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An awful and impressive spectacle : crime scene executions in Scotland, 1801-1841

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Bennett, Rachel (2017) An awful and impressive spectacle : crime scene executions in Scotland, 1801-1841. Crime, History & Societies, 21 (1). pp. 101-123. doi:10.4000/chs.1720 ISSN 1422-0857.

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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.4000/chs.1720

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Abstract

Early nineteenth-century Britain witnessed rising numbers of offenders facing capital punishment and a plethora of legal and public discourse debating the criminal justice system. This article will examine a distinct Scottish response to the problem in the form of crime scene executions. By the turn of the nineteenth century, it had long been the established practice of the Scottish courts to order that capitally convicted offenders would be executed at an established “common place”. However, between 1801 and 1841, the decision was taken to execute thirty-seven offenders at the scene of their crimes. This article argues that, in the face of an unprecedented number of offenders facing the hangman’s noose, the Scottish judges chose to exercise this penal option which had not been used to a similar extent since the mid-eighteenth century. In turn these events had a multiplicity of impact and provoked responses ranging from a morbid curiosity to witness the spectacle to anxiety and outright disdain at its intrusion into areas previously unsullied by the last punishment of the law.

Item Type: Journal Article
Divisions: Faculty of Arts > History
Journal or Publication Title: Crime, History & Societies
Publisher: Iahccj
ISSN: 1422-0857
Official Date: 2017
Dates:
DateEvent
2017Published
26 March 2017Accepted
Volume: 21
Number: 1
Page Range: pp. 101-123
DOI: 10.4000/chs.1720
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: Published
Access rights to Published version: Restricted or Subscription Access
Date of first compliant deposit: 24 September 2019
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