Making murder public : homicide in early modern England, 1480-1680 / K.J. Kesselring.

First edition.

9780191873195 (electronic book)

Oxford : Oxford University Press, 2019.

English

1 online resource.

HV6535.G5

364.15209420903

Homicide has a history. In early modern England, that history saw two especially notable developments: one, the emergence in the sixteenth century of a formal distinction between murder and manslaughter, made meaningful through a lighter punishment than death for the latter, and two, a significant reduction in the rates of homicides individuals perpetrated on each other. This text explores connections between these two changes. It demonstrates the value in distinguishing between murder and manslaughter, or at least in seeing how that distinction came to matter in a period which also witnessed dramatic drops in the occurrence of homicidal violence.

Homicide has a history. In early modern England, that history saw two especially notable developments: one, the emergence in the sixteenth century of a formal distinction between murder and manslaughter, made meaningful through a lighter punishment than death for the latter, and two, a significant reduction in the rates of homicides individuals perpetrated on each other. This text explores connections between these two changes. It demonstrates the value in distinguishing between murder and manslaughter, or at least in seeing how that distinction came to matter in a period which also witnessed dramatic drops in the occurrence of homicidal violence.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Access limited to authorized users.

Description based on online resource; title from home page (viewed on February 8, 2019).

Oxford scholarship online.

Print version: 9780198835622