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Written by a collection of internationally acknowledged experts, this rounded, coherent history of crime and the law demonstrates the evolution of attitudes towards crime and criminality over the last four hundred years. Topics covered include fraud, policing, adultery, infanticide and the death penalty.

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Providing a rounded and coherent history of crime and the law spanning the past 400 years, Histories of Crime explores the evolution of attitudes towards crime and criminality over time. Bringing together contributions from internationally acknowledged
experts, the book highlights themes, current issues and key debates in the history of deviance and bad behaviour, including:

? marital cruelty and adultery
? infanticide
? murder
? the underworld
? blasphemy and moral crimes
? fraud and white-collar crime
? the death penalty and punishment.

Individual case studies of violent and non-violent crime are used to explore the human means and motives behind criminal practice. Through these, the book illuminates society´s wider attitudes and fears about criminal behaviour and the way in which these influence the law and legal system over time. This fascinating book is essential reading for students and teachers of history, sociology and criminology, as well as anyone interested in Britain´s criminal past.

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Introduction.- Moral Crimes and the Law in Britain Since 1700; D.Nash.- Cruelty and Adultery: Offences Against the Institution of Marriage; J.Bailey.- Desperate Measures or Cruel Intentions: Infanticide in Britain since 1600; A.M.Kilday.- ´Most Intimate Violations´: Contextualising the Crime of Rape; K.Stevenson.- Murder and Fatality: The Changing Face of Homicide; S.D´Cruze.- Criminality, Deviance and The Underworld Since 1750; H.Shore.- Fraud and White Collar Crime: 1850 to the Present; S.Wilson.- Policing the Populace: the road to Professionalisation; C.Williams.- Execution as Punishment in England, 1750-2000; J.Rowbotham.- Annotated Further Reading.

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ANNE-MARIE KILDAY is Principal Lecturer in History at Oxford Brookes University, UK. She researches and publishes on the history of violent crime and the history of female criminality since the early modern period.

DAVID NASH is Professor of History at Oxford Brookes University, UK. He has published extensively in the areas of the history of blasphemy, blasphemous libel and religious crime for over fifteen years. He is also author of Cultures of Shame: Exploring Crime and Morality in Britain 1650-1900 (with Anne-Marie Kilday).

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