Unsound empire civilization and madness in late-Victorian law

Unsound Empire' is a history of criminal responsibility in the nineteenth-century British Empire told through detailed accounts of homicide cases across three continents. If a defendant in a murder trial was going to hang, he or she had to deserve it. Establishing the mental element of guilt-cr...

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
1. Verfasser: Evans, Catherine L. (VerfasserIn)
Format: UnknownFormat
Sprache:eng
Veröffentlicht: New Haven, London Yale University Press 2021
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Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:Unsound Empire' is a history of criminal responsibility in the nineteenth-century British Empire told through detailed accounts of homicide cases across three continents. If a defendant in a murder trial was going to hang, he or she had to deserve it. Establishing the mental element of guilt-criminal responsibility-transformed state violence into law. And yet, to the consternation of officials in Britain and beyond, experts in new scientific fields posited that insanity was widespread and growing, and evolutionary theories suggested that wide swaths of humanity lacked the self-control and understanding that common law demanded. Could it be fair to punish mentally ill or allegedly "uncivilized" people? Could British civilization survive if killers avoided the noose?
Beschreibung:Includes bibliographical references and index
Beschreibung:290 Seiten
Illustrationen
25 cm
ISBN:9780300242744
978-0-300-24274-4
0300242743
0-300-24274-3