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Gender. Crime and Discretion in the English Criminal Justice System

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Gender. Crime and Discretion in the English Criminal Justice System Gender. Crime and Discretion in the English Criminal Justice System. 1780s to 1830s Deirdre £ P Palk, M.A. A thesis submitted for the degree o f Doctor of Philosophy University of Leicester September 2001 UMI Number: U150448 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U150448 Published by ProQuest LLC 2013. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Abstract Gender, Crime and Discretion in the English Criminal Justice System, 1780s to 1830s Deirdre E. P. Palk Historians of English crime and criminal justice agree that females are more leniently treated by the criminal justice system. Fewer females are prosecuted for unlawftd activities, and, when they are, they are more readily acquitted, or receive lighter sentences than males. However, reasons for this remain elusive. References to the paternalism of those involved in the system, together with notions about masculinity and femininity in a patriarchally ordered society, have been offered in the absence of other more focussed and systematic evidence. This thesis follows a systematic enquiry about three crimes which attracted the death sentence — shoplifting, pickpocketing, and uttering forged Bank of England notes. The period of the study covers the 1780s to the 1830s, and is centred on London and Middlesex. It considers involvement in each crime by gender. The approach seeks to avoid the over-generalisation resulting from synthesis of statistics for a wide variety of offences, and to allow a clearer view of how men and women operated in committing offences. This systematic approach follows the offenders involved in the three crimes through the criminal justice system, so far as it is possible to do so, since the public trial and sentencing at the Old Bailey were not the end of the decision-making story. Previous studies have largely neglected to follow-through to the stage of commutation of sentences and pardons where influences on the decision-makers differed from those on decision-makers at earlier stages of the system. In particular, this thesis focuses on the gendered context of the specific behaviour of male and female offenders in the selected offences, on the effects of a patriarchal system of justice, and on the needs of the State to make political decisions about the disposal of offenders. Deirdre E P Palk September 2001 Acknowledgements My thanks for encouragement, guidance, and challenging demands placed on my abilities go mainly to Professor Peter King at University College Northampton, and to the other members of my supervisory team, Miss Joanna Innes at Somerville College, Oxford, and Dr Alison Oram at UCN. The experience of researching and writing this thesis over six years, part-time, has been a particularly lonely one, since I have continued to earn my living in professional work entirely divorced from any historical or other academic life, and have lived at a distance from my supervisory team. My wish to communicate, in a down-to earth way, the fascination of the social history of ‘ordinary’ people has meant that those who have relieved the loneliness of working on this project have been many personal friends, and even some of the clients of my health and safety consultancy, who have wondered what I have been ‘up to’ in my spare time. Their wish to hear some of the stories I have been researching, and their real interest on hearing these stories and ideas for the first time have encouraged me. It has been good to share my interest in this project with some of the archivists who have assisted me in my researches. My thanks go to the archivists and their staff at the Records Office of the Corporation of the City of London, and, especially, the archivists at the Bank of England. Most of all, I thank Richard Palk, for all his support and encouragement, for reading through many drafts, for keeping my feet on the ground, for offering the most challenging criticisms, for his impatience with academic obtuseness, and his never-failing belief that I could complete this project and produce something worth-while. Table of Contents Table of Contents iii List of Tables v Abbreviations vii Introduction Overall aim of thesis 1 Scope and method of thesis 3 The context: the historiography of criminal justice and gender 8 Broader debates on gender history 17 The social and legal environment 22 The variety of decision-makers 25 Main sources for thesis 28 Structure of thesis 31 Chapter One: The Female