Abstract

Synopsis
Both the Victorian age and the late 20th century are often characterized by contemporaries as times of apparent economic affluence and stability. They are also often characterized as periods which both shared a conviction that the stability of society, including its affluence, was threatened by the activities of social deviants. The essays in this volume seek to examine crime of a socially visible nature, in the context of social panic and moral outrage in both the Victorian period and the late 20th century. Through a series of interconnected case studies, exploring the social and legal responses to such offending, and their public presentation through popular reporting and the court system, a series of apparent continuities as well as discontinuities are highlighted in the making of legislation. The interdisciplinary focus of the book allows it to locate the legal processes and system firmly within the socio-cultural context, instead of examining it as a discrete area of individual study.