Authors:
- Provides the first extensive investigation of the use of capital punishment in eighteenth and nineteenth-century Scotland
- Utilises Scottish court records and draws upon previously untapped resources related to crime and punishment in this period
- Provides an innovative investigation of the post-mortem punishment of the criminal corpse
Part of the book series: Palgrave Historical Studies in the Criminal Corpse and its Afterlife (PHSCCA)
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Front Matter
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The Implementation of the Death Sentence in Scotland
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Front Matter
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The Theatre of the Gallows in Scotland
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
This book provides the most in-depth study of capital punishment in Scotland between the mid-eighteenth and early nineteenth century to date. Based upon an extensive gathering and analysis of previously untapped resources, it takes the reader on a journey from the courtrooms of Scotland to the theatre of the gallows. It introduces them to several of the malefactors who faced the hangman’s noose and explores the traditional hallmarks of the spectacle of the scaffold. It demonstrates that the period between 1740 and 1834 was one of discussion, debate and fundamental change in the use of the death sentence and how it was staged in practice. In addition, the study provides an innovative investigation of the post-mortem punishment of the criminal corpse. It offers the reader an insight into the scene at the foot of the gibbets from which criminal bodies were displayed and around the dissection tables of Scotland’s main universities where criminal bodies were used as cadavers for anatomical demonstration. In doing so it reveals an intermediate stage in the long-term disappearance of public bodily punishment.
Authors and Affiliations
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University of Warwick, Warwick, United Kingdom
Rachel E. Bennett
About the author
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Capital Punishment and the Criminal Corpse in Scotland, 1740–1834
Authors: Rachel E. Bennett
Series Title: Palgrave Historical Studies in the Criminal Corpse and its Afterlife
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62018-3
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2018
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-319-62017-6Published: 15 December 2017
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-319-87214-8Published: 30 August 2018
eBook ISBN: 978-3-319-62018-3Published: 04 December 2017
Series ISSN: 2947-6348
Series E-ISSN: 2947-6356
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XV, 237
Number of Illustrations: 1 b/w illustrations
Topics: History of Britain and Ireland, Social History, Crime and Society, Cultural History, History of Science