Sex - the Great Favourite of The Laws of England Introduction 35 Wives with no legal existence, and women who were coerced 35 Gender discrimination in legal treatise, maxim and precept 40 The excuse of ‘marital coercion’ and the criminal law 43 In his sight - in his power: a limited defence opportunity 46 Gendered judicial and penal practices 50 Conclusion: The male world of the criminal law 54 Chapter Two: From Apprehension to the Old Bailey Introduction 58 Gender and the Tower courts’ 60 The Bank of England and decisions to prosecute 65 Processing crimes against the national currency 66 Decisions not to prosecute 71 Men and women operating together 79 ‘Inappropriate’womanly behaviour 81 Plea-bargaining: men and women’s choices 83 Newspaper reporters and ‘interesting women 85 Conclusion: the effect of difference and similarity 87 Chapter Three: Shoplifting Trials at the Old Bailey 1780 to 1823 Introduction 90 The crime of shoplifting 91 Judicial complexities in shoplifting trials 93 Overview of shoplifting trials, verdicts and sentences 95 Shoplifting and the death sentence 103 Marriage and social status 109 Different gendered behaviour 114 iii Men and women working together 122 Conclusion 123 Chapter Four: Pickpocketing Trials at the Old Bailey 1780-1808 Introduction 127 The crime of pickpocketing 128 Overview of pickpocketing trials, verdicts and sentences 132 Death sentences for pickpocketing 139 Gendered differences in pickpocketing behaviour 142 Conclusion 150 Chapter Five: Bank of England Trials at the Old Bailey -1804-1833 Introduction 152 Prosecutions for forged Bank note offences 155 Verdicts and sentencing in Bank of England cases 162 The role of gender in the crime and its trial 170 Conclusion 177 Chapter Six: The End of the Journey or Further Doors Unlocked? Introduction 179 The system for pardon and remission 181 Criteria in bureaucratic decision-making 183 Old Bailey Sentences: opening and closing of doors 186 Gender and transportation 190 The gendered shift of imprisonment 194 The shadow of the gallows 196 London women hanged for Bank note offences 204 Chapter Seven: Petitioning, Pardon and Mitigation Introduction 211 Londoners, the Home Office and the Appeals System 212 Factors in appeals for mercy: what men and women said 216 Complex responses to petitions 228 Discretion and compassion from the Bank of England 229 Conclusion: Political strategies and paternalistic charity 244 Chapter 8: Conclusion: Gendered Behaviour, Underlying Patriarchal Notions and State Pragmatism Introduction 247 Gender and justice: complexities and uncertainties 249 Continuity in the experiences of the poor 251 Overview of the quantitative framework 254 The focus on three property crimes 256 The criminal activity already gendered before prosecution 259 Decision-making in a patriarchal environment 269 The pragmatic and political needs of the State 276 Appendix 280 Bibliography 282 iv List of tables 2.1: Cases dealt with at Mansion House and Guildhall Justices’ Rooms, City of London, during seven months in 1792,1801,1802 61 2.2: Immediate outcomes of cases heard at Mansion House and Guildhall Justices’ Rooms, (three months during 1792, 1801 and 1802 63 2.3: Cases to be handled at Westminster Sessions of Peace, January 1819 64 2.4: Bank currency cases considered for prosecution on indictment by the Bank of England Committee for Law Suits, 1802-1834 70 2.5: Reasons for not prosecuting on indictment in all criminal cases by the Bank of England, 1802-1834 72 2.6: Bills of indictment ‘not found’ by Grand Jury in Bank of England forged bank note cases (April 1818-September 1821) 78 2.7: Prosecution decisions taken by the Bank of England on men and women operating together (1802-1834) 80 3.1: Shoplifting indictments at Old Bailey Sessions 1780-1823 96 3.2: Verdicts in shoplifting cases: 1780-1823 - Old Bailey Sessions 98 3.3: Sentences in partial verdict shoplifting cases: Old Bailey Sessions 1780-1823 102 3.4: Death sentences for shoplifting - Old Bailey Sessions 1780-1818: possible factors influencing decisions to find fully guilty 105 3.5: Items stolen - shoplifting cases tried at Old Bailey Sessions 1780-1823 116 3.6: Value (specified in indictment) of items stolen in shoplifting cases at Old Bailey Sessions 1780-1823 117 3.7: Methods of concealing the movement of stolen items described in shoplifting cases tried at Old Bailey Sessions 1780-1823 119 4.1: Pickpocketing indictments at Old Bailey Sessions 1780-1808 134 4.2: Verdicts in pickpocketing cases: 1780-1808 - Old Bailey Sessions 135 4.3: Sentences in partial verdict pickpocketing cases: Old Bailey Sessions
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