Clayton, M. and Shoemaker, R. orcid.org/0000-0002-0969-0373 (2022) Blood money and the bloody code: the impact of financial rewards on criminal justice in eighteenth-century England. Continuity and Change, 37 (1). pp. 97-125. ISSN 0268-4160
Abstract
The introduction of rewards for the conviction of serious criminals fundamentally transformed English criminal justice. The prospect of rewards totalling up to £140 encouraged additional prosecutions, more full (as opposed to partial) guilty verdicts, and more death sentences. In the process, in a series of largely unintended consequences, two fundamental pillars of early-modern justice were undermined: reliance on the public to prosecute, and the death penalty to deter crime. Policing agents began to play a much more important role in apprehending criminals, while the high level of executions contributed to growing doubts about the efficacy of capital punishment.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press. This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Continuity and Change. Article available under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Arts and Humanities (Sheffield) > Department of History (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number NEW OPPORTUNITIES FUND DIG/2000/149 |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 20 Jul 2022 14:14 |
Last Modified: | 20 Jul 2022 14:14 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Cambridge University Press (CUP) |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1017/s0268416022000078 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:189266 |
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