The History of Violence in Scotland Reconsidered: The Culture, Filtering and Treatment of Assault in Police Courts, c. 1829–1900.
While recent scholarly attention has focused on serious, indicatable violent crime in Scotland, this article considers the more common offence of lower-level assault that was dealt with summarily in police magistrate courts in the nineteenth century. It explores the role that police courts played in...
| Published in: | Scottish Historical Review Vol. 103; no. 2; pp. 318 - 354 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Edinburgh University Press
Aug2024
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=178591164&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 178591164 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 00369241 8N7 jtl: Scottish Historical Review issn: 00369241 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Aug2024 vid: 103 iid: 2 pid: 2327 pub: Edinburgh University Press artinfo: ui: 178591164 10.3366/shr.2024.0645 ppf: 318 ppct: 36 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 212KB tig: atl: The History of Violence in Scotland Reconsidered: The Culture, Filtering and Treatment of Assault in Police Courts, c. 1829–1900. aug: au: Barrie, David G. su: Scottish history Courts Violent crimes Sociocultural factors Nineteenth century Culture Scotland sug: subj: Scotland Scottish history Courts Violent crimes Sociocultural factors Nineteenth century Culture keyword: assault courts magistrates police violence ab: While recent scholarly attention has focused on serious, indicatable violent crime in Scotland, this article considers the more common offence of lower-level assault that was dealt with summarily in police magistrate courts in the nineteenth century. It explores the role that police courts played in conceptualising, categorising and processing such violence, the role assault played in Scottish urban communities and the culture that surrounded it. The article also examines how magistrates dealt with assault and what this might suggest about the impact of the police and the courts on violent behavioural patterns. It argues that interpersonal violence had a more important, complex and nuanced role to play in Scottish urban communities than conclusions based on criminal indictments suggest. Assault was a disturbingly accepted facet of conflict resolution, a means of exerting authority and patriarchy in communities and households and an ever-present threat with which a sizeable percentage of the urban masses had to live. The article stresses that the boundaries between lower-level assault that was dealt with summarily and more serious (or 'aggravated') assault that was tried in a higher court on indictment were determined not just by the nature of violence wielded or the injury sustained, but by a raft of social, cultural and practical factors. Indeed, the rise of summary justice in the form of police courts helped to lower indictment rates for serious assault, as magistrates often dealt summarily with assaults that warranted a more serious charge. This is a point that historians need to bear in mind when considering what indictment rates for serious assault reveal about violence in Scotland more broadly. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Scottish Historical Review is the property of Edinburgh University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Scottish Historical Review holder: Edinburgh University Press dt: @attributes: year: 2024 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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