Crime and Society in England, 1500-1800

Module title	Crime and Society in England, 1500-1800
Module code	HIH2203A
Academic year	2020/1
Credits	30
Module staff	Professor Henry French (Convenor)

Duration: Term	1	2	3
Duration: Weeks		11

Number students taking module (anticipated)	34

Module description

This course focuses on crime, criminals and the law in early modern England, providing an exciting insight into society in this period. It has four elements: how the legal system worked; trends in the main categories of crime; differences in types of criminals (in the countryside or towns, between men and women); and how contemporaries thought about crime, feared it and tried to understand it. It uses several large on-line resources, notably Old Bailey On-Line and British History On-Line. These will allow you to research types of crime first-hand, compare them to historians’ interpretations and to discuss these findings in seminars.

Module aims - intentions of the module

You will need effective communication and analytical skills, oral and written, to complete many of your modules and in a job after you graduate. This module aims to help you develop your skills in researching, interpreting, and analysing both primary and secondary material, and in reporting on your work. It provides you with an opportunity to explore an area of history in more depth, and helps you to develop the depth of understanding you will require to study more specialised areas of history. It will also give you an opportunity to work in a team on group tasks.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

1. Be aware of the various developments in the history of Britain in the period 1500 to 1800
2. Make a close evaluation of the key legal, social, cultural and economic trends within the period
3. Evaluate the main themes in the subject and to collate information upon, and evaluate in greater detail, those aspects of the module discussed in seminar and especially those topics selected by students for their coursework

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

4. Analyse the key developments
5. Collate data from a range of sources, both primary and secondary
6. Interpret primary sources
7. Trace long-term as well as short-term historical developments
8. Recognise and deploy historical terminology correctly
9. Assess different approaches to historical writing in areas of controversy

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

10. Work both independently and in a group, including participating in oral seminar discussions
11. Identify a topic, select, comprehend, and organise primary and secondary materials on that topic with little guidance
12. Produce to a deadline and in examination conditions a coherent argument

Syllabus plan

Whilst the content may vary from year to year, it is envisioned that it will cover some or all of the following topics:

Lectures:

Introduction to Module
Historiographies of crime and the law
The Common Law
The Mechanics of Prosecution – from crime to trial
The Mechanics of Prosecution – changing punishment regimes
Theft
Violent Crime
Homicide
Collective Protest
Organised Crime
Crime and punishment in rural society
Urban and metropolitan crime
Crime and women – Infanticide/domestic violence
Crime and women – witchcraft
Crime and men – interpersonal violence
Crime and men – duelling
Counting crimes – the dynamics of crime & the ‘dark figure’
Fiction and the archives? – Interpretation of evidence in court cases
Printing crimes – reactions to crime in contemporary publications
Crime and sensation – notorious thieves
Crime and sensation – ‘Monstrous and unnatural women’
Conclusion

Seminars:

Seminar – What are seminars for?
Seminar – Student-led seminars
Changing Punishment Regimes
The Decline of Violence?
Scapegoats and Deviancy
Law and Constructions of Women
The ‘Honour Code’
Two Concepts of Order?
Elite Conspiracy?
Changing Punishment Regimes
Crime and Sensation

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
44	256

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning and Teaching	22	Lectures
Scheduled Learning and Teaching	22	Seminars; these will be led by the tutor. You will need to prepare for each seminar and present on a given topic in groups of 4 on 4 occasions
Guided independent study	22	Web-based activities located on ELE preparation for seminars and presentations
Guided independent study	234	Reading and preparation for seminars and presentations

Formative assessment

Form of assessment	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Essay plan x 1	500 words	1-12	Verbal and written

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Coursework	Written exams	Practical exams
60	40	0

Details of summative assessment

Form of assessment	% of credit	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Essay	60	3000 Words	1-12	Oral and Written
Take home examination	40	2500 words	1-12	Written

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Original form of assessment	Form of re-assessment	ILOs re-assessed	Timescale for re-assessment
Essay	3000 Words	1-12	Referral/deferral period
Take home examination	Take home examination	1-12	Referral/deferral period

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

Sharpe, J. A., Crime in Early Modern England 1550-1750 (London, 1984).
Emsley, C., Crime and Society in England 1750-1900 (London, 1986).
Cockburn, J. S., A history of English Assizes 1558-1714 (Cambridge, 1972).
Cockburn, J S & Green, T. A., (eds)., Twelve good men and true: the criminal jury in England, 1200-1800 (Princeton, 1988).
Baker, J. H., An Introduction to English Legal History (4th ed., London, 2002), chs. 2, 5, 10, 29 & 30.
Herrup, C. B., The common peace: participation and the criminal law in seventeenth-century England (Cambridge, 1987). (Sussex)
King, P., Crime, Justice and Discretion in England, 1740-1820 (Oxford, 2000), chs 8-10.
Landau, N., The justices of the peace, 1679-1760 (Berkeley, 1984).
Shoemaker, R. B., Prosecution and punishment: petty crime and the law in London and rural Middlesex, c.1660-1725 (Cambridge, 1991).

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

Credit value	30
Module ECTS	15
Module pre-requisites	None
Module co-requisites	None
NQF level (module)	5
Available as distance learning?	No
Last revision date	08/07/2020