Dr. Johnson and the Old Bailey

1928 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 182-194
Author(s):  
Theobald Mathew
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Court ◽  
Old Bailey

We all know the Old Bailey—now, by statute, the Central Criminal Court—in Newgate Street. The Old Bailey as Dr. Johnson knew it is no more, and the present building is still in its infancy—blooded, it is true, but an infant. Its predecessor—a gloomy and forbidding structure—had had a long, busy and unwholesome career before its disappearance some twenty years ago.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-7
Author(s):  
Carolyn A. Conley
Keyword(s):  
Gender Norms ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
The Press ◽  
Old Bailey

This book examines how the types of homicides women were accused of and the responses these women encountered in the courts and the press reflected and challenged prevailing gender norms. The primary sources are the Old Bailey Sessions Papers which include the trials heard at the Central Criminal Court in London between 1674 and 1913. The introduction discusses the strengths and limitations of the Old Bailey Sessions Papers as well as other primary sources such as the Ordinary Accounts, broadsheets, pamphlets, and newspapers. It offers an overview of changing norms and stereotypes for women during the period as well as a summary of changes in criminal procedures.

First Impressions: Footprints as Forensic Evidence in Crime in Fact and Fiction

Costume ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 53 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-66
Author(s):  
Alison Matthews David
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Court ◽  
Forensic Evidence ◽  
Science Texts ◽  
The Public ◽  
New Information ◽  
Object Based ◽  
Old Bailey ◽  
History Of ◽  
Widespread Belief ◽  
Critical Methods

As skilled ‘detectives’, dress historians are experts in closely reading surviving artefacts and using them to glean evidence of the lives of those who made and wore them. With shoes and footwear, this rich, object-based approach can yield new information that challenges established histories. This article turns traditional object analysis on its head by interrogating instead the impressions and traces that objects leave behind, taking a forensic approach to footwear. It examines the rise of scientific policing and the history of footprints as a key form of evidence in crime fact and fiction. Five key British and Francophone stories and novels written between 1833 and 1931 provide a barometer of how narratives of the capital offence of murder and footwear evidence shifted during this century. These are interwoven with contemporary forensic science texts, police handbooks, newspaper articles and trial transcripts from the Central Criminal Court of England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey. This article charts the shift in perceptions that occurred between 1830 and 1890, which I call the ‘Age of Conviction’, a period where there was a widespread belief in the veracity of prints, to an ‘Age of Suspicion’ from 1890 to 1930, as more scientific and critical methods of examination and recording made detectives and the public sceptical and wary of deception.

scholarly journals An Open Access Source for the Study of Religion and the Law: The Proceedings of the Old Bailey: London's Central Criminal Court 1674-1913

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 28-37
Author(s):  
Fred Guyette
Keyword(s):  
World Wide Web ◽  
Open Access ◽  
Theological Education ◽  
World Wide ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Court Records ◽  
Religion And Law ◽  
The World ◽  
Old Bailey ◽  
Selection Of

The work of theological librarians is in a state of rapid flux as collections of digitized texts become more widely available, and as theological education continues to shift from paper to a more electronic research environment. /The Proceedings of the/ /Old Bailey, London 1674-1913 /is a rich collection of court records, now freely available on the World Wide Web (http://www.oldbaileyonline.org.uk/ ). The study of a small, but meaningful selection of texts from the /OBP/ shows how theological librarians can use this resource to advance the conversation between religion and law. Five examples are offered to indicate how this might be done.

scholarly journals How Punishment Severity Affects Jury Verdicts: Evidence from Two Natural Experiments

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 36-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Bindler ◽  
Randi Hjalmarsson
Keyword(s):  
Capital Punishment ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Jury Decision Making ◽  
Natural Experiments ◽  
English History ◽  
Difference In Differences ◽  
Jury Verdicts ◽  
Jury Behavior ◽  
Old Bailey ◽  
Jury Decision

This paper studies the effect of punishment severity on jury decision making using archival data from London’s Old Bailey Criminal Court from 1772 to 1871. We exploit two natural experiments in English history, resulting in sharp decreases in punishment severity: the offense-specific abolition of capital punishment and the temporary halt of penal transportation during the American Revolution. Using difference-in-differences to study the former and a pre-post design for the latter, we find a large, significant, and permanent impact on jury behavior: juries are more likely to convict overall and across crime categories. Moreover, the effect size differs with defendants’ gender. (JEL K41, K42, N43)

