribunaux de grande instance , and 307 tribunaux d'instance (the lowest level). At the top of the administrative courts rests the Council of State (Conseil d'État), with 8 courts of appeal ( cours administratives d'appel) and 42 tribunaux administratifs.

There is a third unique aspect of the judiciary in France-the Constitutional Council (Conseil constitutionnel). This branch oversees review of statutes before they are enacted as well as overseeing national elections and answering questions from citizens regarding the constitutionality of laws. The Conseil constitutionnel has nine members: three are appointed by the president, three by the head of the National Assembly, and three by the head of the Senate.

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Guides: French Legal Research Guide: Legal System

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This in-depth guide will help researchers navigate French legal materials.

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The King's "absolute power" - distinguished from the rule of a tyrant by emphasizing that monarchs governed according to the law and the public good, not their personal will.

Pressure on judges -  Judges, parties, and institutions were subjected to the tremendous pressure and influence wielded by high-ranking nobles, ministers, and their kinship.

Law under the old regime - Law was neither unitary nor fixed. The absence of a set legal code was in many ways a strength.  In practice then, early modern French law resembled Roberto Bizzocchi's description of law in Renaissance Italy, consisting of "endless sources to interpret . . . both elegant and arbitrary, creative and inconclusive."

In Suskind's Perfume, the story takes place in Ancien Regime era France, where all of France's judicial matters did not follow a code of law, but rather the judge's personal moral system.
https://quod.lib.umich.edu/w/wsfh/0642292.0033.006/--patronage-politics-and-the-rule-of-law-in-early-modern?rgn=main;view=fulltext

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France used a system of "civil law" rather than "common law"
- English-speaking countries generally use common law systems, which are based on consensus and precedent. However, France's civil law system is based solely off of a Code of Law.
- The French judiciary was independent of the legislative authority/government

The two branches of French law
- Private law: The basic law of the land, administered through the judicial courts. Deals with all criminal offences through a local court.
- Public law: Complaints regarding public officials or public services were dealt with in Administrative Courts
https://about-france.com/french-legal-system.htm

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Total of 24 instances the law was involved in Perfume

Instance 1: Appearance of the law in the beheading of Grenouille's mother for infanticide

Instance 2: Appearance of the watchmen following Grenouille's first murder

Instance 3: Baldini's death due to royal decree (House flipped into the river)

Instance 4: Beginning of Grenouille's murder chain the police tried to increase surveillance

Instance 5: The watch gives Grenouille directions to where Laure Richis is

Instance 6: The serious investigation by the police after Laure Richis's murder

Instance 7: The arrest of Grenouille as by the tip from the watch from instance 5

Instance 8: The presentation of the evidence in the trial for Grenouille

Instance 9: The showing of Grenouille from his cell to the angry crowd

Instance 10: The trials and proceedings against Grenouille

Instance 11: The usage of torture in information extraction from Grenouille

Instance 12: The verdict of Grenouille"s execution through breaking of limbs and then hanged

Instance 13:  Grenouille's visit from the priest before the execution

Instance 14: Courts fighting over where the execution would be held

Instance 15: The guards allowing people to peek at Grenouille for a small fee before his execution

Instance 16: An execution stand and seats is built specifically for Grenouille

Instance 17: Lemonade vendor, etchers, peddlers and bakers all prepping for the execution

Instance 18: Everyone preparing for the execution as a formal event and a national holiday

Instance 19: Equipment, executioner and Grenouille being literally paraded into the execution grounds

Instance 20: Grenouille's special treatment being paraded to his execution with his personal guards

Instance 21: Grenouille's verdict being overturned and the witnesses opinions being disregarded by the court

Instance 22: The town council removing the execution preparations on the parade grounds and reopening the murder case

Instance 23: The arrest and extraction of confession from Druot through torture

Instance 24: The quick and casual execution of Druot through hanging