Overview

This book explores serious criminality in Scotland between 1660 and c.1700. Through in-depth analysis of the records of the Justiciary Court, Scotland's central criminal jurisdiction, it reconstructs the meaning of 'crime' as understood by seventeenth-century Scots, before moving on to assess patterns of prosecution, the causes of crime, the performance of criminality, and wider response to illegal behaviour, all with a view to reconstructing the social meaning of crime. The result is an unprecedentedly detailed and systematic account of criminal behaviour which adds a completely new perspective to our understanding of early modern Scotland.

Full Product Details

9781399533164

Table of Contents

Reviews

This books offers the first substantial intervention in the history of crime in seventeenth-century Scotland. It provides an important account of how Scots conceptualised, prosecuted, and punished criminal behaviour. It is a must read for historians of Scottish social, economic and criminal life.--Katie Barclay, Macquarie University, Sydney

This books offers the first substantial intervention in the history of crime in seventeenth-century Scotland. It provides an important account of how Scots conceptualised, prosecuted, and punished criminal behaviour. It is a must read for historians of Scottish social, economic and criminal life. -- Katie Barclay, Macquarie University, Sydney

Author Information

Dr Allan Kennedy is a lecturer in history at the University of Dundee. His research focuses on the political and social history of early modern Scotland, particularly the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries. His first book, Governing Gaeldom: The Scottish Highlands and the Restoration State, 1660-1688 (Leiden, 2014) won the Frank Watson Book Prize.

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