Identity, crime, and legal responsibility in eighteenth-century England / Dana Y. Rabin.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rabin, Dana Y., 1965-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Insanity (Law)--England--Jurisprudence--History--18th century.

Insanity (Law).

England.

Jurisprudence.

History.

Physical Description:

ix, 234 pages ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

Summary:

With their reputations or lives at stake, ordinary men and women in the eighteenth century presented their complex emotions and passions as grounds for acquittal or mitigation of punishment. To account for their criminal behavior and to excuse it, they claimed a space between the coherent self and the insane self: the 'displaced' self. This language had complicated implications within the context of sensibility and the concern with the self that was so distinguishing a characteristic of the eighteenth century. English legal culture struggled not only to contain and to direct the 'ungovernable passions' but also to define the integrated, controlled, and controllable self: what scholars would later call the modern subject. The insights about self and subjectivity generated by this study contribute to our understanding of the relationship between the individual and the state and look toward the impact of these developments on the formation of Britain as a nation. By combining social, cultural, and legal history this study reveals the subtleties of the relationship between emotion, responsibility, gender, class, and citizenship in the eighteenth century and their concrete implications for real people.

Contents:

1 Crime, Culture, and the Self 1

2 'Of the Persons Capable of Committing Crimes': Pleas of Mental Distress in the Eighteenth-Century Courtroom 22

3 Old Excuses, New Meanings: 'Temporary Phrenzy,' Necessity, Passion, and Compulsion 61

4 Bodies of Evidence, States of Mind: Infanticide, Emotion, and Sensibility 95

5 'An indulgence given to great crimes'? Sensibility, Compassion, and Law Reform 111

6 The End of Excuse? James Hadfield and the Insanity Plea 142

7 From Self to Subject 164.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 170-229) and index.

ISBN:

1403934444

OCLC:

55744273