Women, Crime, and Custody in Victorian England

This book explores how the Victorians perceived and explained female crime, and how they responded to it - both in penal theory and prison practice. In Victorian England women made up a far larger proportion of those known to be involved in crime than they do today; the nature of female criminality attracted considerable attention and preoccupied those trying to provide for women within the penal system.Lucia Zedner's rigorously researched study examines the extent to which gender-based ideologies influenced attitudes to female criminality. She charts the shift from the moral analyses dominant in the mid-nineteenth century to the interpretation of criminality as biological or psychological disorder prevalent later. Using a wide variety of sources - including prison regulations, diaries, letters, punishment books, grievances and appeals, Dr Zedner explores both penological theory and therealities of prison life. This is a rich and scholarly study, which reveals much about the relationship between responses to female criminality and prevailing social values and concerns.Zedner, Lucia is the author of 'Women, Crime, and Custody in Victorian England', published 1991 under ISBN 9780198202646 and ISBN 0198202644.