Preliminary Programme

Wed 24 March
    8:30
    10:45
    14:15
    16:30

Thu 25 March
    8:30
    10:45
    14:15
    16:30

Fri 26 March
    8:30
    10:45
    14.15
    16.30

Sat 27 March
    8:30
    10:45
    14:15
    16:30

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Wednesday 24 March 2004 8:30
N-1 CRI01 Domestic, Capital Punishment & Popular Culture(18th-20th C.)
Room N
Network: Criminal Justice Chair: Xavier Rousseaux
Organizers: - Discussants: -
Séverine Auray : Marital violence in Geneva during the Nineteeth Century
This paper inquires the marital violence that occurred in Geneva during the Nineteenth Century. It was possible to analyse this issue by studying the courts reports for this period. Criminal reports reveal domestic violence in everyday life like blows and wounds, bad treatments or family desertion, etc., but also more ... (Show more)
This paper inquires the marital violence that occurred in Geneva during the Nineteenth Century. It was possible to analyse this issue by studying the courts reports for this period. Criminal reports reveal domestic violence in everyday life like blows and wounds, bad treatments or family desertion, etc., but also more serious cases : murder, such as premeditated or not, and poisoning. Entering the couple’s private circle through judicial records, reveals that the family cell, like society, was not only a place where solidarity and affection prevailed but also a place where crimes and tragedies occurred. Family appeared to be a micro-society in which marital violence, like state violence, was considered as legitimate and was confirmed by the civil code. This persistency of a patriarchal spirit during the Nineteenth Century can be appreciated by the status women occupied. The spouse was under marital authority, which consequently authorised the husband, within bounds, to exert his right of punishment. The study of the causes that lead to violence can help to determine if it was really a question of punitive violence or not. As for the study of the judicial system, it specifies which kinds of violences were acceptable and which were not tolerated. The State, through a thorough social control, kept a close eye on family relationship allowing it to regulate behavior and intervene in cases of excess. The analysis of files where a condemnation did occur allows not only to determine the limit between what was acceptable and what was not to the eyes of society, but also to probe the moral criteria the law used to pass judgement. (Show less)

Martin Bergman : Murder as a short cut to heaven - popular beliefs, debate and official reactions in Nordic and German states ca 1750-1850
To commit a murder in order to be executed – not driven by a desire to die, to commit suicide – but by a longing for heaven. Seeking to be executed in a state of peace with God, attained through pastoral care, absolution and holy communion, and thus hastily and ... (Show more)
To commit a murder in order to be executed – not driven by a desire to die, to commit suicide – but by a longing for heaven. Seeking to be executed in a state of peace with God, attained through pastoral care, absolution and holy communion, and thus hastily and securely be saved. Some would call it lunacy, but some two hundred or, even more, three hundred years ago these murders seems to have been a non-negligible part of the murders in, at least, the Nordic countries and parts of Germany. That the majority of these murderers were women and that many of the victims were children are often stated. In these countries from the 1740's repeated legislative action was taken aimed to stop these crimes.
In legislation and other actions several strategies were used to reach the target and my main aim is to study these strategies, of which I've identified three basic approaches.
One tried to shift the focus of the execution from the delinquent and her eternal destiny. A major part of this strategy was to lessen the liturgical nature of the execution and limit the role of the clergy. Instead of transcendent perspectives the execution should paint the picture of a just punishment.
If this kind of strategy was aimed to make the ordinary citizen less inclined to commit any crimes, other strategies were directly aimed at those inclined to commit these murders. To try to deter them one method was to make the execution more severe, through, for instance, torturous additions.
The third basic strategy, finally, was to cease executing these murderers, thus denying them their goal. Eventually, this route could be conceived as leading to abolition of capital punishment.
Although the reactions provoked from society and state are focused, theological conceptions concealed and expressed in the motives for the murders, in the actions taken to end them and in the debate concerning the situation are of particular interest. The scant material directly expressing the motives tends to point to influence from the liturgy and dramaturgy of the execution as a trigging factor. Although my study mainly concerns countries with predominantly Lutheran confessors, it is not an isolated Lutheran phenomenon, for instance a murder in a theatre in Lyon was thus motivated. There is no obvious dogmatic reason for the problem to be restricted to one or a few confessions. There is, however, important theological material present in the debate, either emerging from practical considerations on how to deal with the murderers or, on a more dogmatic level, discussing questions such as the possibility of a late conversion. (Show less)

