NCJ Number
181541
Journal
Punishment & Society Volume: 2 Issue: 1 Dated: January 2000 Pages: 106-113
Date Published
January 2000
Length
8 pages
Annotation
Five books published between 1991 and 1997 have examined the history of capital punishment and the abolition of capital punishment in Great Britain.
Abstract
Peter Linebaugh's 1991 book, titled "The London Hanged," reflects the influence of earlier studies. Linebaugh aimed to prove that hangings were the central event in the urban contention between social classes. This book has both merits and flaws; it is at its best a work of labor history. The book "Dublin Hanged" by Brian Henry examines the 242 executions in the city and county of Dublin, Ireland, during 1780-95. The book concludes that Ireland punished crime more harshly in times past than today. "The Hanging Tree" by V.A.C. Gatrell brings both passion and polemic to study the death sentences of 35,000 men, women, and children in England between 1770 and 1830. Most were pardoned and sent to prison hulks or Botany Bay, but 7,000 were hanged. Gatrell challenges the opinion that human sensibility was the main reason for reducing hangings after this period, and argues that executions declined due to the impracticality of executing the increased numbers of felons convicted after the Napoleonic wars. Harry Potter's book, titled "Hanging in Judgment," and Block and Hostettler's "Hanging in the Balance" both focus on the late 19th and 20th century and the events and factors leading to the abolition of capital punishment. All five studies, particularly Gatrell's "The Hanging Tree," deserve a wide readership in Great Britain and the United States, because striking parallels exist between the British past and the present in the United States. Notes and 19 references