2017 Participants
Dotty Walker
The number of crimes carrying the death penalty in England and Wales dropped from sixty to four in the quarter of a century from 1832. Many people feared this would lead to a sharp increase in offences, and the period is often still seen as one of widespread criminality. To test this perception, I examined violent crime in York during a thirty-year period using a variety of official records and reports. These showed the number of trials for assault did not increase, whilst those for robbery with violence and homicide rose slightly in relation to population size. The overall picture is of crime levels resulting more from growing social pressures than changes in sentencing. Another factor was the development of a new police force, although it was difficult to determine its effectiveness in terms of detection and prevention. What is clear is that the feared upsurge in violent crime did not happen.
Funding source: Newcastle University
Supervisor: Professor Jeremy Boulton