Donald Fyson : Domestic Violence between Men in Quebec and Lower Canada, 1780-1850
This paper examines an often-neglected aspect of domestic violence: that between men. While not in the least denying the fundamental importance of violence directed at women and children, it argues that in order to understand domestic violence, we need also to examine the violence that went on between men in ... (Show more)
This paper examines an often-neglected aspect of domestic violence: that between men. While not in the least denying the fundamental importance of violence directed at women and children, it argues that in order to understand domestic violence, we need also to examine the violence that went on between men in the domestic sphere. This is especially the case in pre-industrial and early industrial societies where household composition was more extended than in the age of the nuclear family and where domestic space was far more fluid and permeable. Using Quebec and Lower Canada as an example, it seeks to reconstruct the prevalence, causes, nature and consequences of domestic violence between men in a small pre-industrial and industrializing society, from 1790 to 1850. Applying a broad definition of domestic violence, it looks both at violence involving men of the same household and at violent incidents between men that took place within the home. The paper is based primarily on an examination of the records of the lower and upper criminal courts of the judicial districts of Quebec and Montreal and on newspaper reports. (Show less)

Geoffroy Le Clercq : The courts and intra-family violences in the Namurois, 1830-1900
Based on a study of trials and court records of the Namurois (Belgium) in the second half of the 19th century, this presentation will highlight why and how some intra-family violences - especially incests and conjugal violences cases - were brought to the attention of the courts, and how it ... (Show more)
Based on a study of trials and court records of the Namurois (Belgium) in the second half of the 19th century, this presentation will highlight why and how some intra-family violences - especially incests and conjugal violences cases - were brought to the attention of the courts, and how it was viewed and dealt with by them. A way to approach social representations and also the subtle relationships between courts, police officers and the local communities... (Show less)

Richard Mc Mahon : Homicide, the courts and popular culture in Ireland 1800-1850
The historiography of early nineteenth Ireland has placed a strong emphasis on the role of violence in Irish society, with one historian describing it as a 'remarkably violent country'. This view is primarily based on the numerous studies of rural unrest in early nineteenth century Ireland which have demonstrated ... (Show more)
The historiography of early nineteenth Ireland has placed a strong emphasis on the role of violence in Irish society, with one historian describing it as a 'remarkably violent country'. This view is primarily based on the numerous studies of rural unrest in early nineteenth century Ireland which have demonstrated how violence and the threat of violence was utilized by agrarian secret societies in order to regulate socio-economic conditions and to uphold communal or popular norms. Indeed, violence has been seen not only as an important element in
agrarian movements but also as being deeply rooted in popular
culture. According to one commentator, a 'broad feeling of sympathy
towards violence' was 'virtually universal' in Ireland at this time.
This focus on 'agrarian' or popular violence in pre-famine Ireland has tended to overshadow and relegate questions of crime, and responses to it, to a position of secondary importance in our understanding of early
nineteenth century Ireland. There has been little examination of the incidence and nature of particular violent offences such as assault, or, the concern of this paper, homicide. These offences are generally
understood and examined in terms of their relevance to wider debates about the character of rural disorder and popular protest.
Moreover, the notion, or even assumption, of popular tolerance of and support for 'agrarian' violence has largely obscured the need for a detailed examination of popular reactions to violent crime (both agrarian and non-agrarian). To the extent that reactions have been investigated it has generally been in the context of government policy, often with a particular emphasis on the establishment of a national police force and the periodic implementation of emergency legislation. There has been little detailed examination of how ordinary people reacted to violent crime and the extent to which they participated in the official court system to try and prosecute, or aid in the prosecution, of those who broke
the law.

This paper attempts to redress this imbalance somewhat by
focusing on both the incidence and prosecution of homicide cases in Ireland in the first half of the nineteenth century. Firstly, I attempt to provide a quantitative and contextual analysis of homicide in Ireland
and to place the Irish experience within a comparative framework. Secondly, I engage in an analysis of the extent to which ordinary people either participated in or resisted the prosecution of
homicide cases through the courts. In doing so, I hope to offer a new insight into experiences of and attitudes to violence in Ireland at the time. (Show less)



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