Phrasal verb vs. Simplex pairs in legal-lay discourse: the Late Modern English period in focus

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 197-220
Author(s):  
Ljubica Leone
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Court ◽  
Phrasal Verbs ◽  
Lexical Choice ◽  
Lay People ◽  
Old Bailey ◽  
Phrasal Verb ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Late Modern ◽  
Selection Of

Abstract The present paper attempts to describe the divergences between nearly synonymous phrasal verb/simplex pairs from court trials dating back to the Late Modern English period (LModE). The intention was to evaluate the effects that each verb form might exert in discourse, interpreting the lexical choice as functionally linked to the contents of the legal-lay discourse, that is the discourse between lay people and professionals in the courtroom (Heffer 2005: xv). Research to date has highlighted how the choice of one form or another needs to be explained in terms of register and degree of expressiveness (Bolinger 1971: 172; McArthur 1989: 40; Hiltunen 1999: 161; Claridge 2000: 221). However, no studies have yet evaluated the difference between phrasal verbs and simplexes from a phraseological perspective, or reflected on how their use is functionally linked to the communicative needs in courtroom settings. The study was conducted on the Late Modern English-Old Bailey Corpus (LModE-OBC), a self-compiled corpus that covers the century 1750–1850 and that includes a selection of trials drawn from The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, London’s Central Criminal Court.

scholarly journals On the street in nineteenth-century London

Urban History ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Colin Pooley
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Social Groups ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Pedestrian Movement ◽  
Old Bailey ◽  
History Of

Abstract This article uses statements made at London's Central Criminal Court (the Old Bailey) by victims and witnesses of crime in nineteenth-century London to reveal the hidden history of pedestrian movement on the city's streets. It demonstrates that men and women of all ages and social groups walked the streets at most times of the day and night, and argues that walking was not only a normal and taken-for-granted activity, but that pedestrianism could contribute to the development of a community of the street.

scholarly journals Path Dependency in Jury Decision Making

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (6) ◽  
pp. 1971-2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Bindler ◽  
Randi Hjalmarsson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Fixed Effects ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Path Dependency ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Contrast Effects ◽  
Guilty Verdict ◽  
High Stake ◽  
Current Case ◽  
Old Bailey

Abstract A large behavioral economics literature is concerned with cognitive biases in individual and group decisions, including sequential decisions. These studies often find a negative path-dependency consistent with mechanisms such as the gambler's fallacy or contrast effects. We provide the first test for such biases in group decision making using observational data. Specifically, we study more than 27,000 verdicts adjudicated sequentially by over 900 juries for high-stake criminal cases at London's Old Bailey Criminal Court in the 18th and 19th centuries. Using jury fixed effects to account for heterogeneity in their baseline propensity to convict, we find that a previous guilty verdict significantly increases the chance of a subsequent guilty verdict by 6.7%–14.1%. This positive autocorrelation is robust to alternative estimation strategies, independent of jury experience and driven by the most recent lag and pairs of similar cases. Such positive path dependency may be explained by sequential assimilation effects, which may reflect a jury's desire to be internally consistent, and short-term “emotional” impacts of the characteristics and/or outcome of one case on another. As in modern-day jury studies, our results highlight that factors independent of the facts and evidence of the current case might affect jury behavior.

Prosecuting Attempted Suicides in London: 1891–1913

2009 ◽  
Vol 105 (3) ◽  
pp. 825-826 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Lester
Keyword(s):  
Attempted Suicide ◽  
Criminal Court ◽  
Old Bailey

A study of 30 cases of attempted suicide tried at the Old Bailey criminal court in London (England) from 1891 to 1913 indicated that having made prior attempts was the only predictor of the severity of the sentence. 22 individuals were tried for murdering or attempting to murder their child and also attempting suicide. None of the murderers but half of the attempted murderers were found not guilty, or guilty then released. Mothers used drowning more than did fathers and were more likely to be found not guilty.

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