Knafla and his contributors explore the common problems and issues that emerge from the study of class and gender in criminal prosecutions, ranging from late medieval Europe to the early 20th century. The chapters demonstrate that conceptions of crime and criminal behavior are influenced decisively by the roles of class, gender, and later race as societies evolve in search of continuity and conformity.The seven chapters in this volume, together with a major book review essay and critical reviews of sixteen major works in the area, reinforce the series as a major forum for exploring new directions in criminal justice research as it relates to issues and problems of class, gender, and race in their historical, criminological, legal, and social aspects. The chapters explore common themes and issues that emerge from the study of class and gender through policing and criminal prosecutions in the local community to growing attempts of the new nation state to gain control of the prosecutorial system.Trevor Dean and Lee Beier examine prosecutorial energy in local communities of 15th and 16th century Europe, and see instruments of peace (agreement) and war (prosecution and conviction) as worthy institutions of social control. Andrea Knox studies the prosecution of Irish women, finding that they were prominent as perpetrators of crime as well as victims. Antony Simpson shows how sexual indiscretions developed the law of blackmail in the 18th century, influencing subtle changes in gender roles. David Englander's study of Henry Mayhew reinterprets the role of class in the criminal prosecutions of the 19th century, while Arvind Verma and Philippa Levine extend the roles of class and gender that had been developed in the criminal justice system into the imperial colonies of south-east and east Asia in the 19th and early 20th centuries. An important resource for scholars, students, and researchers involved with legal, political, social, and women's history, criminal justice studies, sociology and criminology, and criminal law.

PrefaceIntroduction, by Louis A. KnaflaViolence, Vendetta, and Peacemaking in Late-Medieval Bologna by Trevor DeanFemale Criminality and Subversion in Early Modern Ireland by Andrea KnoxFoucault Redux? Creating Bridewell, 1500-1560 by Lee BeierBlackmail as a Crime of Sexual Indiscretion in 18th Century England by Antony SimpsonHenry Mayhew and the Criminal Classes of Victorian England: The Case Re-Opened by David EnglanderConsolidation of the Raj by Arvind VermaThe White Slave Trade and the British Empire by Philippa LevineReview EssayNew Directions in the History of Crime and the Law in Early Modern England by Malcolm GaskillBook ReviewsChristian-Nils Robert, La Justice, Vertu, Courtisane et Bourreau by Francine MichaudTrevor Dean and K.J.P. Lowe, Crime, Society, and the Law in Renaissance Italy by David LavenThomas Kuehn, Law, Family, & Women: Toward a Legal Anthropology of Renaissance Italy by Trevor DeanMalcolm Greenshields, An Economy of Violence in Early Modern France: Crime and Justice in the Haute Auvergne, 1587-1664 by Mark KonnertDaniel A. Cohen, Pillars of Salt, Monuments of Grace: New England Crime Literature and the Origins of American Popular Culture, 1674-1860, and Andie Tucher, Froth and Scum: Truth, Beauty, Goodness and the Axe Murder in America's First Mass Medium by Amy Gilman SrebnickAngus McLaren, A Prescription for Murder: The Victorian Serial Killings of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream by Clive EmsleyEric A. Johnson, Urbanization and Crime: Germany 1871-1914 by Carl WadeTimothy J. Gilfoyle, City of Eros: New York City, Prostitution, and the Cemmercialization of Sex, 1790-1920, David J. Langum, Crossing Over the Line: Legislating Morality and the Mann Act, and Mary E. Odem, Delinquent Daughters: Protecting and Policing Adolescent Female Sexuality in the United States, 1885-1920 by Mark HallerAmy Gilman Srebnick, The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers: Sex and Culture in 19th Century New York by Anne ParrellaJonathan Goodman, The Passing of Starr Faithfull by Paul NigolRichard F. Hamm, Shaping the 18th Amendment: Temperance Reform, Legal Culture, and the Polity, 1880-1920 by Marvin ZalmanDorothy Harley Eber, Images of Justice--A Legal History of the Northwest Territories as Traced through the Yellowknife Courthouse Collection of Inuit Sculpture by Johnathan SwaingerSteven Greer, Supergrasses: A Study in Anti-Terrorist Law Enforcement in Morthern Ireland by Stanley H. PalmerIndex