Crime in England 1688-1815 by David J Cox

Author:David J Cox [Cox, David J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, General, Criminology
ISBN: 9781136184222
Google: dhJxAwAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2014-04-24T05:56:28+00:00

6

Gender and the criminal justice system

Among other eccentricities of the day is a female constable in the Borough of Southwark, who keeps a Lock-up House for persons arrested for debt.1

Introduction

Men and women were not considered to be equal in the eyes of the law in England and Wales during the period under discussion and the law was extremely detrimental to women’s rights and property. Married women and any property or goods that they brought to the marriage were deemed to belong to their husbands and divorce was unobtainable except in exceptional circumstances; it was not until the Matrimonial Causes Act 1857 (20 & 21 Vict. c.85) that the law enabled men and women to apply for legal divorce without having to resort to the introduction of private Acts of Parliament.2 Such laws made it very difficult for women to bring legal challenges to their husbands’ authority in cases of domestic violence or sexual abuse (including rape). Equally, any act of sexual misconduct by a woman (especially if married) was dealt with more severely than had the protagonist been male.

This chapter discusses the roles of gender within the criminal justice system. It begins by investigating women’s position both as offenders and as victims/prosecutors. It also discusses crimes involving gender identity and the problems that such activities caused the authorities.3

Women as law-enforcement officials

That the use of a female as a minor agent of law enforcement was deemed worthy of comment in The Times, from which the quotation at the head of this chapter is taken, illustrates that women played almost no official part in the criminal justice system of the eighteenth century. It was not until the latter decades of the nineteenth century that women became more visible in this sphere. Apart from the aforementioned use of a female ‘constable’ to operate the lock-up in Southwark in 1792, it is not until 1828 that reports of another female acting as an official agent of law enforcement appear in the press. The Standard of 21 April 1828 brought the following account to its readers’ attention:

PETTICOAT GOVERNMENT

The good people of the township of Urmston, being persuaded of the superiority of the ‘petticoat form of government’ to all others, have, for two successive years, made choice of a female constable as a ‘terror to evil-doers’ within the bounds of the township. Last year, the lot fell upon Miss Clementina Trafford, who, in person or by deputy, discharged the office to the high satisfaction of the inhabitants; and the appointment of Miss Catherine Newton, as constable for the ensuing year, was last week, duly confirmed by the court and jury at the Salford leet.4

Six years later, Robert Jones, the well-respected and long-serving Constable of Stafford, took the highly unusual and inspired decision to use a female deputy to spy on the activities of a female pickpocket.5 And, according to Emsley, in 1883:

The Metropolitan Police began to employ a female visitor to visit women convicts on licence and under police supervision […] in March 1889 fourteen more women were employed to act formally as Police Matrons.

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