Female Crime And Its Governance In Early Modern England

Nowadays, the causes and governance of female crime has got more and more attention from many countries. The thesis mainly researches female crime in early modern England, giving an overall study on causes and main types of female crime and solutions to it. Female crime was once very serious in early modern England, and was then important reflection of crisis of order and gender. The domestic research on types of female crime, however, has long been much too narrow, lacking categorization analysis.The thesis will try to pay attention to different female crimes, analyze the causes of female crime from various angles, summarize the measures of government and society respectively and evaluate their influence. There are four parts in this thesis.The first part analyzes the causes of female crime. In aspects of marriage and family,many women's marriage is unhappy. On one hand, owing to polarized opinions of mate selection, middle and upper class women become victims of family interests; lower women have more rights in mate selection, but often neglect economic base. On the other,it is easy to enter the marriage system but difficult to exit. Therefore, some women are deserted after marriage but they aren't able to dissolute it. More importantly, domestic violence is universal in British society. In aspects of economic and work, the economic status of women is fragile,pushing them into poverty. Firstly,women's ability to accumulate property is limited; secondly, the salaries of women are low and unstable. In aspects of culture and education, women suffer from negative views of themselves, but they are subject to limitations on learning knowledge and skills.The second part introduces main types of female crime and compares their characteristics. The main types of female crime include crimes of violence, property crimes, verbal transgression and sexual immorality. In crimes of violence, the object women kills are families and neighbors; the means by which women assaults aren't cruel but humiliating enough; and by which women kills are concealing. In property crimes,the goods women steals are portable and of great value; moreover, women commonly help men purchase stolen goods. In verbal transgression, women insults or slanders by accusing other people of sexual immorality, seriously destroying the peace of parish. In sexual immorality, maids and prostitutes commit crime for livelihood; married women commit crime for unhappy marriage.The third part discusses solutions to female crime. The solutions to prevent crime include reforming marriage system, controlling moral crime, giving poverty relief to women. There are two reforms in marriage system. One is that Canon law specifies procedures of marriage in 1604. As a result, contract marriage and clandestine marriage are curbed. Another is that parliamentary divorce opens up a means of dissolution of marriage in 1670s. The people in parish and justice of peace bear responsibility of moral supervision. They intervene and accommodate moral crime such as domestic violence and adultery. Most troublemakers aren't brought to trial. Women are given poverty relief by government, charities and individuals. The government provides labor and relief fund to women by the 1601 Poor Law. Charities and individuals give economic, medical and educational relief to poor women. The solutions to punish crime are of deterrence,punishment and humiliation.The fourth part evaluates influence of solutions to female crime. In terms of the country, the social order has significantly improved. Firstly, crime figures have been dropping by degrees. Secondly, people's ethical concept and legal awareness have improved a lot. On the other, people's attitude towards female crime has turned to sympathy, thus, judicial system gradually becoming just. In terms of women, women's rights have caused extensive concerns of pro-feminist by the late 17 century, thus women's consciousness awakened in England.In the conclusion, the thesis sums up the characteristics and limitations of solutions to female crime. The characteristics are source control, polycentric governance,comprehensive control and ruling by law. The limitations are that some solutions aren't accessible to all women and less effective.