Research On Female Crime In Mid Tsing Dynasty

Though it is difficult for us to find out evidence to prove the proportion of crimes committed by women in ancient time, this number must be undoubtedly smaller than that committed by men. In spite of this fact, we can obtain a great deal of information valuable for our research in the history of law, such as the relationship between women of ancient time and law, the actual legal status of ancient women, and the influence of sex consciousness on law, etc.. Previous research on the legal status of women usually focused more on the legal systems than on the implementation of these systems and its impact on women. Therefore, mainly based on analysis of Collection of Criminal Cases, New Collection of Criminal Defense and some materials of Mid Tsing Dynasty conserved in the No. 1 Historical Archives, and from the perspective of female crime, the author hopes to make an observation of the legal status of women in mid Tsing Dynasty and the law of the contemporary society by analyzing the types, characteristics and cause of female crime at that time.1. Marriage and family life and status of women in mid Tsing DynastyThis chapter gives a background introduction to the whole article. Compared to the previous Dynasty, though no substantial changes happened to the marriage and family life and status of women in mid Tsing Dynasty, as the Tsing Dynasty was the last feudalist empire and it was established by an ethnic minority group, some idiosyncratic elements got fermented during this peculiar period. The fast economic development and the relative social stability led to a quick increase in the population and a serious imbalance in sex rate, which had a significant influence upon the marriage and family life and status of women. What's more, the religionalization and clanization of virginity had a subversive effect on both the values and daily life of women in mid Tsing Dynasty.2. Regulations for female crime in the code and case law of mid Tsing DynastyThis chapter serves as the basis on which the author gives a legal analysis of female crime. The Tsing Dynasty inherited the law of Ming Dynasty. Articles regulating female crimes were laid down mainly in the major principles of the criminal code and the penal law. Some offences of female crimes and relevant penalties were specified in the code and case law and other legal documents. In addition, some specific regulations for female crime can be found dispersed in a lot of case collections. Except the state law, families and some family members had powers delegated by law to punish women who were considered as having unlawful behaviors.3. Study on the types and certain cases of female crimesThis chapter gives a systematic analysis of cases collected concerning female crimes in mid Tsing Dynasty, by focusing on the typical categories of offences committed by women, such as human plunder and human trafficking, murdering of grandparents and parents, killing adulterer, intimidation others to death, maidservant beating masters, beating up elders, reporting crimes of near relatives, youngster rebelling against family rules, and adultery etc.. As we can see, these offences were often related with family ethics, which clearly reflected the consequence of women's dependence on themselves and their families. Meanwhile, through the test cases, we can keenly feel the significance of law to the construction of the order of Confucian family ethnics, and the complicated attitude of the authority towards the female offenders which was a mixture of both pity and contempt.4. Characteristics and cause of female crimes in mid Tsing DynastyThis chapter is a conclusive analysis based on the systematic analysis made in Chapter 3. Female crime in mid Tsing Dynasty has seven characteristics, the major of which are as the follows. As far as the types of offences are concerned, many of the offences are related to murder and assault, human trafficking, adultery, reporting crimes of near relatives, rebelling against family rules, the later two of which were peculiar to feudalist China. Most of the offences are related with disturbance of family ethics, and crime resulted from adultery was extremely typical. When it comes to the marriage status, most of the female offenders were married women. When we look at the criminal career of some female offenders, it is clear that many of them had undergone the victim-turned-offender process. Their crimes were usually passive reaction to persecution. As for the cause of female crime, except reasons of themselves, the social elements cannot be neglected, for example, poverty of the lower class, unreasonable marriage and hierarchy system, lack of necessary education were all accountable for female crime in mid Tsing Dynasty.5. View on women, law and society from the perspective of female crime in mid Tsing DynastyThis chapter is a conclusive analysis of the previous four chapters. Women in ancient time were hoped to be humble, ignorant, obedient, and chaste by the opposite sex. But did man at that time get what they want from the system they so carefully designed for women? From the test cases we can get a definitely negative answer to this question. Worse than that, this system not only greatly embittered the female sex but also brought about disastrous effects on the male sex and their families. The law of Tsing Dynasty had played a very active role in building this relationship between the two sexes and the social hierarchy. By the use of law, the state's intervention with the moral life and marriage life of women had expanded to an extreme extent. At the same time, we can also sense clearly the impact of population problems, the migrant problems, and the problem of poverty and the degradation of social morality on the life of the grass root people.On the one hand, female offenders in mid Tsing Dynasty deserve abomination for their criminal behavior; on the other hand, their sufferings also deserve our deep sympathy. Though in this article we explore the cause for their crimes mainly in contemporary legal system, to discover the core of the problem, we still have to take cultural tradition into consideration.